The Reality of the Nativity
By Jon Nicol
What follows is an segment from the ebook, The Taming of Christmas, with a short scripture reading and discussion questions added. It's designed to use as a team devotional with your worship team during the advent season. I'll post a new one each Monday for the next three weeks leading up to Christmas.
The Reality of the Nativity
We like the Christmas story, because we like the baby Jesus. Babies cause us to be sentimental. Babies are cute. Babies are loveable. And babies are safe. The most pious among us may scorn the idea of baby Jesus being represented as furry woodland creature or a child’s play toy. But our notion of the Incarnate Deity isn’t too far away from that.
We talk about the stable and the manger, with the fresh bed of hay and the company of quiet animals. But we forget that a stable is a barn. And a manger is a feeding trough. And we forget to mention in our stories of the nativity that farm animals stink.
Jesus was born in a mess.
We also talk about Mary and Joseph and the good people that they were. And they were good people. But would we have thought so had we been their neighbors?
“She’s pregnant.”
“She’s what?!”
“That’s right, and I heard it isn’t even Joseph’s.”
“Well, I never…”
We forget that the stable is a barn, the manger is a feeding trough, and the young Virgin Mary carrying the Son of God in her womb looks suspiciously like a pregnant teenager. Frowned upon in our day, punishable by death in her’s. Not only was Jesus born in a mess; he was born into a messy situation.
Read: Matthew 1:18-24
Discuss:
What are some ways churches hide, or at least overlook, the “reality of the Nativity” during the Christmas season? Are we guilty of this? Why or why not?
Is the “reality of the Nativity” important to our worship of Jesus? Why, or why not?
As a worship team, what can we do to appropriately communicate the “reality of the Nativity”?
If you like this segment, you'll enjoy the full devotional. You can read more and purchase it here.
November 26, 2012
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