MANGER POWER

“She gave birth to her first born son, and wrapped him in

Swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger.” (Luke 2:7)

            It is considered a compliment in our society to say of another individual, “He or she knows where it’s at.” This may be colloquial speech but it communicates with clarity and force. To know “where it’s at” is to be worldly wise; to be in tune with the right people and the corridors of power. To know “where it’s at” is to be as current as the latest book and as relevant as socks to shoes.

            In short, the person who knows “where it’s at” is “with it.” And we like our politicians, our corporations, our universities, and yes, even our churches, to be “with it.”

            As one who spends a good bit of his waking hours attempting to know and live “where it’s at,” I want to acknowledge that the manner of Jesus’ birth makes me wonder whether I am altogether on the right track!

            Consider that fourth lesson we read this evening, the lesson with one of the best known verses in the nativity story: “She gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger.” Stripped of all subsequent art and oratory, what we have here are three powerless people outside a second class hotel in an undistinguished province of a remote sector of the Roman Empire!

            No reporters of distinction would have been on the scene that night. Those who were on hand were assuredly inside and not outside in the cattle shed. And what were the “with it” people talking about that night? They were talking about taxes and census taking. They were talking about internal politics, and whether the Roman senate was going conservative or liberal, and if Caesar Augustus was making the right decisions for the empire or not.

            Meanwhile, out there in the stable a power unrivalled in magnitude was born. What irony that the shepherds who were not “with it” got it, while the worldly wise who knew “where it was at” missed it. It would seem that manger power eludes the grasp of the wise and the prudent and reveals itself to babes.

            Manger power is the power of God at work in the world.  Here on Christmas Eve, for just a few moments, I’d like us to examine it more closely, especially as it contrasts with the world’s way of understanding power.

            MANGER POWER IS MODEST NOT PRETENTIOUS. Its credentials are innate not conferred. It depends not on trappings but on truth. The less secure we humans are the more we rely on such superficial props as rank, title, degree, and wealth.

            Not long ago John Reed gave us an editorial that the New York Times printed in full. It bore the engaging title, “Pomp and Politicians.” The writer made the point that in virtually no other part of the world do people give such adulation and pay such tribute to their political leaders as we do in the United States. The pomp with which our political personalities are adorned is in a class by itself.  He cited the fact that it costs more than $500,000 a year to support the average senator, chauffered limousine, large staff, and all. It is estimated that it will cost the taxpayers of this country some $8,000,000 in 2007 to underwrite the cost of the White House staff. Apparently it doesn’t matter to which party the President belongs. He seems to assume it to be his right to commandeer an aircraft or two, a navy ship, helicopters, limousines, huge retinues of aids and servants anywhere he goes.

            If we are suffering in this country from a crisis of trust in our elected officials, one thing we might do to re-establish trust would be to rid ourselves of this phony pomp and circumstance. Reed wrote, “To use Shakespeare’s phrase, ‘Away with pride, pomp and circumstances.’ Abolish the 21 gun salute, the honor guards, the red carpets, the elaborate state dinners, the presidential hideaways; trade in the long black limousine for a modestly priced compact.

            Manger power is always modest, never pretentious. Jesus’ entire ministry was consistent with his modest beginnings. His was, in the parlance of the day, a low-profile. He made very few demands on life. He had no place to lay his head. He made no effort to curry the favor of the power people of his time.

            It didn’t take long for the soldiers to gamble away his possessions. All that he had at the hour of his death was a seamless robe. He didn’t develop an entourage of celebrities or encourage a large camp following. Jesus belongs in the succession of Amos and Micah rather than that of Ahaz and Solomon. Manger power is modest, not pretentious.

            Moreover, MANGER POWER IS ATTRACTIVE NOT COERCIVE. The child in the manger on the world’s first Christmas grew into a manhood that refused to do violence to the personality of others. To put it differently, “force” was not in Jesus’ vocabulary. He would not force faith by leaping from a pinnacle of the temple. He would not force faith by changing stones into bread like a vaudeville performer. He would not force faith calling down fire on his enemies. He would not force faith by bargaining down the demands of the gospel. He respected the rich young ruler’s right to value his property over his soul.

            It needs to be stressed as we grope for a new foreign policy in the Middle East that Jesus’ life style was fundamentally and consistently non-violent. Not only in the physical sense, that he struck no one. But also in the deeper psychological sense, that he refused to run roughshod over the sensibilities and personalities of those he came to save.

            When the history of the twentieth century is finally written, I believe that it will show that three people above all others were the movers and the shakers of the era: Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Cesar Chavez. All three are identifiable with the non-violence that the manger signifies. Other styles of leadership may have their place, their day, and their function, but when all is said and done what is any reformation worth that does not touch the heart? And what can touch the heart as deeply as one who is willing to bear the afflictions of his people without responding in kind.

            When we lived in Holland, Michigan for several years, we lived on the shore line of Lake Macatawa, which connected by way of a channel to Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes. Huge great lake steamers would come through the channel, pass along the shore right in front of our house, to the port of Holland.  I would often run out to the dock in front of our house to watch the ship.

            Ships are rated by displacement. The thousands of tons of water they displace are the measure of their weight and a hint of their power.  Those ships on Lake Macatawa observed the no-wake zone there. The captains were careful and slow because with their thousands of displacement tonnage and all the power at the ships command, the little boats along the shore would have been smashed had they opened up.

            The soul who is in touch with manger power takes care not to harm others by his displacement. Some people reach the top of their chosen fields but on their way to the summit they make shambles of the lives of other people.

            Manger power is attractive not coercive. But the question we Americans insist on asking is, “How effective is it?” If it works, fine. If it doesn’t, who needs it? Well, is it effective? In a way, no!  Jesus died at the age of 33 and his life expired on the cross, Rome still bestrode the world like a mighty colossus. His ranks were thin and undistinguished.       

            Is it effective?  In a way, yes.  The glory of Rome for all of its pretension, size, and coerciveness is but a memory. Christ is still loved and very much revered. Rome continues as a city not because of its previous connections with the empire, but because of its later associations with the Christian faith.  Manger power is attractive not coercive.

            Religion has been described as a way of valuing. The religious person lives in the same world as the irreligious but places different values on the forces that manufacture history.

            Christmas is a quaint story that claims us by its rustic charm. But Christmas is more than that. It is an event that asks us to declare the kind of power we really believe in, and are ready to stand up for. There is a worldly power that is pretentious, popular and forceful. There is manger power that is modest and not pretentious, and attractive and not coercive. To which does your preference run?

            “She gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger.”

            One of the old gospel hymns had the title, “There’s power in the blood.” I’d be for someone trying their hand at a new hymn, “There’s power in the birth.”

PRAYER

Lord, show us what we are, by revealing the power in which we trust. Where our confidence is low in the kind of power that our savior taught and lived, grant that this holy night may restore our faith and make us believers again.  Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.