THE NATIVITY

December 24 / 25, 2024, 6 pm / 9 am

Saints Matthew and Mark, Barrington, R. I.

 

Saint Luke 2:1-20 (AV)

 

A striking feature of the Nativity story in Saint Luke’s Gospel is that its principal human characters are the shepherds. More than one commentator has remarked that Luke disposes of Our Lord’s actual birth in one sentence: “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.”

 

Then the narrative switches immediately to the shepherds in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. Totally unexpectedly, an angel appears to the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord—the supernatural light that characteristically accompanies God’s presence—shines round about them. As in almost all such biblical accounts of appearances of heavenly messengers, the shepherds’ initial reaction is one of sheer terror. Angels are frightening to behold. For this reason, their first words when they appear are almost invariably, “Fear not,” or “Be not afraid.”

 

The angel then delivers the announcement: “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Here, the verb translated as “to bring good tidings” is exactly the same verb that Luke and the other New Testament authors use for “preach the Gospel” when writing of Jesus and the apostles. The angel’s message is thus a proclamation of the good news of God’s salvation.

 

The angel continues: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Here the angelic proclamation takes a form resembling that of a court herald announcing the birth of an heir to the throne in an earthly kingdom. But the three titles—Saviour, Christ, and Lord—signify unmistakably that this birth is no ordinary royal birth, but none other than that of God’s anointed one, the Messiah.

 

Then the angel gives a sign: “Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” In the Bible, the purpose of signs accompanying messages purporting to be from God is to provide a means of verification, so that the recipient may know that the message is true, and not a hallucination or deception.

 

Apart from the angels’ message, the onlookers and passersby in Bethlehem would likely find nothing much in the event itself: an infant born to a traveling couple in makeshift lodgings using a feeding trough as a makeshift cradle. The gift of new life is always joyous and awesome. At the same time, however, it’s a common enough occurrence.

 

At the same time, as soon as they see it, the shepherds will recognize exactly what the angel told them to look for. So, the announcement interprets the birth as that of "a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” And, reciprocally, the birth’s distinctive circumstances—“the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger”—confirm the truth of the announcement.

 

Once the angel finishes speaking, the shepherds are granted a glimpse into heaven itself, of the angelic host worshiping God and singing: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace ...” The shepherds’ experience that night thus combines the heavenly and the earthly: on one hand, a supernatural vision of celestial glory; on the other hand, a beautiful but plainly natural scene—for what could be more natural than a newborn infant with its parents? But that is the deepest meaning of the Incarnation after all: God comes down to earth from heaven; the Word is made flesh and dwells among us.

 

The angelic chorus proclaims that the birth of Jesus not only glorifies God in heaven, but also brings peace on earth. But what does “peace on earth” mean? Clearly, the world’s history in the two millennia since Christ’s birth has not been marked by what we normally think of as peace. On the contrary, it’s been a sad chronicle of conflict, war, revolution, massacre, and genocide. If God’s reign of justice, love, and peace is meant to be an historical reality, its time is clearly not yet.

 

The New Testament nonetheless uses the word “peace” 92 times: most often to describe a gift of God available to us here and now. In all Bible translations, the English word “peace”—like the Latin pax and the Greek eirēnē—harks back to the Hebrew shalom. And shalom signifies far more than what usually passes for peace in our world—namely, the absence of active hostilities or a state of armed truce. Instead, shalom implies a state of communal wholeness, well-being, reconciliation, forgiveness, unity, and harmony.

 

And I’d like to suggest that the peace that Christ brings has three dimensions: namely peace with God; peace with one another; and peace within ourselves.

 

Peace with God comes first. In the biblical understanding, the basic human predicament is that we’ve rebelled and are at enmity with God. Our first and greatest need is for God’s forgiveness. At Bethlehem Christ comes into the world precisely to reconcile us with God by means of his death, resurrection, and ascension.

 

Then comes peace with one another. Christians are called to be peacemakers. Because Christ has reconciled us with God, we’re obligated to be reconciled with one another. Nothing is more destructive to our souls than harboring resentments or bearing grudges. So, if we have anything against anyone, we need to pray for the grace, which only Christ can bestow, to forgive and be at peace.

 

Last but not least is peace within ourselves: “the peace of God, which passes all understanding.” In what seems at first glance a curious contradiction of the angels’ proclamation, Jesus says in Saint Matthew’s Gospel: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword.” He then foretells the rejection and sufferings that his disciples must undergo on his account. Still, it’s the peace within, the peace that only Christ can give in our hearts, that equips us to withstand all strife, turmoil, conflict, and persecution without.

 

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace ...”

 

Even while peace remains conspicuously lacking in the world around us, Christ’s birth in Bethlehem brings us peace with God, peace with one another, and peace in ourselves. One of my favorite hymns, “They cast their nets in Galilee”— number 661 in the Hymnal—concludes with this verse:

 

The peace of God, it is no peace,

But strife closed in the sod;

Yet let us pray for but one thing:

The marvelous peace of God.