Sermon 12/21/2019 (The Fountains) “The manger”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection at The Fountains, Alexandria, Virginia
Text: Luke 2:1-20
Day: Christmas Day II
Thirteen months ago, when Church of the Resurrection moved out of its building, our long-time manger was damaged. Actually, our manger was “totaled” in a tragic manger accident.
Have you heard the fun Christmas song, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer?” Well, our Resurrection version of this song could be, “Our Manger Got Run Over by a Hand-truck.” The manger, a 30-plus year-old Christmas pageant prop, was flattened. Beyond repair.
Church of the Resurrection, Alexandria, Virginia
Last year I forgot we had no manger until Christmas Eve. So, I pulled a drawer out of a cabinet in my home and Baby Jesus didn’t even get a manger in a stable. This was worse than “no room in the inn.”
So, I have no excuse this year. Baby Jesus in a bucket! We are truly “in the wilderness,” as we say: no stable, no manger, just the baby anew and no place to lay him.
This was the situation a newly married couple named Joseph and Mary found themselves in long ago. They had a new baby and no place to lay him. They were in a town named Bethlehem, which means “House of Bread.” And yet the couple had no bread, no clothes for the baby that Mary had just birthed, and no money, which is to say they had no housing they could afford. But a kindly innkeeper allowed them to shelter in his stable, which allowed Joseph and Mary to put the baby in a manger.
On the very night that Mary gave birth in Bethlehem, shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks in a nearby field saw and heard angels telling them that Christ had finally come. These shepherds decided to go see for themselves the child the angels told them about, the “child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”
When the shepherds arrived at the place the angels had told them about, they indeed found a newborn baby wrapped in rags lying in an animal’s feeding box: a manger. This was the sign the angels had given them to let them know they had found the right place—had found the right child. After all, how many newborn babies could there have been wrapped in rags lying in a manger in a stable in the House of Bread?
These days—except at Church of the Resurrection—we expect to see Baby Jesus in a manger. I wonder, though, if the shepherds saw how much MORE than a baby was in the manger where Baby Jesus lay?
- Learning that astounded Temple scholars
- Power through love to heal and restore broken people
- Food to feed thousands of hungry people
- Living water poured out to absolutely everyone, even to Samaritans
- Peace to live the “fear not” instructed by the angels, even when it storms
- Mercy given, even to adulterers and thieves
- Beatitudes—blessings—for those on the margins
- Meals with tax collectors and other despised people
- Tears wept over neighbors turned enemies
- New life given to those who stink of death
- Forgiveness for betrayal
- The bread of life and cup of salvation, given freely to all
- New life for Resurrection
That manger was full already, and not with food for animals. Instead, that first Christmas so long ago the manger was filled with sustenance for us all, for all time.
What do YOU see, here at the manger today? Does it matter what the manger looks like, given what the manger holds? And how will you share what you find in the manger tonight?
- Will you take some Peace and share it with those for whom you weep?
- Will you take some Love and heal the wounded?
- Will you take some Joy, in this life and the next?
Fellow shepherds: Let’s see for ourselves this amazing thing that has happened. For:
Unto us The
Christ is born.
Come, let us adore him.
