December 18, 2011
Advent IV
The Rev. Julia W. Messer
‘Tis the season of Advent and Christmas pageants! There are many ways to tell or share the story of Jesus’ birth. One way is through nativity plays or Christmas pageants, and another would be nativity scenes or crèches. Since we are having our Christmas pageant at the 11:00 service, today is a perfect day to examine nativity plays.
Emmanuel, along with perhaps thousands of other Christian churches, will present their versions of a Christmas pageant sometime in December before Christmas day. Why do we do it? Where did they come from? Where does this tradition come from?
I bet most of us remember either being in one as a child or being the adult on the hunt for the perfect bathrobe to represent the king’s robes….or perhaps both are memories.
By a show of hands, how may of you have been apart of a Christmas pageant? … I can relate.
Since I can remember, some of my earliest memories of church were being in a Christmas pageant. I can remember almost every Christmas pageant I participated in as a child. There was almost a rite of passage as my brother and I grew older because we took on more responsible roles with lots to memorize. I started as a lamb and grew to become a little angel, then a reader, and finally, the archangel Gabriele and narrator. But I would like to point out that my brother began on a similar path. He started as a lamb, then became a shepherd, and ended as the donkey—a point I’ve reminded him of on several occasions. Despite my ribbing him about his role, we both realized that our roles were to be taken seriously. That’s the amazing thing about nativity plays-- we are a part of the greatest story ever told! We get to interact and be a part of the story of the Messiah coming into the world.
Each year we do this to remember the story of the night that the Light of the world came into the world and the darkness did not overcome it. We remember the day over 2,000 years ago when a baby was born in a stable. He would go on to change the world forever. He offered God’s saving grace; He taught people to live their lives in a radical way --that we are loved by God and we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. This tiny baby boy was God incarnate, and it can be hard to imagine that when the Savior came into the world, He would come in such a common and uncommon way.
Jesus was born to a young woman named Mary; a woman visited by a messenger of God and told that she would bear the savior of the world. Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph, who made the decision to stay with her and raise this child as his own. Then Jesus was brought into the world, in a manger among animals, yet his birth was heralded by angels and a star lead wise men to his cradle.
It is an amazing and powerful story, which can get covered up in the hustle and bustle of all that we do around Christmas time. We may put more focus on what we will eat, what gifts we have bought others, and we may get so caught up in expecting the Christmas ‘magic’ to happen that we may forget the simple yet powerful story of Christ’s birth.
In that way we are no different than our ancestors hundreds of years ago. Saint Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity play on Christmas Eve, 1223. While St Francis was born to a wealthy family he gave everything up and led a life helping lepers and building monasteries to help the poor and sick of his community. St. Francis was said to be a wonderful preacher, but he wanted people to focus on and to remember the story of Jesus’ birth. At that time when most people could not read, St. Francis wanted a way to convey the powerful story of Christ’s birth and he wanted people to feel even more a part of the Christmas story. So some monks and he, along with an ox, donkey and a recreated manger, reenacted the Nativity.
There you have it; we are a part of a long historical tradition, which of course we Episcopalians are known to be proud of. By being a part of a Christmas pageant, we carry on one of the most interactive ways to be a part of the greatest story ever told -- the story of Christ’s birth into this world. So on this 4th Sunday of Advent at our 11:00 service, our children will perform a Christmas pageant, helping Emmanuel to carry on a tradition credited to St. Francis of Assisi almost 800 years ago.
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In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
