Bethlehem, Shepherds, a Stable, and a Cardboard Box

            I have a friend who loves to send me jokes about blonde women.  Paul, better known as Mark, and even better known as “Bear,” has been a friend since college and, since those long ago days, he has reveled in sending the most atrocious blonde jokes he can find to the inbox of my email account… usually accompanied by a widely-grinning yellow round smiley face.  One recurring theme in these jokes, is one of the blonde taking something that she views as unimportant… or insignificant… like a sparkplug, for example, out a piece of machinery… or, perhaps, a small amount of yeast out of a recipe for bread… and then being totally clueless about why the machine won’t to operate or the bread won’t rise.   The blonde, of course, is convinced that it is because there is a conspiracy afoot… probably, one between the bread dough and the machine.

The latest blonde joke I received had the blonde taking the ripcord out of a parachute because it was not aesthetically pleasing to look at.  She, of course, neglects to inform her significant other of this until he is in the middle of his parachute jump… when she calls him on her cell phone to report her latest disaster… a broken fingernail or something like that… and to complain that he is late for their lunch date.  “But, honey, it was ugly,” she replies, when he screams at her.  Small things… sometimes ugly things… plain things that seem unimportant… and, yet, in reality are the key… the lynchpin, if you will… to an entire operation.

“But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.  Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel.  And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace.”

            I wonder what the people of Judah thought when Micah spoke these words to them in the turmoil before the overthrow of that kingdom by King Sennacherib of Assyria.  Bethlehem was just a tiny village.  It had never been much of a town.  It was the home of shepherds and had been for centuries.  The only thing Bethlehem was known for was being the birthplace of King David.  But King David was dead and his huge kingdom had split in two and was now threatened by outside forces.  God had sent several prophets to speak to the people of Israel and Judah – to warn them of the destruction to come.  Micah was the last of these prophets.

After the prophet Micah fell silent, it would be 400 years before the Jews would hear the voice of God speaking to them through another prophet.  That prophet would be John the Baptist… an insignificant person… a nobody from the wilderness.  And it would be John who would remind them of the promised salvation in God’s words to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah.  It would be John who would tell the Jews that the time for their salvation had arrived. 

            But Micah said that their Savior would come from tiny Bethlehem.  Bethlehem?  Tiny, insignificant little Bethlehem?  Yes.  Tiny, insignificant little Bethlehem was the village chosen by God as the birthplace of our Savior and King.  Is there any doubt in your mind that our great God can take a tiny, insignificant village and elevate it to a holy place?  That the Creator of the world can turn the sandy streets of Bethlehem into gold dust and a simple stable into a palace fit for a king?  Probably not.  But then you and I have the advantage of looking back through the reality of the cross to the events that preceded Christ’s saving action and God’s glorious grace.  We know the outcome before we read the words.  But, for the Jews of first century Palestine, on the other hand, it was probably a stretch that they could not make.  After all, they were just a poor, insignificant part of the great Roman Empire – a tiny, insignificant dot on the map.  What good could come out of Bethlehem?

And then, the good news of the Messiah’s birth came to shepherds watching sheep on a hillside at night.  This was another mind-bending contradiction.  Why would God announce the Messiah’s birth to shepherds… to the poorest of the poor… to shepherds who, more often than not, did not even own the sheep that they tended?  They were just hired hands.  Being a shepherd was a hard… dirty… lonely… unrewarding life.

And then, the shepherds found the baby in a stable… Oh, no… wait!  Not the pretty, cleaned up little stable that we usually see in a crèche, but a small… dirty… crowded… little hovel with a straw roof that smelled of sweat… and manure… and overworked animals… that was filled with flies… and rats… and other insects and rodents.  Yes, in tiny Bethlehem… in a crowded and smelly stable… the shepherds found a very young… very poor… peasant girl…and a tiny baby.  Why did God choose to do it this way?  And what does it mean for us today?  God’s actions in this story seem bewildering and incomprehensible… and, yet, God’s actions are always true to God’s nature and God’s being.

Listen again to the drumbeat of the words in our text today. In the village of Bethlehem … to poor shepherds on a hillside… to a poor peasant woman… in a crowded little stable…  The words we hear over and over again are “poor… unimportant… insignificant… unworthy.”  But, from these things, God creates a life-changing… world-changing… cosmic event.  A tiny village in Judah becomes the birthplace of a king… the Son of God.  Insignificant workingmen are the first to hear the incredible news… from choirs of angels… of the birth of the Messiah.  And a poor peasant girl becomes the mother of God… in a dirty, little stable.  And we struggle with the mystery:  Why?

It is the Apostle Paul who provides the answer.  To the church in Corinth, he writes, “God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.  Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;  God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.  He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

The marvelous mystery of Christ’s birth and the puzzling paradox that it presents were given by God in this way, so that we would know that it was God who did this... that it was not a function of wealth… or privilege…or human power…or human politics.  It was so that we would be forced to acknowledge that it was through the power of our Creator that our Redeemer was born… that it was only through God that our redemption could happen.  … that it was only through the power of God that the most insignificant and unworthy could become significant and worthy.  And that what humankind chose to despise could be used by God for great and glorious things.

Do you think that God has changed?  Do you believe that God moves and acts in a different way today than in centuries past?  No.  We have only to look around us or read through history to see how God continues to use what humankind chooses to despise for great and glorious things.  How else could a poor boy from the ghettos in Poland become Pope and the religious leader of millions of Christians?  How else could one woman from Albania start a mission to the outcastes of India that now has Missionaries of Charity in countries around the world touching the lives of the poor and the needy?

Has God changed?  No.  And, if God can make a tiny village like Bethlehem the birthplace of a king, what do you think that God can do with Stephenville, Texas?  And, if God can take the tribe of Benjamin in Judah and cause a line of kings to come from that tribe, what do you think that God can do with the congregation of First Presbyterian Church?  And, if God can take a poor peasant girl from Nazareth and make her the mother of God, what do you think God can do with just one person – a man or woman – who is here tonight?

Yes, God can even use an old, dusty cardboard box sitting long forgotten on a shelf of a cupboard.  Do you remember the story that Leesa told of the forgotten cardboard box that became the collection plate for gifts to God at an ordination service earlier this month? Ugly… insignificant… and eminently forgettable… but chosen for a holy purpose… like the manger in Bethlehem… to serve God’s purpose.

God has not changed.  Even today, God continues to choose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.  God continues to choose what is weak to shame the strong.  God continues to choose what is low and despised in the world to show forth God’s glory.  Never doubt what God can do – and will do – with the most insignificant and unworthy among us.  For God is not searching for the most holy… the most wise… the most wealthy… the most successful… the most powerful… or the most influential person in our midst.  God is searching for you.  (Pause)  God is searching for you … and for me.  For, like little Bethlehem… like poor shepherds… like the tiny stable… and the old cardboard box… God is searching for the poor… the unimportant… the unworthy … and the insignificant in the eyes of the world so that God’s actions can only be attributed to God’s power and God’s might.  And that is why, when God acts, God chooses men and women like you… and like me.  So, this Christmas, expect the unexpected… for that is who… and what… the baby in the manger is.  Amen.

Micah 5:2-5a