A Sermon preached on Christmas Eve, 2021 at St. Augustine’s and Christmas Day at St. Christoph
Isaiah 9:2-7, Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2:1-14
Someone with more rhetorical skills than I have, once coined the phrase “manger danger” to describe this season. He wrote: “One of the problems with Christmas – the ‘manger danger’ – is that it focuses on the harmless, innocent, unthreatening baby, a scene that can arouse little more than affection and admiration.”[1]
And he is right, we can focus a little too much on sweet baby Jesus, on our beautifully decorated Christmas cribs, on cute children in nativity plays, when it is safe to have them again, at the risk of neglecting the circumstances of Christ’s birth and the shadow the Cross of Good Friday is already casting over the scene.
The world into which Christ was born was not sweet and harmless, but messy and dirty and dangerous. His was – to coin a different phrase – “a dangerous manger.” According to tradition, he was born in a barn or stable, and laid in a feeding trough. You can be sure it won’t have been clean or shiny or neat or serene. Israel was occupied by the Romans and run for them by cruel, puppet dictators. If you were poor, you generally stayed poor. Tax collectors and local soldiers resorted to extortion to improve their income and if the local authorities thought you were a threat, you were soon a dead one. According to Matthew’s Gospel, King Herod “sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under” (Matthew 2:15) in a vain attempt to eliminate Jesus. And later Herod’s son, Herod Antipas, had Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist, murdered, and was implicated in Jesus’ own execution. At least as an adult, Jesus was not seen as harmless or unthreatening, on the contrary.
This context for that manger, this dark background to the Christmas story is important, and not because I am determined to spoil your Christmas enjoyment! This is part of the good news of Jesus’ birth. If God came into that world, into a world full of danger and suffering, then that is a reason for hope. It means that God cares about the world and we that we can be sure that God is present in this one today. This time we live in has plenty of dark sides to it as well: right now the Omicron variant of the corona virus is spreading far too rapidly, we have the threat of war not far from us on the Ukrainian/Russian border, where we also find illegally occupied territories and puppet rulers just as in Jesus’ day. Throughout the world, people are still being exploited and those fleeing from persecution, war, terror and just misery are seen as threats and every attempt is made to stop them even applying for protection.
None of this negates God’s presence in the world. Instead, it makes that presence, in Jesus, even more necessary and welcome than before. This world needs hope and reassurance, but also guidance and a way out. That is what the Saviour, who was born among us, the Christ who has always been born among us, the God, who is always with us, stands for. He came to heal what is broken, to “redeem us from all iniquity,” (Titus 2:14), and to save us mainly from ourselves. What is causing the Cross to throw a shadow over the manger, is the light of resurrection, the ultimate good news of victory over all that is bad and evil, including death.
The prophet Isaiah, writing at a very dark time for his people, as Babylon threatened them, and later took and destroyed their capital and the great temple, even he still writes with great hope: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-- on them light has shined.” He looks forward to the event we are looking back on today: “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6 KJV)
This is the same promise that the angels give the shepherds, who are understandably a little afraid at the appearance of an angel and the dazzling brightness of the glory of God: "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)
God in Jesus not only offers us comfort and light in the darkness. God in Jesus offers us a way forward: “He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.” (Titus 2:14 NLT)
And that’s why I think would prefer to talk about the “manger magic” rather than the “manger danger.” The manger, and that “harmless, innocent, unthreatening baby” are a sign of God’s self-giving, coming into the world as a vulnerable human baby:
- Harmless, because all God wants is our good.
- Innocent in the true sense of the word as he was “tested as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4.15)
- Unthreatening as our God comes to change us not with fear and threats, but as the “grace (gift) of God … bringing salvation to all.” (Titus 2:11)
I certainly hope that we feel affection and admiration for the baby, but also awe, wonder and gratitude. Even – or especially – in dark times, Christmas is a reason for great joy and happiness. And that is where all these lovely decorations, the beautiful carols, and the smiling faces come in, and why they are a proper reaction to Christmas, to the baby in the manger. We have something to celebrate and be happy about. Love and light have come to us, love and light have shone on us, and love and light can change us if we let them, if we take that innocent baby into our hearts, and the adult Jesus’ teaching and example into our lives.
Amen.
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