We’re well into the season of Nativity plays, as a cast of shepherds, angels, wisemen, donkeys, sheep, and Mary and Joseph are assembled. And, as teachers and Sunday School leaders try to include everyone in some way, they even find additional roles in the Nativity play. So one year, in my last church, I had the special honour of being a donkey, dressed in an Ey-ore onesie. (Sadly I wasn’t able to find any photos of that...). And, in the movie Love, Actually, you get this scene. [Lobster clip].
Shepherds and angels, wisemen and even lobsters, is the nativity story all just made up? Is is something nice for the kids to do, but doesn’t really bear any relation to reality? With all the cookery programmes on TV this time of year, is the recipe for Christmas something like this: take one ordinary baby, add in all sorts of legends and myths, and voila, there you have Christmas?
As seems to be happening in some places, do we need to forget about Christmas, and instead celebrate some sort of winterval? Should we just go along with saying happy holidays or seasons greetings, and forget about merry Christmas? I don’t think so, because Christmas starts with Christ. But how do you answer those who do think that we should leave the Christ of Christmas behind? How can we believe the Christmas story?
Christmas starts with Christ, and it’s with him that we need to start. It’s clear that, whatever you may think of him, Jesus existed. Scholars of all religious beliefs and none accept that there is more than enough historical evidence to show that Jesus lived, and was highly influential.
Besides the evidence of the New Testament, they can also point to non-Christian sources - Josephus the Jewish historian mentions ‘Jesus, who was called Christ’ and the Roman historian Tacitus, writing about the Christians blamed by Nero for the Fire in Rome says that the founder of their sect was Christus, he was executed under Pontius Pilate, and it had spread through Judea and even to Rome.
So there’s no doubt that Jesus the Christ existed. He was indeed born. But could it be that all these other stories have been added on at a later date? So, if you have someone who is important, or a great hero, then you get more and more legends and stories told about him. Is that what’s going on with Jesus?
That brings us to the way that Luke writes his gospel. Luke, the gospel writer, was a doctor, an educated man. And in the opening verses of his gospel, he tells us how he approached his task.
‘Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.’ (Luke 1: 1-4).
Dr Luke has spoken to the eyewitnesses. He has carefully investigated everything. And he writes an orderly account. So through the passage we’re focusing on, there are historical details - people like Caesar Augustus and Quirinius, Joseph and Mary; there are places like Nazareth and Bethlehem; there are time references - the census, the one that happened when Quirinius was governor of Syria. This isn’t ‘once upon a time...’ fairytale stuff. This is history. Garnered from his eyewitness - Mary the mother of Jesus.
And within the story, there are details that might seem far-fetched or pure legend to the sceptic. Angels appearing to shepherds to tell them about a baby. Wise men being guided by a star. But perhaps the biggest stumbling block is the baby himself.
At the very least, there was more than an element of scandal in the circumstances of Jesus’ birth. His mother Mary is probably a teenager, about 15. She is engaged to Joseph. And then, suddenly, she is pregnant. With the Son of God growing inside her womb. And some people today say, yeah right.
But you can’t read the early chapters of Matthew and Luke without realising just how difficult this circumstance must have been. They weren’t in the dark as to where babies came from. They knew it as well as we do. That’s why Mary asks the question of the angel Gabriel: ‘How will this be?’ It’s why Joseph resolves to divorce Mary quietly, because she must have been unfaithful. But both Mary and Joseph are told about this special baby.
So, Mary is told: ‘You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.’ (Luke 1: 30-33)
Joseph is told: ‘Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ (Matt 1:20-21).
The baby is the Son of the Most High, conceived from the Holy Spirit. Both Mary and Joseph are told that Jesus is the Son of God. That the second person of the Trinity is living inside her womb, waiting to be born - fully God and fully man.
This is why Jesus Christ is so special; why Christmas is so important. What we see in Bethlehem is God becoming man, taking on our flesh, becoming one of us, the word becoming flesh. The big word that theologians use is the ‘incarnation.’ - when God takes on our flesh, he is in carne - just as chilli con carne is chilli with meat (flesh). The incarnation means that to gaze into the manger is to see the face of God. God with skin on.
For CS Lewis, the incarnation is the Grand Miracle. We think of all the miracles of Jesus. But the greatest miracle is the incarnation. He writes: ‘What had happened on Earth, when [God] was born a man at Bethlehem, had altered the universe for ever.’ Again: ‘The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.’
But there’s a line in the Chronicles of Narnia that CS Lewis best pictures the miracle of Christmas. In The Last Battle, King Tirian goes into a stable, and discovers a whole new world inside.
‘“It seems, then,” said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the stable seen from within and the stable seen from without are two different places.”
“Yes,” said the Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than its outside.”
“Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”
In the manger, we discover one inside it, who is bigger than our whole world. The eternal Son, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, lying in a manger. Why did he do it? What’s the Christmas story all about?
It’s about invasion, and rescue. To quote Lewis again,“Enemy-occupied territory---that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.”
Love invades our world, wrapped up in strips of cloth, laid in a manger. It’s the message of the angels to the shepherds: ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’
How can we believe the Christmas story? We can believe, because it is the true story of God becoming one of us, to be our Saviour. The Grand Miracle has taken place. The saviour is here. And it’s good news for everybody.
I wonder if you’ve heard of Andy Park. Here he is. He has celebrated Christmas every day since 1993 (except for a fortnight after Christmas 2015). He has turkey every day. He watches the Queen’s Speech every day. Wizzard may have sung ‘I wish it could be Christmas every day’ but Andy Park does it.
You know the way you hear the advertising slogan around this time - A dog is for life, not just for Christmas? The good news of Christmas means that Christmas is for life, not just for Christmas! You don’t need to have a turkey dinner every day. But every day can be Christmas, when Jesus is your Saviour. He loves you, he came to save you. You just have to receive him, and believe him.
This sermon was preached at the Cafe Church in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday evening 9th December 2018.
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