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"REAL MANGER DISCOVERED"

Christmas Day 2016

Joseph Andrew Slane

Southminster Presbyterian Church

Isaiah 52:7-18 Hebrew 1:1-4 John 1:1-14

O God, open our eyes to see and open our lives to receive the body of Christ. Amen.

"In Orange Beach, Alabama and Miami, Florida, it's going to snow Christmas Day." When we hear something outlandish like that we often say, "I'll believe it when I see it." "I'll believe it when I see it."

More astounding than Christmas snow in Alabama or Florida is the amazing promise in our reading from Isaiah: "All the earth shall see the salvation of God." The Bible proclaims we will see with our very eyes something we usually regard as invisible - salvation. That's the promise. But how can we really see salvation?

Did you notice a connecting image in our readings for this Holy Day? Isaiah declares how all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God? The letter to the Hebrews describes Jesus Christ as the visible reflection of God's glory, the exact imprint of God's very being. Reflection. Imprint. Something we see.

The poetically profound Gospel culminates with an astounding visual image: "The Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory." The colorful thread weaving the three readings together is the amazing promise we shall see salvation in some visible, tangible way. It seems God is sympathetic with our doubts. Apparently, God understands our need to see something in order to believe it.

In a book titled The God Who Comes, Carlo Carretto describes the mystery of Christmas. "God [is presented] to us little by little. The whole story of salvation is a story of a God who comes [to us.] There is, indeed, one unique moment in God's coming," Carretto writes. "The others were only preparation and announcement." He concludes, "The hour of [God's] coming is the Incarnation … the invisible, intangible God is made visible and tangible in Christ."[1]

The very word incarnation is so rich. It literally means "to become flesh". Praise God for the Incarnation which happened many years ago in the birth of Jesus. But what's even more astounding is how God still provides a way for us to see the Word made flesh. A visual image may be the best way to proclaim the Word of God today. Watch.

We no longer go to Bethlehem to see Christ in the manger. Now God comes to us in a new manger. You know what a manger really is, don't you? It's a feeding trough. It's a table for animals. A table, or the manger, in Bethlehem became a cradle. Now, for us, the Lord's Table is a cradle, a cradle for Christ.

As the Bethlehem manger held the Holy Child, now the Sacrament holds the presence of Jesus for us. In the prayers and responses, in the breaking and eating of the bread dipped in the chalice of new life, all of our physical senses are involved. We see, hear, smell, touch, and taste the very presence of God who comes to us by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.

The Sacrament is the cradle where we come to adore Christ the Lord. And then another miracle. Upon receiving Christ in communion, we become mangers of our Savior. We embody the presence of Jesus in a world that says, "I'll believe it when I see it." People eagerly wait to see signs of what you and I believe translated into tangible actions of love.

More reliable than the weather forecast is the promise of God Almighty. God promises to bring about the day when all flesh shall see salvation. You share in that mission. Look at the manger. Look at the new manager, the Lord's Table, the cradle for Christ. Then after you commune, when you go home today look in a mirror. See yourself as a cradle for Christ. Your body is the real manger.

Glory to God in the highest and peace to God's people on earth, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[1] As quoted in A Guide to Prayer, edited by Reuben E. Job and Norman Shawchuck, "The Upper Room," Nashville, 1993, pages 27-28