Address given at St Leonard-in-the-Field’s Church, Perth – during the Ecumenical Service hosted by the Perth Action for Churches Together (PACT)
The infant Lord’s first dwelling place is was hardly dignified. In fact, however the best of biblical scholars tries to understand what the Gospel text actually says, nothing can gloss the fact that the Lord Jesus was neither born in the palaces of kings, nor even the comfort of an ordinary family home, but rather in a place not even dignified or designated as a dwelling place for humans. He is laid to rest in swaddling clothes to keep him secure – was the custom – not in a throne, but in the roughness of a make-do cradle doubling up as a feeding trough for cattle.
Interestingly in Saint Luke’s short account of the birth of Jesus this manger is mentioned three times. We are told that Mary laid her infant in the manger. The shepherds are told that it is a manger which will be for them the key to identifying new born Saviour. And it is when they reach the unlikely scene of a new-born in a manger that they recognise in this the person of the saviour, the Messiah and Lord. Further the great American gospel exegete Raymond Brown who died the week I went to work in Rome – no connection – makes an interesting connection between the manger, the place for eating, and the Holy Eucharist: Jesus in his greatest act of self-offering and sacrificial Love for us which he anticipates in the Last Supper with his disciples by feeding them with his Body and Blood, is placed by his mother at birth in an eating place a prophetic sign that would be fulfilled in the Lord’s gift of the Eucharist.
So the manger is thus a sign, not just for those mentioned in the Gospel narrative but also for us. When we look at the manger in the biblical text what is it pointing to in today’s world? The manger is first of all a reminder that God tells us, that if we want to understand who God is, then we have to look first of all at the humility of Jesus’ birth. The God of power and might appears in our midst without any of the trappings of what power and might mean in our circumstances. And above all Jesus is placed in a place normally occupied by fodder; food for animals. Apart from the obvious connection, the manger theme gives us a powerful reminder of the condescension of God himself. God reaches down to save us, to rescue us, to become fully one with us! He stoops down to us, to allow his love to spill over in our direction like dew from heaven in the birth of his son, as the beautiful Advent hymn ‘Rorate Caeli desuper’ reminds us – ‘Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain justice’…..The symbol of the manger makes us realise that God must be somewhat different to what we might think. The Christmas story rather increases the sense of the Mystery of God than diminish it.
So Christmas is at the very least a Feast of humility – not just the emotional humility of the Christmas carols and nice Gospel stories of the infancy of our Lord. It is the Feast that teaches us that humility is the basic channel through which God chooses to reveal to us who he is. Jesus is born in humility; he lives in humility and finally humbling himself even until death he reveals how God is: ‘love is come down at Christmas’. In the Incarnation of our Lord, God’s condescension, God expressing himself in humility forces us to turn our understanding of God upside down and inside out.
What does all this say to us and to the Church? What does it mean for us in today’s messy and disordered world to live in humility? The Church exists in our modern society as an institution; there is however always a sense in which institutions are inevitably tempted away from humility. How then can the Church best preserve and protect its identity and its mission to represent in time the space in such a way that the humility of Jesus is expressed in her? How do we ensure that the true image of Jesus is protected in the manner in which the Church lives in our culture as both an institution and as a community? So let us look once again at our Gospel reading!
In addition to repeating the word “manger”, Saint Luke also repeats the term “swaddling clothes”. What is being said here? Once again exegetes tell us that there is also a link between the birth of Jesus and his death when his body was once more wrapped in a cloth as it was laid to rest, and once again with the cloth found lying in the empty tomb, a sign of where Jesus was to be found.
And the human bond linking all these moments and images is Mary. Mary is the one who protects and nurtures her infant. She is also the only person mentioned in the infancy narratives, apart from the Lord himself, who reappears at any other time later in the Gospel. She is there at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. She is there at the cross. Her entire life is a continuous pondering on the revelation which begins with the birth of her Divine Son. For us also, the Christian life is one of pondering every day how our own lives reflect the humility and self-giving of Jesus.
The birth of Jesus marks the beginning of a confrontation between two kinds of kingdom – the Kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of God – a confrontation which still takes place even today within each of our hearts. A confrontation, though, that ought to prompt renewal. For renewal in our lives means living our life in humility. One form of humility might be living our personal life and life in community more simply at Christmas.
And rediscovering the simplicity of Christmas in our personal life and life in community, not just to turn away from excess and exaggeration. We have to rediscover the simplicity of Christmas by setting aside attitudes which focus on ourselves and rediscover what living for each other means.
In other words, we have to rediscover a sense of Christian neighbourliness in our every day; rebuilding stronger relationships with the people we live with and beside, particularly the elderly and most vulnerable – in an effort to restore true community spirit. We might have to break down some of the barriers of personal privacy which we rightly treasure, to allow all of us to realise the fundamental need of solidarity and support for our neighbour. And who is my neighbour, the Lord asks according to the Gospel of Saint Luke, and the answer is who is ever in my circle of influence and needs my assistance.
Humility is the key for the Christian to rediscover the simplicity of Christmas. Though Christmas is a feast for children, perhaps it ought to be even more a feast of adults who learn from the simplicity of children. Robbing simplicity from children is robbing them also of what is the essential key to understanding who God is, the God who appeared in humility and simplicity.
Further, Christmas can be a moment of the most profound and valid of human emotion and reflection. It can equally be a moment of the happiness of family reunion and yet it can also be a moment of the most profound isolation and loneliness. Giving Christ his place in Christmas is not simply about sending religious Christmas cards, going to nativity plays and carol services such as ours tonight; is about understanding God more profoundly through becoming like Jesus and attempting to live his selfless lifestyle in a world in which self can so often dominate. Humility is not just a personal virtue which we are all called to live out. Humility is also a social virtue: it is a fundamental attitude towards life and possessions, towards God’s world and creation which is also our common home, being redeemed. The presence of the Angels in the Christmas story signals to us that in the infant Lord Heaven is wedded to earth – God to man; man to God and men and women to each other in a radical solidarity and communion. Theologians call it the Divinum commercium.
One of the great treasures of patristic writing is the magnificent Christmas sermon of St Augustine, 4-5th century Bishop of Hippo in Roman North Africa:
“All God’s angels (he says) worthily praise Him, for He is their everlasting food, nourishing them with an incorruptible feast. He is the Word of God, by whose life they live, by whose eternity they live forever, by whose goodness they live happily forever. They praise Him worthily, as God with God, and they render glory to God on high. May we, ‘his people and the sheep of his hand,'[Ps 94,7) be reconciled to Him by our good will, may we merit peace in consideration of the limited measure of our weakness. For these words to which the angels themselves gave utterance in jubilation at the birth of our Saviour are their daily tribute: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will.'[Lk 2, 14). Therefore, they praise Him duly: let us praise Him in obedience. They are His messengers; we, His sheep. He filled their table in heaven; He filled our manger on earth. He is the fullness of their table because ‘in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God.’ He is the fullness of our manger because ‘the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.'[Jn 1, 14). So that man might eat the Bread of angels the Creator of the angels became man. The angels praise Him by living; we, by believing; they by enjoying, we by seeking; they by obtaining, we by striving to obtain; they by entering, we by knocking.”
In other words, God became a man, not so that God may be dragged down to our level, but so that we might be raised to his. God becomes a man so that we might share in his divinity. And the Divinum commercium is God’s pure gift to us.
+ Stephen Robson
Bishop of Dunkeld