What do we seek this night?
What draws us to this place, to this service?
What draws us to the familiar yet extraordinary events in Bethlehem?
Are we here because it is tradition? Because we were brought as children, and coming to Church on Christmas Eve is something we’ve always done?
Are we here as an escape from the crass commericialism of the season that places its emphasis on the importance of presents, and gifts and having the right decorations, the right food, the right drink, and the right music playing in the background?
Are we here because there is something deep within us yearning to step into the light that spills from the stable door, and beckons us from the darkness to something so much more ...
We may even be here without any certainty about why we’re here at all ... we’re here to be part of the familiar songs and stories that mark this season. We know that Christmas is important, but along the way we’ve forgotten why it is important ... we’ve left behind talk of angels and shepherds, stars and mysterious visitors from the east, concerns about education and careers have take precedence over something that supposedly happened two millenia ago in a stable behind an inn, in a tiny backwater village in a remote corner of the Roman Empire ... what happened there isn’t really relevant to us today ...
Or is it?
What if, in the midst of everything else – the familiar carols, the comfortable readings, the usual cast of characters and happenings ... what if, in the midst of that, someone stepped up and told the story from their perspective.
Someone who was there, someone who watched, and listened, and wondered ... someone like you and I, who wondered what this was all about ... Christmas is a time when we’ll believe that reindeer can fly, perhaps tonight for a moment, a Camel can talk and tell us his story ...
My Master was one of the Magi, the visitors who came from the east, and you call the Wise Men. He was a learned man back home, people came from all around to seek his wisdom and his knowledge, people would come to him and ask questions, and seek his guidance.
Other times though, my master sat upstairs in his room full of scrolls and ancient texts, studying their strange words, and watching the stars at night for signs from the gods ... he and his friends often spoke of the things they read, and the things they saw and whether it was time to go and see ...
Go and See? Go and see what?
Ah, that’s just it. I never really knew what it was they were talking about going to see. I usually just over heard them as his friends were getting their camels ready before and after their visits. But I remember one day there was a strange excitement around the palace. My master had spotted something in the sky, and after he and his friends met and discussed it suddenly we were getting ready for a journey.
A journey?
Yes, a journey – a long trip. It took several days to get all the supplies ready, then one early morning the servants piled my back high with all kinds of things that would be needed on the long trip we were taking. And just as the sun rose, my master’s friends came with their camels and donkeys and a few pesky horses, and we started to head into the desert, following a star that was still visible near the horizon.
We travelled for many days, always following that star.
I had been on trip to places like India, and China, and I had even been through snowy mountains ... but this trip was different. Usually we would stop and rest and enjoy lounging for a few hours every day. But on this trip we started long before dawn, and we continued long into the night. We never set up the big tents like when we visited other kings and important people. My master and his friends would just pull out their blankets and curl up near the fire.
They seemed excited ... like they were on an important trip to meet someone special ...
Finally, after days and days and days of travelling, we came to a walled city perched on the top of a mountain. My master led us into the city and he asked to speak with the king ... they were gone along time, then when they came back my master’s face looked worried and almost angry. He spoke in angry whispers with his friends. I heard them say that they must not let the King know where they were going, and when it came time to come back they couldn’t and they wouldn’t come here again ...
I heard my master say it was too dangerous, and this King named Herod couldn’t be trusted ... his friends didn’t seem to agree, but my master wouldn’t change his mind.
We travelled a short distance south that night along a broad smooth roadway through the desert. And the whole time the star seemed to hang in the sky just in front of us, almost like it was leading us ...
It’s funny you know, it was always in the western sky, then after we talked with Herod it was in the southern sky ... it was almost like it moved ...
So, then what happened?
Well, we travelled through the night until we came close to a tiny village. My Master stopped and talked to some shepherds outside the village and they spoke of angels, and voices from heaven, and they pointed towards the village and said “you will find him there ...”
My master was very excited. He thanked the shepherds and invited one of them to show them exactly where he was ... one of the young shepherds agreed and climbed into the saddle on my back and lead the way through the narrow winding streets of the village. At last we came to a rambshackled building on the outskirts of the town ... the young shepherd said it was an inn, but the one we wanted wasn’t there, but was around the back in a stable carved into the stony hillside.
It was very dark when my Master climbed down and approached the door of the stable. It was like the star had gone out ... he looked back at us and said to me – “well, Salim old friend, we’ve come a long way to see if this is the One the prophets told of ...” Then with a shrug he knocked at the door.
A moment later a scruffy looking man opened the door and looked at my master, he was angry and surprised at the same time ... he asked what we wanted and who we were looking for ... when my Master answered the man smiled nervously, then opened the door and let my master and his friends in. It was hard to see what was happening, but what i saw was a young woman with a tiny baby on her lap sitting in the corner of the stable.
My Master smiled, and then as he approached the mom he knelt ... Imagine that, my master, a man who others come to for his wisdom, kneeling infront of a mother and her baby !
(SNORT)
But then he did something remarkable. He came back out of the stable and took from my back the wooden treasure chests that had been tied there. He was so nervous that he dropped them as he was untying them. They broke open and he just grabbed the wrapped parcels that had fallen out. He then went back into the stable and handed the gifts to the mom and the dad.
I couldn’t see what they were, but knowing my Master and his friends, I’m sure they were valuable treasures. And given the reaction, they must have been very valuable gifts ... All night my Master and his friends sat with the father and they talked in whispers about the things that had happened. They talked and talked. I heard only tiny bits and pieces of thier conversation. Words like angels, prophets, visitors, and they kept talking about God ... it was like God had come and done something special in that stable. From what the other camels and I heard, we wondered if the baby was God’s baby ...
In the morning, while the mother and baby were sleeping nestled down in the hay, my master and his friends started to get ready to head back home. Imagine – spending ALL that time on the road to come and cuddle a little baby ... and they say animals are crazy ...
What I remember most clearly though was my Master saying over and over that this child – THIS BABY, was named Jesus but he was really “Emmanuel – God is with us.”
My master was very excited by this, and the rest of us wondered what it could mean ... I mean, afterall, it WAS just a baby, and he was born in a stable, behind an inn in a tiny village so far off the trade routes and away from anything important that was really hard to find. Honestly, had it not been for the star I doubt we would have found it at all ... and yet, in that horrible god-foresaken place, my master kept talking about how important this child was, and all the things God had in store for him ...
Imagine, that ... pretty wild huh ?!?
Then what happened?
We went home a different route then we came, my master wanted to avoid that Herod guy. I always wonder what happened to that baby, and whether he really was someone important or not ...
Christmas ultimately, is not about the gifts, the lights, the decorations, the gatherings, or any of the other stuff that is often part of the season. Christmas is that moment in time when we stand in the light of the stable door in Bethlehem and know in the very core of our beings, that with God not only, are all things possible, with God, the unexpected and the unlikely are not only possible, they are happening all around us ...
Tonight the message we long to hear, and that echoes across the sands of time is one that guides us to a place of peace, love, joy and hope ... a place filled with light and life in the midst of a darkened world !!
May it be so, thanks be to God ... let us pray ...
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