Meeting God in the Manure
A Weary World Rejoices - Part 4
Sunday, December 4, 2020
Luke 2:1-20
…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.”
Luke 2:11-12
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Behold your King and before him lowly bend!
We sing a lot this time of year about worshipping and bowing before Christ our King, but the more surprising question of Christmas is, where are we to find this king and to whom is the invitation to honor him sent? In the Emmaus and Pilgrimage community we often say a prayer that goes something like this. “Lord, bless the one who needs a touch from you the most and bless the one who has the tremendous problem of thinking they have no problems at all.” It’s funny how we sing about God knowing our need and our weakness while we ourselves are often the first to say we don’t need anything and are the last to admit our weakness. As Matthew West writes in his latest song, “Truth Be Told,” we say,
"I'm fine, yeah, I'm fine, oh, I'm fine, hey, I'm fine"
But I'm not, I'm broken
And when it's out of control I say it's under control
But it's not and You know it
We tend to portray the shepherds as lowly, needy outcasts on the margins of their society. In some ways this can make it difficult for us to identify with them because we rarely see ourselves as outcasts living on the margins. I imagine, however, that they may have been proud people like us who didn’t see themselves as particularly needy. After all, they worked hard and sacrificed a great deal to protect the sheep under their care, even if the sheep most likely belonged to some landowner who would collect the lion’s share of the wealth or profit from their labor.
When banquets or other important functions came around, it would be the landowner sitting around the table boasting about his massive flocks that he rarely if ever sees while the uninvited shepherds are literally stuck out in the cold making sure their bosses assets don’t freeze.
Whether we see ourselves as marginalized, privileged, or somewhere in between, we all live with brokenness. The good news of the Christmas story is that God meets us first in the manure, not in the mansion. Well, it’s good news, that is, if we’re actually willing to step into the mess and kneel before the newborn king in the manger.
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
Video of the complete worship service available at http://asburyumc-huntersville.com/live