Mysteries of Christmas

Did you ever wonder why angels always have to tell people not to be afraid of therm? Those people who have written about angels describe them as fearsome, with eyes that blaze like fire, or even that they are too fearsome to behold. So on that night when the birth we celebrate today happened, however it happened, the announcement was made to a bunch of hapless shepherds in the field by a bunch of fearsome creatures, whose first words are "fear not!"

Now help me out here: there are so many things we get wrong about the birth of Jesus, the date notwithstanding, and here is another one medieval painters (or whoever) got wrong. No "angels we have heard on high" and no "hark, the herald angels singing," what might have occurred was more like fright night in the back forty acres! These shepherds seem to have been scared out of their gourds! And for shepherds - who were the tough guys of the day (note that they had to stay awake all night to guard against rustlers) - that must have been pretty scary.

And if we can get past the riveting sight of the messenger to actually believe the alleged message that unto them a savior was being born, we have to deal with the shock of the rest of the scenario. In those days, when Caesar Augustus was supreme lord of most of the Mediterranean world and the Romans could play games with human lives for sport, the hoped for savior would have had to come in with some power and authority or it would never stand a chance. But all they got was a baby born to a homeless unmarried couple is some barn.

No. The story does not make sense that way! So the editors and writers had to make it better. After all, this is supposed to be god incarnate and that has to be special, different, and earth-shaking. And this, this unlikely story just isn't going to make it.  We humans need power, we need bombs and guns, and might - yea, real might! So we add layer and layer on to the most unlikely story ever told.

But the truth is that's what it was, and what it is - the most unlikely story ever told. Why would the power that created the universe reveal itself in the form of a frail baby? Why would the Almighty chose to come on behalf of an unmarried (read that as scandalous) displaced couple who don't even have a house or a room or a bed on which to lay their heads? Why? Because for thousands and thousands of years that is how the almighty reveals itself to us - not in power and might but in small frail, instances. We always wanted a god of war (read your Hebrew bible, a.k.a. the Old Testament) who could vanquish other gods and peoples. But we always got someone who was the unlikely hero.  We wanted thunder and lightning that would split boulders, but all we get is a small whispering voice.

So in the midst of all of the bling and pizzazz of modern Christmas celebrated on an arbitrary day in December may we all have the peace of mind required to put it all down and step away from the table long enough to notice the unlikely places, the unlikely people and the littlest things that show us how present our Creator really is. And may the overwhelming and mysterious power of that tiniest spec of godliness fill your hearts with warmth and joy tonight and in the days to come.