"The Nativity Stories"

A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2006

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

We have heard the stories so many times. In many ways the stories tell themselves. And yet these timeless stories are part of our very being and merit attention on this night of nights.

There is not just one nativity story, you know. There are many nativity stories. Scholars have and will continue to argue over which one is right. Which one is the most accurate? Which one tells the most truth?

You will know by listening to the stories tonight that Luke and Matthew have very different versions of the story. In Luke, you have the wonderful annunciation and conception stories. You have a very talkative Mary and a very silent and passive Joseph, unlike The Nativity Story movie where we have a very talkative Joseph and a diminutive Mary. In Luke, we meet Zechariah and Elizabeth and marvel at the audacious song of Mary. We hear angels and shepherds and we have a census and a manger scene fit for a Hallmark card.

In Matthew’s version, we have no shepherds or sheep and no census. What we do have is the Magi coming from the east and Herod’s ugly and bloody attempt at trickery. Both Luke and Matthew have genealogies, but they are different, with Matthew including four women, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Tamar, obviously showing some not so subtle code that Jesus’ household was of a lineage that combined royalty, outcasts and strong women.

Then we have John’s account of the incarnation which says that Jesus was the Logos of God, the Sophia of God , the Wisdom of God and the Word of God even as the world was created.

Which is most true? We don’t make a big deal of this on Christmas Eve. We tell all of the stories. And we also mingle them with our own stories. Our own stories are what it’s really about.

Of course, it’s important to recall the stories of old, but the most important story is what happens to us because of these nativity stories. What is gestating in the depths of our beings and is waiting for God’s fullness of time to break forth like the beauteous heavenly light? What wonders await this world of ours when we are transformed by the story of Christmas?

That’s what the Nativity Story is all about. It is about what comes alive in you. Many of us will go from this place to our homes. We will be surrounded by family. We will reflect upon the Christmases past. But you know what we remember about Christmas is not what is under the tree. What we remember about Christmas is who we shared it with. We remember the laughter. We remember the tears. We remember the new faces. We mourn the loss of the old faces. We recall the stories that we tell and retell, which are as holy as these lessons, for they hold in them who we are.

So as you go from this place to tell and retell those stories, see if you can mingle your stories with the Nativity Stories of long ago. What we know is that the one who is born this night came that we might all have life and have it with abundance. This one came as God always comes, to be amongst those who have felt neglected and left out, the lonely the marginalized, the distraught, the imprisoned. God was smuggled into the world as a poor homeless child to show us the way to set the world right once again.

So embrace the stories of this wondrous night. Be empowered by the story that God cares for each and every one of us.

Remember that God is here for and with all of us as we tell and retell our stories.

Remember that God’s nativity is in each of us as something wonderful is born or reborn in us.

As we sing and celebrate this night, as you hold someone close, either a person here or a person in another world, remember that God is here and is always with you, longing to be added to your nativity story.

Sisters and brothers, there are nativity stories throughout this room. Thank God for all of them and for all of you. May God’s incarnation be born anew in you tonight and each new day.