December 24, 2008
Beyond Decrees - Luke 2:1-20

So Emperor Augustus sends out a decree. A census. Everyone is forced by threat of force to obey. To oppose is painful or even deadly. Emperors and their vassals have no time for exceptions. You obey, or else.

So Joseph helps a very pregnant Mary get onto the donkey for the wintry trip to Bethlehem. Emperors and kings don't care about a woman's discomfort. She just better be were she has to be -in Bethlehem. They get there barely before Mary is delivered of her child. This teenage girl must be chilled to the bone when they arrive in Bethlehem to find no rooms are available. Perhaps it is because many have come to Bethlehem for the census. But it is equally likely being unmarried and pregnant the community in that time gives them the cold shoulder. In desperation they find a barn. In these desperate conditions in a cold, mean world poor little Mary gives birth and survives -which is almost a miracle in itself. But women have done this from time immemorial -and they survive. She wrapped him in swaddling cloths, those bands of cloth wound tightly to keep him warm and secure. Surrounded by a bitter cold and a mean world, Mary and Joseph are brought together in the basking warmth of parenthood.

Out beyond this mean little town, out in the darkness and the cold of the fields, work the poorest of the poor -the shepherds. Unsheltered, they watch someone else's sheep, protecting them from poachers and wolves. A hard life with little income and rude working conditions. The shepherds shiver.

But God is going to change things. God always does. Through Moses, God freed the Israelites in Egypt. Through the prophets, God challenged Israel to live up to its calling as a light to all nations. And now God is breaking into this icy world.

The baby is healthy and Mary survived. And God's angel chooses not the emperor or the wealthy or the clergy, but first the lowest on the economic and social ladder to begin: the shepherds.

God's angel brings the news:

"Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior… you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."

We need eyes, not just to see a beautiful little baby, but to see this as God's work. For salvation, deep meaning and purpose in life, comes when we start to get the clues. In the poorest, not the wealthiest, begins this salvation, this meaning and purpose in life. In a baby, not some clever preacher or profound professor, not even Arnie our governor. Neither from emperors nor presidents, but from a totally dependent ball of warm flesh with tiny fingers, God is working new wonders. Like all babies, Jesus is a gift, a grace from the heart of God to us.

You have not been ordered by decree to be here this evening. You have come willingly because you have picked up clues that a baby portends -just as the shepherds did.

Gods are all around us: the god of wealth, the god of gathering things, the god of social exclusion, the god of war. But this is not God. God is now a baby.

What does this mean for us? Babies live by the grace and love of their parents and others. They draw love and affection out of us. All they can do is receive. They are totally dependent on our grace. God is now a baby because we all are not as powerful and in control of our lives as we might think. We too are truly dependent on an economy never in our control, a body we are not truly in control of either, dependent on the air we breathe and the planet on which we live. We need to get perspective on ourselves. God as this baby Jesus helps us get that perspective.

It is learning to live by grace: the grace of getting up in the morning, refreshed; the grace of going to some occupation, the grace to have food, the grace of fellow human beings in our lives, the grace of our pets that give so much to us, and the grace to have a pillow to lay our weary head at night. And the grace to be forgiven and to start again. Grace -God's gifts we take for granted.

Thank you baby Jesus. Thank you dear little Mary. It was a rough night for you. But now, you and Joseph have a baby who shall grow up to reveal this same gracious God, living without malice or hate -even forgiving those who put him to death. All from this baby Jesus!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Merry Christmas to you all!