Right Place, Right Time

This is the message given on Sunday morning, December 30, 2018.  The Bible verses are Luke 2:8-20.

            God went to a lot of trouble to have Jesus be born in a memorable way.  Born to a virgin.  A virgin who was, as far as we can tell, just a common, ordinary person, although clearly a person of great faith.  With a soon-to-be husband who was also just a common, ordinary person, although also a person of great faith.  And then, having Jesus be born when this couple was forced by the government to be away from home.  Having Jesus born in a stable, with no family around, no friends around, just a bunch of animals.

            But none of that would’ve meant much if nobody knew about it, right?  So, God had to make sure that someone knew about all this, and that they would spread the story far and wide.  Enter the shepherds.  The shepherds were the ones who were going to make sure everyone knew about the strange, unusual birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

So the question is, why shepherds?  And why these shepherds?  Why would God choose them as the messengers, as the ones who were going to spread the word about the coming of the Messiah?

            We’ve talked about this before, but shepherds were not exactly among the most respected people in society.  It was a tough job.  You were out in the elements all the time, from the heat of the summer to the cold of the winter, and even though they were in a desert area it still got cold.  You had to be on the lookout constantly, to protect the sheep from wild animals.  You also had to be on the lookout to protect them from thieves and robbers. 

            Being a shepherd was not a highly sought-after position.  Very few kids grew up wanting to be a shepherd.  It was basically a job you took if you could not find a better job.  It was better than being a beggar, but that’s about it.  And these are the people God chose to be the ones who would make sure the story of the birth of Jesus Christ was remembered.

            And the thing is, the Bible gives no indication that these shepherds were at all special or unusual in any way.  They do not appear to have been any better than any other shepherds.  They don’t seem to have been any smarter, or any more virtuous, or any more faithful.  In fact, we’re really told nothing about them.  The Bible gives no indication that they were chosen for any specific reason at all, other than the fact that they happened to be close to Bethlehem, close enough that they could get to the stable to see Jesus while he was still lying in the manger.

            So again the question is, why shepherds?  And why these shepherds?  Why were they the ones that were chosen to spread the word about the birth of the Messiah?

            One reason might be their very ordinariness.  They may have been chosen partly because of their low status.  Now, I don’t think it’s true to say, as some do, that Jesus came specifically for the poor and downtrodden.  Jesus came for everybody, from the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich.  But I do think God may have wanted to emphasize that “everybody” includes people of low status.

            In the society of Jesus’ time, class and status were incredibly important.  They still have meaning now, too, of course.  But back then it was even more so.  The religious leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the priests and the teachers of the law--most of them clearly thought that they were better than everyone else, that they were a little closer to God than the rest of the people were.  Shepherds may well have been chosen to be God’s messengers specifically because they had low status.  God may have wanted to make it clear that the Messiah had come to save everyone, not just the wealthy and the religious leaders and the other “respectable” people of the time.

            Another reason shepherds may have been chosen is that they might be more believable, simply because they had nothing to gain by lying about it.  I mean, think about this story they were telling.  “We were out in the field one night, and all of a sudden this angel came and told us the Savior of the world had been born in a barn and was lying in a manger in Bethlehem.  And then a whole host of angels came and sang praises to God.  So we went to Bethlehem and there the Savior was.  He was a baby, and sure enough he was lying in a manger.”

            I mean, that’s a pretty unbelievable story, right?  How was it going to help the shepherds any to make up a story like that?  What possible motive could they have? 

Now, if one of the Pharisees or the chief priests had told a story like that, you could see where he might have made it up.  He might be trying to gain status, telling people that an angel had talked to him.  He might be trying to get people to think of him as a prophet or something.  It would seem like having something like this happen to a Pharisee or a chief priest would definitely help advance their career.

But shepherds?  How was it going to help shepherds to make up a story like this?  It was not going to make people think better of them.  It was not going to help them get better jobs or more money.  In fact, they were risking ridicule by telling this story.  “An angel came to you?  The heavenly host appeared to you?  Have you been getting into the wineskins or something?”  The shepherds had absolutely nothing to gain by making a story like this up.  The only reason they would tell it is if it was true.

            Another reason why shepherds may have been chosen is that shepherds, by the nature of their work, traveled a lot.  They were constantly on the move, looking for green pastures.  After all, again, a lot of this was desert country.  There was not a lot of good grass around.  So, because shepherds traveled, they would go to different towns and see different people.  And that would give them more chances to tell their story, to spread the word about the birth of the divine Savior, Jesus Christ.

            Those are all reasons God might have chosen shepherds.  But as for why these particular shepherds, I really don’t think we can even speculate.  Again, we are told nothing about them.  We don’t even know their names. 

As far as we can tell, there is no specific reason these shepherds were chosen.  There may have been, but if there was, the Bible gives us no indication of it.  As far as we can tell, they were simply in the right place at the right time.

I wonder if the shepherds ever thought about it.  It seems like they must have.  Surely they must have thought, “Why us?  Why would God choose us to be the ones to be the first ones, other than his parents, to see the Savior of the World on earth?”

If they did, I don’t suppose they ever came up with much of an answer.  But even so, they did not let that stop them.  The one thing we know about those shepherds is that they did what God wanted them to do.  They went to Bethlehem and saw the baby.  Then they went and spread the word.  They spread the word so well that we still know the story over two thousand years later.  For whatever reason, God had chosen them to do this, and they did not let God down.

God has chosen you to do something, too.  Maybe you know what it is.  Maybe you don’t, yet.  Maybe you know what it is, but you’re hesitant to do it.  Maybe you’re thinking, “But I’m nobody special.  I’m just a common, ordinary person.  There’s no reason for God to choose me.  I’m not smarter than anyone else.  I’m not more virtuous than anyone else.  I’m not more faithful than anyone else.  Why would God choose me?  Why me?”

Maybe, at some point, you’ll come up with an answer.  Or, maybe you won’t.  Maybe there isn’t a good answer.  Maybe, like the shepherds, you just happen to be in the right place at the right time.  But the thing is, that’s not the question.  The question is not “Why you?”  The question is, “What are you going to do about it?”  And of course, I need to ask that question of myself, too.  What am I going to do about it?

Are we going to shirk our responsibility?  Are we going to come up with excuses?  Or are we going to do what God wants us to do?  Are we going to follow God, and trust God, even if we don’t understand “Why me?”

The shepherds, as far as we can tell, never did understand why they were chosen.  But they did not let that stop them.  They did what God wanted them to do.  They did not let God down.

Will you?  Will I?

Finding Beauty

This will be my last blog post of 2018.  I’ll post the Sunday sermon, of course, but as far as something that is specifically intended as a blog post, this will be the last one.  So, I want to take this chance to wish you a Happy New Year!

I don’t know how 2018 went for you.  Maybe it was great!  Maybe it was awful.  Most likely, it was some of both, with a good chunk of mediocre mixed in.  That’s kind of how life works, as I’m sure you know.  We have some great times, we have some lousy times, and we have a lot of things that happen that are neither great nor lousy, but are just the natural ebb and flow of life.

The third chapter of Ecclesiastes tells us that there’s a time for everything.  After you’ve lived for a while, you know that’s true.  Ecclesiastes does not say that it’s a good thing that there’s a time for everything.  It doesn’t say that it’s a bad thing, either.  It just says that’s the way it is.  It does say one other thing, though--it says that God has made everything beautiful in its time.

There’s a tough concept for us.  It means that a lot of things we don’t like are, in God’s determination, beautiful, if they happen in God’s time.  Literally, everything.  And among other things, everything includes death.  Ecclesiastes tells us that even death is beautiful, if it happens in God’s time.

We struggle with that.  And I do, too.  But as you know, in my job I have to deal with death fairly often.  And the more I deal with it, the more I can see a certain beauty in it.  I don’t think that’s the word I’d have used, if the author of Ecclesiastes had not used it first.  But I think I can see at least some of what he means.

I’ve visited with a number of people who knew their death was imminent.  I mean, we all know we’re going to die at some point, but I’m talking about people who know that it’s coming within a relatively short time.  And there is, at least sometimes, a certain beauty in it.  They’re able to come to terms with their situation.  They’re able to have some quality time with their loved ones.  They’re able to make peace with people and with God.  And usually, they come to accept that death is a part of life.  It’s how it’s set up.

And sometimes, they realize something else.  They realize that it’s only by leaving this world that we’re able to go on to the next one.  And for a Christian, that means going to be with God in heaven.  And as sad as death can be, it would be even sadder if we overstayed our time here and were not able to go to heaven and be with God.

And there’s one other thing.  The eighth chapter of Romans tells us that nothing can separate us from God’s love.  Nothing.  Not even death.  That’s a pretty awesome thought.  And it should make death a little easier for us to accept.  And maybe, it will even help us see the beauty in it.

I don’t know what 2019 will hold for you.  I don’t know what it will hold for me.  But whatever it holds, may you always remember that God loves you.  And may you always remember that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate you from God’s love.

Have a blessed and happy new year.

Christmas Eve 2018

This is the Christmas Eve service given in the Wheatland Parish on Monday, December 24, 2018.  The music has been removed, but all scripture references remain.

INTRODUCTION

Every year, on Christmas Eve, we tell the story of the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.  This year, we’re going to try to tell it in a little different way.  We’re going to tell you the story from the point of view of some of the characters in the story.  We’ll read the story out of the Bible, too--it’s very important that we do that.  But we’re also going to try to get into the heads of the characters-- to tell you what they thought, how they felt, and why they did what they did.  Obviously, some of this will be speculation.  The Bible does not tell us a lot about what many of the people in the Christmas story thought or felt.  We hope, though, that telling the story in this way will make the story seem more real to you, and will help you appreciate in a different way the incredible gift God gave us on that first Christmas night.  We’re going to start by looking at Joseph.

FIRST SCRIPTURE:  Matthew 1:18-25

JOSEPH SPEAKS

            I am Joseph.  I was engaged to be married to a woman named Mary.  I was looking forward to it.  Who would not?  I thought very highly of Mary.  She appeared to be a godly woman, a woman of great faith.  I thought she would make an excellent wife and mother.  I looked forward to us having many happy years together.

            And then.  Then she came to me one day.  I could tell she was scared.  I could not imagine what was wrong.  Then, she told me she was going to have a child.  I could not believe my ears.  Mary?  Unfaithful to me?  I had trusted her.  I had trusted her more than I had ever trusted anyone.  I was hurt.  I was upset.  I felt betrayed.  I--well, I really was not sure what I felt.  It was unbelievable.

            But what was more unbelievable was the explanation she gave me.  She insisted that she had not been unfaithful to me.  She said she had not betrayed me at all.  She said she had been visited by an angel, and that this child had been conceived by the Holy Spirit.  She said this child would be the divine Son of God, and that God had chosen us to raise this child.

            In a way, that made it even worse.  It seemed like she could not even be honest with me about what had happened.  I decided not to go through with the marriage.  I would not make a big scene about it.  That would not do anyone any good.  I would just end it quietly and we could all get on with our lives.  But then, an angel came to me in a dream.  And the angel said that Mary had been telling the truth, and that I should go ahead and marry her and raise the child.  And the child would be the divine Son of God, just as Mary had said.

            It still did not make any sense, but when an angel tells you to do something, what can you do?  I apologized to Mary and promised never to doubt her again.  And we made preparations for our wedding.

            But before that was the trip to Bethlehem.  I’ll let Mary tell you about that, but it was not easy.  Even after the child was born, though, our troubles were not over.  We could not go home.  We had to go to Egypt to get away from King Herod.  Egypt!  I did not know anyone in Egypt.  What were we going to do there?  Still we went.  Luckily, we were not there a terribly long time until King Herod died.  Then we were finally able to go back to Nazareth and settle down to married life together.

            It was quite an adventure.  A lot of the time, I really did not understand what was going on.  I’m not sure I ever understood it all, really.  But I knew we were obeying God.  I knew we were doing what God wanted us to do.  And that was all I needed to know.  As long as we obeyed God, I knew things would work out the way they were supposed to.

SECOND SCRIPTURE:  Luke 1:26-38

MARY SPEAKS

            I am Mary.  I, too, was looking forward to my marriage to Joseph.  He was a good man.  He was a godly man, a man of great faith.  He would be a good provider.  He would be a good husband and a good father to our children.  I was looking forward to us having many happy years together.

            And then.  I was minding my own business, doing my work, when an angel of the Lord came to me.  I recognized him as an angel right away.  Don’t ask me how I knew--when it’s an angel, you just know, somehow.  I was scared.  I was confused.  I did not know what to think.  What did an angel want with me?  I was nobody.  None of it made any sense.

            Then the angel said that I was going to have a son.  And my son--my son--was going to be the divine Son of God, the Savior of the world.

            That made even less sense.  A thousand thoughts ran through my head.  I tried to talk, but nothing would come out.  Finally, I stammered out, “How will this be since I am a virgin?”  And the angel said the child would be from God, conceived by the Holy Spirit.

            That did not make much sense to me, either.  But when an angel says something, what can you do?  I said yes.  And the angel left.

            And then I realized.  I would have to tell Joseph.  What would he do?  He’d never believe me.  I was still not sure I believed it myself.  But when you’re pregnant, you cannot hide it forever, you know?  He’d find out eventually, and better for him to hear it from me than from someone else.

            So I told him.  And he did not believe me.  I did not blame him, but it made things even worse.  It looked like I was going to have to raise this child by myself.  How could I do that?  How could I make enough money to support us?  And who’d look after him while I was working?  I was terrified.

            But I should not have been.  God had it worked out.  An angel saw Joseph, too, and told him that I was telling the truth.  Joseph came to me an apologized, but he did not need to.  I understood.  And now we could have a life together.

            It was not an easy life.  When I was almost ready to give birth, the government made us go to Bethlehem.  Something about a census.  Joseph tried to get us a room, but there was nothing.  Finally we got a barn.  A barn!  Still, it was a roof over our heads, and it was warmer than being outside.  And that’s where Jesus was born.

            But that’s not all.  After a while, here came a bunch of shepherds.  They wanted to see Jesus.  Who were they?  Why were they there?  But they said an angel had talked to them, too, and told them what had happened.  After what Joseph and I had gone through, I had no reason to doubt them.  They came, they saw, and they left.  And finally, Joseph and I were alone.

            Joseph told you about the trouble we had after that.  It was quite a deal, I can tell you that.  But still, it was worth it.  We had our son.  And our son was the Son of God.

THIRD SCRIPTURE:  Luke 2:1-7

INNKEEPER SPEAKS

            I’m the innkeeper.  Everyone makes me out to be the bad guy in this story.  I’m known for one thing.  I’m the guy who told Mary and Joseph I did not have a room for them when Jesus was about to be born.

            But look at it from my side.  I did not have a fancy hotel.  We’re not talking the Hilton here.  We’re not even talking a Motel 6.  All I had were a few extra rooms in my house that I rented out when visitors came to town.  And those rooms were all full.  It was not my fault other people got there first.

            Sure, I felt sorry for them.  Here was this woman, obviously very pregnant.  I did not want to turn them away.  I don’t ever want to turn anybody away.  But what was I supposed to do?  Kick somebody else out into the cold?  Because that’s what I’d have had to do.  Would that have been right, to send someone else away so Mary and Joseph could have a room?  What could I do?

            So, I did the only thing I could.  I let them stay in the barn.  Was that a great option?  No, of course not.  But no one else would even do that for them.  It was better than nothing.  They took it, and you know what?  They never complained.  They never said it was not good enough.  In fact, they were grateful for it.

            I knew there was a commotion out there during the night.  Later, I found out that Mary had her baby, and they’d had some visitors come out to see it.  I went out to see the baby, too, of course.  Who would not?  I was glad things had worked out for them.  Did I feel bad?  Well, yes and no.  I felt bad that I did not have more room.  But I felt good that at least I did something.  I did the best I 

could.  And somehow, I got the sense that things had worked out the way they were supposed to. 

FOURTH SCRIPTURE:  Luke 2:8-20

SHEPHERD SPEAKS

            I’m a shepherd.  It’s a tough job.  You’re outside all the time.  It gets really hot in the summer.  It gets really cold in the winter.  You’re constantly looking out for the sheep.  You’re constantly on the move, trying to find good pasture.  And we’re kind of out in the desert, you know?  Good pasture is not easy to find.  You don’t get much to eat.  You don’t get a warm bed to sleep in.  You’re out in the elements all the time.  There’s nobody around, other than the other shepherds.  It’s a pretty hard life.

            But you want to know about that one night.  Well, I’ll tell you.  It started out just like any other night.  We’d gotten the sheep settled down.  We’d had supper, and we were deciding who was going to watch the sheep while the others slept.

            And all of a sudden this angel appeared.  None of us had ever seen an angel before, but we knew it had to be one because, I mean, what else could it be?  There was this incredible light all around it.  We found out later that was the glory of the Lord, but we did not know that at the time.  We did not know what it was.  We were terrified.

            But the angel got us calmed down.  And it said that a Savior, a Messiah, had been born that day.  And he told us to go to Bethlehem, and we find this baby, the Savior in a manger.

            Well, that seemed pretty strange.  Why would the Savior be in a manger?  But the angel had said this was where he’d be, so we did not question it.  We went to Bethlehem.  We were a little worried about whether we’d find him.  Bethlehem’s not that big, but there were lots of people there because of that census thing.  But we asked around, and it turned out that a lot of people had seen Mary.  I guess a woman who’s that close to giving birth gets noticed.  Anyway, it was not too long before we found them.  And sure enough, there the baby was, in a manger, just like the angel said.

            He looked, well, like any other baby.  I mean, he was cute, but what baby is not?  But we knew what the angel had said.  And so we spread the word.  We let everyone know about what the angel had said about this baby.  Some people believed us, some did not.  That’s always the way, right?  But the truth is, it did not matter a lot to us whether they believed us or not.  It would’ve been nice, but we knew we were telling the truth.  We knew what the angel had promised.  And that was all that mattered.

FIFTH SCRIPTURE:  Luke 2:21-35

SIMEON SPEAKS

            I am Simeon.  People describe me as righteous and devout.  Well, I try.  How true it is, well, it’s not for me to say.  I pray.  I try to follow the law.  I do my best.  What more can I do?

            I did receive a message from God once.  Not a voice, exactly, but the Holy Spirit told me that I would not die before I saw the Lord’s Messiah, the Savior.

            That was some time ago.  Obviously, I kept my eyes open.  I thought maybe it was going to come soon.  But time passed, as it does, and nothing happened.  I thought, well, I guess it’s possible I saw the Messiah and did not know who it was.  But it did not seem likely.  I mean, it seemed like if the Holy Spirit was going to go to the trouble of telling me I’d see the Messiah, the Holy Spirit would also let me know when I’d actually seen him.

            So, I waited.  And then, one day, the Spirit told me to go to the temple courts.  The Spirit did not say why, just that I should go there.  So I did.  And there was a couple, a man and a woman, with a little baby.  And somehow, I knew--I just knew--that this was the one.

            I took him into my arms and praised God.  I could now die in peace.  Not that I wanted to die that minute, but if death came, it would be okay.  Because I had seen the future.  I had seen the salvation of my people.

            But I also spoke to the mother of the child.  The words were not mine.  Again, they came from the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit told me that this salvation would not be easy, and that it would come with a cost, including a cost for the child and his mother.  I could see she was bothered by those words.  To be honest, I was a little bothered by them, too.  I was kind of glad that, at my age, I would not be around to see all the trouble.  But at the same time, I knew things were going to go the way they were supposed to.  And I knew that salvation would come.  And that was enough for me.

SIXTH SCRIPTURE:  Luke 2:36-40

ANNA SPEAKS

            I am Anna.  I am a widow.  I have been for a very long time now.  Am I lonely?  Well, yes, sometimes.  But I have dedicated myself to God.  I spend all of my time in the temple courts.  The priests are kind enough to let me sleep there.  I take my meals there, too, but in fact I don’t eat very much.  I spend my time fasting and praying to God.

            And then, that one day came.  I was in the temple courts as usual.  I was praying, as usual.  Then I saw Simeon.  I knew him, of course.  I knew all the people who came to the temple.  He took a child into his arms.  Nothing unusual about that, but I was moved to go over.  I don’t know why, I just felt like it was the thing to do.

            I heard what Simeon said about this child, that he would bring salvation to Israel.  And I knew, somehow, that he was right.  And I thanked God.

            I never forgot that day.  I did not know how many days I had left--after all, I was eighty-four at the time--but I knew how I was going to spend them.  I would spend every day telling people about this child who was going to bring salvation to Israel.

            I was never happier in my life.  I had wondered why God had let me live so long, but now I knew.  It was so I could tell people about this child, this child who would become the Messiah, the Savior.

SEVENTH SCRIPTURE:  Matthew 2:1-12

WISE MAN SPEAKS

            I’m a wise man.  Well, that’s what they call me.  I don’t know how wise I am.  Along with others, we study the stars.  We look for signs.

            Well, one night we got a doozy.  It was a new star, one we’d never seen before.  It was incredibly bright.

            We knew what it had to be.  It was a sign that someone had been born who was to be the king of the Jews.  And we knew what we had to do.  We had to follow that star, find the king, and worship him.

            But then, for wise men, we did something pretty stupid.  We went to the current king, King Herod, and asked him where this child was.  We should’ve known that would give Herod a conniption fit.  After all, what king wants to hear about another king in his kingdom?  But, hey, we study stars.  We don’t pay attention to politics.  Anyway, at least we got the information we needed.  We found out the child was in Bethlehem.  Herod sent us there and told us to come back and tell him after we found the child.

            We set out, and there was the star again.  It seemed to stop over a certain spot.  And sure enough, we found the child.  His mother was there, too.  You’d think she’d have been surprised to see us, but if she was, she did not show it.  It was almost like so many things had happened to her that nothing surprised her any more.  Some strangers show up and worship her son?  Fine, whatever.  You brought some gifts?  Cool.  Thanks.  She just seemed to take everything in stride.

            We did have gifts.  We had gold.  We had frankincense, which was a type of incense used in religious rituals.  We had myrrh, which was another type of incense.  We gave it to the woman, who we found out was named Mary.

            We talked for a while, then we left.  We had intended to go back to Herod--again, not a very smart thing for us to do, but again, we knew stars, not politicians.  Luckily, though, we did not go back to Herod.  God apparently realized we needed some help, because we were warned in a dream to go back home a different way, and we did.

            We went back to studying stars, because that’s what we did.  But this was the highlight of our careers.  We had seen the king of the Jews.  It was a night we never forgot.

EPILOGUE

            We hope you’ve enjoyed our telling of the Christmas story in this way.  Again, some of what we said was speculation.  But there’s a reason we did it this way.

            One of the problems with a story we’ve heard over and over again, like the Christmas story, is that it can come to be just that--a story.  It’s a good story, it’s a story that we like to read and like to hear, but still, we start to think of it as just a story.  We can forget that it’s something that actually happened.  We can forget that it’s something that involved real people, people who ate and drank and laughed and cried and did all the things that you and I do.  People who had real feelings and real emotions.  People who felt joy and pain and happiness and sadness and all the other things you and I feel.  People who had trust and doubt and fear and faith and all the other things you and I have.  Mary was a real woman.  Joseph was a real man.  The innkeeper was a real person who owned a real inn.  The shepherds were real people who took care of real sheep.  Simeon and Anna and the Wise Men, all of these people were real people who lived on the earth.

            And Jesus was a real person, too.  Jesus was a real person who was born just as we all are born, who lived just as we all live, and who died just as we all will die.  And Jesus was a real person who conquered death so that we all can have eternal life.  The story of Jesus is a real story that really happened.

            And that’s the message we hope you’ll get from our service tonight.  That Jesus is real.  He was a real man.  And he’s the real Savior.  And he brought real salvation to the earth.  Real salvation that’s available to each one of us, if we’ll only accept him as our Savior.  And he also brought real life that’s available to each one of us.  Real life on earth as God’s children, and real eternal life in the actual presence of God in heaven.  All that is available to us, if we accept Jesus as our Savior, just like the shepherds, and the wise men, and all the other people in the Christmas story did.

A Strange, Unusual Way

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Luke 2:1-20.

            So everyone knows that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, was born in a stable, and was placed in a manger.  I mean, even people who don’t believe in Jesus know that’s what the Bible says.  We talk about it every year.  We sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.  We sing “Away in a Manger.”  It’s one of the basic things of the Christmas story that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and was found in a manger.

            But why?  Why Bethlehem?  Why a stable?  Why a manger?  Of all the decisions God made about how the divine Son of God would be born, this has to be the strangest.  We’ve heard this story so much that we stop thinking about it, but in human terms this is something that makes no sense whatsoever.  If you had not heard this story, and somebody asked you how the Savior of the world should be born, something like this would never occur to you.  

            Just choosing Bethlehem in the first place is a strange decision.  Why Bethlehem?  Bethlehem was nowhere.  Bethlehem was this little dink town.  Sure, it was the City of David, but that was a long time ago.  Now, it was just a little place about six or seven miles from Jerusalem. Jerusalem was where the action was.  Bethlehem?  It was hardly worth the time it took to go there.  It’d be like having the Savior be born in Vivian.  I mean, no offense to Vivian--some of Wanda’s family came from there--but it’s not like it’s this thriving metropolis that you’d expect someone important to come from.

            One answer might be that Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem to fulfill Old Testament prophesies.  After all, the prophet Micah had said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.  But that begs the question.  All that shows is that God had already decided Jesus would be born in Bethlehem at the time God talked to Micah, right?  If God had decided Jesus should be born in Jerusalem, or Nazareth, or Corinth, or anyplace else God would’ve told that to Micah, and that would’ve been the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.  So while the birth in Bethlehem did fulfill Old Testament prophecy, it does not tells us why God gave that prophecy to Micah in the first place.

            When you think about it, it almost seems like God went out of His way to have the birth be in Bethlehem.  After all, Bethlehem was not a place that Joseph and Mary would’ve chosen to go to on their own.  They only went there because the government told them they had to.  They had to report to Bethlehem because that was Joseph’s ancestral home, and they had to go there for the census.  It was about eighty to a hundred miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and of course it was all on foot back then, so it’s not like they’d have gone there very often.  It looks like God timed this out deliberately.  It looks like God made the deliberate choice to have the divine Son be born to Mary and Joseph at the one time that they would be in Bethlehem.

            And why a stable?  Why a manger?  You’d think the least God could do is to arrange to have Jesus be born in a decent place.  A house, at least.  With a midwife, or a friend, or someone there to help.  You know, when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would be the mother of the divine Son of God, Gabriel somehow forgot to mention this part of it.  Mary and Joseph both had to be wondering, what’s going on here?  This is what God wants?  This is how the divine Son is supposed to be born?  In a barn?  With a bunch of smelly animals around?  What’s going on here?

            The Bible does not give us answers to any of these questions, of course.  The Bible does that to us a lot, you know?  Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a criticism of the Bible.  The Bible is God’s word to us, and I understand that I have no right to criticize God’s word.  God, through the Bible, has told us everything we need to know.  But God has not told us everything we’d like to know.  And I’d really like to know this:  why was the divine Son of God born in such a strange way?

            So here’s what I think.  I think God’s choice was an act of love.  I think God’s choice of having the divine Son of God born in this way was made as a way for God to tell us how much God loves us.  

I think that God knew it was very important for people to know and remember that Jesus was born in the same way that every human being is born.  Why?  Well, think about this.  Suppose we did not know the story of Jesus’ birth.  Suppose we knew nothing of his parents, of his early life, any of that.  Suppose the first thing we knew about Jesus was when he was an adult, thirty years old or so, and started working miracles, beginning with the miracle at Cana.

            If Jesus had burst on the scene in that way, Jesus would still be an awesome figure.  But think of what we’d lose.  We’d lose the human side of Jesus.  He’d come to us fully formed, as a prophet, as a miracle worker, as a God.  We could still acknowledge his greatness.  We could still admire his wisdom.  We could even still worship him.  But it would be a lot harder to love him.  It would seem like Jesus was totally beyond and above anything we’d ever seen or ever would see.  Jesus would be on a higher plane, on a level we could never reach.  

We’d still respect him.  Maybe we’d even fear him.  But we would not be able to relate to him.  It would be a lot harder to believe that Jesus could really know what we’re going through.  It would be a lot harder to believe that Jesus could really understand our struggles.  It would be harder, basically, to believe that Jesus could know what it’s like to be a human being.  And so, it would be harder for us to love Jesus, or to believe that Jesus could really love us.

The reason we can know that Jesus does understand our struggles, the reason we can believe that Jesus does know what we go through, does know what it’s like to be a human being, is because we know the story of his birth.  We know that Jesus was born as a baby, in the same way that you and I and everyone else is born.  We know that he had human parents who raised him.  We know that he had to go through all the stages of growth that you and I do.  He had to be a baby, and then a little kid, and then an older kid, and then a young adult.  He had to learn all the things about being an adult that you and I had to learn.  He had to make some mistakes and grow and learn from them.  

In saying that, I’m not saying that Jesus sinned.  I’m just saying that, for example, the first time Joseph had Jesus try to build something in the carpenter’s shop by himself, it probably did not turn out to be perfect.  Joseph had to show him how to do it, and then show him again, and then show him again, until Jesus learned how to do it right.  That’s how all of us learn how to do stuff--by trying, by making some mistakes, by trying again, and by continuing to try until we get it right.  And Jesus had to go through that.

Jesus had to go through all the things we go through.  He had to learn how to make friends.  He had to learn how to deal with it when people did not like him.  He had to learn how to deal with it when people he thought were his friends betrayed him.  And I could go on and on.  All the things we deal with--all the things that make life what it is--Jesus went through all that.  And because we know he went through all that, we can relate to Jesus.  We can know that Jesus does understand.  We can know that Jesus does love us.  And we can love him, too.  But it’s only possible because we know the human side of Jesus.

Because it was so important that we know the human side of Jesus, God had to have Jesus’ birth happen in a really memorable way.  It happened in the little dink town of Bethlehem because that’s where a traveling woman giving birth would be noticed.  If it’d happened in Jerusalem, no one would’ve thought anything about it.  It’d be like a birth in New York City--there’s a bunch of them every day, and other than the people involved no one knows and no one cares.  But in Bethlehem, everybody noticed.  Probably everyone in town knew about this woman who’d just had a child.

And just to make sure everyone knew, Jesus was born in a barn.  Out with the animals.  Jesus was born in this strange, unusual way so that everyone would know the story, and everyone would remember the story.  Remember, the gospel of Luke was written, as far as we can tell, in about 70 A. D.  That means it was written about seventy years after Jesus was born.  Luke was not there, obviously.  As far as we know, he never even met Jesus.  He was learning of all these things after the fact.  Which means that he must have found people who remembered this story, or at least were told about this story, seventy years after it happened.  The only way people would remember something like that so many years later is if it happened in a really strange, unusual way that people would remember.

God wants us to know that God knows what it’s like to be human.  God wants us to know that God understands what we’re going through.  God wants us to know that God loves us.  And God wants us to be able to relate to God, so that we can love God.  And God chose this strange, unusual way for the divine Son of God to be born so that we’d know all that.

As we celebrate the incredible gift of Christmas, let’s make sure we celebrate what God did to make sure we’d know and remember that gift.  Let’s truly be grateful to God that we know and can remember the strange, unusual, wonderful story of the birth of Jesus Christ.