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This is a photo of the church of the Nativity. It’s the church that was built on the spot believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.
There’s an irony in this place, though. It’s a beautiful, gilded room full of precious metals and intricately carved stone. It’s not unlike the Temple in Jerusalem, which is where God should rightly have been born. But Jesus wasn’t born in the Temple. He wasn’t born in a beautiful room lined with marble and gold. He was born in a stable. Essentially a barn. He was born in a place where animals ate and slept, with dung on the floor, barely shielded from the elements. Jesus didn’t come to a royal palace or a gilded hall. He came to a dungheap, and that was exactly where we needed him. Because Jesus didn’t come to meet with Kings and holy men. He came to rescue the poor, the broken, and the hopeless sinner. And he met them where they were – on a dunghill.
Today, as a family, we can celebrate together the fact that God – who created the entire universe - humbled himself and was born, a child lying in a manger in Bethlehem. In the quiet of that stable, the light of the world, and the hope of all of history was born.
Read with me this passage that prophesied his coming and lets share the joy that it was fulfilled as say these words out loud together:
The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light.
For those who live in a land of deep darkness,
a light will shine.
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
- Isaiah 9: 1-2,6
(Inspired by a sermon by St. Jerome, found in “Proclaiming the Christmas Gospel” edited by Vroge and Witvliet, and available here:
As used by Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY on December 20th, 2009
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