Reflection for Carol Service

So here we are again, singing our carols and hearing the readings and, like Mary, pondering in our heart what it all means.

Last weekend, at the Nativity Fest at Tiers Cross, I suggested that we could look at our nativity scenes and hear the story of the birth of Jesus and imagine what role we might play in the story.

We could think of ourselves like the Magi, the wise ones, looking for signs of God’s coming among us – and finding Jesus in the least likely place. He wasn’t in the grandeur of Herod’s palace, he was in a humble stable.

Or we could imagine ourselves like the Shepherds, wanting to protect God’s people from the wrong sorts of messages in our world, helping God’s ‘flock’ to concentrate on the theological significance of the coming of Jesus this Christmas, rather than being swept along by all the things we can buy.

Or perhaps we can be like Mary & Joseph, welcoming Jesus into our lives with prayer and wonder.

But today I want to think about one of the most important parts of the story of the birth of Jesus – and a word that features three times in Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth.

Luke tells us that Mary 

    gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him             

    in a manger

Then the angels tell the shepherds 

    This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and 

    lying in a manger.

Then Luke tells us that the shepherds 

    went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, 

    and the child lying in the manger.

Right at the heart of this story of Jesus coming to be with us is the manger.

I wonder why the manger has such an important role?

It might be of course that if you give birth to a baby in a place with animals in it, that the safest place off the floor and away from all the hooves and feet is the feed trough, the manger – and since it might have some hay in it, it could be warm and soft, too. 

The manger might just be the obvious place to hand – but then why did the angels mention it, particularly? Telling the shepherds “Find a baby in a stable” would have been enough to track down Jesus.

But it’s as if Luke wants to make sure we notice the manger – and the angels name it, too. 

Why a manger? Well - It’s from a manger that animals are fed. 

Is the significance of the manger that Jesus lies there as food for the world, as life for all? Jesus is the one who will grow to say “I am the living Bread and I am the life of the world”. 

The manger tells us this is not just any baby – this is the life of the world, the one who will feed everyone who hungers: Jesus – the one who is Saviour and Lord.

So if you don’t fancy imagining yourself being one of the people in the stable, you could wonder if you could be like a manger. 

Your task then is providing a place where Jesus is found and seen and known. 

Could you imagine holding Jesus in your life in a way that helps others to find him? 

You don’t need to be polished and perfect and precious – just strong enough to stand firm and make a place for Jesus to be.

It might feel strange to think of ourselves holding Jesus – perhaps we are more used to the thought that Jesus holds us: but the two things can both be true. 

I’m sure that’s part of what Mary pondered – how can this child I brought into the world be the one who will bring me into heaven?

An amazing hymn by William Walshaw How – with a final verse by Donald Macilhagga, expresses Jesus’ work to save us, and our responsibility to hold and to share him. 

It’s in our hymn book (at 194)

 

Behold a little child, laid in a manger bed; 
The wintry blasts blow wild around His infant head; 
But who is this so lowly laid? 
The Lord by Whom the worlds were made. 

The hands that all things made an earthly craft pursue, 
Where Joseph plies his trade, 

there Jesus labours, too; 
That weary ones in him may rest, 
And faithful toil through him be blessed. 

Christ, Master-Carpenter, we come rough-hewn to thee;
at last, through wood and nails, 

thou mad'st us whole and free.
In this thy world remake us, planned
to truer beauty of thine hand.

 

 

May you know the beauty of Christmas, and may God’s love make you a beautiful example of one who holds the life of Jesus, so that the world may see him and know him. Thanks be to God. Amen.