If you were to ask me what my favorite TV show is right now, I think I would have to answer “West Wing.” I’m really enjoying the opportunity to see something of the inner workings of the white house and how policies come together.
Today’s text, the story of the birth of Jesus, leaves me thinking about the White House and the different entrances that it must have.
The White House has a main entrance where dignitaries arrive. It has a porch over it so they don’t have to worry about the rain as they get out of their cars. I imagine that most people who get to use that entrance have someone run out and open their car doors for them. Someone holds the front door open for them. The hallway is beautifully decorated. It must have a very expensive carpet, immaculately cleaned. Probably on some special occasions there are guards along the hallway who salute the highest of dignitaries. That’s the main entrance. If we could mix together the stories of the birth of Jesus and West Wing, then the person mentioned in the story of the birth of Jesus who would get to use the main entrance was the Roman Emperor Augustus.
Then, I’ll bet there are other entrances that are less formal. Maybe the president uses them on his day off or to walk the dog, but these entrances would mostly be used by people who have business there every day, perhaps the press secretary or speech writers or other people who work in the White House use those entrances. Here there is carpet, too, but probably a very practical, durable kind. I’m sure they are very nice, too, and people get a very nice welcome, but they are more practical, with much less fuss and fancy stuff.
But there have to be other entrances, too. I don’t remember seeing them on West Wing. But where do they take out the garbage? Which door does the pizza delivery guy use? How do the cook and the cleaning lady get out to their cars? Where does the mail come in? There has to be some door for all that kind of coming and going. And if it’s part of the White House, I’ll bet it still looks pretty nice. The floor is probably covered with tile. I’m sure there is a guard there, but he may not open the door for you. He’s probably there for security more than for courtesy. You might call that entrance the servant’s entrance. You come there to work, not to be served.
When Jesus, the Son of God, was born into this world, what type of entrance did he use? You would expect that he would use the main entrance. You would expect that he would be given every honor. You would expect that his arrival would be announced first to the movers and shakers of human society. You would expect that he would soon be accompanied by the strongest, the richest, the most beautiful, and the most powerful people on earth. You would expect him to arrive as an adult, and a strong, dominating adult, not as a child. But if he was determined to come as a child, you would at least expect him to come with the best medical care and most beautiful nursery furniture. But did Jesus enter this earth through the main entrance? Listen as I read our text for you, Luke 2:1-20.
1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 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. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 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.
8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." 13 Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”
Which entrance did Jesus use to enter this world? Emperor Augustus probably never heard anything about him at all. The local king, Herod, heard about it by accident and after the fact through some foreigners, the wise men, who came looking for the newborn Messiah. The local religious dignitaries didn’t get any advanced notice. There were no servants to wait on him. He had no trained medical care. His nursery was furnished with one useful piece, a feeding trough for the animals. Jesus didn’t come into this world through the main entrance.
He didn’t come through the entrance that the upper staff would have used either. He wasn’t born into a nice, average, middle class family, with reasonable comforts.
Jesus entered this earth through the servant’s entrance. When the king said it was time to go to the family home for the census, his family had to go, even though it was terrible timing for them with the pregnancy and all. When the baby was coming, there was no proper place available for her to give birth. They had no powerful human friends to make things happen for them. They had no financial security. They had no medical care. Jesus came into this world through the servant’s entrance.
If Mary and Joseph had come to Harvard instead of Bethlehem, where do you think he would have been born? If you had no home or friends or money for a hotel, where would you go? Where do homeless people end up today in Harvard?
Today baby Jesus might have been born under the viaduct, or in an empty truck trailer outside the True Value warehouse, or perhaps in an empty freight car on a siding from the train tracks, or maybe under one of the big pine trees out in front of our church.
Jesus entered this earth through the servant’s entrance.
And whom did he meet as he was coming into this world through the servant’s entrance? He met shepherds. They had been sleeping out in the fields, so they would have been at least a bit scruffy. They would not have had polished manners or nice clothing. Since shepherds had to move around a lot, moving the sheep to wherever they could find grass and water, they were often out of town and not in church on Sunday. They weren’t the lowest people around, but they were nothing special at all.
It was these shepherds who got the first public announcement that at last God’s Messiah had arrived, the one who would save God’s people. It sounds to me like those shepherds got a sound and light musical show on that hillside that would put to shame any production we could do today for a celebration even in Washington D. C.
God provided an extravagant announcement for some very plain, unwashed people. These were the people who never got their names in the paper, except when they were born and when they died. These were the people who were left out of the government’s master plans. If Jesus had been born in a palace these people never would have been invited and even if they were invited, they would feel so uncomfortable in a palace. Jesus came to them, where they were and as they were.
Maybe that was part of the joy that the angels felt. Certainly the greatest joy was the whole big picture of God’s Son taking human form. But there was another joy, that God was bringing good news to those who were poor and weak and often discouraged.
It’s an amazing story, isn’t it? We have heard it so many times before. But who would have imagined that God would do such a thing?
Now, we have to think about what all this means for us today. What does it mean for us?
Most importantly it tells us something about how much God loves us and how far God went to help us understand. But once we understand that, what do we do about it?
If dare to believe that Jesus is going to appear again and again on this earth, and we dare to believe that he prefers to arrive using the servant’s entrance, and we dare to answer his call to follow close behind, who might we meet as we follow him through the servant’s entrance? Who would get the first announcement today that Jesus is here to make all things new?
In Harvard, the announcement might go to some Mexican workers, perhaps to a crew driving back to the apartment they share after a very long day of landscaping people’s lawns, or a couple who are washing dishes in the back of a restaurant. Of course it would be hard to get all the angels into the dishwashing room in the back of a restaurant. But those are the people who are on the bottom here in Harvard. Could we dare to follow Jesus to such places? Can we feel the joy in heaven as they receive hope and love?
Or maybe today the angels would come to someone whose family is falling apart, whose friends have been keeping their distance because they just don’t know what to say, someone who is feeling very, very alone. Any bit of good news can mean so much.
Maybe the angels would come to a prison filled with men who know it will be very hard for them to find a job on the outside that pays a living wage, men whose lives have been devastated by drugs or alcohol, men who have lost hope. How desperately they need to hear that someone cares, that God can bring light in the darkness, that God can restore broken lives. What joy there is when crooked lives are made straight.
Maybe the announcement would come in a nursing home filled with people on their last legs of life, feeling useless, unvalued, and unlovable. Sometimes the smallest show of attention can mean so much to them.
Last night a bunch of us went Christmas caroling to many of our shut-ins here in town. You could see that it meant so much to them to be remembered, to hear the familiar Christmas carols again, to see kids and adults singing God’s praise together.
Of, if we really want to look at people who need a word of hope, maybe the announcement would come to people in any number of African countries today, decimated by civil wars, where up to a quarter of the population is HIV positive, where orphaned children are found everywhere, and social services are hopelessly inadequate. It is so urgent that we pay our full apportionments so that even while we are here in Harvard, we can help the light of Christ to shine where it is most needed.
When Jesus was born on this earth, he entered through the servant’s entrance. The people he met there were poor, those that everyone else ignored. And that made the joy of his appearing so much greater. Amen
