Most of our lives are spent doing the mundane day to day tasks, taking care of our families, working so we can have the food and shelter we need, and occasionally taking time for recreation and enjoyment. Life is usually good but
it is rarely truly exciting or extraordinary. During the Christmas Season we all do our best to lift our lives and our surroundings to a more exciting level, surrounding ourselves with light and music that help us see the events of Christmas past and present with different eyes.

Truly the events of that first Christmas were earth shattering. It was the beginning of a whole new age, a whole new way for humanity to relate to God. Saint Paul says it very well; in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Cor. 5:17) With this birth God is now with us, Emmanuel.

Yet it was not the circumstances, the setting or the people involved that were so amazing. In fact the people involved were poor, caught in a flood of refugees. The setting, a stable was shabby a placed forced upon them desperate need. This is hardly the warm, light filled glittery story we see so often portrayed around Christmas.

Luke in his Gospel begins his Christmas story acknowledging the shabbiness of the circumstances. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. (Luke 2:8) Shepherds were considered unclean by the people of the day, in fact in many places they were not even allowed to come into the towns. This is hardly what we would consider an auspicious beginning. Yet it makes me wonder what purpose God might have for doing things in this way. What are the things we might overlook if we glamorize or over dramatize these events?

The people and the setting of that first Christmas was humble but the message was anything but. The messenger of the Lord said, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

The message speaks of hope, of freedom from bondage, fear and oppression, of a savior, not for a few but for all people. Thee are the words we all long to hear, the words that can set our hearts free from the monotony and give our lives new purpose, new meaning. Yet the words do not separate us from the ordinary, in fact they do just the opposite, they place the person of God into the context of our daily lives. The gift, the savior who brings this hope is in diapers in a feed trough in a stable because the everyday world had no place for him.

There are some important lessons to learn from this. God comes to us in the ordinary, not in the lights and glitter but in the simple things. Second, if we want to have God in our lives, to embrace the Good News and hope embedded in this Christmas message we have to make room for god in our lives. Just as there was no room at the inn, unless we make a place and take the time there is no room for God in our lives either. Last, the gift is not something that can be grasped or spent, it is a relationship with a living person, Jesus who was and is that baby tucked in with the animal feed on that first Christmas night.

I pray God’s blessing and his presence will be with you and those you love this Christmas. But don’t look for this gift in the glitter; look for it in the ordinary things that make up your day to day life, for these are the things that with Jesus’ presence become new.

Pastor Jim Bliss
December 2007