Christmas Eve Chaos

Linus told us what Christmas is all about. We try to remember it for the most part. Plans are made and remade. We rehearse plays, cantatas, and other special music. We watch the children play with animals. For most of us, we are in the place of the wise men. We see Christmas on its way. The star is arriving. Everyone diligently races to meet it.

We know we will eventually get there. Christmas will happen. Nothing appears to stop it. Our popular literature, including both Scrooge and the Grinch, tells us try as we might, you get around it.

Christmas Eve Chaos

Luke tells about the chaos of knowing something is going to happen whether we are ready or not. I wonder if Mary and Joseph were in the mode of “not yet.” Perhaps Joseph said, “This can’t be happening now. In a few days, there may be space in the house. Now we are in the barn. Now is not a good time.”

Luke does not say it. But “the inn” is probably full of Joseph’s relatives. And the female cousins would normally take charge in a birth in the family. We don’t get these details. But it is likely what happened. The women of Joseph’s family would spring into action because they all knew what it was to deliver a baby. They too could see it happening.

Luke says Mary tightly wrapped Jesus in cloth and laid him in the manger. That would have been normal for that time and place. The child is born. It was a little unplanned. Conditions were not ideal. But it happened, nonetheless. And every healthy baby born was a celebration. But Jesus being firstborn was a larger family celebration.

Unplanned Celebration

The heavenly host made it a larger celebration. Instead of just family, there were shepherds in the fields. For them, it had been a typical night. They had been unaware of what was happening in Bethlehem. Christmas was not something they saw was on the way. Jesus’ birth happened without them noticing. But they were invited to see the new Messiah.

Mary and Joseph do not see the heavenly choir as the shepherds do.  The shepherds tell the holy family about it. Luke gives us the important words, “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” Some later date she talks about these events, probably to Luke. Mary weighs all this information. What does it all mean? Is there more that she has yet to consider? As we learned Sunday, more is going to be required from her.

The shepherds have no such requirement. They go away praising God and declaring the glory of the Divine.  We never hear anything from them again. They have one memory that is theirs to keep until Jesus appears to them thirty years later if they lived that long.

Christmas As Different And The Same

Two of our gospels tell us something about the birth of Jesus. And they do not tell us the exact same things. We have the names of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Matthew tells about Magi who sought Jesus and found him probably two years later. He tells about the murders of children and a paranoid King. Matthew tells us that darkness surrounded Jesus early childhood until the family is exiled to Egypt. Luke is about delightful surprises, singing angels, and awestruck shepherds.

Where do we fit into all this today? Everyone talks about how this Christmas is different. This has been a year of anxiety and paranoia. But it has also been a year of assurances. So, this year, we have a Matthew and Luke Christmas just like all the others we’ve experienced.