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Good News! |
A Bad News World "But the angel said to [the shepherds], "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." (Lk. 2:10). But in many ways, this hasn't been a great year for good news, has it? January began with the whole world struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of last year's Boxing Day tsunami, which left an estimated 275,000 people dead and devastated the shores of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, South India, Thailand and other countries with waves up to 30 meters high. "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." This past year military casualties in Iraq grew to over 2,000, while the civilian figure could now be as many as 15 times higher. Famine, war and disease continued to wreak havoc elsewhere. According to latest statistics, more than 40 million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS - a staggering 65% of them in Africa, where there are no fewer than 12 million AIDS orphans. "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." Closer to home in 2005, America has reeled from thousands of hurricane deaths and the whole city of New Orleans was temporarily depopulated by the ravages of Katrina and other storms. "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." Right on our very doorstep, according to latest census data, there are thousands of people living on Canadian streets, often because they have nowhere else to go, and Vancouver easily ranks among the top ten locations for homelessness. At least 15% of Canadian children are growing up in poverty and countless families are ravaged by the impact of unemployment, substance abuse and a host of other social problems. "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." So what is this good news, if there are still so many problems in our world and how does it really make a difference? At first sight, it doesn't really seem to lie in the circumstances of Jesus' birth. When our two daughters were born in England, my wife was able to go to a maternity hospital less than 10 minutes away, where she could be cared for by some of the best medical staff and resources available. I would suspect that many parents here this evening experienced something similar. But when Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem to register for the Roman census decreed by Caesar Augustus, they find no such luxuries. They have had to go there because that's where Joseph's family came from. But it would have been a long trip of more than 50 miles on foot from their home in Nazareth. And Mary's journey would have been that much tougher because she was expecting a child. So there they are, no doubt tired and dishevelled and looking forward to a good night's sleep. But Bethlehem is only five miles from the capital city of Jerusalem and its inns are full of travellers and people arriving for the census. Mary and Joseph are not wealthy and they have no political strings to pull to find accommodation. In fact, Joseph is a working man - a carpenter by trade. What is more, Mary has become pregnant out of wedlock. They have been told by angels that there is good reason, because her child will be special. But we cannot really know what Mary and Joseph have ultimately made of all this. When they arrive in Bethlehem, are they expecting some kind of special welcome? If so, they are to be sadly disappointed, because there is no room for them anywhere except in a stable. When we put together nativity scenes nowadays, we like to dress them up and make them very clean and cute. The reality for Mary and Joseph was no doubt much harsher. This is hardly the most hygienic or comfortable setting and when the time comes, they are probably on their own and they have to improvise. There is no set of tailor-made baby-clothes to hand. So Mary dresses baby Jesus in pieces of cloth. There is no IKEA crib, not even a bed. Instead, they have to lay him in a manger. So this is where and how Jesus is born - a cold and smelly stable in a small town in an obscure part of the Roman Empire, where he is clothed in rags and laid in an animal trough. And this is his family of origin - an average couple of no great means who are on the road with nowhere to stay. At least on the surface then, the good news that the angel brings the shepherds doesn't seem to lie in Jesus human family or his birth-place - unless that is, some of our modern concerns for social standing and creature comforts need a bit of rethinking. But what about Jesus' first visitors? What do we know about them? Given their circumstances, it is not surprising that there is no record of other family members being present to celebrate with Mary and Joseph, or of the kind of bedside gathering that we might normally expect today. But the arrival of a group of shepherds is very much in keeping with the rest of the story. The shepherds would have been near Bethlehem anyway, because sheep were specially bred for temple sacrifices in the area around Jerusalem. And that's where we find them, according to verse 8, "living out in the fields...keeping watch over their flocks at night." Good News - pg. 2 | |
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(This page is maintained by Rev. Dr. John Oakes and Kirsten Oakes .) |
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