Naive Nativity - Matthew 1:18-2:23; Luke 1:26-2:40
“’Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’” (Matthew 1:21)
400 years of waiting and watching. Middle-East politics churned. The Jewish people spread. The Old Testament was formalised and closed. Alexander the Great came and went. And then the Romans arrived. General Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 B.C. The scene was finally set. As if heaven and earth was holding its breath for the One the whole story of life, of history itself, revolved around. Out of every woman born since Eve, God chose Mary to initiate his plan. Mighty, supreme LOVE chose to become the very least in human life: a baby born in to poverty and oppression.
Every gift from God is exciting. But not every gift from God is welcome. Often, we finding ourselves kicking against God’s calling, wishing we had everyone else’s gifts rather than the ones God has actually given us. God chose Mary to receive a very inconvenient gift: his child. This gift would mess her life up and she knew it, she had been told, “a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Her humility, her obedience and her faithfulness mark the way for us all to respond to God’s call: “I am LOVE’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
Inn Keepers, Angels, shepherds, wise men, cattle, donkeys and camels. And sheep, lots of sheep. Maybe Christmas trees. Certainly presents and puds. Often we spend a lot more time focussing on the trimmings of Christmas than on the one at the centre of it all. Maybe that’s because it is very hard to get our heads around the idea of God as baby-sized. Surely, this can’t be right? Surely God would not do something so cavalier, so risky, as to place the future hope of the world in to a vulnerable baby, born in to poverty to new parents with no previous experience? Apparently so.
God’s ‘baby plan’ might seem at first to be outlandish. As the nativity story continues the shocks keep on coming. The first visitors called to witness the birth were the least trustworthy of them all – shepherds: rough, strong, smelly men, sleeping out on the grazing fields across the gateways to their sheepfolds. They were outcasts. But LOVE sent angelic choirs to sing to them, wooing them to come and see, to catch the wonder of what was unfolding. LOVE was encountered by the dirty, poor, rejected and forgotten. Born in a stable, he was one of them, yet one who apparently commanded the celebration of angelic choirs. No-one like this had ever been born before. Whoever he was, this baby was going to change the world.
‘Emmanuel’ means ‘God (LOVE) with us’ (Matthew 1:22). Mary and Joseph had been visited by angels and prophesied over. They were sure of LOVE’s call. But when the time of the birth came around, things seemed to start going wrong. Just before his birth, the brutal regime required Mary and Joseph to make a long journey by foot, putting themselves and the baby at risk. And in their poverty and humiliation, they could not afford any accommodation and had no friends or relatives willing to take them in. Their baby – God – was delivered in an animal shed and slept his first night in the feeding trough. Poor, exhausted, at risk of disease and in desperate need of rest and a loving home, Mary and Joseph next only just escaped a horrific infanticide. They fled by night to Egypt where as refugees they had no provision, no rights, no friends and no income. This was Mary’s experience of being utterly devoted to God’s guidance. This is how God started his life on earth. This was what success looked like.
As we pray today, let’s ask LOVE for the same kind of faith that Mary possessed: utter trust of LOVE and a wholehearted offering of our lives to LOVE’s purposes. Let’s check ourselves also, to ensure that we have all welcomed LOVE in to our own lives today. Let’s gaze upon Jesus and worship LOVE in awe and wonder at this good news for all people.
“’I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered, ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’” (Luke 1:38)
