I know it must have happened somewhere, in some church, during some Christmas pageant, sometime this afternoon or this evening. The pageant, as it unfolded, let’s just say there were some significant kinks. Mrs. Wasley was only in her first year as the volunteer in charge, and if we’re honest, it will probably be her last year. Nightmare would be too strong of a word to ever use for a Christmas pageant. After all, the term perfect Christmas pageant is an oxymoron, a contradiction that flies in the face of the incarnation whereby God took on and made holy all of the frailty of this broken vessel of our humanity. Christmas pageants were made to have rough edges. However, his evening, as the pageant played on Mrs. Wasley was just a bit taken a back by the sharpness of those edges.

Maybe there were a few things she would have done differently. For instance, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to have all the 2nd and 3rd graders be animals, especially after Billy McCleester asked if they could make animal noises, and Mrs. Wasley said “yes, Billy, that might be very realistic” Or maybe somebody could have pointed out to Mrs. Wasley that it takes a bit of time to dress and move and fix the hair of the heavenly host, especially when it is made up of 32 angels who were all between two and four years old. And who would have thought that when working with the fifth grade narrators, Taisha and Jerod, who were actually very fine readers, who would have thought that Mrs. Wasley would have wanted to go over punctuation with them?

Let’s just say it was a rough afternoon in Bethlehem. Mary had been sick all morning and the bucket next to the manger was for her to use. Joseph may have been a “righteous man and unwilling to expose Mary to public disgrace,” but he was also 13 and decided about ten days ago he wasn’t going to enjoy this pageant at all. So, Mrs Wasley knew it was going to be a struggle, but when the animals arrived behind those shepherds, any hope of heavenly peace vanished. They took over the whole chancel and elevated “lowing” to a new caucophonous, hip-hop, rap sounding art form. And the angels, well, the angel mom and dad working back stage completely missed their cue so the host arrived way after the wise men, even after the congregation had sung “Angels We Have Heard on High”, even after the narrator Taisha said four times, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host”. But when they arrived, they looked good, their halos were perfect and their hair was all right.

Right near the end, right before everyone was to sing “Joy to the World the Lord is come” and “He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness”, right before the familiar Christmas hymn, the narrator Jerod fought his way to center stage for his last line. He stepped on and over an abundance of sheep and cows, even some dogs and cats and one child who came as a mouse. Angel parents in the congregation were paying no attention to the narrator, making up for lost googling time and completely ignoring that request about flash pictures. Mary was reaching for the bucket and Joseph had rolled his eyes so many times they just about fell out of his head. So Jerod had to shout over the barnyard noise, and he never did get the parents’ attention. He put his folder down and stretched out his arms and with no little amount of exasperation, yelled, “Christ was born for this??” And Mrs. Wasley, now fully exhausted said to no one in particular, “It was an exclamation point, not a question mark.”

Some years it feels more like a question mark, doesn’t it? Christ was born for this? Some years, not the pageant as chancel drama, but this “rich, pageant of life.” That’s how William Muehl once described it. “This rich pageant of life is often fouled up”, he wrote. “Fouled up by our rigid moralism, and the cross is hidden beneath the flimsy fabric of our simple piety....Our flesh drives and afflicts us from birth to death.” Christ was born for this? And you and I, we find ourselves stepping on and over, making our way across life’s stage. Every year in this family of faith, somebody heads to Bethlehem by way of the grave. Because death has an unceasing part to play. Every year, for some it is Christmas carols and tears as the earthiness of the flesh has torn at relationships, or the brutality of disease as torn at the flesh. Christ was born for this? And this year, like every year, on the world’s stage we come face to face with flesh not just torn but destroyed; destroyed by war, and nations proving something other than the “glories of his righteousness,” and we sing “peace on earth and good will to all”, not just once or twice, but over and over again. And still peace fails to make it’s entrance. Christ was born for this?

I was interested to see that Jesus made the cover of both TIME and NEWSWEEK two weeks ago. One of the managing editors was asked in an interview whether or not the magazines were playing off a post-election interest in Jesus. He said no. The best selling cover stories have always been sex, religion and science. These articles that explored the birth narratives found in the gospels of Luke and Mark were strikingly similar. “Behind the First Noel....How the story of Christ’s birth came to be” And “The Birth of Jesus: from Mary to the manger, how the Gospels mix faith and history to tell the Christmas story and make the case for Christ.” The journalists engaged scholarly opinion to raise critical issues surrounding the Virgin Birth, and the importance of Bethlehem, and the questions of numbers in terms of the Magi, and whether or not the star was Haley’s Comet.

A few things struck me as I dutifully did my professional reading. I came to the conclusion that Princeton Seminary needs a media director and I had to agree with the church member who e-mailed the articles and wondered why the seminary didn’t get a faculty quote in there. I chuckled in my reading as I pondered how a popular magazine can make such discussions or the biblical research surrounding them sound so new. Christians have been wrestling with this material forever! And I came to the conclusion that the birth narratives, in and of themselves, as objects of study, they don’t bear the weight of salvation’s story. When turning to the question of why this all makes a difference, both magazines looked to the message of the angel in Luke; “For to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” “A simple, joyous proclamation of salvation” one writer concluded. “On earth peace, good will toward all” cited the other writer, calling it “a promise whose fulfillment is worth our prayers not only in this season, but always.” A simple proclamation of salvation. A sweeping prayer for peace. As important as both may be, Christ was born for this? And the reader of TIME or NEWSWEEK ought to be turning pages looking for more, looking for what’s missing, looking for why this Nativity of Christ would have anything to do with you or me.

Here’s what’s missing when the world chats about the nativity. Christ came that you and I might be justified by faith. And “in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.” And “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” That’s what missing. If you “belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” From the Apostle Paul, the Letter to the Galatians. It may not be cover story material. But it is the Apostle’s Paul take on the birth of Jesus. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” No angels. No shepherds. No Magi. No star. But the fullness of time, and you and I as children of God. Christ was born for this!

The fullness of time. I don’t have to call on the physicists among us to conclude that this fullness was not meant to be the end of the time line. That Paul must not have been talking about time in a linear way. Fullness. Complete. Almost perfect. Overflowing with grace. Just right. Fullness. As in “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” Fullness. As in “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend with all of the saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Fullness. As in “For in Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman.”

I can remember Christmas Eve as a child. Sitting in the pew next to my father. Every year we would sing “Silent Night” and the candlelight would spread and my father would sing with tears streaming down his cheeks. The pew would even shake a bit. I used to say that my dad taught me on Christmas Eve that it was okay for men to cry. But my father taught me something much greater about faith and God’s promises. Decades later, after more than our share of family pain, after months and months of 12 step meetings everyday, when he told me about his daily prayer life, about how he would quote scripture in a prayer. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” God’s promise and the very earthiness of life. Such fullness of time belongs to God. Those moments when in the earthiness of our lives, you and I come face to face with the promise of God. The nativity of the Christ Child in your life and in mine.

“ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

“ I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“ Lo, I will be with you always”

“ My peace I leave with you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled., neither let it be afraid.”

“ Come unto me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

“ I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirst.”

“ This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Somewhere tonight in this rich pageant of life, somewhere a child of God is moving to stage center, stepping on and over, more than abundance of life’s joys and challenges clawing at her feet. Few will pay attention and she’ll have to shout over the world’s noise. But for her, it’s the fullness of time. And with a heart stretched out to God, she will proclaim, not with question mark, but with an exclamation point. “Christ was born for this.”

Property of Nassau Presbyterian Church
Contact the church to obtain reprint permission