She laid him in a manger (Luke 2:7)

The murky stable, the crude manger, the shadowy animals – what a setting for the Holy Babe, for the Lord God!

That scene of undisguised simplicity is God’s personal object lesson for humankind, impressing the seal of his divine approval on the virtue of true humility.  “…unless you change and become like children”, he was to say 30 years later, “you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (NRSV, Matthew 18:3,4).

And in the stable of Bethlehem he gave his own unique proof and example of that truth, for there he manifestly humbled himself and became a child; and who can be greater in the Kingdom of Heaven than the King of Heaven himself?

So St Paul reminds us that though Christ was in the form of God , he took upon him the form of a slave and was born in the likeness of human beings; and being found in human form he humbled himself (Philippians 2:6-8).

He exchanged the splendour and the glory of Heaven for the darkness and grime of earth, and in Bethlehem he for whom nothing could be too good, acted as if anything was good enough.  And why?  Because there was not an atom of self-love in him.  His heart was filled instead with love for his Father and with love for us.  And it is that humble love, held out to us with such innocent and winning persuasiveness, which claims and captures our love in return.

For that wondrous Birth in Bethlehem is no fanciful legend, no pious romance, but a down-to-earth event which, but for the goodness and love of God, would be too good to be true.  Your Maker and your Saviour lay there that night in the crib, and he lay there as much for your sake as for anyone else in the whole wide world.  Cold indeed would be the heart that did not love him in return, colder than that winter’s night.

And coldness of heart is the product of pride, which seeks to be independent of God; and of self-love which puts oneself as the centre of the circle in which one lives one’s life.  Those two attitudes together are the great obstacle in the way of loving God, and they can only be removed by being replaced with humility, by which we gladly accept our utter dependence upon God and make him the centre of our lives.

Self-love often goes unrecognised by the person concerned, but its bitter fruits, which provide irrefutable evidence of its existence, are plain to see – resentment, grudges, envy and spite, ill temper, conceit, an unforgiving spirit.  When one considers such unlovely manifestations it is evident that self-love and love of Christ cannot exist together.

For love of Christ is not a superficial emotion which leaves the will untouched: it is a personal devotion to him which finds practical expression in following his example and in growing in his likeness.

When Christ was born in that stable in Bethlehem it was never the same again.  He transformed it and ever since it has been a holy shrine.  And the same must happen to our souls if it has not already happened.  For Christ’s response to the soul that is devoted to him is to enter that soul and dwell there.   “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (NRSV, John 14:23).

And the result of that indwelling is in St Paul’s words, “…to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (NRSV, Ephesians 3:19).

In other words, the miracle of Christmas has to be re-enacted within the soul and Christ has to be born again within the inmost being of the faithful Christian (cf Galatians 4:19).  Otherwise Christmas will be at best the bare commemoration of an event in the remote past, or at worst nothing more than the occasion for sharing in the world’s holiday spirit and merrymaking.

For there are two Christmasses – the outer and the inner.  The outer consists of the familiar, traditional festivities.  The inner is the soul’s renewal of its union with its Saviour for whom it has prepared a home with humility and love.

In the words of the Christmas hymn:

“Our sinful pride to cure
With that pure love of Thine,
O be Thou born within our hearts,
Most Holy Child divine”. (1)

And so thy birthday morn
Our birthday too shall be.
New-born in thee we celebrate
Our King’s Nativity. (2)

References

1. Coffin, C. (1676 – 1749) (translated Woodford, J.R. and Compilers).  God from on high hath heard.  Available from: http://www.carols.org.uk/a21-god-from-on-high-hath-heard.htm  (Accessed 03 November 2010) (Internet).

2. Coffin, C. (1676 – 1749) (translated Blew, W.J.) Let sighing cease and woe.  Available from: http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/l/l065.html  (Accessed 03 November 2010) (Internet).  Last verse adapted for this website.