Preacher: Nathan Hosler

Scripture: Isaiah 9:2-7, Psalm 96, Luke 2:1-20

A Mystery

As I thought of love and the coming Christ child, the red leaf glittered. 

How and why? I wondered. There is almost a metallic character as the morning sunlight passed through. What is it that makes this growing energy-producing panel, which I mundanely call a leaf, glitter and grow to a prescribed size turning sunlight into energy? Certainly, there are scientific descriptions of these processes, but this remains mysterious. 

For 43 years now, I have heard these Christmas stories. About 10 years longer than Jesus lived and beginning almost 2000 years later. 

This story, this Jesus. So seemingly known but yet so mysterious. 

What great mystery the love of Christ, the child, the incarnate one, has brought. Having been before the creation of the world. Participating. Bringing life. What a mystery. Jesus, the Christ child, grew. Did kid things. Made stuff—presumably messy, as children often are. There is an apocryphal story—from the book of the Gospel of Thomas-in which Jesus, as a child makes a bird from clay and it comes to life, taking flight. 

So, if Jesus—as part of the God-head—took part in creation, how did he do so? Did he do it as a child? Inventing with child-like joy an unimaginable array of this world—much less the entirety of all that spins through space and time? Would a serious grownup really make a platypus? Or a Slow Loris with its poisonous armpits? Plants that spring spontaneously from the small container of so-called seeds? Or a rainbow? (it doesn’t even do anything useful). Would a serious grownup do this? 

 We tend to think of the quote unquote “ministry” of Jesus after the launch of his teaching and healing ministry. He stands in the temple and reads from the book of Isaiah.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to set free those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This, we say, is his “ministry.” Serious stuff—preaching, good news of freedom and challenging oppression and economic systems that impoverish some. 

This, however, is oddly (or perhaps stereotypically) a very adult-centric position. It is also, possibly unbiblical. Though the Gospels (written by adults) are minimal on Jesus’ childhood, they do not portray the birth of the child as a mere functional necessity of getting grown-up Jesus on the scene. The announcement, anticipation, and birth are not inconsequential—not simply stage setting. 

The arrival of the baby is, itself, a big deal. The arrival of the baby is a direct challenge to the claims of the Roman empire.  The shepherds get this. The Emperor gets this. Our passage is calibrated to the political moment. The scene is set by a political decree “while Quirinius was governor of Syra.” This orientation is part of a communication strategy. The author is writing to people who will know when this time was. 

 Caesar Augustus is the head of the Roman Empire. As a restorer of the empire he is given quasi-divine status. (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/christmas-day-nativity-of-our-lord-ii/commentary-on-luke-21-7-8-20-13).

 The empire weighs heavily on the people of Israel, the Jews in Palestine. The passage opens with a census. The Emperor decrees that all should travel to their home areas to be registered, counted. The counting and registration are  designed for control and for extracting wealth to support the empire. Even in the opening line we see the presumptuousness and self-imagined awe—the decree is that “all the world should be registered.” 

And the people, without choice or say, returned to their places of origin. And Joseph with heavily pregnant Mary made the trek. Though the Emperor thought he was in charge, this decree unwittingly brought the pregnant Mary to the place prophesied as the birthplace of the Messiah. 

“Now in the same region there were shepherds living in the fields.” What to me sounds idyllic—outside, in a field, with fuzzy sheep—is actually a marginal, generally looked down upon existence. These lowly shepherds become the heralds. 

In the Greco-Roman context “good news,” was related to contexts of victorious battle and emperor worship (Working Preacher, Joel Greene)

The angels arrival with “Good news” countering the claimed centrality of the Emperor. 

The angels—a host—proclaim. This is a counter image to the presumptions of the emperor having hosts at his disposal. 

They sing, 

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” 

This is a counter proclamation to the presumptions of the emperor. The emperor claimed that he is the bringer of peace.

Whereas we often ascribe the work and importance of Jesus to adult-Jesus, the arrival of the baby, the presence of the baby, the Christ-child, this is arrival is not merely getting ready for the main thing. It is the thing. 

Jesus arriving, the incarnation, is the work. We often we emphasize the “life, work, and teaching of Jesus.” The Church of the Brethren has defined itself as “Continuing the work of Jesus: Peacefully, Simply, Together.” This implicitly, if not explicitly, focuses us on the public ministry of Jesus. At other times, the church has focused more exclusively on the letters of the Apostle Paul and the power of the death and resurrection. However, the mystery is that even before he really did, said, or produced anything, Jesus was already at it. 

And by “at it” I mean participating in the reconciliation of all of creation to and in God. As we see throughout scripture, such reconciliation requires justice, turns our assumptions upside down, and invites us into a ministry of reconciliation, and calls us to love even our enemies. 

To sum up, I notice three take-aways:

First, The arrival of baby Jesus is world-significant. The baby, arrival, and announcement are game changing. They are significant even before we learn anything from them. Additionally, in it and its retelling we also learn something about God’s work, world, and our part in it.

Secondly, this narrative and event are a barely veiled affront and counter to the claims of the Emperor and empire. While these events and claims challenge the systems of power and those who assumed they were in charge then, it does not take too much imagination to see how they are ever relevant and challenging to those who have presumed to be in charge throughout the ages up until now. 

And thirdly, we learn about the ministry of presence and the importance of children. I believe this can be deduced or understood laterally. Ministry or “the work” of Jesus should not be understood through the lens of capitalist productivity. We should not assume that faithful ministry/work must “produce” results, be efficient, or cost-effective, or generally effective in order to be worthwhile. I do not think this means we should act without reflection, act carelessly, or forget stewardship. But the work ministry is not primarily about the bottom-line. 

In the birth of Jesus, we see a ministry of just existing, gurgling, bringing joy, and perhaps reminding his parents that God’s promises may just look like a normal kid. As we come to the end of a year, I pray that we may be able to rest in the knowledge that God is at work and the Spirit is moving even when we are just being. May we remember that the joyful presence of the baby-Jesus was already turning the world upside down.