We Are God-Bearers

Brad Sullivan

Christmas Eve, Year C

December 24, 2015

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Luke 2:1-14(15-20)

When Kristin’s and my first son, Noah, was born, we were rather excited, a little apprehensive, and not entirely clueless as to what we were supposed to do and what was coming.  There I was, the proud daddy-to-be, standing by Kristin’s side in the delivery room, looking lovingly and expectantly at my wife, and as the nurse was getting Kristin’s vitals, she asks me, “are you the coach?”    

“Uh, I’m her husband, father of the little baby in there.  Does that count?”  Apparently it did because the nurse let me stay.  I don’t know how successfully coachy I was, but as husband and father, I did a pretty good job, there by her side, holding her hand throughout the three-hour delivery.

I’m not sure whether or not Joseph was an overly good coach when Mary gave birth either.  I’m guessing he was nearby, but I’m further guessing that there were more than a few women with Mary when she gave birth to Jesus.  Notice that when the shepherds came to see Jesus just after his birth, all who heard the shepherds were amazed at what they said, not only Mary and Joseph, but all who heard.

Giving birth to a baby is not an overly tidy event, and the birth of Jesus was probably not an overly quiet event either.  Imagine the folks who were staying in the inn listening to Mary throughout her labor and delivery.  The husbands who were there, if they even woke up, probably asked their wives to go do something about the noise, thinking it was just their own kids crying, and the women probably went to help.

They found a young woman, giving birth to her firstborn child.  You can bet they were by her side, helping Mary to deliver Jesus, giving her encouragement, and serving as midwives.  The men probably did come down and sit with Joseph and hand out cigars once Jesus was born.  They didn’t offer him a room, but they were probably there.  Then, the women at least stayed with this new mother and father, helping them swaddle Jesus and tend to their needs.  Together then, this gathering of people received the shepherds and heard their news of an angel choir announcing Jesus’ birth.  Together, they heard that Jesus was the Messiah, the Lord, and they were amazed.

In the days that followed, they questioned and wondered, and started to believe.  They started to believe that Jesus was something special, something beyond an ordinary baby, something beyond an ordinary king.  They stared to believe because of what the shepherds told them.  The shepherds had been in their fields, away from the town.  Mary was pretty loud giving birth, but she wasn’t that loud.  The shepherds’ story of angelic messengers and a heavenly choir must have been true.  So the people who were there to help with Jesus’ birth wondered, like Mary, what all of this meant.  Who would Jesus grow up to be?  What did it mean that the Messiah, the Lord, had just been born?  Who did they tell?   Who else started wondering with hopeful anticipation about the savior?  They didn’t fully understand yet, but they began telling people that this baby, named Jesus, was born.

Our faith was never meant to be private.  The good news of Jesus was always meant to be shared.  The good news of Jesus birth is still meant to be shared.  Everyone in this country knows that tomorrow is Christmas.  I don’t care what faith people have, Christmas is such a part, even of our secular culture, that everyone knows about Christmas.  A lot of people, however, still need to hear about the birth of Jesus.

People may know it is Christmas, but they may not know or may have forgotten the mind-boggling, soul healing significance of Jesus’ birth.  Large scale media campaigns just don’t do justice to sharing the good news of Jesus birth.  Intimate personal sharing of the good news is how Jesus birth was shared back then.  That’s how God intends us to share it now.

What is the good news of Jesus’ birth?  God became human and trusted himself to us.  We who deep inside are all at some level of mess, we who strive for the right things and end up reaching the wrong things, we who seek power over the slings and arrows of life and end up somewhere on the path to the dark side, we were entrusted with Jesus, not because we are perfect, but because we are beloved.  We’ve been entrusted with Jesus and God has joined himself with us forever, walking with us again as he did in Eden.

That is good news that is meant to be shared.  The way of Jesus is meant to be shared.  The way of choosing vulnerability over power, the way of choosing love over anger and pride, the way of choosing forgiveness and reconciliation over righteousness and revenge, the way of walking and dwelling with God:  these ways are the way of Jesus, and the way of Jesus is meant to be shared.

Whenever we share the birth of Jesus, whenever we share his ways, Jesus is born again in our hearts and in the hearts of those with whom we share him.  Whenever we share the birth of Jesus, we become God-bearers.  That was a title given to Mary, the Theotokos, the God-bearer.  Like the shepherds and the people present at Jesus’ birth, we bring the news of Jesus’ birth into the world.  Then, like Mary, we are God-bearers as well.  Amen.