+My favorite Christmas book is called The Nativity-- Some of you may have seen it—a children’s book it’s best known for Julie Vivas’ whimsical illustrations. One of the best drawings is of the Annunciation. The angel Gabriel is wearing combat boots and he and Mary are having tea at the kitchen table. Another fun illustration shows Mary and Joseph leaning against a rock, looking exhausted and thrilled in what appears to be moments after Jesus’ birth. I just love the normality of the book---the Holy Family in regular poses, as regular people, enjoying a perfectly ordinary event…the birth of a child. Children are born everyday and most of these births go off without a hitch. Of course many others do not go so routinely but by and large the miracle of birth comes to many in a very regular way. In so many ways, so did Jesus’ birth. We don’t hear much about the normal parts, the labor pains, the anticipation, the fear and excitement of first time parents, the indescribable joy of Mary and Joseph when they first see their son, the instant love they have for this little fragile human being. But it surely was all there---I mean to really embrace our incarnational faith—our belief that God took on human form—we must believe that this birth, while special in so many ways was, like most other births, ordinary. Because all births both the seemingly ordinary and the extraordinary are special. Ask the most hardened of birth experts-- any biologist, fertility specialist, obstetrician, midwife or maternity nurse---each and every birth no matter how routine, how normal how run-of the mill is unique-- miraculous. Because every birth represents the depth of God’s genius, the reach of God’s creativity and the breadth of our awe at being a part of this wonderful creation. Every birth is a joyous and brilliant event. ..and when a baby is born, everyone wants to hear about it-- is it a boy or girl? How much does he weigh, how long is she? It is a great event and we want to announce it right away….and this birth, this birth of God made man wasn’t any different. God wanted to let the world know. And boy, what a birth announcement it was!
Across the fields of Judea, some shepherds are blinded by the brilliant light of heavenly hosts, a band of angels who have come to tell them the good news of this birth in a barn in Bethlehem. This is where the story of an ordinary birth of this extraordinary baby to willing, able and blessed servants takes a turn toward amazing. And awe-inspiring.
No doubt just as Mary and Joseph were getting their bearings, Jesus had been fed, Mary had rested and they were ready to gather their things and head back home; the shepherds arrived. Suddenly the angelic visits to Mary, the dreams of Joseph and the predictions of Elizabeth all start to coalesce. These weren’t fantasies, these weren’t hallucinations, this wasn’t craziness-----this baby, this Jesus, was someone like none before or ever after. This baby, brought to Mary through the Holy Spirit, entrusted to Joseph by God and born like any other baby, was not like anyone else. The birth of Jesus shows us the immense power of God—a huge lesson for each and every Christian—and it’s easy to get caught up in all the fanfare of the miracle…but we must be reminded, much as Julie Vivas’ teaches us with her simple book of the Nativity, that God is with us always and everywhere---even in the most mundane, the most ordinary of daily events. This is the gift of the incarnation--God is here, and there, and everywhere. We are here and so is God. This simple point, made manifest in that barn, renders life, as we know it, changed, forever.
That, to me, is the miracle of this blessed evening. An ordinary event encased in an extraordinary truth: God is here. God is among us. God has brought us God’s son to be with us…to dwell among us in the flesh to remind us, to teach us, to show us that God is and always will be, right here, right now. In the ordinary things of life, not just the extraordinary.
God is always with us….in our best times, in our worst times and most importantly I think, in our most mundane times. Maybe Mary and Joseph were clean and fresh and angelic looking right after Jesus’ birth. Or maybe they were sweaty, exhausted, dirty and wide-eyed. I don’t know, but I do know that in their utter humanness, in their utter faithfulness, in their utter willingness, God chose to make an ordinary event an extraordinary gift for all of humankind---
God, like any parent who feels such an overpowering love for their child they can barely contain themselves, cannot stay away from us. So God has come to be with us. In the act of an ordinary birth through two extraordinary people God has given life to the Prince of Peace, God in the flesh, brought to us as a gift of unbridled love and devotion from our Creator God to us, God’s beloved.
So on this very happy evening, Merry Christmas to you all, God is here. To stay. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.
Amen.
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