St Luke 2: 1 – 7
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
Reflection
We have here perhaps one of the most famous passages of Scripture, recited every year at countless carol services.
What I find fascinating in this passage though is what’s not there. There is no little donkey carrying a heavily pregnant Mary. There are no innkeepers sadly shaking their heads at the couple, until finally one takes pity on them and offers them an animal shelter. These are images we are so familiar with and yet do not appear in this original story.
But really none of this is important, for it is ephemera, what is important and what familiarity should never breed contempt of, is that God came into human history as a helpless baby and was laid in an animal feeding trough.
Think about that for a moment, God slipped silently into human history; born to parents who were likely unmarried, in a backwater town that most people would pass on their way to Jerusalem without a sideways glance.
His first visitors as we will find out are shepherds not kings. In that, God was identifying, not with earthly powers, not with kings, not with Caesar, but with the poor and powerless, the homeless and the ignored.
Despite all this, the Christmas story tells us of the birth of a King, but a king whose kingdom is not of this world. A king who came to bring good news to the poor, bring freedom to the imprisoned and sight to the blind.
As the angels sang, this baby, this king, brings peace on earth. A peace that will only be realised through the sovereignty of this baby king.
This birth heralds a hope – a hope we all need to work for even today.
Prayer
Babe of Bethlehem, on this Christmas Eve, fill us with your hope that peace on earth can become a reality. A reality for the forgotten, the marginalised, the starving, those who have nothing to celebrate this special night. Amen