Luke 2:1-14 Christmas Eve

You know, when I read the Christmas story, I can’t help but think, “No God! You got it all wrong!” I figure the best way for you all to understand what I mean is for me to share the conversation I had with God in my head:

First you chose a teenager in all her inexperience and rebellion to be the mother of Jesus. I wouldn’t have done it that way. I would have chosen someone more mature, someone with more experience, but not her.

And then you make them go to Bethlehem on a donkey when Mary is 9 months pregnant?!! What were you thinking?! Don’t you think it would have been nice for the Holy Mother to rest and relax and be pampered a bit before labor?! I mean, labor is hard enough on it’s own, let alone when you’re in a new city, away from your family, after a long and arduous trip. I mean, it seems a bit inconsiderate to me.

And then she has to deliver the baby in a stable with animals! Come on! I mean, you can align the stars, and design the most awesome scenes on earth and even managed to create a baby without sperm, which is super impressive, and you couldn’t swing a room for Mary and Joseph?! I mean, you help people get a parking space….a parking space!!! And you can’t muster a room for the King of kings?! You’ve gotta be kidding.

This whole scene is just wrong in every way. This is definitely not how I would have done it. You really should have been more considerate, and probably consulted with me or someone…we could have helped hammer out the details for you.

And the rest of this passage---I mean, the heavenly host was a nice touch. Really, that was a nice effect. I don’t think I’d change that—the Son of God should be announced by angels, that’s fitting. But the shepherds?! I personally don’t have anything against shepherds, but you and I both know that they were like lower than low back in the day. And they’re the first ones you chose to meet your Son?! Let’s think about this for a minute, who’s gonna care what a shepherd says?! They don’t have any power, no respect, everyone’s just going to ignore them. So why them?

Where’s the triumphant entry into the world? The bells? The whistles? The kings and kingdoms? Where are the adoring believers?

Why didn’t you do something more impressive for your own son?! Millie Cyrus had a birthday party bigger than what happened for Jesus….isn’t that awkward for you?

This is so not how I would have done things. You know, I kind of get the sense that you’re a wise guy…you like irony or something. Which is cool, I guess…I mean, I like it too, but for the birth of your Son? Is that really the place for irony?

Ok….so maybe it’s less of a conversation and more of a diatribe…but I think you get the point. I’m a little skeptical about how God did all these things. I mean, it is God we’re talking about and I would bet most of us assume God can do pretty big things, and yet, this is all we get for the birth of the Messiah.

But after I take a step back, I start to see things a little more clearly.

Think about it. If Jesus had come into the world Hollywood style, all of us “normal” folk would have seen how, yet again, greatness is just beyond our reach. I mean, we can have the Hollywood fantasy of fame and fortune, perfect abs and amazing hair, and the ideal wardrobe and home, but that’s all it is a fantasy. Now, maybe one or two of you have been keeping secrets and you played for the NBA and made millions or you starred in a major motion picture that I just haven’t seen yet, but I’m going to venture that the rest of us are pretty much everyday people. So if Christ had come in some idyllic situation, he’d have been forever at arm’s length—never quite close enough for us to reach.

Let’s just do a quick survey: How many of you spend your Friday nights with

· Jack Nicholson?

· Denzel Washington?

· Kobe Bryant?

· Michelle Pfeifer?

· Julia Roberts?

· No?

· Hmmm…How about Arnold Schwarzenegger?

· The Kennedys?

Ok…so we have normal lives. We don’t live an ideal life. We might live a good life—but it’s not ideal, right?!

Let’s do another survey?

· Anyone have financial struggles?

· Anyone been sick?

· Anyone struggle with the way their body looks in the mirror?

· Anyone have regrets?

· Anyone fight depression?

· Anyone miss a loved one who’s died?

· Anyone have family drama?

· Stress?

· Worries?

· Self-doubt?

That’s our reality. We struggle. We sometimes succeed and we sometimes fail. We love and we hate. We live in the actual seasons of life. We live the reality not the fantasy.

So when we see Jesus in the midst of hardship, alienation, distress, and poverty, we know he’s real. He’s not a comic book superhero with super human strength who feels no pain. He’s not in a fantasy world—he’s in our world—broken and battered and betrayed. And when he becomes real to us—when we see him as one of us—trudging through ridicule and gossip, and no vacancy signs, and his mom working until the last minute of delivery because there are things that simply need to happen—we see one of us.

And that’s the thrust of Christmas—God become one of us. God didn’t become a fantasy man living in an idealized world. God became one of us—living in the chaos of humanity. In the person of Christ God became real.

That’s the amazing truth of Christmas—that God chose to be real to us and real with us. God is tangible—touchable and knowable--in Jesus. God stops being aloof and removed when God enters our world and puts on flesh. You can know God in the person of Jesus Christ. You can talk to God without reservations or fears or bumbling over your words because Jesus is real—he’s one of us, he’s like us and there’s comfort in that.