The New Nativity

Amen.

So, like I said, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Tis the season.

The snow is falling.

It's beautiful outside.

I am a Christmas fanatic as well.

I love the sights and sounds and smells of the season.

I love cozy up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate, watching Christmas movies with my wife and my kids.

It's actually been looking a lot like Christmas at the Huey House.

We've had our Christmas decorations up for several weeks before Thanksgiving.

Anybody with me on that?

Wow, I've never felt so alone in my life.

Thank you.

Back there.

We love Christmas.

I love the shopping.

I love strolling around the mall, although I don't buy anything from the mall.

The mall is essentially like the Amazon showroom for me now.

I go and check it out and then I get online and buy it.

But I love Christmas.

Absolutely love it.

Our boys believe in Santa, but I make sure that they know who bought their gifts.

You know, if I'm paying all this money, I want the credit.

I'm like, buddy, Santa didn't bring that.

I bought that.

Well, we love Christmas.

But the church historically has referred to this season of Christmas actually as the season of.

anybody know it?

Advent.

Well done.

Advent.

Advent is taken from the Latin term adventus, which literally means coming or arrival.

The season of Advent is intended to be characterized by a deep longing and anticipation for the arrival of our Savior Jesus.

John chapter 1 describes the birth of Jesus as light shining in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.

John 1 · chapter mention

Anybody grateful today that the light of Christ has shown forth in your darkness?

Well, one of the one of the last vestiges of the Advent experience that we have in our very commercialized, westernized Christmas season is a nativity scene.

Does anybody have something similar to a set like this one in your home?

Wave at me, or you've you've you've at least seen these, right?

You're familiar with a nativity scene.

I was actually going to bring the one that we have at our house, but our boys play with it.

So when I went to grab it, I noticed that Darth Vader was standing in for Joseph.

I'm pretty sure Baby Jesus was like a Paw Patrol character or something.

But let me give you a quick history of the Nativity.

The first, live nativity was attributed to a man named St.

Francis of Assisi in the early 1200s, almost 800 years ago.

And these became so wildly popular that soon thereafter every church in Italy had a live nativity.

They actually had real people and real animals.

They became wildly popular so much so that eventually, in place of live nativities, there uh were these statues and figurines.

And now nativity scenes are pretty ubiquitous.

But one of the things I want you to understand about these nativity scenes is that uh they are largely inaccurate, right?

But we we uh have a nativity scene for nearly everything now.

I think we have a few of them to show you up here.

We have a Simpsons Nativity coming up here.

There it is.

Anyone a fan of The Simpsons?

It's alright, you can admit that you like the Simpsons in church.

We don't judge you around here.

Simpsons Nativity.

Here's another one.

We got the hipster nativity.

Can you all see the the wise men on the segues with Amazon boxes underneath them?

Notice Mary and Joseph taking a selfie right there.

Uh, this this one is my favorite, actually.

This is my personal favorite.

This is a rendering of the moments prior to Jesus' birth.

So this technically isn't a nativity because Jesus isn't born yet, but I think this photo captures more accurately the essence of what actually went down.

This is uh a photo by a comic book artist named Everett Patterson.

The title of this piece is Jose y Maria.

And I don't want the creative genius of this photo to be lost on us.

Uh there are so many references to the biblical narrative packed into this photo.

Let me point a few of them out to you.

I know it's difficult to see, but in the top right corner, can you see the hotel marquee?

It says New Manger, because some of the letters have been knocked off.

I know you can't see this one, but if you could, this newspaper down here at the bottom left-hand corner, there are two advertisements for laundry detergent, one for glad and one for Tide, Glad Tidings.

This one is subtle, but it's probably my favorite.

Uh, can you guys see the save more sign behind Maria's head?

Well, obviously the S is blocked off by a sticker, and then uh her head is blocking some of the other letters, but it's actually an ode, it's a nod to the Ave Maria.

Anybody familiar with that song, the Ave Maria?

I was gonna have uh Brother Isaac play it for us, but I decided not to.

This this song is moving on an emotional level.

It is really hard for me to hear this song and not be raptured into it.

But like I said, I think the essence of this photo is far closer to the truth than what our modern day nativities capture.

To be honest with you, the moments surrounding Jesus' birth weren't very polished or refined at all.

There's a sort of raw, gritty, unpolished nature to Jesus' birth.

I actually wanted to call this sermon the Naked Nativity, but our comms team thought that it might get flagged on YouTube.

But there wasn't much prettiness regarding Jesus' birth.

And like I said, the nativity scene is full of a lot of inaccuracies, one of them being these guys here, the wise men or the magi.

These guys actually weren't there that night.

They showed up uh possibly two weeks, or some scholars estimate as many as two years later.

But we like to throw them into the scene because they sort of add this regal polished effect to the whole narrative.

Another thing, Joseph, right here, he's always presented as this bearded character.

And it's possible that Joseph was a grown man at the time of Jesus' birth, but it's equally as plausible that he was a teenager, which means he probably wouldn't have had a beard unless his facial hair follicles were raging.

But nevertheless, what these nativities do tell us, they tell us two very important things.

They tell us a lot about the nature of the God that we serve and the kind of company that he wants to keep.

And I want to show you this story by looking at two texts.

The first one is in Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

If you want to fire up your devices and turn there with me, Matthew chapter 1 is where we're gonna begin, but then in a little bit we're gonna jump over to Luke chapter 2.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention Luke 2 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 1 is where we're gonna begin, and what I hope to do in the rest of our time together is I just want us to consider some of the main players that were present at Jesus' birth.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

And to begin with, we're gonna look at Joseph.

The first person in the story we're gonna consider is Joseph.

The Bible, interestingly, has next to nothing to say about Joseph.

He's only mentioned here in Matthew's gospel and a little bit later in Luke's Gospel, and there are actually uh there's actually zero dialogue attributed to Joseph.

Much of what we understand about Joseph is largely us reading between the lines.

But I was actually cast as Joseph in a play when I was younger.

Because spiritual or acting is not my spiritual gift.

And so Joseph is literally the perfect role for me because my man has no lines.

They said, Shane, we just need you to stand there and look tired.

And I was like, I got y'all, I can do this.

And honestly, I think I crushed it, you guys.

But let's look at what Matthew has to tell us about Joseph.

Matthew chapter 1, verse 18.

Matthew 1:18

If you're there, give me a good amen.

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about.

His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph.

But before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace.

He had in mind to divorce her quietly.

So this story opens up by letting us know that Mary was engaged to Joseph.

Now, this is more than our modern-day engagement.

This was more than just a ring and a promise to get married one day.

Some of your translations might actually say that Mary was betrothed to Joseph.

A betrothal was a binding legal agreement.

It was a commitment to be married, but it was binding in the sense that in order to call it off, you actually had to get something akin to a divorce.

But we're told that somewhere during this engagement, Mary becomes pregnant.

Now, this certainly wasn't the sort of news that Joseph was expecting to receive.

Mary has to come to him and say, Joseph, I know this looks a little funny, but I promise you nothing promiscuous went down that this baby in me is born of the Holy Spirit.

Imagine with me for a moment if you had to tell the man that you love that you were pregnant and this baby is not his, but nothing funny went down.

Imagine if you were on the receiving end of that sort of news and the woman that you love comes to you and says, Hey, I promise you nothing went down.

Would you have believed Mary if you were Joseph?

Bless him, Lord.

Thank you, Jesus.

Would you have believed?

See, this is where it's vitally important for us to keep in mind that these are real people with real doubts.

We know that Joseph doesn't believe her because Scripture tells us that he decides to divorce her quietly.

Rather than putting Mary through the living hell of a public divorce, he had committed to divorce her on the low because he did not want to expose her to disgrace.

This would have been social suicide for Mary because so much of the woman's economic opportunity was tied to her husband.

So a divorcee didn't have very many prospects.

Joseph, believing the worst, had to be absolutely heartbroken.

I need you guys to feel this with me for a moment.

Some theologians, some commentators suspect that love wasn't actually on the line because this was an arranged marriage.

But I believe Joseph cared deeply for Mary.

Why else would he go to such lengths to guard her reputation?

So Joseph has this plan.

He's just trying his best to do the right thing.

But then God graciously steps into all of his doubt and confusion in the form of an angel.

Look at verse 20.

It says, But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins, and they all lived happily ever after.

I don't think so.

I don't think so.

And in fact, Matthew's account is curiously silent on any of the details surrounding Mary's pregnancy.

If Joseph is anything like you and I, surely some questions and confusion lingered for this man.

Because there are often two edges to the will of God.

Go with me here.

On the one edge, on the one end, you have the joy and freedom and sense of peace that comes with being found in his will.

But on the other edge, on the other end, you have the cost.

We often don't count the cost.

To be in God's will, it might cost you your reputation.

It might cost you your comforts.

It might cost you your plans.

What do you do when God shows up and says, your plans, they sound great, but I have a better idea?

Anybody ever heard the phrase let go and let God?

I think that's good theology, but can we talk about what it's like when the letting go isn't always that easy?

What do you do when God shows up and says, hey, I have a better idea?

At that moment, it is a test of your theology.

Do you actually believe that God is good?

Do you believe in his goodness enough to trust him with the circumstances of your life?

Do you believe he is who he says he is?

Are you willing to believe in his goodness to such a degree that you will surrender your plans for the sake of his goodness because you believe that he is better, his plans are better than yours are anyway.

It's a test of our theology in that moment.

Like I said, Matthew doesn't bother filling us in on the nine months of Mary's actual pregnancy, but I would venture to guess that they were full of questions from Joseph, sort of two steps forward, one step back.

One day he's believing God for God's best, but on the next, he's like, this is absolutely crazy.

What do you mean this baby's born of the Holy Spirit?

And because Matthew's account gives us so few details, I want us to turn over to Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And this is actually where we'll camp out.

And I just want to walk this text with you.

Again, this is Luke's account of the birth of Jesus.

Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 1.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

It says, In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken in the entire Roman world.

This was the first census that took place while my man Q was governor of Syria.

And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him, and was expecting a child.

So to summarize this story, this is about the ninth month of Mary's pregnancy, and Caesar Augustus has called for a census of the entire Roman Empire, which meant that Mary and Joseph would have had to travel some 70 miles from Nazareth, where they're currently staying, all the way over to Bethlehem.

Because in order to account for the census, you had to do so in the hometown of your husband.

Seventy miles, nine months pregnant.

When they finally get to Bethlehem, we're famously told that there was no room for them in the inn.

Now that word inn, it might conjure images in your mind of Mary and Joseph rolling up to the Motel 6 trying to book a room, but there were no vacancies.

But that's actually not how it happened.

Ancient Near Eastern culture placed such a high premium on a hospitality.

So a more accurate rendering of that word in would have been guest room.

Now follow me here.

Joseph and Mary couldn't find a guest room in a town full of Joseph's closest family and friends.

They couldn't find a couch to crash on in a town full of Joseph's loved ones.

Why?

Some commentators think it was because there was no guest rooms available.

Everybody had to come home for the census.

That's possible.

Other commentators think it was because Mary was looking for a particular type of accommodation because she knew this baby was coming soon and she wanted to have him in a little privacy.

That's possible.

But go with me here.

I can't prove this from the text, you guys, but what if, what if Joseph and Mary couldn't find a couch to crash on in a town full of his closest family and friends because he never bothered to ask?

Think about it.

Rolling into town with your pregnant fiance probably wasn't the best look.

And how do you have this whole virgin birth conversation anyway?

And so Joseph and Mary end up in what was likely a stranger's basement.

Nestled next to the livestock and animals.

Joseph was a good man.

He's trying his best to do right by Mary.

But I bet this isn't how he imagined his engagement going down.

I imagine Joseph looking to heaven saying, God, I am trying my best here.

I want to be a good guy.

But this is crazy.

And right there, in the midst of Joseph's doubt and confusion, the Savior of the world is born.

Let's turn our attention to Mary.

Mary's probably the most popular character in this story, other than Jesus.

Let's continue in Luke's gospel.

Verse 6 says this.

Now, here's another inaccuracy in most modern nativities.

Contrary to what they often depict, Mary was far from a full-grown woman.

When she became pregnant with Jesus, she was likely a teenage girl.

No older than maybe 14 or 15 years old.

She's pregnant, but the man that she's engaged to isn't the father.

So you can imagine the sort of reputation that Mary had garnered around town.

Many of you know all too well what that is like to have your name drugged through the mud.

Mary was the high school girl who wore baggy sweaters to school every day to cover up what was actually going on because people talk, and the less they have to talk about, the better.

This was a close-knit Jewish community.

And certainly there were rumors circulating about Mary's scandal, her promiscuity.

She likely would have been labeled an adulterer, an adulteress, or a harlot.

But it's interesting to note, catch this, that in Luke chapter 1, when the angel Gabriel visits Mary and lets her know that the baby born in her is of the Holy Spirit and that she would soon give birth to the Savior of the world, Gabriel refers to Mary as highly favored one.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

Highly favored one.

I don't know what kind of church y'all grew up in.

Some of you might be new to church, and if that's you, I want to say, welcome.

You belong here.

But I don't know what kind of church y'all grew up in.

But in the kind of church I grew up in, if you were to ask somebody how they're doing, the church mothers would respond, Well, baby, I am blessed.

I am blessed and what?

Highly favored.

I don't intend to burst anybody's bubble here, but being favored by God somewhere along the way has become synonymous with having a nice car, achieving some manner of success, and having a little money in your bank account.

Now hear me well.

I'm not saying that there is anything inherently wrong with any of those things.

God knows I need a new car, and I will take your money.

If you have a check, make it out to Shane Huey Ministries International.

It's tax-deductible, y'all.

But favor isn't about being fit for God's blessing.

Favor is about being grace for God's mission.

Mary, highly favored?

Favored for what?

Think about it.

God called this girl out of complete obscurity.

She was nearly divorced.

We know that she was doubted her entire life.

Not many people in her circle were buying this whole virgin birth thing.

Us Christians barely believe that stuff if we were honest with one another.

She was nearly divorced, doubted her whole life.

Not to mention that in 33 years' time she would have to watch her son be brutally murdered.

Favored for what?

Favor for you might not be easy going, good times, and smooth sailing.

Instead, favor for you might mean self-denial, sacrificial love, and suffering for the sake of the gospel.

Is anybody interested in a little favor today?

Nine months go by.

And Mary loads up on this donkey to take a 70-mile journey, which is curious because she actually didn't have to go with Joseph.

Catch this.

Only a male was required to be present to give an account for the census.

Mary didn't have to take this trip, which makes me ask the question: what was going on in this girl's world that made her decide to load up on a donkey and take a 70-mile journey while she was nine months pregnant.

In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey posits that it was because Mary was no longer welcome in her hometown.

She took this journey to escape the shame of having her son in a town that had been talking about her for the last nine months.

In our culture, having a child out of wedlock is relatively normal.

So the scandal of her situation is largely lost on us.

But a betrothed woman that became impregnated by a man, not her husband, would have been considered adulteress, which was an offense that was punishable by death.

But let's pretend that Mary's situation wasn't so severe.

Nevertheless, imagine the fatigue that came with every single conversation where she insisted that I wasn't promiscuous, that this baby born in me is of God.

Mary loaded up on that donkey to escape the shame of her situation.

Let me ask you this question.

Have you ever been on a journey that you didn't want to take?

Have you ever found yourself in a place where you thought, how in the world did I get here?

Maybe you're going through a divorce right now that you didn't see coming because you thought you had married your soulmate, your forever mate.

Maybe you've just been handed down an unfavorable diagnosis.

And now a life full of pain and medicine is your new normal.

Maybe you're in a season of singleness and it's lasting a little longer than you would like, and you're feeling a little lonely.

Perhaps whatever it is that you walked in here with is just feeling compounded because the holidays have a way with us, right?

The holidays aren't full of joy and peace for everyone.

Am I talking to anybody today?

Have you ever been on a journey that you didn't want to take?

Let's consider this journey for a moment.

70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

That would have been like walking from here to Dayton.

Anyone from Dayton?

The dirty D?

Nobody.

We got one hand back down.

Okay, we got a couple.

God bless y'all.

Here to Dayton.

Some commentators speculate that that journey would have taken about three to four days.

But actually in 2008, a BBC correspondent named Alex Makbull rented a donkey.

He actually walked the journey, and it ended up taking him nine days.

Nine days.

Nine months pregnant on a donkey.

We fuss when there isn't enough leg room on the airplane.

I imagine Mary mounting this donkey with tears in her eyes.

Joseph wanting so badly to be able to take this pain away from the woman that he loves.

So he grabs, he grabs the thing, whatever, the leash, the thing that steers the donkey, the steering wheel.

The reins, thank you.

He grabs the reins and off they go.

Just like Joseph, she's dreading every conversation that she has to have with all of his extended family trying to explain her situation.

When they finally get to Bethlehem, they're so exhausted from the journey.

They're struggling to find a place to stay.

And like I said, they end up in what was likely the basement of a complete stranger.

The savior of the world was born into circumstances where there were probably more animals than humans.

Mary's nestled next to the sheep.

Girls struggling to get just a couple hours of shut-eye.

She's trying to fight off the stench.

It was probably the stress of the situation that sent her into labor.

When Elisa and I had our first son, J.R., we were blessed to be surrounded by our friends and loved ones, people from our church, our family.

When we had our second son Miles, we were like, y'all need to stay home.

We're just trying to get out of here.

But when the first kid came, we were surrounded by people we love.

I'll never forget the moment uh JR popped out, and I ran out into the lobby and I saw my best friend Kyle.

And the first thought that jumped in my mind was, How in the world did you get back here?

But after that, I ran and I embraced him and we hugged and we cried, and it was a beautiful moment.

And this sort of situation was true for most couples during our stay, those couple of days, but every so often there would be a couple, or perhaps even a single mother, who you knew that there was nobody waiting in the waiting room for them.

Let me ask you again.

Have you ever been on a journey that you didn't want to take?

I came to tell you today that God is going to get you exactly where you need to be.

You might be damaged in transit, but you're going to be delivered right on time.

It might not be the destination that you had in mind, but God's got something better.

You might have felt like Christ has forsaken you, but little did you know he's been with you every step of the way.

Mary was a 14-year-old girl.

She needed her mama in the worst way.

But nobody was there.

And in the midst of her pain and her loneliness, the Savior of the world is born.

I gotta go quickly.

We got three and a half minutes.

Let's consider the shepherds as we close.

Verse 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

They were terrified.

But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid.

I bring you good news that will cause you great joy for all the people.

Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.

He is the Messiah of the Lord.

This will be a sign to you.

You will find a baby wrapped in clothes, lying in a manger.

Now don't miss this.

The shepherds are probably my favorite characters in the whole narrative.

Because there was no person on the planet more unqualified for a front row seat to the birth of a savior.

Shepherds occupied the lowest rung of the social ladder in society.

They were dirty, they were unkempt, they had some colorful language, they were nomadic, which meant they never set down roots, they traveled wherever there was work.

Many of them were thought to be thieves and robbers.

These weren't the sort of folks who you would imagine being present at Jesus' birth.

When the angel shows up, scripture says that they were terrified, probably because they thought that they were receiving the just judgment that was due for all of their sin.

They probably said to the angel, You've got the wrong guy.

But what they failed to realize is that they're precisely the sort of people that good news is intended for.

Amen.

And so they go, they find the baby, sure enough, he's sitting there.

I imagine Mary's a little creeped out when these guys walk in.

She's like, Come on, fellas, I'm trying to have a baby here.

But this is the divine irony of the whole situation.

That these fellows who thought they were completely unqualified for God got to see firsthand when the Savior of the world stepped into their story.

Here's the question I want to leave you with.

Who are you?

Who are you in this story?

Maybe you feel a little like Joseph.

You have some doubts.

I want you to know that God's good with your doubts, that God's bigger than your doubts.

It's okay to have questions.

Maybe you got a lot of them.

Maybe life has failed to work out the way that you thought it would.

You try your best to be a good person, but you realize that the economy of the world doesn't work according to those rules, and life keeps zigging when you needed it to zag.

You're left with questions and confusion.

Maybe you're a little like Mary.

Struggling with a deep sense of insecurity, feeling completely unqualified for your assignment, carrying with you a sense of shame.

Whether that's because of what people say about you, or perhaps it's self-assumed because you can't seem to forgive yourself and let your past and all your mistakes go.

Maybe you're a little like the shepherds who aren't actually up here, but they were more likely there than these jokers were.

And maybe you feel completely unfit for God.

You feel too dirty.

I've done too much.

I was at the club last night.

God, I you got the wrong guy.

Here's the heart of the matter.

Here's the miracle of Christmas.

That wherever you are in this story, there is Christ right alongside of you.

Next time you see a nativity, I want you to stop and ask yourself, who am I in this story?

You might be all three characters all at once.

That's just fine with God.

That's just fine with the God that I know.

God put divinity in a baby.

And this baby, when believed upon, has the power to change everything about you.

You're in there somewhere.

And so is Jesus, our Emmanuel, God with us.

Christmas is about the invitation to receive Jesus into your life, into your story, into your heart.

That's good news, amen.