Unpacking the Nativity

Rebecca Sheridan
Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Luke 2:1-20

    Do you have a nativity scene at home?  We have about ten.  Nothing as large as what we have here at church, inside or out!  Most fit on an end table or our fireplace mantle.  Some are soft and made of wool or felt. I have one made with little upside-down painted terracotta flower pots with wooden dowels for heads-- another that is frosted glass.  Some are of just the Holy Family – with three basic pieces--Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.  Others include the cast of characters we know so well from the angels, shepherds and wise men to the various animals we guess were there that holy night – donkeys, cows, sheep and camels.  Every year, we enjoy unpacking our nativity sets as a family and deciding where to put them.  Our kids hide the baby Jesuses until tonight when we celebrate his birth, and hopefully they will remember where they put them all so we can put baby Jesus in the manger!  Setting up the nativities is a part of our Advent waiting and preparation leading up to today.
    I recently learned that the tradition of putting out nativity scenes (or creches in the French) started with Saint Francis of Assisi in Italy in the early 13th century.  He wanted the scene of Christ’s birth to come alive for the people.  As you may know, we usually celebrate St. Francis in October with the Blessing of Animals, and true to his animal-loving personality, St. Francis gathered real live animals and people to create a living nativity – real donkeys, cows, camels, sheep, shepherds and so on – even a real baby Jesus!  
Every year, we hear this treasured story of Christ’s birth from Luke’s gospel.  We unpack and set up our nativity scenes.  But of course, in 12 days it will be the end of Christmas, and all our decorations retelling the amazing story of God’s salvation come to Earth through the birth of Jesus will be put away, boxed up and stored in the attic or basement, closet or garage somewhere until next year.  We’ll move on to other things, maybe not thinking much about Jesus or our faith in what God has done for us through Jesus until Easter or worse, next Christmas.
    The challenge for us each Christmas is to live out what Christ’s birth means for us throughout the year.  To unwrap and unpack the story so that it comes alive for us once again and renews our resolve to share the hope, peace, love, and joy God gives us not just today or tomorrow but all year round.  We remember tonight that this glorious, life-changing, world-transforming event of God coming to Earth in Jesus the Christ is not only a nice story of something that happened long ago to shepherds and angels and poor out-of-town parents in Bethlehem.  Christ’s birth continues to impact us in the present tense for our future hope and life.  This is not just a heart-warming story of extraordinary events that happened in the past.
    So we take out the angel in our nativity scene and hear their message for us right here and right now:  “Do not be afraid!  This message is for all the people (and that includes you!)  To YOU is born TODAY in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”  We take out the shepherd and think of all the times we have looked up into a clear night sky wishing upon a star perhaps, waiting for a sign from God that things will be different, that the world will be better, that our lives will be better, that God does in fact love and care for us despite the vast universe of God’s creation.  Like the shepherds, we glorify and praise God for seeing and hearing God’s actions in our lives.  We take out Joseph, and think of our own worries of how we might provide for our family, live safely in an unsettled, conflicted world, burdened perhaps by the cares of this world like paying bills and taxes and yet hopeful about this new future with a new wife and baby on the way.  We think of the love and care of our own male mentors whether chosen or biological.  We take out Mary and think of our own mothers’ love, care and hopes for us, treasuring the words of the shepherds and pondering them in our hearts.  We ask what God might be wanting to birth in us in this new year as we try to live out the love of Christ in our daily lives.  
We’ll wait on the wise men because they don’t show up for another two years or so, come back for worship for the first Sunday of the New Year on January 5 when we celebrate Epiphany.  However, tonight, even the animals have a place in our story. We think of our own pets and what they teach us about God’s love. The animals in the nativity scene remind us to care for God’s creation and to give thanks for the gifts that these animals give to us just as they gave Jesus his first bed, warmth from their wool, milk to drink, transportation on his way from Bethlehem to Egypt to Nazareth.  We think of all the gifts we can contribute when we look at what we have, no matter how simple, and how God might use those gifts in us today.
    Then of course we come to Jesus.  We hear the words again of Isaiah, “for a child has been born for us, a son given to us; for us he is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  These are just some of our human attempts to describe the miracle of our Lord and Savior come to Earth as Emmanuel, God with Us.  This baby is not just for Mary and Joseph, for the animals and angels and shepherds, but for us, too, right here, right now.  As the Christmas carol goes, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”  All the years, including today, thank God, salvation has come for us in this holy child.  May our telling and retelling again of the story inspire us for a hopeful new year, living out God’s peace, love and joy for a world in need. Merry Christmas!  Amen.