I was setting up my nativity characters for chapel this week, and was reminded about a preschool chapel last year that became the central illustration in a sermon I preached on Dec. 20, 2015. The sermon was in the context of a ‘Traveler’s Christmas,’ a Christmas Eve service for those who would be travelling over Christmas. I found the manuscript to that sermon and realized I needed to hear it again this year.
Text: Luke 2:1-20
Last week in preschool chapel here at Grace, the kids were helping me tell the Christmas story. I had a few sets of characters scattered around up front, and together we organized them to look something like a nativity scene. And because I know that epiphany doesn’t come until after Christmas, the kings were a distance away from the rest of the animals and characters. Someone noticed this and said, “the kings don’t have a star to follow!” Without missing a beat, the kid sitting next to me holding the picture Bible put it down and jumped up, saying, “I can be a star…like this!” and he spread his arms and legs out while we sang “Go, tell it on the mountain.”
I tell you that story tonight because it was a moment full of joy and life that I just can’t get out of my head. But also, the more I think about it, the more I think that kid got it right. For many of us, this story we read in Luke 2 is really familiar, and every year we arrange the various pieces of our nativity sets to illustrate the story…and then we stand back and admire it from a distance. In fact, I think if we’re honest with ourselves, we keep the whole message of Christmas at a distance. We distract ourselves with questions about the historical accuracy, the literary details, the cultural specifics. Maybe we honor the traditions of those around us. Maybe we even find meaning in these traditions for ourselves. But, for the most part, we keep this God who breaks into the world at a distance.
And yet, for me…as I reflect on that preschool student jumping up and offering to be the star, I realize that this isn’t a story that is meant to be kept at a distance. This is a story that compels us to jump up and become part of it. Think about it. How many other stories—besides Star Wars, maybe—do people dress up to be part of pretty much from the time they’re born? How many times were you in a Christmas play growing up? How many times have you gone to see someone else you know in a Christmas play? How many different ways has this story been told through TV and movies? This story is one that invites us to enter into it, to re-tell it and to re-enact it…to spread our arms and legs out and say, “I can be a star…like this!”
Because isn’t that finally what Christmas is about? Not only do we get to jump up and get into the story of what God is doing through Jesus, but in Jesus, God is jumping up and getting in to OUR story. God doesn’t keep humanity at a distance, re-arranging the pieces and then standing back to admire God’s handiwork. Out of love for us, God inserts God’s self directly into our story and says, “I’ll show you the way…I’ll be the star…like this!” God sees that humanity struggles to love each other and doesn’t stop at issuing decrees and commandments from a distance, but through Jesus gets right into the human story and says, “I can show you how to love…like this!” God doesn’t just promise a new reality where power looks more like humility and service, and where community looks like openness and inclusion. God gets right into the story and in Jesus reaches across boundaries and says, “you belong here…like this!” and “I’ll show you true power…like this!”
Tonight we’re particularly considering those of us who will be traveling or otherwise unable to gather on Christmas Eve. Wherever you will be—either with family or friends, working, or even flying over the Atlantic Ocean, you will be part of someone else’s story of Christmas this year. I don’t mean THIS STORY—of coming to church, singing carols, lighting candles and singing “Silent Night.” Maybe you will be part of that story. But I’m talking about the eternal story of God’s love for humanity…a love that shows up in extremely unlikely places like a manger, a field, a hospital room, an airport, a dining room table. THAT’S the story—that God is HERE! We are invited to put down the picture book and get IN TO the story ourselves and say to those around us…God is HERE…with YOU…and YOU…and YOU…like THIS!
For all the ‘joy to the world’ and ‘silent night’ we sing around this season, I’m sure we can each tell stories of chaos, tension, fear, anxiety and disruption during Christmas as well. That’s another thing that strikes me about this story…the joy and hope is mixed right in there with fear and anxiety. I can think of one Christmas in Kenya where we were visiting some friends. That year the tribal tension in their area was particularly high, so we spent Christmas day listening to the shortwave radio as other missionaries reported having to evacuate to avoid getting caught in the line of fire as bandits worked their way through the area. And yet, in the midst of that chaos and darkness, these missionaries were doing their best to stand with the people around them and point to the presence of Christ in their midst.
Luke doesn’t make a huge deal of it, but it’s not hard to see that Jesus was not born into particularly safe and sanitary times. The political situation was messy. Mary and Joseph’s relationship with each other and with their families was messy. The first guests at Jesus’ side were shepherds—whose social standing was messy. And yet…that’s where Jesus was born. And in Jesus, God jumped into the messiness and declared: “I’m here…like this!”
Wherever your journey takes you this Christmas, I hope you will take a lesson from a 4-yr. old. I hope you will put down the books that tell the story and get in to the story yourself. When people around you notice that there are those who don’t have a Light to follow, I hope you will jump up and say, “I can be a star…like this!” And I hope that, in the midst of the chaos within or around you, you will encounter in a new and life-giving way a God who doesn’t stay off at a distance, but jumps into the story and declares, “I’m here…with you.”
Because not only does God jump into the story of humanity, God jumps into YOUR story. This baby who was born in a manger in Bethlehem was born so that YOU would have life to the fullest. This baby who was born to an overwhelmed teenage mother and a slightly bewildered step-father was born so that YOU would experience the love God has for you. This baby whose birth was witnessed by a band of migrant agricultural workers was announced throughout the world, and has been passed down through time so that YOU would hear that God is here…in the midst of the messiness of the current political scene, in the midst of the messiness of family dynamics, in the midst of the messiness of social realities. God is here. And the Light that guided the shepherds and the kings continues to guide us today, so that we, too, may gather at the foot of the Christ-child, bringing whatever meager gifts we have, and so that we, too, may worship him and then go share the story with others. So, come on…jump up and get into the story…like this!
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