Introduction

How soon we forget. Can you imagine that just a week ago it was Christmas Eve and the front of the church was flooded with bright red poinsettias. Now the world has moved on. You don't hear Christmas carols in the stores any more. You can have Christmas stock for steep markdowns. For the world around us, Christmas is over.

Even our lectionary is ready to move on. This morning's gospel lesson jumps to Jesus' ministry and to a parable of the great banquet. It's a wonderful passage, it makes a good point, and I'll never forget the Medical Mission Sisters chorus that a folk choir I was in 30 years ago sang:

"I cannot come to the banquet, don't trouble me now,

I have married a wife, I have bought me a cow.

I have fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum,

pray hold me excused, I cannot come. "

But today is the sixth of the twelve days of Christmas; from that perspective, we are just half way through our Christmas celebration. From that perspective, the shepherds have arrived at the manger, but the Wise Men won't show up until Epiphany Sunday, January 6^th. I think it's too soon to move on. Our secular culture has us spend enormous time and energy preparing for Christmas, and virtually no time enjoying it. So for us this morning, let the banquet be the richness of the Christmas stories in Matthew and Luke, and let us be among those who say yes, we've come, we're here, we'll hold off the world's rush for a few moments while we savor the treats before us.

In Luke we have the story of Jesus' conception and that of his cousin John the Baptist; the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem and no room in the inn; the manger, the shepherds, and the choir of angels. Matthew's story is darker - the wise men and the star, Herod's attempt to enlist them as spies, the flight into Egypt and the slaughter of the innocents.

Why do we have these stories and what do they mean for us? I've spent some time in the last weeks asking that question and want to share with you what I've found.

To understand why we have these stories, it's critical to understand when they were written. Picture a timeline of the first century. The year 30 stands out as the major year for Christians, for in or about that year the ministry and crucifixion of Christ took place. Then picture a 40 year line from AD 30 to AD 70, and in that period you have the early ministry of the disciples in Jerusalem, the conversion of Paul, Paul's trips around the Mediterranean beginning Gentiles Churches. In that period the earliest books of the New Testament were written -- Paul's letters. That period comes to an end in the year 70. Like the Palestinians today, the Jews had become more and more restive under foreign occupation. Finally they revolted and actually drove the Romans out. But their victory was only temporary; the Romans sent in new armies and in the year 70 the Romans reconquered Jerusalem and scattered the inhabitants to the winds. The Jerusalem church of Jewish Christians was never again the dominant force it once was. After 70 AD, Christianity was primarily a Gentile religion located outside the Holy Land.

Now on the timeline plot the years 81-96 AD. Domitian is the Roman Emperor and all across the Empire these Christian churches are being persecuted. Scholars believe it was most likely during these troubled times, almost a century after the actual birth of Jesus, that the Matthew Gospel was written, probably in Syria, and the Luke Gospel written, probably in Antioch.⁽¹⁾

It was a time of testing and discouragement. In their faith that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the church already had the core faith of God's promises kept. But what else might be said to encourage people? How did Jesus' life begin? Until Matthew and Luke, nothing had been written about Jesus' birth.

Matthew and Luke wanted their work to start at the beginning-and by then their main source of information was the prophecies of the Old Testament. And so they wrote their stories. God keeps promises - so here's how it must have been. Each in a different city, each coming up with a very different set of stories and details, but both with the same important theme: God keeps promises.

And so the Christmas stories are first stories of the faithfulness of God. Matthew was full of the Old Testament and knew its promises. When he began writing the Gospel, these promises were at the forefront of his mind. From Isaiah (7:14) he had the promise of the Virgin Birth, from Micah (5:2) he got the location of the birth - Bethlehem; From Hosea (11:1) he got the clue for the flight to Egypt, and from Jeremiah (31:5), Rachel weeping for her lost children, the prophesy of Herod's slaughter of the innocents as Herod tried to kill all children in order to kill Jesus. A God who knows the future, makes predictions and keeps promises - that was a message of comfort and reassurance in the world of trouble and terror where Matthew and Luke were written.

Today we have a different idea of how to write history and we might not attempt what Matthew and Luke did. But they ploughed ahead, sure in the faith that God keeps promises, and sure that the birth of Jesus reflected the fulfillment of God's promises.

We miss the gift of the Christmas stories if we get sidetracked into 20^th century ideas of the accuracy of details or debates about their value. On the one hand, we have the fundamentalists who would have us believe every word of these stories is literally true-that Jesus had two different lines of male ancestry and was born of a virgin; that he was born both in a manger and in a house; that the family started from Nazareth in Luke but went there for the first time after returning from Egypt, as in Matthew. On the other hand are those who would say these stories aren't good history, therefore they have no value. We need to tell both sides to hush long enough for us to hear the message the early church wanted for us from these stories, and their overriding message of comfort to Christians in 85 AD and today is the faithfulness of God, God's promises kept.

The Christmas stories offered other gifts to the people of 85 AD and today. In times of crises like the persecutions of Domitian, the natural thing is to turn against each other and become our own worst enemies. If you read Paul's letters you can read how the troubles church people get into with each other weren't all that different 2000 years ago as they are today. So it was important for Matthew and Luke to give us images of the bonds and connections and support between people under stress. You can see them writing at two levels - they are writing about Mary and Joseph and the Christ child, but they are writing for the Christians of 85 AD.

And so both Matthew and Luke give us genealogies, family trees for Jesus that carry the message Jesus is part of a family, he has roots, we know where he came from and who his people are. There are generations of nurture and parenting and love in the dry lists of names that are part of the Christmas stories. Again, working in different cities and with limited information, Matthew and Luke don't always agree on the details, and they don't pass a mathematical test. Normally, you have a new generation every 20-25 years, but if you divide the 586 years from the beginning of the Babylonian captivity until Jesus birth by the 14 generations Matthew talks about, you have an average of 41 years per generation. But that type of analysis misses the point. The point is that this Jesus, who was universally accepted as the Son of God and divine Savior in this time, was a human being with real human roots and ancestry.

Luke's Christmas stories give us a dramatic picture of nurturing and support with his pictures of Mary and Joseph. Mary gives a picture of faithfulness-and provides Jesus with a human mother. That's important. At the time the early church wrote, people already accepted the divinity of Jesus. The important message that Matthew and Luke gave is that Jesus was fully human and had a human mother. The idea that Jesus had a human mother flew in the face of tendencies to make Jesus a god with no connection to humans. For Matthew and Luke, the role of Mary as mother of Jesus affirms his humanity and his relevance to us all. It also reminds us that if struggling infants need nurture, so do struggling churches, whether in 85AD or today!

Luke gives us not only Mary, but Joseph. Again, our humanity is affirmed as we join Joseph in struggling with how to react to this surprising pregnancy of his young bride. The wisdom of the world says now as it said then, if the child isn't his, why should he support it? What a different story it would have been if Mary had had to go to Bethlehem and face the innkeeper and stable alone that Christmas night! But Luke gives Joseph an angel who helps Joseph think things through. How different all of our lives would be, and the children in our lives, if we only listened more to the voices of the angels sent to us!

We come away from the Christmas stories aware of not only the beauty of a nurturing family, but of its importance.

There is a third theme that Matthew and Luke sought to remind Christians in 85 AD and today: God's ways are not our ways, and that's a source of comfort. The people who lived during Domitian's persecutions knew about our ways all too well -- we despise the humble and honor the powerful. People sought out Christianity because they longed for something different and in Christiantiy they found it.

Rather than despising the lowly, the Christmas stories honor the lowly. In the notice of a king born in a manager, the early church is saying, when God shows up, the world is turned upside down --- praise be to God.

The early church wanted to remind us that it is mostly humble people who are the people of God. That was an important message during Domitian's persecutions, when it seemed like things only went the way of the powerful and against the poor Christians. The Christmas stories validate God's care for those who sleep in stables -- or under brdiges; for those for whom there is no room at the inn -- or who have to worship in basement catacombs. The Christmas stories build on the Jewish and Christian traditions in which God has a special place for the poor.

This attitude was a startling contrast to what people saw around them. Minorities were oppressed by the dominant Roman culture. The poor were oppressed by the rich. The powerless were oppressed by the powerful, and the Christians generally ranked with the powerless. So the message that God turns things upside down was a message of comfort. A messiah born in a stable: there is hope God will turn things upside down. Kings who want to make spies of wise men and who slaughter all the babies of a country just to get at one baby they're afraid of? Ah, that's not surprising if you're a Christian in the year 85 AD. But the Holy Family fleeing to Egypt and coming back when the danger has passed? Those are words of comfort.

And in this world turned upside down, Matthew and Luke's Christmas stories remind us that we have a new kind of messiah. In 85 AD Christians already knew that, but the Christmas stories assures us that Jesus was a new kind of messiah from the very beginning. That was an important reminder to those with fresh memories of the disastrous Jewish rebellion and the conquest of Jerusalem in AD 70. The efforts of the Jewish people to defeat the Romans militarily had proved to be a disaster. All of the hopes which had been placed on a military defense had been shattered. The gift of the early church was to demonstrate that another kind of messiah was possible who did not depend on military power, and Matthew and Luke with their Christmas stories say this was true even at his birth.

The final gift of the Christmas stories comes from Luke: three songs placed on the lips of Mary, Zephaniah, and Simeon to fortify Christians undergoing times of trouble.

Mary's song⁽²⁾ is a wonderful song of rejoicing at the topsyturvyness of it all. Reaching back into the Old Testament,⁽³⁾ the song is based on Hannah's song of thanksgiving at the birth of her son Samuel. Called the Magnificat from its first words in Latin, Mary's song praises God for what God has done and for God's strength and mercy. Like Hannah, Mary also praises God for turning things upside down -- he has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. Finally, Mary praises God for remembering oppressed Israel and for keeping God's promises. A comforting hymn for the persecuted Christians under Domitian to sing, and for us today.

The Benedictus⁽⁴⁾ is Zephaniah's song, sung when Zephaniah is finally able to speak after eight months of silence because he doubted God's power. Now his baby has been born and named John, and Zephaniah too praises God for promises kept. You can appreciate how powerful these words were to Christians hiding in catacombs or basements waiting for the persecution to end:

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Finally, Luke gives us Simeon's song.⁽⁵⁾ Simeon is an old man, a devout Jew, who has been promised he will not die until he sees the Messiah. He comes to the temple on the day Jesus is circumsised. He recognizes the eight-day old baby as the Messiah, takes the baby Jesus in his arms, and sings a song that has been called the Nunc Dimittis from its first words in Latin:

Words placed on the lips of Simeon in the first Christmas season, but intended for Christians undergoing the persecutions of Domitian, words of strength and comfort: "Now I can die in peace, for I have seen God's promises fulfilled; I have seen the light of the Messiah revealed to all."

1. Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church, 1918, revised by Cyril C. Richardson, Wilhelm Pauck, and Robert T. Handy, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1959, p. 31

2. United Methodist Hymnal; Text version 199; Hymn versions 198, 200

3. I Samuel 2:1-10

4. United Methodist Hymnal; Text version 208; Hymn versions 209

5. United Methodist Hymnal; Text version 225; Hymn versions 206