Touching the Real--December 23, 2021
Sometimes it's hard to believe that it's real, you know? Christmas--at least the story of Jesus' birth, and with it the whole story of our faith--it's something we can forget involves real people living real lives. It is, on the whole, a story that can sound too good to be true: the Creator of the universe, mending what is broken in the world, not by brute force or shows of coercive power, but by entering into the creation itself in the fragile form of a human, even as a fragile human baby. I would say it's the stuff of fairy tales, except that even our fairy tales tend to have someone saving the day in the end with brute force by slaying the dragon, overpowering the wolf, or banishing the witch. The story of the Incarnation can sound even more fantastic, even more fanciful, by comparison because the presence of God is entirely centered on this helpless newborn. And yet, the Gospel insists, as incredible as it may sound, this story takes place in the real world.
In truth, that's the very thing that makes this story worth telling. It's because the story of the manger-child is real. It's because God comes into the lives of real human beings, as messy and complicated and contradictory as we all are. It's because Jesus' birth isn't merely a myth like the Greeks told about Zeus or the Romans told about Romulus and Remus. It's because the journey to Bethlehem isn't just an allegory or a tale like Orpheus in the Underworld that it has power. It's because Mary, Joseph, and the whole lot of shepherds are real people that we can dare to believe that God meets us in our real lives, too.
So today, let me offer this invitation. Go find your own nativity scene. Maybe you've got one set up under your tree. Maybe it's on the mantel above the fireplace, or on a shelf or the top of a curio. Maybe there's a long family history to yours, or you've just recently gotten it yourself. Maybe you've made your own somewhere along the way. But go get the pieces out, and take turns with each piece, holding it in your own hands, turning it over, experiencing the touch, and considering the real-life story of the person whose figure is in your hands. And then let your mind do some faithful imagining--who is it you have in your hands, and what is this person like? What was going on in their lives before they arrived in Bethlehem? What was their childhood like? What's their favorite color or favorite song? What places do they go to when they need to find a bit of peace and quiet? What's their favorite food? In other words, ask the kinds of questions you ask about real people--because they are real people indeed.
Sometimes we don't make that connection, do we? We have a hard time considering that Jesus, the divine Son of God, had to learn to walk, and had to learn how to eat solid food after nursing with his mother. We have a hard time imagining Mary being absolutely exhausted after the delivery (and have even invented songs about drum solos being played with her cheerful approval after the baby is born!). We don't think about the shepherds being people with low-paying jobs that carried very little status or prestige, who were tired from the end of their shift. We don't dare imagine the worry lines on Joseph's face as he figures out a plan to keep this unusual family safe when they have to go on the run from Herod and his military police force, and how Joseph concludes that becoming refugees in Egypt is the safest--or the least-worst--of all their options.
But if we are going to stake our lives on the idea that God actually cares about our own lives, in all our very real troubles and the messy situations we find ourselves in, we are going to have to get used to the idea that the people in the Nativity story are not merely fairy-tale characters but real human beings struggling through the pains and joys of this very real world.
Today, then, let it be enough to experience this story with the touch of your Nativity set, with the imagination that allows you to picture these as real people, and then with the expectation that God is present in your real life as well. Let that prepare you for what you hear and see at Christmas--that this is no fable or fairy-tale, but the story of God breaking into the world as we know it.
Lord God, help us to trust your presence in this real world, in our real lives, with our real struggles.
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