Luke 2:1-20
Do you remember the first infant you held? The first infant that was yours, or a close family or friend’s? It is a miracle in itself. Each child is a little miracle and while holding the baby, you realize how helpless they are. A baby can’t walk nor do much of anything independently from parents, honestly they are not even aware they are independent from others. Every baby is a miracle and the Baby Jesus is no different.
Imagine one of the shepherds being a boy who comes to Bethlehem after hearing the angel, to see the child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. This young shepherd is encouraged the hold the infant, his first baby to hold. Of course the chorus of Heavenly Hosts, he heard in the field would resonate in his heart, but you know that first time of holding a helpless infant is just as special. Imagine with me, that 50 years later he holds another baby and recalls that time in the City of David. Perhaps he even tells his experience to Luke. 50 years after that this baby, now a man, holds a baby, experiencing the miracle of a child. And another 50 years or so that child does the same, and so forth. That would mean that it would take only 40 people or so to have been directly connected to holding Jesus.
I share this illustration to emphasize that our movement, the church, is not as old as we think. First of all when the incarnation happened, Judaism in which Jesus entered was already over 3,000 years old. It is arrogant for Christians to believe their generation is the end of the Age. Jesus makes it clear we are to be ready and only God in Heaven will know. Calling the time of the incarnation “ancient,” and living in a time we call “post-modern,” keeps us from understanding the reality that we may simply be in the infancy of our faith. God’s time is not human time.
Jesus as a baby demonstrated His greatest power. The power of vulnerability. All babies posses that power and that is why they thrive, for the parents, and even society does what is necessary for each child to live. Jesus is no different and yet he walks into adulthood without shedding that great power. Jesus served. Jesus went to the cross and through that great vulnerability, the Divine Love was revealed in the empty tomb.
As Christians, we need to follow Emmanuel who demonstrated the power of vulnerability, servitude, and love. We must understand we are still each learning to do that, and even our movement, we call the church, is struggling to learn to be vulnerable for Love.
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