Christmas Good News: Birth!

SCRIPTURE TEXT:  Luke 2:1-20; Rev. Monte Marshall, Senior Pastor; 7 pm Service

This is the Christmas good news:  A child is born—a savior—the Christ!  To whom?  To mother Mary and father Joseph, to angelic messengers, to shepherds in the countryside, tending their sheep by night, and to the whole world.  When?  In the days of Caesar Augustus while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  Where?  In Bethlehem of Judea, in a stable with a feeding trough as a cradle.  Why?  As a revelation of God’s glory, a living testament to peace on earth, and a sign of God’s saving work in the world.

This is the basic outline of Luke’s good news story.  If we didn’t know this story before tonight, we certainly know it now.  We’ve heard it read from the pages of scripture, and we’ve seen it dramatized by our children. 

Speaking personally, I’m 64 years old.  This story has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  The story was told to me before I could read.  Once I became literate, I began to read the story for myself.  I’ve read it countless times.  I’ve also studied the story, meditated on the story, taught the story, and preached on the story.  I’ve sung Christmas carols about the story.  I’ve seen movies based on the story and set up crèche scenes to depict the story.  I’ve decorated trees, put up lights, given and received gifts—all to honor the story.

At the most basic level, as a human being, I can relate to this story.  All of us can.  Birth, after all, is a human experience that we all share.  All of us were born from a mother.  All of us have a father.  All of us have emerged from the waters of a womb, against great resistance, through the struggle and the pains of labor.  We’ve all taken a first breath and sounded that first cry. We’ve all had the cord cut, freeing us to live individually, apart from a sustaining lifeline to our mothers.  This is how we all came to life outside the warm and comforting confines of the womb. This is how Jesus came to life. 

But as we’ve already described, there’s more to the story.  Luke’s birth story is theology; it’s proclamation; it shows God at work.  Luke writes of a savior—the Messiah—the Christ—to show God at work.  Luke writes of angelic messengers, showing forth the glory of God and announcing peace on earth, to show God at work.  Luke writes of shepherds leaving the stable “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen,” to show God at work.  Luke’s birth story is a theological proclamation that points us to God!

Now I confess to you tonight, that after so many years of living with this story, I’m still learning how to use the story to look for God.  On this quest, I’ve had to probe beneath the surface of the story and my own life.  And as I’ve gone deeper and deeper, I’ve discovered layer upon layer, meaning upon meaning, grace upon grace. 

Through this process, I’ve come to see that Luke’s story is about so much more than the birth of a child to Mary and Joseph in the time of Caesar Augustus and Quirinius, in a stable in the town of Bethlehem.  The story even points beyond God’s work in and through the various characters in the story.  At a deeper level, I’ve come to see that Luke’s birth story is about God laboring to give birth to the Christ in me and in you.

This is a lesson I’ve learned from a 14^th century German mystic named Meister Eckhart.  Eckhart believed “that the essence of God is in every person.”[1]  He believed that “We are all meant to be mothers of God.”[2]  He believed that beyond the Jesus of history is the Christ present with us as “a spiritual energy that lives within every human being.”  He believed that “to honor Christ within is to honor our capacity for depth and feeling and connection.”  He believed that “to become fully human is to grow closer to God.”[3] 

From out of the depths of Luke’s story, Eckhart raised a profound question: “What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not give birth to the son of God in my time and in my culture?”[4]  Eckhart said: “Everything lies in this, that [the birth of Christ] should take place in me.”[5]

A 21^st century commentator put it this way: “If all we do is get the baby Jesus born during the month of December, and something is not born in us, then we’ve missed the essence of Christmas.”[6]

Now make no mistake about it, as God labors to give birth to the Christ in each of us, there’ll be pain and struggle and resistance to overcome.  This is a birth, after all.  But when the Christ emerges from the waters of the womb within each of us, we’ll discover a new-found freedom to grow and mature in the image of Christ—and we’ll change.    

This is what happened to Doug Slagle and his father.  Doug writes: “Several years ago in the fall, my father and I had a particularly angry argument.  I was assisting my father with some business affairs in his work as a surgeon.  And one of the tasks I performed for him was contrary to his wishes and he became enraged and violent with me—throwing an item on his desk at me and yelling at me to get out.

“I promptly left my dad and then resolved that…I would have no further contact with him and I would not allow my two girls—his granddaughters—to visit him until he apologized.

“This separation lasted for several months—past Thanksgiving—and it was a serious family rupture.  My mother was distraught but my father and I, in our pride, refused to reconcile.

It was then that the Christ was born in Doug.  “Two weeks before Christmas, I decided I could not live with this burden.  Not only was I hurting myself, I was hurting my two girls who love their grandfather.  I sent a note to my dad asking him to forgive me for my actions and saying that I and my family would be at their house for Christmas.

“The next day, as I was doing things around the house, the doorbell rang and, as I opened the door, there stood my dad.  Looking down at his feet, and obviously awkward, my dad simply said he was sorry.  And then, in an act that still resonates with me—as it is the first and only time he has said so—he said, “I love you.”  He turned around and walked back to his car and drove away.”[7]  The Christ had been born in Doug’s father.

Dear friends, there is Christmas good news tonight.  It’s all about birth!  We’ve heard Luke’s story of the birth of Christ.  And we’ve probed beneath the story’s surface, seeking God. 

Our quest has raised a profound question for each of us to ponder in our hearts:  How will the Christ be born in us tonight?  A world divided and suffering, racked by violence, hatred, fear, deceit, oppression and injustice, has a stake in our response: How will the Christ be born in us tonight?  The quality of our relationships with one another will be shaped by the answer that we give: How will the Christ be born in us tonight?  The wholeness and integrity of our own lives will be impacted by our reply:  How will the Christ be born in us tonight?  May God help us!  Merry Christmas and amen!