Luke 2:1-14
The World/Literal Text
Caesar Augustus and Unknow Quirinius. All the world and Nazareth. Joseph the heir of David, and peasant Mary. The virgin, and the firstborn. The human child, and the animal’s manger. Shepherds and angels. Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth.
The great and the small. The glorious and the humble. The hidden and the revealed.
The acts of God are always this way. So staggeringly obvious that we creatures can’t have any other expression than awe. Yet, they are often hidden behind providence, or means, or simply time.
Awe is the natural reaction, always has been, when looking up at the night sky. Whether that night sky was the music of the spheres as they glided through the ether, or billions and billions of stars populating an expanding multiverse, it was great and we were small. The majesty of a creator God was written across is. Yet that creator God could become distant. Could be capricious bestowing favors on favorites and ignoring the rest. Could become so distant, He was just a watchmaker. And eventually no longer even needing a maker.
Likewise in small things. A back yard puddle is a marvel of life. A drop of water on a microscope slide teems with marvels. Skipping for biology to physics those thousands of living microbial creatures, just like we are, are made from protons and electrons, and those from quarks, and those humming to the vibrations of strings and membranes. The riotous persistence of life at all levels shouts about the one it is dependent upon. Yet, that life can seemingly be hidden behind equations and suppositions. A great chain of being becoming turtles all the way down.
Likewise in actions in this world. Anyone like me born in the midst of the long twilight struggle of the cold war, the idea that the Soviet Union is no longer in existence is nothing but a miracle. God ushering nations onto the stage and shuffling them off when the iniquity is full. And doing so without a single shot or nuclear blast. But then that is the way of the world. Empires rise and fall. No need to elaborate beyond that. Gibbon’s search for the cause of the fall of Rome might as well just be the second law of thermodynamics.
The Glory of God is revealed, is shouted from the rooftops, every day. Yet it remains stubbornly hidden. Covered by time. Worn down by explanations. In the words of Don Draper, “You’d be surprised at how quickly this never happened.”
The Christ
It is into that world that Christ comes. It is into that paradox of hidden and revealed glory that the incarnation arrives. And suddenly, but at just the right time. Announced by choirs of angels for all the world, to shepherd in the armpit of it. Re-establishing forever, a long dead throne. The eternal glory of God and His hidden nature are combined at one point.
In Jesus, the helpless babe, the fullness of the Father is seen.
The eternal Word of God through which all things were made, has become man.
Great and small, glorious and humble, hidden and revealed. Together in one Christ.
One Christ, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God.
One Christ, whose entire life would be to reveal the love of God for all flesh, for all creation.
One Christ, whose entire life was humiliation, for our exaltation.
One Christ who would descend into hell, to give us heaven.
One Christ who would bear the sins of all mankind, that the peace of God might come to us.
Moral
This Christ is the ancient hymnwriter called the Key of David.
O Come though Key of David Come. And open wide our heavenly home. Make safe the way that leads on high. And Close the path to misery.
This Key opens up to our understanding God’s way in this world, and God’s intentions for us.
We were not meant to be divided high and low. We were not meant to be scattered and atomized and at each other’s throats. This world was not meant to be the war of all against all, but the Kingdom of God.
In this manger is the singularity – the inbreaking of that kingdom. The coming of peace, for all who grasp the Key of David
If the swaddling clothes seem tawdry, admire the angels signing praises together.
If you are inclined to despise the manger, raise your eyes and behold the star.
If you believe the mundane things, believe also the mighty
If you dispute the lowliness, look with reverence on the high and heavenly.
Ponder the mystery. Follow the wisdom of his mother, and gather up these things in your heart. The paradox is not obfuscation. Approach it from either side – from the glory above, or from the humility below. But approach it in faith, and this Christ is the Key. This Christ is the reconciliation of all things the world puts at enmity.
Here hidden and revealed at the same time is the fullness of awe.
Eschatological
And do it tonight. Don’t let another Christmas come and go without taking the mystery into you heart. Without providing a bed soft undefiled within you for this humble child.
For tonight the key is turned. Tonight the angels announce and the shepherds follow. Tonight the earth pauses and the peace of God reigns. Tonight is the time of grace.
Tomorrow, Satan will obfuscate. Tomorrow, the world will seem no different. Tomorrow even your own flesh will work against you. But tonight we receive the Key of David.
Tonight he is hidden and revealed, and comes to us by faith. Tomorrow, the glory shall be revealed to all, and the day of faith, the day of grace ended.
Gather up the awe tonight. Let the peace of God rest with you tonight, and all the nights to come. Amen.