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    Dec 22, 2019

    The Wonder of a Manger

    The Wonder of a Manger

    Passage: Luke 2:7

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    Category: Advent

    The gift of wonder is the ability to be amazed by little things – to see more when other people see less; to be surprised again by the beauty you’ve seen a hundred times, feeling about it he way you did the first time you saw it – and to wonder how life could give you such a marvelous gift. ~Rob Renfroe

    It was just 2 Sundays ago when we had our annual Advent Celebration.  Parents and grandparents brought their children to the celebration.  They began to gather before the animals actually arrived for the petting zoo and live nativity.  Everyone was excited, wondering which animals would come this year – especially after the darling babies, a calf and a water buffalo who had romped and delighted us all the year before.

    The animals were a little late because of traffic, so we saw their handlers set up the zoo and get them ready for the children (and, of course, their parents) to pet them and for the animals to nuzzle them back.

    Everyone waited, watching with anticipation, commenting on how the goats and sheep must be so hungry since they started chowing down on the grass in their pens.  Soon, when everything was ready, everyone rushed to the pens. 

    In just a few moments, one of the animals’ handlers brought out a large clump of hay and rather unceremoniously dumped it in the corner of the pens, then spread it out – or, more accurately, loosened it up – making it easier for the animals to eat.

    No manger in sight.  Just a clump of hay dumped in the pen.

    It made me think about the wonder of a manger.  The hay in the pens was clean and aromatic.  I wondered what was in the manger on the night that Mary and Joseph requisitioned it as a baby’s bed.

    No matter what was in it, though, it was just a feeding trough for the innkeeper’s animal stock.

    I don’t think I’ll be testing you too much when I mention Paul again today.  You may remember that ‘way back in September I talked about how Paul was working out his theology as he wrote his letters to the churches he planted – remember? 

    In the gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus, the writers were telling the story of the birth.  Well, Matthew and Luke did, anyway.  Mark jumped into the story when John the Baptist started preaching, and John eased in by talking about the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us.  Matthew and Luke told the stories that we weave together to have angels and shepherds, a manger and Wise Men.  They told the story.

    Paul, on the other hand, wrote about what the story meant.

    Though he was God,
        he did not think of equality with God
        as something to cling to.
    7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
        he took the humble position of a slave
        and was born as a human being.
    When he appeared in human form,
    8     he humbled himself in obedience to God
        and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
     
    9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
        and gave him the name above all other names,
    10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
        in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
    11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
        to the glory of God the Father.

     

    The wonder of the manger is that God humbled himself and became human to “invade” our world with love.  The wonder of the manger is that by his coming in such a humble way, we experience God with us – not above us, not behind us and pushing us, not judging us – but God with us.  And then we get to hold on to or “keep” the promise by being with others and sharing God’s love – because when such as Jesus has done this for us, how in the world can we keep it for ourselves alone?

    After the fall of the Iron Curtain, when communism came crashing down, the full extent of the evil that had scarred the environment and the people became apparent.  An American named Will Fish volunteered to go to Moscow with another American and work with orphans who had been abused, abandoned, and left in the care of a government-run program.  Will and his companion told the story of a special Christmas they experienced while there in A Russian Christmas Story:  For Always.

    As the Christmas season was approaching, they prepared to share the traditional Christmas story with the orphans, who would be hearing it for the first time.  They told them about Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem and finding no room in the inn.  They explained that Jesus was born in a stable and placed in a manger.  The children and the workers of the orphanage sat attentively, listening with amazement.

    When they finished telling the story, they gave each of the children three small pieces of cardboard and asked them to make a simple manger.  They also gave each child a small square cut from a napkin for the baby Jesus.  As Will walked among the children to see if they needed help, he came to a little boy named Misha, who appeared to be about 6 years old.  Noticing that Misha’s manger had not one but two babies in it, he called for a translator to ask the boy about it.

    Though he had heard the Christmas story just once, Misha accurately relayed what happened until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.  At that point he began to tell his own version of the story.

    And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay.  I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay.  Then Jesus told me I could stay with him.  But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did.  But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought maybe if I kept him warm that would be a good gift.  So I asked Jesus, “If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?”  And Jesus told me, “If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me.”  So I got into the manger and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him – for always.”

    As Misha finished, his eyes were brimming with tears that spilled down his cheeks.  He covered his face with his hand, lowered his head to the table, and sobbed.  Will Fish concluded the story with these powerful words:  “The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who [promised to ] stay with him – for always.”

    The wonder of a manger – that God’s divine plan was to send a Son so that we might be with God forever.  As Benjamin Schafer observed in his blog: 

    It’s stunning how approachable God makes himself.  God is not hiding somewhere, concealing Himself from mankind.  God hasn’t made it difficult or complicated to be found.  It’s not a special privilege reserved for only a few select.  God wants to be found, wants to be known.”  God wants us to come to the manger.[1]

    [1] Ed Robb & Rob Renfroe, The Wonder of Christmas.  Copyright © 2016 Abingdon Press.  Pages 87-88.