The Vulnerable God

Growing up in West Texas, both my grandmother and we had those Christmas trees that you may recall from your past Christmases, the silver ones made from aluminum that had the rotating wheel with 4 colors, red, green blue and white, slowly turning, lighting up the Christmas tree. 

Being in El Paso, we were so close to Mexico that you could literally throw a stone over the Rio Grande and hit the other side of the border.  One year a truck full of folks came and they were selling Christmas decorations.  I was at my grandmother’s house, the light shining on the silver Christmas tree, red, then green, then blue and then while.  The doorbell rang, my grandmother answered the door, and there was someone selling a Santa Claus made of paper.  Now being Polish, grandma didn’t speak English, but she understood that the person from Mexico was trying to sell this Santa Claus made of paper.  The colors were right, red and white clothes with a black belt and boots, but his red and white hat was pointy and he had a big string on it.  She bought it for $1 and she gave it to me and my parents as a Christmas decoration.  Dad placed it right near our aluminum Christmas tree at our house and every year, Dad would go up in the attic and take that Santa Claus down and put it right next to the Christmas tree.

 

For years, that was the Christmas ritual, paper Santa Claus from Mexico came down from the attic and placed right next to our Christmas tree.  We knew it was special, but it was special because grandma gave it to us: it was a reminder of her and that night so long ago.  It wasn’t until my Aunt Nora, whose family was from Mexico, told us what it was.  It was a “piñata” filled with candies.  Even with that knowledge, it was never broken, and that Santa Claus came down from the attic year after year, and I think it is still in my mom’s attic this year.  Those were our ordinary Christmases where I was cared for, protected, and loved by my parents and grand-parents.

Tonight, a young couple, ordinary in every way, Mary and Joseph, have found out what their saying “yes” to God has brought into the world.

 

Tonight, Joseph and Mary know what all parents realize when they have their first child, and that we grand-parents are reminded of with our grand-children: that striking realization that children are vulnerable, they cannot take of themselves, they are totally dependent on their parents to care for them in every way, to feed them, to change their diapers, to cloth them, to protect them.  They are totally in our hands.

 

Tonight, God makes his way into the world to show us his face, and we see the very face of God made flesh in the person of Jesus, not in power and great glory, but in totally helplessness, we see the face of God in a tiny vulnerable baby, and God has put himself in human hands to be taken care of, feed, clothed, diapers changed, protected and loved.  

Tonight, we see the very face of God, and the face of God is a new born baby who is wrapped in bands of cloth and laid in a manger, an eating trough for sheep and cows. 

God, the creator of the universe, has become the created.  God has become one with us, Emmanuel, and God shows us what he looks like tonight in the face of a new born child. He does not come to the high and mighty.  No, the message that he has arrived, is first given to the poor who are working, tending sheep, and God’s messengers sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace among those whom he favors,” and God’s announcement is to the least among us.  God shows his favor, he first shows his face to the poorest or the poor.

And the light is so bright, that it frightens them, the light of God is such that it makes the shepherds transparent, and God’s messenger says to the shepherds, “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.” In a stable among animals, among the poor, among people like you. 

God has shown us his face, and his glory shines in the face of the new born baby in the manger, he was who has come to feed the world depends on Mary and Joseph to feed him; he who has come so that you and I might see now depends on Mary and Joseph to clothe him and to carry him, he who has come to save us now depends on Mary and Joseph to protect him.  He through whom all things were created has placed himself as a tiny babe into human care.

God has shown his face to the world, as a vulnerable child. God has entrusted Himself as a helpless baby into human hands, into Mary and Joseph’s hands, into our hands.  Let us guard the Christ child in our hearts and in our lives, who has come to set us free, and let us care for the baby Jesus.