Christmas Transformation

Luke 1:26-38, Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 2:8-20

Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, December 24, 2023

This Christmas it is a little harder to celebrate than in other years. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is in the middle of a war zone. As Chris Livesay of CBS Mornings reported, “This year, Christmas [in Bethlehem] is cancelled. Gone are the Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and the carolers. Many of the shops are shuttered, with hardly a visitor in sight. In the Church of the Nativity, usually packed pews sit empty… Normally this time of year, celebrations would abound, but because of the war, there’s hardly anybody here.” At the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, instead of the usual beautiful nativity scene, a pile of rubble has been placed in the front of the sanctuary, with a Baby Jesus figurine lying on top of it, reminding worshipers of the many children, both Israeli and Palestinian, who have been killed or injured in this war. Father Sandro, a priest at the Church of the Nativity, told the reporter that Palestinian Christians, who make up only 2% of the population, are caught in the middle of the war, but their continual prayer is for peace, which after all, is the message of Christmas.

So as we celebrate a somewhat somber Christmas, it’s good to remember that there is hope. There is always hope, because God is in the business of transformation. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago – how all nature shows us God’s ability to transform: how a tiny, plain-looking seed sprouts in the dark soil and grows into a beautiful, tall, green tree, bearing fruit to nourish birds, animals, and people. I reminded you how an egg hatches into a chick or a bird. Even something as destructive as a volcano builds new land; its ash enriches the soil, and - as I learned in Tanzania, on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro - produces some of the most fertile land in the world, growing coffee, bananas, and pineapple in abundance. From our human point of view, we often don’t see the end result of our efforts, or God’s work, yet we can know that God is still working, whether we perceive it or not. I recall seeing huge mango trees growing in a park in Burkina Faso. Our guide told us proudly, “My grandfather planted these trees. They are still producing mangos, and we are still eating them.” I wonder if his grandfather envisioned how tall the trees would grow and that his grandchildren and great-grandchildren would still be eating from them?

Burkina Faso is on the edge of the Sahara Desert. These trees were planted near a stream, but planting anything in that arid climate is an act of faith.

Transforming the ordinary, and even the difficult, into something fruitful and beautiful, is part of God’s nature. How can we see this quality in the Christmas Story? How does an encounter with God, through the Christ Child, begin to transform the world?

Our story starts back at Creation, of course, as God gradually prepared the way for Jesus Christ to enter history, but let’s zoom in on the events more immediately surrounding Christ’s coming. It begins with an ordinary girl, from an ordinary family – which in those days meant a poor family – in an ordinary, back-water place, the village of Nazareth in Galilee. Something extraordinary happened to her – an angel appeared, telling her not to be afraid, that she was to be the mother of the Messiah, adding, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Mary responded, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

At that moment, Mary agreed to cooperate with God in changing the world. She knew that God was in the process of transformation, because her song of joy, called the Magnificat, proclaims: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name;…he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly…” This is transformation. This is what God is doing in the world, and this is what Jesus Christ was sent to do – to lift up the lowly and bring down the powerful and proud.

         Through this event, Mary herself was transformed. From a lowly village girl, she has become the most honored of women. Unnumbered artists have painted or sculpted her. Pieces of music have been dedicated to her. She is celebrated as the patron saint of dozens of countries. We see a hint of this transformation even in the birth narrative itself.

She is honored by her much older and respected relative, Elizabeth, who, moved by the Holy Spirit, exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?”

         Joseph is another person who was transformed by his encounter with Christ, even before the child was born. He was an ordinary carpenter – not a rich man – engaged to a young woman of his village. Imagine his bitter disappointment when he discovered that she was pregnant, and he was not the father! But he was a kind person, and didn’t want to publicly humiliate her, so he decided to break off the engagement quietly. Then an angel appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Joseph took a leap of faith and believed the angel.

Thus an ordinary carpenter became part of the most important event in history, and was given the responsibility of raising the Son of God. That’s a pretty tall order. 

God asks ordinary people to collaborate with him in the transformation of the world. We don’t always have as dramatic a role to play as Joseph or Mary, yet we, too, are invited to help bring Jesus into the world – not as a baby, but as our Lord and Savior, the one who can save people from their sins – who can forgive and transform us into the people God created us to be.

         The shepherds were also transformed. That night of the miraculous birth, they were just ordinary people, out in a field with their sheep, hanging out by the fire, keeping an eye open for wolves, or maybe thieves looking to steal a dinner of mutton or lamp chops. Shepherds were not on the high end of the social scale in ancient times. Probably the owner of the sheep had hired them, so he could get a good night’s rest, so these guys may not have even owned the sheep themselves. They were poor.

Suddenly angels appeared to them and God’s glory shone around them. An angel proclaimed, “Do not be afraid, for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” The shepherds made a decision – to go and see what the angel was talking about. They found the baby, just as the angel had told them, and they rejoiced. Then, Luke tells us, “When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.” In some sense, these men were transformed from rough shepherds to the first evangelists – the first to tell the good news of Christ’s birth. They had witnessed a miracle and were transformed from lowly farm workers to messengers of God’s word. I doubt their lives were ever the same again.

What do Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds have in common? Faith. To our Western way of thinking, faith and belief tend to be identified with mental assent – as in “I believe God exists,” for example.

However, to the Middle Eastern mind, faith is much more related to trust, where we not only believe, but act on that belief. The Apostle James wrote: “But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works, and I by my works will show you faith.” Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds all believed God and acted on that belief. They all played a part in God’s transformation of the world; and they themselves were transformed.

A group of us have been studying Apocalyptic Advent – a series of Advent devotions by Teri Ott, editor of Presbyterian Outlook magazine. In it, Pastor Ott talks about the “two Advents” – the Advent we celebrate as we remember Jesus’ first coming, as a baby, Emmanuel, God-with-us. This is usually the Advent we think of when we light the Advent candles. But there is another Advent coming – when Jesus returns in clouds of glory to this earth at the end of time. Ott writes: “In between these two Advents, Christians must find and embody the qualities of God’s kingdom and begin the work of transformation…

We are to cooperate with God in transforming the world.” She asks each of us to reflect on these questions:

·      Where do you see transformative work that needs to be done? pause

·      How can you participate in God’s kingdom work and in Jesus’ ministry? pause

·      Can we in some way prepare for our lives to be transformed? pause

·      How can we prepare for our church or community to be transformed? pause

Just as God invited Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds – all common, ordinary people – to be a part of God’s amazing, everlasting story of redemption, God invites us, too – Like Mary, to be willing to say “yes” to God, no matter the risk. Like Joseph, to protect and care, to nurture others, and believe that God is at work in the world. And like the shepherds, to show forth Christ to everyone around us, telling the good news of Jesus, to participate in the transformation of the world. Amen.  

©Deborah Troester 2023