God gathered together with his advisers: the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Oh, and Fred, Archangel Fred was there too. God asked them, when you look at the world, what do you see. Gabriel answered: I see a people who walk in darkness and dwell in a land of gloom. Raphael said, “I see those living with godless ways and worldly desires.” Fred said, I see a hot mess. What should we do about it? God asked. Why not send a really holy person, like Abraham, to inspire the people, said Gabriel. I don’t know, said God, we tried that and it seems that many put the holy person on a pedestal and figure they can never attain those heights so they act as they always have. How about sending a great leader, like King David? said Raphael. The problem with that, God answered, is that the leader has to impose his will and once that coercion is gone things revert back to the way they were before. Archangel Michael then said, Let’s send in twelve legions of angels. We’re locked and loaded and ready to take names. God only smiled. That was Michael’s solution to everything – the Lord God of hosts. Finally, Archangel Fred piped up. Why not come as a child? The others looked at him quizzically. No, think about it. If God comes as a child, everyone will love him for everyone loves a child. But what about the fear of the Lord, said Michael? Love is stronger than fear, Fred answered. Love is stronger than death, stronger than hell. If God comes as a child he will be a light to drive away the darkness and a source of joy to dispel the gloom. If God comes as a child people will have hope in the future. Gabriel answered, Fred is right. By coming as a child God stakes the claim that it is no longer same old, same old. This is a new beginning. Michael just sighed, Okay. I have the multitude of the heavenly host take off their gear and pick up their harps. And so it was decided.
God decided to come as a child. We are so accustomed to telling the Christmas story that we aren’t astonished at this most remarkable of events. Come as a child? – children are needy. Children are dependent. Children are vulnerable. Not the attributes usually ascribed to God. But on the other hand children cause delight. Children have an unlimited potential. Children are the source of our happiness. We do for children. We care about children. We put their concerns above our own. By coming as a child God has shifted the divine/human relationship. No longer do we think of God as out there, as above it all, as seated on a lofty throne. Instead the gap between heaven and earth has been closed. We find God in our midst. We share in divine life. By coming as a child we have a new understanding of who God is and who we are as human beings.
When a child is born to us, a son is given us infinite possibilities open up. No matter what has gone on before, this child has the potential to be somebody, to do something special. The harsh realities of life have not yet limited a future of wide-opened prospects. So we seen in a child the possibility of a whole new way of being alive. I recently got a Christmas card from a grandmother with a picture of her grand with the caption: “our pride and joy.” I have no doubt that Mary and Joseph felt the same way. Besides the instinctive potential that all parents see in their children they had shepherds dropping by reporting on a heavenly message. And so the birth of this child, in an even greater way than most, was the occasion for hope. No matter how dark and gloomy things seem to be, in this child God is doing something new. They learned the message of the manger in trusting that, even confined in a barn where you have to step around the muck and the mire, good news of great joy is present in the birth of a child.
By coming as a child we learn that God is truly WITH us. What sustained the faith of Israel for the hundreds of years from Abraham to John the Baptist was the confidence that God was FOR them. God delivered them from slavery when they cried out for it. God had rained down manna from heaven when they needed.it. God had given them the holy land because they required it. God was for them when they needed it most. But this child changes the equation. No longer is God above the fray as FOR them but now weeps WITH them when they are hungry, suffers WITH them when they are distressed, mourns WITH them in the losses. When the child comes, God is WITH us, Emmanuel.
What about us? Two thousand and some odd years after the birth of this child do we still feel the hope, see the potential, walk in the light, trust in the child who has come? Just as the limitless potential of a new born gradually gets chipped away by the circumstances of life, does our great joy at the birth of this child diminish? After all, this child born for us was to bring peace and yet we still find violence stalks our streets. This son given us brought healing wherever he went, yet sickness continues all around us. This new born king came to bring justice to the nations, but inequality seems to be the norm of society. What are the lessons of the manger that we should take to heart? We tell the story every year as a way of refreshing the hope born in Bethlehem. The babe in the manger lets us know that God hasn’t finished yet, that the potential is not exhausted, that the new is about to break forth. We gather around the manger every year to be renewed in the possibilities present in this child who has come. Truly these are tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy. Oh come, let us adore him.
