Sermon 1/2/2011
Matthew 2:1-12; Isaiah 60:1-6; Luke 1-2
‘That’s What Christmas Is All About”
In preparing for today’s message, I spent time this week reflecting on the Christmas story. As I thought back to Christmas, I came to a happy revelation about the Christmas Eve lovefeast this year. I realized how much I enjoy reading the Christmas Story from Luke 2. It’s truly a highlight for me during Lovefeast. And it reminds me of Linus near the end of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Charlie Brown asks, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” Linus responds by sharing the Christmas story from Luke 2. “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
Now we find ourselves here at the second Sunday of Christmas. Instead of hearing Luke’s Gospel again, today we instead heard the words of Matthew’s Gospel, which is often associated with Epiphany on January 6th. The more I looked at Matthew and looked back at Luke, a sense of confusion set it. I don’t know if any of you can relate to the feeling, but I started to look at the stories from the two Gospels, and I found they perplexed me.
I was struck by how much our culture mashes the two stories together into one big CHRISTMAS TALE. The shepherds and wise men both show up at the manger, camels and sheep graze together, and angels and the star all surround the stable. I know I am guilty of this practice often! It’s hard to choose Matthew or Luke, so we just choose both and make the story work. I see this often in our Nativity Scenes. Most of the Nativities at our Putzing Adventure back in December had both shepherds and wise men; angels and stars; or some combination thereof. I have one Nativity from Vietnam that only has Wise Men, but it has an Angel as well.
But the more we look at Matthew and Luke, the more differences we see. What do I do with these stories now? Our culture has moved on from Christmas, the radio stations have returned to our regularly scheduled programming, New Years Day has come and gone, and we’ve probably already begun breaking our resolutions. And I’m stuck trying to figure out what to do with Luke and Matthew. Why only Luke and Matthew? Well, Mark doesn’t mention a birth narrative, and John begins with a poetic, philosophical discussion of the Word–the LOGOS–Jesus–coming into the world. Interesting stuff for sure, but we’ll leave these two Gospels for another day. So, how do these stories together help us answer Charlie Brown’s question? How do we reconcile these two Gospel stores together when they are so different? What is Christmas all about?
Let’s take a brief look at these two Gospel narratives and see what differs in them. For starters, the visitors to the birth are different. Shepherds arrive in Luke, while Magi or wise men, as it often gets translated from the Greek, arrive in Matthew. Also, the birth announcement comes in different forms–for Luke, angels fill the sky above the shepherds, while a star shines bright leading the way in Matthew. The location of the birth differs as well–Luke has the holy family in a stable or barn, while Matthew names a house as the place where the wise men come to visit. Overall as I continued to look at these passages, I found 10 significant differences. My whole list will be posted on my blog this week if you are interested in seeing more. And I hope if you find some I’ve missed, you will leave me a comment to include it in the list as well.
Now for some of us out there, this might be a troubling discovery. You mean to tell me there are in-congruent details in the stories of Christmas. Are you saying this isn’t true or real? I want to assure you that I believe the Christmas Story is true. Each of the Gospels was written in a different time to a different audience by a different author. Each contains truth and is God’s word to us. We are not asked to pick one or the other. In the early church, the Church Fathers and Mothers picked which books belonged in the Bible, and both Matthew and Luke were chosen for good reasons. The church leadership felt they contained truth that was important to include. So I take heart and accept both stories as truth. But just as I accept both as Gospel word, I am called to recognize the differences and accept them as true but different. The differences do not negate one another, but instead can add to our fuller understanding of the Christmas story. Thus they add to our understanding of the whole story of faith that began in Genesis and continues today.
Just as we note the differences, I believe it is important to note the similarities in the stories as well. Both stories include Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. In both Mary and Joseph are engaged. Both births take place in Bethlehem. Also, God is active behind-the-scenes in both stories–speaking through angels and in dreams. God announced the birth of the baby King in phenomenal ways that were beyond human explanation. It is clear in the stories that the angels in Luke and the star in Matthew are special–unique experiences that were out of the ordinary. We also know that visitors were drawn to the baby King. Jesus was worshiped from his earliest earthly days. He came to be in relationship with people and drew them to himself.
As I have continued to think about the two birth narratives in Matthew and Luke, I was reminded of a rule we had in High School when I was on the yearbook staff. For our yearbook page design, we could break a design rule, as long as we knew what rule we were breaking and had 2 reasons why. I have taken this rule and applied it to many different things since my yearbook days. There are scholars out there who say that combining the two Gospel accounts into one big mashed up Christmas Tale is problematic at least, or even worse –heresy. (GASP) [1] I can see their point and can agree with their reasoning. But I also think that combining the stories might just help us figure out what Christmas is all about. And I have two reasons why!
One reason, I believe, is that if we had to choose one or the other, we would be leaving out important parts of the story. Can you imagine Christmas without the star? What about leaving out angels or shepherds? If we only focused on one story, we would be neglecting the Biblical text. So by combining the stories, we are invited to dig deeper into both stories. Many of our Christmas Carols combine the stories, and different verses pull from different books or parts of the tale. I don’t believe the authors wrote those with heresy in mind. Instead, they wanted to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth–shepherds, wise men, and all. It is up to us do the necessary work of digging into the Scripture to discover what Christmas is really all about.
Now for sure, there are some Christmas songs that are not fully based in Scripture. For instance We Three Kings is a common Christmas Carol, but in the Gospels the visitors are not Kings. Additionally, the wise men are not named in Scripture. Through the years our tradition has assigned the number three and named them Balthasar, Melchoir, and Caspar. We only know that three gifts were given–we do not know the number and detail about the wise men. It is likely they came from Persia or Arabia, and that they were astrologers or magicians, as magi gives root to our modern word. Another song that is not from Scripture is The Little Drummer Boy. A song I enjoy hearing each year, but there are no drummers mentioned at the manger. But even for this song, I don’t think all is lost. In fact it brings me to my second reason.
The second reason I believe it can be good to combine the stories is that the common aspects point to the answer to Charlie Brown’s question, “What is Christmas all about?” Christmas is about relationships–relationships with Jesus and with one another through Christ–all in the name of love. When we look at both stories, we see a common thread that, I believe, is a key point! Most of the few details that match involve the people–Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and visitors. God is clearly at work in these stories bringing people together around the Christ child in love. All other details are sparse. And that is helpful as we continue to build on the relationships that started the first Christmas.
Thinking back to the Putzing Adventure, we had over 60 displays of Nativity Scenes from many different years and locations. Most of them, like I mentioned before, combine Matthew and Luke’s telling of Christmas into one scene. 
Some of my favorites were the displays that were from other cultures. Because the details are so sparse in the two Nativity stories, we are able to imagine the Christmas story to be how we see it in our own mind. We have Mama Mary, Daddy Joseph, and the baby there. And everything else in our own telling is there to help us relate to the story. I love seeing how other cultures relate to the story–whether it is African hut that shelters Jesus or an igloo that keeps the baby warm. By putting the story into our own context, whatever that context may be, WE become the visitors to the baby Jesus. WE are there standing alongside the shepherds and wise men. WE are the ones on our knees in worship. WE are the ones bringing our gifts to the newborn king. WE are the ones in relationship with a baby born over 2000 years ago, yet it also feels like it is truly happening for the first time again this year.
The Carols do the same thing. They help us put ourselves into the Christmas story in ways that we can better understand what God is doing in and through relationships. The details that tradition has added over the years fill in the pieces that allow our minds to picture the story. For someone who is a percussionist, for example, The Little Drummer Boy (or Girl) can provide an opportunity to imagine using his or her own gifts and talents in worship of Jesus, which will hopefully inspire a deeper relationship with Christ. We each are invited to bring our own gifts and skills to the manger to share!
The shepherds were considered lower class, and they were included in the good news. The wise men were highly trained and skilled astrologers–very learned men and leaders, and they were included in the good news. Jesus came for everyone–the whole world–and wants to be in relationship with everyone–whether they are shepherds, wise men, drummer girls, or even kings. It doesn’t matter whether they lived in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, or out in the far east, west, north, or south. Jesus wants to share God’s love with everyone.
Isn’t that, after all, what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. God came to earth as a baby and wants to share God’s love with everyone in every place in every time. We each have been given Jesus–the gift of love for all people. He was born and continues to be born in us today–even in 2011. Jesus continues to want to be in relationship with us. That’s the message of Christmas. That’s the message of Epiphany. That’s what Matthew and Luke both wanted to share–the Good News of great joy that was born in Bethlehem for all people. That’s what Christmas is all about. Amen.
[1] M. Eugene Boring, “Matthew” in New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. VIII (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995) 140.
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