It’s Christmas time once again! We are all looking forward
to enjoying sparkling lights, singing traditional Christmas carols, and arranging
all the decorations that have graced our homes in years past. We set out stars
and angels and nativity scenes with a tiny Christ child in a manger, surrounded
by adoring shepherds and their wooly sheep. All those things are a part of what
we call a traditional Christmas. But do we think about those stars and those angels
and our nativity scene when we arrange them on our mantel? Usually not. We’re
so rushed during the Christmas season that we don’t take time to think about
the symbolism behind all the elements that make up a “traditional Christmas.”
But there is deep symbolism behind stars and shepherds, and even behind the
manger. So during this Advent, I invite you to slow down as we join in worship,
and to consider with me the symbols of the season – stars and shepherds and
angels. This morning, we begin by considering the manger in which Jesus was
laid in the moments following his birth.
A manger. When we think about the manger at all, we usually
think about how common it is. Anyone who cares for animals has a manger. We
think about how Mary laid the infant Jesus in a manger because it was one of
the only places available to her on that first Christmas night. We contrast its
humbleness to the richness of a cradle in a palace; and we marvel that the King
of the universe was born not in a palace, but in a barn. We anticipate his
statement that the son of man came not to be served, but to serve; and we
remember that he told his disciples that the meek shall inherit the earth. Yes,
the manger is certainly a symbol of humility. But its symbolism goes far deeper
than that. A manger, after all, is a feeding trough for animals. What do we put
into a manger? Why, hay, of course – hay to feed the animals who eat out of it
– hay that nourishes and sustains them. Animals have to eat in order to survive,
just like we do. It’s no coincidence that Jesus was laid in a manger! The
manger that held food for the barn animals was also the cradle for the Bread of
Life, the One who nourishes and sustains us even today. The baby in the manger
is the food for our souls. We remember that every time we hear, “This is my
body, broken for you” during the sacrament of Holy Communion.
And here’s an irony. Even though Jesus offers us the finest
food in the world – so fine, in fact, that money can’t buy it -- we insist on
filling our lives with junk food! The most recent example of that is, of
course, Black Friday, the celebration of commerce that traditionally begins the
day after Thanksgiving. This year,
however, the frenzy started on Thanksgiving Day itself. I’m considering
renaming Thanksgiving from “Turkey Day” to “Stuffing Day.” We stuff the turkey,
we stuff ourselves, and then we dash out to the stores and buy things so that
we can stuff our closets with all kinds of things that we probably don’t need. But
I won’t criticize Black Friday too much. It is
one way for folks who must watch their budget to buy Christmas gifts for their
families. It has its place. There are lots of other ways to fill our lives with
junk food. We believe that all kinds of things will sustain us. Some people
fixate on their appearance. They’re always at the gym or jogging around town.
They watch their calories more closely than their bank balance. They fill
themselves with the comforting thought that they are slender and beautiful. Others
rely on their job to fill them. Their identity is all tangled up with what they
do for a living. Their nutrition is a paycheck; or a polished nameplate on an
office door. They forget that making a living and making a life are two very different
things. And for still others, it’s status. These folks are only satisfied if
they are the movers and the shakers, the ones that others look up to. They find
their nourishment through other people’s opinion of them; and that’s a mighty
shaky thing to rely on.
Now, I don’t want to give you the idea that any of these
things are tools of the devil. Of course, they aren’t. All these things are
fine if we keep them in perspective. Wanting to stay fit, enjoying your job,
and considering what other people think of you are all good things. But they
become a problem when we rely on them to give meaning to our lives. The only
one who can give our lives meaning – the only one who can really nourish and
sustain us – is the child who was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger. That’s
why he’s the King. Jesus isn’t our king because he lords it over us with power.
Jesus is our king because he takes care of us. He feeds us in the place that we
are hungry, the place that physical food can’t fill – that place that hides way
down deep in the middle of our soul. He satisfies us in ways that go unnoticed
by most people, but that are ultimately the only ways that really do satisfy us!
Look, here’s what I’m talking about. When we watch a woman
wearing a threadbare coat put her last quarter into a Salvation Army bucket,
we’ve seen a little miracle. Jesus has fed that woman so that she is able to
give what little she has; and we’ve watched it happen, right in front of our
eyes. We see Jesus at work again when we watch a well-to-do man serve split pea
soup and ham sandwiches and cherry pie to homeless veterans at a soup kitchen. And
we see it when little Billy asks to share his toys with his friend Kevin,
because Kevin doesn’t have very much, and – as Billy himself admits – “I have
lots of toys.” When I see this kind of evidence of Jesus at work, my soul is
fed with the hope that Jesus will one day return and fill the world with the
grace that we need so desperately. Maybe you feel the same way. But the
evidence that Jesus is at work among us is made up of tiny little events;
events that will never make it on to the 6:00 news. We have to look hard to see
the evidence that the child who was born in a manger so long ago is still at
work nourishing us with his presence.
During this Advent, I invite you to look for that hope. Look
hard. Look in places that you might not otherwise look. Look for the results of
the food that Jesus offers us. My guess is that you’ll see lots of little
things that you might not have noticed otherwise. And when you do see Jesus at work, come back on
Sunday and grab a handful of hay from the bucket in the back of the church.
It’s good hay, good enough for a manger. (In fact, it’s some of the hay that I
feed to my own horses.) Put that handful of hay into the manger that is sitting
by the altar in the front of the church. It will be evidence that Jesus is at
work in our midst, feeding us with his Spirit. By Christmas Eve, our manger
will be filled with hay, ready to receive the Christ Child. And we will be
ready to receive him, too.
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