How It All Began

The Venerable Joan Clark

Luke 2:1-14

A child’s letter to God:

“Dear God, Did you think that Christmas would turn out like this when you started it?
Love,
Wendy, (Age 7).

That is a profound question. Did God foresee crowded malls, office parties, people congratulating themselves on giving and receiving extravagant gifts—people acting much like Little Jack Horner sitting in a corner, eating his Christmas pie . . .” You remember the rest of the poem, don’t you? “He stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plumb and said, WHAT A GOOD BOY AM I.”

Did God foresee all that--and did He send His Son in spite of it all? That really tells us how much God loves us. So much of our current celebration of Christmas can be so out of alignment with the spirit of the first Christmas. Let’s simply saver this beautiful story for a few moments on this Christmas day. In the wisdom of God there are so many beautiful elements to this wondrous story. Before this special day slips away from us, let’s consider some of these elements that are so precious, so meaningful. 

Let’s begin with the humble couple and their baby. Joseph and Mary, Joseph’s betrothed wife, make their way to Bethlehem to register in a census. This census was decreed by Caesar Augustus, emperor of Rome. The writers of Scripture want us to know, however, that Rome was but an unwitting instrument of God’s plan for the salvation of humanity. In Micah 5:2, there is a prophecy that reveals that Bethlehem would be the birthplace of the Messiah and so, thanks to this census, it was.

Bethlehem was a small town only 6 miles from Jerusalem. You could walk that distance if you needed to. Bethlehem had nothing to recommend it except that this is where the Messiah would be born. Bethlehem means, “House of Bread,” so it is appropriate that he who would be the “Bread of Life” should be born there. The important thing is that it was the “City of David,” and the Messiah was prophesied to be a descendant of David.

So Mary and Joseph make their way through the crush of people seeking a place in Bethlehem to stay for the night. Finding no proper place to stay, they take shelter in a stable. And while they are there, their baby is born. There in the stench and unsanitary conditions of the stable lay the babe in the manger. This was quite obviously an insignificant incident to the world of that time, but for those who know that babe as their Saviour, it was the most important event in the history of the world.

Nevertheless, at the time, most of the residents of Bethlehem would echo that refrain that “nothing ever happens out here.”

However, something did happen in Bethlehem. The entire world was forever changed. So our story begins with this young family seeking shelter in a stable and a baby being born who would change the destiny of humankind.

Then the story moves to a group of shepherds on a hillside who are the first to find out about the birth of the Messiah. This certainly proves that God has both a sense of humour and a sense of irony. If there is a more humble occupation in the world than that of shepherding, I don’t know what it is. Their role in life was to be guardians to a bunch of sheep. I doubt that any special training was required--just some common sense and a degree of courage. Only God would have so glorified such a lowly occupation. 

When it came to delivering the greatest message on earth, God chose amateurs and nobodies instead of professionals and VIPs. “The priests and religious classes were not the first to learn about the Messiah’s birth. One would think that they would be the ones with all the appropriate knowledge and social clout to interpret the message to the people. But God chose to share this message with the shepherds first, members of an outcast and untrustworthy caste. And that is how God chooses to operate even today.”

Imagine that! God takes the lowliest of people and glorifies them. I wonder if that could happen to us? That God could take us in spite of our weaknesses and use us to His glory?

That is the Good News for the day. Even the humblest of lives can be touched by the hand of God. That includes our life, of course, but it also includes the lives of the people we see and work with every day. Be careful this Christmas whom you shut out and ignore. God chooses the strangest places and the most unlikely people to do His work. 

The Christmas story teaches us that even the lowliest of persons has a place in His kingdom. and through the babe of Bethlehem God has made Himself available to us all. We no longer have to worship God from afar. He is now available to us in the person of Jesus Christ. 

Even the humblest people take on a new significance when touched by the hand of God. He is available to us.

That is a message we need to take into every home--from the finest mansion to the lowliest shack. Emmanuel, God is with us.

That’s what Christmas is all about. That is why we are here today--to affirm a message that is absurd to the world but is the greatest objective truth that those who follow Jesus affirm. God can touch ordinary people and turn their lives into something beautiful. Why? Because a baby was born in the little town of Bethlehem who is Emmanuel -- God with us.