A Vinalhaven Christmas

The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke, the 2^nd Chapter

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to

whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. 

When I was a kid, the thing that meant that Christmas was getting really close was when we brought the box with our Nativity set down from the attic.  Our set was a poured, white, ceramic set that my mom had made in a class.  She made it while my dad was in Vietnam and I think she did it more to keep busy than anything else. 

There is a legend that the first person to introduce the Nativity set at Christmas was Saint Francis.  He created this first Nativity set to make the birth of Jesus seem more real to the people where he lived.  He wasn’t trying to convince them that Jesus had really been born.  The people believed that just fine.   Instead, what he really wanted them to understand was that the message the shepherds heard... “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”  He wanted his people, in that time, to hear that as not just a message for Jewish shepherds way back when, but as a message meant for THEM... that Jesus was born for THEM.   

To help them understand that, St. Francis made the Nativity characters to look like them.  He made the place where Jesus was born look like their Italian barns and put animals in the barn that were the same as the animals they took care of every day.  It didn’t teach them the history of the birth of Jesus, but it wasn’t supposed to.  Instead it taught them that Jesus was their Messiah too... that God loved them and cared about them, right there in their everyday, hardworking, just trying to get by, complaining when it’s too dang hot, gripping when it’s too dang cold, laughing in the good times, crying in the bad times lives.  God loved them too.  Right where they lived.  Just how they were.  God loved them too.   

In my family after we got down the Nativity set from the attic we would take books from the bookcase where it went and stack them up in little piles to make little hills and then cover them with a piece of green velvet to place the figures in their proper places.  The pieces didn’t look Middle Eastern or Jewish or like they were from 2000 years ago.  They looked more like they were from Europe in the Middle Ages but we didn’t really care.  Setting up that Nativity wasn’t supposed to remind my family that Jesus had been born.  We knew that.  What we needed from that Nativity is just what it gave us each year.  We needed a reminder that things would be OK.  That in spite of dad being gone on another tour of duty, God loved us and was watching out for us all.  That in spite of horrible things like cancer, addiction, and a deadly fire that hit our family, God was with us through it all.  We weren’t the family with the most troubles, but we weren’t ever the family with the least either.  No matter what happened that year, we set up that Nativity set and were reminded, “To US IS born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  

What Saint Francis had started spread around the world.  As the faith spread to different cultures so too did the Nativity Set.  Each country dressed the characters in the clothes they wore.  When the Nativity Set got to Scandinavia, reindeer looked on at the birth and Mary was blonde with blue eyes.  When it got to Africa, the characters looked African.  There were always characters playing music because music is always played as a woman gives birth.  In one culture there is a guy bringing beer, because in that culture you always bring a gift of beer for a birth!  In Japan, Mary was Asian and wore a Kimono, in Peru there are llamas watching, in far Northern Alaska, seals and polar bears watch while Mary looks over her new baby in an igloo wearing a fur lined coat.  

No matter where the people lived.  No matter what color their skin or hair or eyes, no matter what kind of cloths they wore or the kinds of animals they saw every day, the details of their Nativity Sets would change to look like they did, BUT the message stayed the same, “I am bringing you good news of great joy for ALL people: to YOU is born this day a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

To the shepherds 2000 years ago in Israel, that was the message of Christmas:  God loves you unconditionally and has sent YOU His Son to show YOU that love.  To the people Saint Francis preached to 1000 years ago in Italy, that was the message of Christmas:  God loves you unconditionally and has sent YOU His Son to show YOU that love.  To my family back in the late 60’s and early 70’s with a dad doing a third tour flying combat missions over Vietnam that was the message of Christmas:  God loves you unconditionally and has sent YOU His Son to show YOU that love.  

Now, I can’t carve figures for you and your community like Saint Francis did for the people he preached to 1000 years ago.  The best I could do was to write a story... see what you think:

In those days a decree went out that the Maine shrimp season would be cancelled. It hit folks real hard. Some understood. Some didn't. Understand it or not, like it or not, it hit Joe particularly hard. His wife, Mary was expecting… any minute to tell the truth… and he had really been counting on the shrimp season to see them through the winter. Of course, things like babies don't wait for good times to be born and Mary went into labor. It happened faster than either of them expected, in fact there was no making it into town so she gave birth right there in the office of the Co-op. 

It was really just a shack at the end of the pier; vertical planks of wind and salt weathered wood hung with old buoys and a large sliding door decorated with a "lobster crossing" sign. A hydraulic winch used to swing crates and traps up from below stood by unused.  Inside it was dark.  More buoys were hung in the rafters over a lobster tank alive with the constant flow of water pumped up from the sea.  In the corner of the shack there was an enclosed office with a desk, a chair and a stove made out of an old metal barrel.  On the foot worn planks that served as the floor of that office, Mary gave birth to a son.

Out on the water, lobstermen who hadn't already given up for the season were pulling traps, braving the cold in the hopes of finding just a few more to sell as the price slowly crept up while the temperature quickly raced down.  Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and the guys were terrified and yelled... (well, you can imagine what they yelled, but we won’t go there since this is church after all) Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, I have come to bring you some incredible news. To you, yes, YOU... THIS day… God has sent his Son, to try once again to get it into your heads that God loves you!  Loves you more than you could ever imagine, no matter what you've done or not done and even in spite of your very creative language skills! To prove it, you’ll find the baby down at the Co-op, over where Fred works, you know the place.” And suddenly with that one angel were a whole ton of angels all singing “Glory to God in the highest and peace to God’s people on Earth.”

They got on their radios and told each other that they HAD to go see and off they went.   When they got to the dock, of course, Jimmy, who's always heavy handed with the throttles, came in too fast and hit hard, but then he’s always hard on his equipment. But as they climbed up, there in the shack at the end of the pier, just like the angel had said, was Mary and Joe... and the baby. 

Outside the sliding door looking in on the scene were seagulls perched on the drums of bait. They were quiet for a change. There were a pair of seals too that had hauled themselves up on a float and were looking in and even though it seemed impossible, the lobsters in the crates inside the tank were looking on too. 

They guys told Mary what they had seen out on the water; what the angel had told them about her baby and about the heavenly host. (They left out the part with their language and being scared, but the rest they told her word for word.) Then the lobstermen all went out and got a beer...or maybe several and they told everyone what they had seen out on the water that day, but Mary back home with her baby, kept it all in her heart.

Now, I know this isn't the way it happened 2000 years ago, but that doesn't mean it isn't the truth:  God loves YOU.  Jesus was born for YOU.  You folks that come here all the time AND you that got dragged here for just today AND everyone else who isn’t here, ALL OF YOU!  God loves you, no if’s, and’s or but’s, and God has sent YOU His Son to show YOU that love.  God loves you so much... thinks of you SO MUCH, no matter who you are, where you are, what you do, where you’ve been, what you’ve done, what you didn’t do... God has sent his Son to YOU to show you God’s INFINITE and UNCONDITIONAL love for YOU!  THAT is YOUR message this Christmas.  May you hear it.  May you KNOW it and hold it in your heart and may you pass it along to everyone you see and in everything you do in this season, and all throughout the year.  Amen.