The Christmas story confirms one pattern of God—He shows up in unexpected places.
Maybe you have heard that popular story about an atheist who had a big poster hanging on the wall in his living room, which said: “God is nowhere.” One day, while he was reading the newspaper, his little daughter, who was busy doing her homework, suddenly looked at the poster and began reading it aloud as a new reader, separating the word “nowhere” into two words, saying: God… is… now… here! She was proud to have successfully read the sentence for the first time in her life. The father who wanted to correct her went silent. He had not seen that possibility. The next time he looked at that poster, he couldn’t help reading it as “God is now here.”
In a sense, the non-belief of the girl’s father is the reason for the Christmas story. We can look out at our own world and see sin, division, and non-belief. We can also look into our own hearts and see how that has influenced us.
We hear in our Gospel today: “For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord” (Luke 2:11).
The people are trapped, and collectively oppressed; the future is blocked. And sin is both the cause and the reality of this oppression. Perhaps we have lost the staggering feeling of victory, rescue, liberation, because we have forgotten that to be bound by sin is to live captive, heavily laden, driven by the Evil One, yoked by a cruel taskmaster.
To defeat evil, a Power (who is the Savior of the World) had to be introduced from outside this world. We celebrate that today at Christmas. The Word of God existed before the creation of the universe yet was born among us in time. Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation of God. We can greet each other—instead of with “Merry Christmas,” we could shout instead, “God chose flesh,” “God became one of us!”
Such gratitude enriches the Christmas season as a time for giving and receiving.
There was a story that appeared in AARP magazine a few years ago. It was about an unemployed salesman in 1971 who received an act of kindness that changed his life. He was scraping by, living in his car, when a local diner owner gave him $20 and a tank of gas.
Fast forward eight years. Our unemployed salesman is now hugely successful. He begins giving away money anonymously in order to repay the kindness of the diner owner. What started as a small gesture of gratitude has grown into a wonderful Christmas tradition. Over the past few decades, this anonymous businessman has given away tens of thousands of dollars every Christmas to people on the streets of Kansas City.
And just a few years ago, the businessman returned to the old diner to thank the man who changed his life. The diner owner was retired and caring for an ailing wife. Imagine his surprise when a man showed up on his doorstep and handed him $ 10,000.
The Christmas story also confirms that God shows up in unexpected places especially where he is born.
We hear that, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled…So, all went to be enrolled, each to his own town” (Luke 2.1-2). Such a decree was no joke. Government taxation depended on your enrollment, and you were required by law to go back to your hometown that maybe you have not been back to in three decades, and the roads and inns would be packed with many travelers.
When a pastor asked the class, "Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem?" a boy raised his hand and replied, "Because his mother was there."
Jesus dies in the great city of Jerusalem so that his crucifixion may be known to a great many of all, but the glory of his birth is hidden in the least of the cities. "O little town of Bethlehem...."
Picture Bethlehem at the first Christmas; a cluster of buildings nestled under a deep midnight sky, lit by a glittering star whose silver beams point the way for shepherds and wise men. O silent night, O holy night. O night divine.
We wish for our hearts to be still and deep like that; to offer our Savior a restful peace within our hearts, to mirror that idyllic scene in our own holy longings, to be receptive and welcoming. Our souls like a soft, deep velvety silence, a space of soul to reflect, pray, welcome the Word made Flesh.
Some people do not experience Christmas as good news as it can magnify the feeling of their aloneness, alienation, and grief.
But the real good news of Christmas is that Jesus was born in a barn which the angel said was to be “a joy to all the people” (Luke 2:10).
Mary and Joseph probably did not realize that they were completing an ancient prophecy by going to Bethlehem. Someone far greater than Caesar Augustus was controlling their destiny. And Providence is is also guiding our lives, especially in the moments we can’t sense it.
But with proper dispositions, we can taste and see the goodness of the Lord at Christ-mass. As St. Francis of Assisi said, “Out of love for us, God so humbles himself that he hides himself under the little form of bread.” And C.S. Lewis said, “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses…. for in your neighbor Christ truly hides…”
He was born in a stable. The lowly shepherds, a marginal group; rough, uncultured. They did not hesitate to enter a stable and bow before the child, so we can too, and everyone.
Take away the decorations, presents, and the food and the meaning and purpose of Christmas is still there.
At Christmas we get the answer to the question the girl’s father had in his unbelief, which is whether God can be known through historical-finite events. The incarnational approach of God at Christmas answers that question as “Yes!” which leads me to another question and answer. That classic catechism question #6: Why did God make you?
The answer: God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.
Human life has meaning because God enters into it. The Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father, came into this world as a helpless child.
The Ultimate Destiny of the Child is that his birth opens the way to the Easter victory of eternal life.
Though meek and lowly in the circumstances of His earthly beginnings, born in a stable, yet He was born a King. He is the Star out of Jacob" and the "Scepter rising out of Israel," the Lord who "shall be King over all the earth" (Matthew 2:2; 27:37; Numbers 24:17 ; Zechariah 14:9).
Within and underneath the festive “holiday mood” of Christmas, we are asked: How will we respond to the Word made Flesh who will come to judge the living and the dead? Who sacrificed everything to bring us back into a relationship with Him?
Amen.
