Some years ago, a friend invited me to join him and a few other mutual friends, on a trip to the Holy Land. We were part of a tour group visiting notable sites – old Jerusalem, the Western Wall, Nazareth, the Dead Sea, Temple Mount, Church of the Sepulcher and much more.
Our first stop was Bethlehem, located in the West Bank, in Palestine. Soon after we left the airport and before we even settled into our place of lodging, we drug our tired bodies to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The Church of the Nativity is built over what is presumed to be the place where Jesus was born. No one knows for sure if it is Jesus’ birthplace, and it doesn’t really matter. This ancient church has attracted millions upon millions of visitors over the years. Pilgrims from all over the world come to see this particular place marked off and set aside as a holy place.
The best part of the Church of the Nativity is the Grotto of the Nativity, underneath the Basilica, specifically beneath the main altar. To get to the Grotto, which is essentially a cave, we climbed down what seemed like countless stairs to find our way to the place marked out as the very spot where Mary gave birth to her firstborn. Along the way we saw broches hanging down the dark walls and at the destination point was more ornamentation – more lamps, censors, icons, croziers, you name it. All of these things surrounded a large circle within a 14-point star on the ground. Many of the pilgrims knelt and some brushed their hands over the circle and placed their fingers in a hole, believed to be the stone on which Mary placed her baby and around the 14-point star, written in Latin, are these words: “Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary.”
Just as we found this space richly decorated, there was also a rich array of people from places all over the world, speaking in their native tongues, young and old, and from many walks of life. The birthplace of Jesus surrounded by a beautiful diversity of culture and religion.
After a while, we climbed the steps up to the church basilica and got on the bus, headed to the hotel and my heart was filled with a sense of wonder. It was a good start to a good trip.
Once the trip was over, and I returned home, I reflected on this journey to the Holy Land, grateful for having made the trip. I wondered, also, if anything surprised me. I asked “what touched me and what am I bringing back home that was new?” It was a little surprising to me that I came back home with a deeper regard for the presence of God in all places, with a renewed sense that any place may be a holy place and any land a holy land.
My richest memories, those that lingered, were not the sites themselves but what I observed happening at these sites – people drawn together by something greater than themselves. People from all places come together in prayer, like pilgrims kneeling at the 14-point star in the Grotto of the Nativity, monks chanting at the Church of the Sepulcher, or a group of evangelical Christians sharing communion near the Garden Tomb.
I wondered, “Isn’t this God’s dream for us all?”
People united in and around the things of God, by a kind of peace that passes all understanding. You don’t have to go to Bethlehem or any holy land site for that matter, to discover the presence and power of God. And you don’t have to look far to see how this dream of God is far from complete.
This trip over 20 years ago I cannot imagine taking now given the unrest and strife in and around Bethlehem. There in the holy place you can see that God’s dream for us all is far from complete.
Still, Christ is born for us and for all people.
As the angel declared to the shepherds, “To you this day in the city of David is born a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”
This is the good news of Christmas.
Jesus is with us in surprising moments of grace and Jesus is with us in the rough and tumble of everyday life. Jesus is with us in periods of awe and joy and Jesus is with us wherever there is suffering and violence and even war.
The beloved story of Christmas is set in the real world, beginning with Mary, pregnant with child, and Joseph heading to Bethlehem to be registered. Caesar Augustus made a decree that everyone go to their hometown to be named, so that everyone in the Roman Empire be taxed. From the beginning the story is set in the world of Realpolitik and the real world of empire and injustice.
The angel’s announcement is given first to shepherds, whose reputation was that of people “rough around the edges” and as robbers, who preyed on lone travelers passing by their fields of sheep.
And consider Bethlehem, not a remarkable or distinguished city. Unlike Jerusalem with its temple and seat of governance, and very important people, Bethlehem was considered a little outback, and this is where Mary, Jesus, and Joseph are finally welcomed. They are guests of sheep, cows, oxen, who yielded their feed box to the child.
While it is easy to sentimentalize the Christmas story, it is best to see this story for what it is – God’s grace appearing to all people in life as it is, with all of its wonder and maladies, sorrows and joys. Jesus’ birth announced to the poor and Jesus born as a poor and amidst the exploits of unjust empires.
We might have thought and maybe still imagine the coming of a Messiah to save us from these complicated and sinful circumstances, to be sequestered from all of that, making decrees from a distance, but in Jesus, God comes wearing our skin and living among us.
Better said and more eloquently from the prologue of John’s Gospel: “The Word became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth.”
Some years ago, I sent a message to a friend and I meant to say, “Have a merry Christmas.” Instead, the text came out the way my fumbling fingers wrote it – “Have a messy Christmas!”
The way the words arrived on my friend’s phone wasn’t too far off the mark – Christmas unfolds in a messy world of snowstorms, icy streets, cancellations, power outages, leaky faucets, broken down appliances, tensions within families, budget deficits, complicated relationships, corrupt politicians, a bleak diagnosis from the doctor, illness, anxiety, and death. All very messy and within this messy world, God has pitched his tent, choosing to love and heal the world not from outside but within our blessed messiness.
And we are called, friends in Christ to follow him and dwell in him and join in this holy work of loving the world as it is.
In a Christmas sermon, Martin Luther spoke plainly to the people: “There are many of you in this congregation who think to yourselves: ‘If only I had been there! How quick I would have been to help the Baby! I would have washed his linen.’ But if you had been there at that time, you would have done no better than the people of Bethlehem. Childish and silly thoughts are these! Why don’t you do it now? You have Christ in your neighbor: serve him, for what you do to your neighbor in need, you do to the Lord Christ himself.”
Why don’t you do it now? Why don’t we do it now.
On this feast of the Nativity of our Lord we will soon feast upon Christ in sharing bread and cup, meeting Jesus in a mystery we can never fully know but one that comes to us in ways that we know. Bread and Wine. at is deep and beyond reason, and, at the same time, in a way that comes to us in the ordinary – bread and wine. Simple gifts not unlike the weak and humble child lying in the animal feed box, giving us what we need the most – mercy, forgiveness, and love.
Through these gifts, God sends back into the world of the neighbor where we meet Christ again in the beautiful and messy world Christ so dearly loves.
The Word became flesh and lived among us full of grace and truth and we have beheld his glory … Amen.