Christmas Dawn

ISAIAH 62:6-12: The prophet and God enter into a conversation with each other, which the people can overhear. The prophet says to God that he has set sentinels upon the city walls of Jerusalem. This is not odd. Every city of that time had sentinels to watch over the walls, to warn of danger, to detect incoming armies. But these sentinels have a specific task. They are to pray. All day and all night they are not to be silent. They are to remind God of his promises to Jerusalem. They are to give God no rest until he establishes Jerusalem once more as his chief city. They are to beg him, over and over again, to transform the city until once more it becomes the praise of all the earth.

Will God hear people for their repeated petitions? The prophet thought so. Jesus, apparently, thought the same. He told the parable of the wronged women and the unrighteous judge. She cried out in front of the judge's house and did so incessantly that the judge finally rose up in the middle of the night and granted her request. It is not our mode of prayer, but it is one that is permitted by the scripture: beseech God over and again for peace in our time, for the coming of his kingdom, for the presence of his Holy Spirit, for the growth of the church. God has a record of answering these repeated requests.

God answers the prophet and the people: "I will not again give your food, your grain and your wine, to your enemies. Those who garner it shall eat it and praise the Lord, those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of the temple." By God's right hand and mighty arm, God will stand by the promises that he has made.

The prophet says to God: "Prepare the way of the people. Build them a highway, clear away the stones, open the gates, put your flag over the marching people. Come yourself and announce to all the world, 'Salvation comes to them, he will reward them, he will make things right once more.' Then shall those whom you appear to have forsaken be called The Sought Out People. They shall be called The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord."

PSALM 97: The trumpet call of this psalm is found in its first verse: "The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coast lands be glad!"

The habitation of the Lord is then described in terms that remind us of the Exodus event. "Clouds and thick darkness are around him; righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne. Fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries round about. His lightnings lighten the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth." Hyperbole? Certainly. Poetic license? Yes. But the truth remains: Righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne. To be righteous, just, moral in all our dealings with one another is not a matter of personal choice. We are to act this way in the world because God acts this way in relation to all the peoples. God is the righteous, just, and moral God. "The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory."

The psalmist introduces a theme that we need to hear, especially in the Christmas season. "All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols." The idols we make are not those of wood and stone. They are idols of the human heart, worshiping something that is not God as if it were God. It is centering our lives upon something that is less than God. We can put money in the central place in life that belongs to God alone. We can put ambition there, we can put family there, we can put our job there, at Christmas we can put our celebration of Christmas there, Christmas without the living Christ. Christmas reminds us that God alone is central to our lives, the God of Jesus Christ, who came as a babe, who died on a cross, who rose from the dead to be with us forever. The psalmist gives us our reminder: "all gods bow down before this God."

Because this is so, we rejoice as Christmas comes upon us once more. "Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of thy judgments, O God. For thou, O LORD, art most high over all the earth; thou art exalted far above all gods."

With verse ten, the psalm tells us the implications of worshiping the God of Jesus Christ. "The LORD loves those who hate evil; he preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart." The psalm concludes with a verse worthy of its beginning: "Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!"

TITUS 3:4-7: This passage from the short letter to Titus is one of the creeds of the earliest church. It was composed before 60 AD. It states boldly and clearly that our salvation is not of our own doing. It is the gift of God through Jesus Christ.

When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
God saved us,

not because of deeds done by us in righteousness,

but in virtue of God's own mercy,

by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit,
which God poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
so that we might be justified by his grace

and become heirs in hope of eternal life.

This text states in creedal language what we are told in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in narrative form. It calls God "our savior," and it calls Jesus Christ "our savior." This salvation comes not because we do good deeds but because of the mercy of God. It comes through the washing of regeneration, our baptism, and through the renewal of our lives and all life through the Holy Spirit of God in Christ. God has poured this gift upon us, as lively rain enlivens dry land, and God pours this on us richly, withholding nothing that we need for our salvation, not even the life of his own son. The result: We are justified by his grace, that is, we are acquitted in the court of divine justice even though all the evidence points to our guilt and condemnation. We are made heirs of the hope of eternal life, that as Christ rose from the dead to live in the heavenly home with his father, so shall we.

LUKE 2:1-20: The story of the birth of Jesus in Luke's gospel breathes the atmosphere of reverence and grace. According to the best scholarly thinking, this story was originally written in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke. It was composed for the church in and around Jerusalem, for whom Aramaic was the native language. Luke, or someone before him, translated the story into Greek so that Greek-speaking members of the church could hear it as well. To tell the story properly, we must look at it line by line.

2:1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.

We start with "Emperor Augustus." Born on September 23, 63 BC, he lived until Aug. 19, AD 14. His given name was Octavius. He was the son of a senator and the nephew of Julius Caesar. Through a series of wars, Octavius had been instrumental in welding into one unit the various regions of the Roman Empire. His wars succeeded in bringing peace to the empire, the famous "Pax Romana," the Roman Peace. In 27 BC, the Roman Senate declared him the first emperor of the empire and gave him the name "Augustus," the Exalted One. His reign was heralded by statesmen and poets alike as a reign of prosperity and peace. In 17 BC the beginning of a new golden age was celebrated by secular games, and in 9 BC an altar was dedicated to the peace of Augustus. Ancient monuments even ascribed to him the title "savior." He was followed in office by his adopted son, Tiberius, who was emperor when John the Baptist and Jesus began their ministries.

"All the world should be registered." Luke makes certain this is part of his story, because it tells us that the birth of Jesus was no mere local occurrence. "All the world" was involved in his birth, as "all the world" would be effected by the death of him who came into the world to be the savior for all people.

2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

Scholars used to say that the enrollment under Quirinius took place about 6 AD and that Luke was wrong in associating this enrollment with the birth of Jesus. But scholarly opinion is shifting now and is making place for the historical accuracy of what Luke said. The turning point came when a papyrus from Egypt in the British Museum was properly translated. It indicated that in AD 103-104, a few years after Luke wrote his gospel, there was a census in Egypt which was apparently made on the basis of kinship. Proclamation was then made for all who were residing elsewhere to return to their family homes (Wright Biblical Archaeology 235). Information culled from other sources says that these registration periods took place every twelve to fourteen years. Because they were often strongly resisted, it often took years to complete the enrollment. A scholar named Thorley says that the text permits us to see two enrollments in the period Luke had in mind (J.THORLEY, "The Nativity Census: What Does Luke Actually Say?" Greece and Rome [Oxford] 26 [1, '79] p. 81). The second census took place around 6 AD, but the "first registration" could have taken place a dozen years before, around 6 BC. This would match the enrollment with the date approximated for Jesus' birth.

3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.

Bethlehem meant "House of Bread." Bethlehem took its name from the fairly fertile area of Judea in which it was located. Most of the regions of Judea are barren, as are the surrounding areas of Sinai, Moab and the Negev. But wheat, figs, and olives grow in Bethlehem, and that sets it apart from the areas around it. Bethlehem was also the home of David, the greatest of Israel's kings.

In the mideast, "to be engaged" speaks of a formal service preparatory to marriage. To break the engagement would be our equivalent of divorce. The couple is not supposed to live together during this time, but they are bound by sacred oath to continue the relationship into marriage. For Mary to be pregnant during the engagement would be, to say the least, unusual. Matthew's Gospel speaks of Joseph's perplexity over the issue, and it raises the question of whether Joseph should divorce her. He decided not to take that step, and when the child was born, he named it. When the father named a child, that meant that he was accepting the child as his own.

6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The "inn" is probably not an inn at all, and that is a good thing. Mideastern inns were known for their hospitality, but they were also known for the abuses that took place there, especially robbery. Clement of Alexandria a century or so later thought of them as highly perilous places, and he likened them to a "heart full of demons" (Pax BibLeben 6 [4 '65] 285-298). An article in Jerusalem Perspective (6 '91, p 8) tells us that the typical inn in Jesus' time had one room and made no allowance for separate quarters for men and women.

The word mistranslated as "inn" is kataluma in Greek, and it means "a guest chamber." This is the same word used for the place where decades later Jesus held his last supper with his disciples in Jerusalem. A kataluma was an additional room constructed on the flat rooftop of a Palestinian house. Because there was no space in the kataluma, the guest room, Mary gave birth to Jesus on the ground floor (K Kipgen, "Translating Kataluma in Luke 2.7," BibTrans 34 [4, '83] 442-443). This ground floor was shared by the other inhabitants of the house. In the mideast, donkeys, sheep and goats, often also live in the house with the family, and for that reason a manger was built into the floor of the house. The infant was placed temporarily in that manger. The manger was probably made of hardened clay or rocks, and it may be mentioned in Luke's story because of a prophecy in Isaiah, 1:3: "The ox knows its owner and the donkey its owner's manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand." Placing Jesus in a manger is one more indication that those to whom he came did not know who he was.

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

For a period of time each year, usually in August and September when the lambs were being born, the shepherds lived in the fields with their sheep. Two interpretations of the shepherds' vocation is possible. One, represented by Bishop (AngTheolRev 46 [4 64] 401-413), says that the shepherds' calling was honored and vital in Palestine. The other (J M Temme BibToday 29 [6,'91] 376-378) views shepherds as outcasts of their society, and this scholar notes that their presence at Jesus' birth is a harbinger of his practice of associating with sinners, outcasts, and outsiders during his ministry. At any rate, Jesus' birth was proclaimed to the humblest of people. This is the reversal of values begun when Mary sang of God's highest treasures being given to those of low degree.

We need to recall, also, that David was a shepherd boy in Bethlehem, and the presence of shepherds at the nativity of Jesus reminds us that the child is the son of David. Shepherds were watching over their flocks on the night of the birth of David's heir in David's town.

9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see--I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."

"Good news of great joy for all the people" - these words echoed the portrayal of the reign of Augustus when he was praised by his poets and playwrights. In a commemorative inscription for Augustus in the town of Priene in the Roman province of Asia, the emperor is called "the savior." Now a greater than Augustus is born, one greater than even the emperor of all the world. He is proclaimed by the messengers from heaven as the savior for all the world. The angel's song contains the only use of the title "Savior" for Jesus in the four gospels.

The word "Lord" is used in the Old Testament, and of course in the New, to describe God himself. From this time forward all things said about God as Lord are now transferred to our Lord, Jesus Christ.

It is a strange sign that the shepherds are given: the cry of a baby, the age-worn trough of stone, the bands of cloth to wrap him - people would not expect to find a deliverer here. But then, no one expected to find a deliverer deposited in a rock-hewn tomb covered with a linen shroud where Luke places him at the end of the Gospel. The person who emerges from the stone manger also rises from the stony tomb to deliver God's people from sin and death.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

Glory and peace! These accompany God when God visits God's people. And so it is promised us that they will accompany those who follow Christ and find the peace of God in him. Christ himself will fill Christ's people with the gracious goodwill of God.

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.