Who's in the Crèche?
There's uproar about a Nativity scene.
It's always something at Christmas, right? Rage. War. Anger. It's not Christmas until someone has flipped out for using the wrong words to share well-wishes. We're ungrateful ninnies.
What is it this time? Same old everything. Wishing happy holidays is declaring war. Starbucks Christmas cups carry more political baggage than coffee. And new this year: the Vatican Nativity scene included distracting ugliness, so I'm told.
What should a Nativity scene look like? Who belongs in the Nativity? What should we see?
First, we should see our family. The incarnation fundamentally changed our relationship with God. He is human. We, formed in his image, are like him. He, born a child, is like us. Fully God. But also truly and fully human. He came to us. He came for us. He came as one of us.
What else? Well. The first people there were the shepherds. Shepherds. Stinky and unwashed nobodies. They are us. We, stinky and unwashed nobodies, are invited by glorious singing angels to meet the King of Heaven and Earth. Come adore.
It's easy to get a little lost in cuteness. Adorable? What a cute baby. Adorable. Adore-able. Adore. He humbled himself. At Christmas we risk losing track of awe in favor of awwww.
The Nativity scenes we're used to seeing are cleaned up. That's wonderful! It's a perfectly reasonable artistic choice to focus on the astounding beauty. Supernatural, and yet...
The beauty was actually something which would be easy to miss. A poor couple had a baby in a barn and they were visited by the lowest of the low in social circles. We are recalling the glory of that holy night, and we play up the beauty. That's ok. It draws your mind to a real thing. Joy. Impossible world-shaking joy.
We're used to seeing Nativity scenes which picture us. Or our family anyway. Nativities around the world are pictured with traditional local style. The colors, the complexion, even the setting varies. No matter who you are, you get to look at the holy family and see your family.
This Nativity goes a different way. Do you see yourself? Probably not. Do you see your neighbor? More to the point, do you see Christ in your neighbor?
Do you see an ugly thing which prioritizes human action over the incarnation? This is the mistake of a Protestant. Faith or works? They cannot be separated. It's not just that we own both as Catholics; it's much much more. They are inseparable. Faith without works is dead, right? Faith in Jesus, who is the Life, is dead. That doesn't mean bland and flat. That means not faith at all! Faith in something other than Christ! The good works are the life of the belief, without which the belief is a cold, dead thing. Without which, Christ is an intellectual curiosity.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word became Life and dwelt among us. The active life of faith is the faith. Word. Life. Incarnation. His mother is our mother. His father is our Father. The Word Incarnate. To love him is to love his people. And let's be perfectly clear: his people are dirty, ugly, sick, broken, naked people.
The acts of our faith are not token gestures. God said do these things so we're checking boxes to get to Heaven? No. Our faith must be a living, loving, active faith because Jesus is the people around us. If you don't see the innocent infant King in the homeless man, you don't know Christ! If you kneel reverently in front of the beautiful and familiar Nativity, but you don't recognize the cries of our Lord in the needs of the people around you, you don't know that child. You do not know the person you claim to worship. You have not met him. Worse? He doesn't know you.
It's ok to dislike any artistic rendering which you don't like.
But if you see a sermon and the sermon places the corporal works of mercy front and center in the Nativity? That's not a distraction. That's the point. The essential being, the story of the Nativity, the person, the living love, our Lord. He is present in the people in need. If the homeless man on the church step is a distraction, you do not know the King of Kings.
You do not have to appreciate the art. But if you heard that sermon and disagreed with the message rather than the presentation? Lord have mercy.
It's always something at Christmas, right? Rage. War. Anger. It's not Christmas until someone has flipped out for using the wrong words to share well-wishes. We're ungrateful ninnies.
What is it this time? Same old everything. Wishing happy holidays is declaring war. Starbucks Christmas cups carry more political baggage than coffee. And new this year: the Vatican Nativity scene included distracting ugliness, so I'm told.
What should a Nativity scene look like? Who belongs in the Nativity? What should we see?
First, we should see our family. The incarnation fundamentally changed our relationship with God. He is human. We, formed in his image, are like him. He, born a child, is like us. Fully God. But also truly and fully human. He came to us. He came for us. He came as one of us.
What else? Well. The first people there were the shepherds. Shepherds. Stinky and unwashed nobodies. They are us. We, stinky and unwashed nobodies, are invited by glorious singing angels to meet the King of Heaven and Earth. Come adore.
It's easy to get a little lost in cuteness. Adorable? What a cute baby. Adorable. Adore-able. Adore. He humbled himself. At Christmas we risk losing track of awe in favor of awwww.
The Nativity scenes we're used to seeing are cleaned up. That's wonderful! It's a perfectly reasonable artistic choice to focus on the astounding beauty. Supernatural, and yet...
The beauty was actually something which would be easy to miss. A poor couple had a baby in a barn and they were visited by the lowest of the low in social circles. We are recalling the glory of that holy night, and we play up the beauty. That's ok. It draws your mind to a real thing. Joy. Impossible world-shaking joy.
We're used to seeing Nativity scenes which picture us. Or our family anyway. Nativities around the world are pictured with traditional local style. The colors, the complexion, even the setting varies. No matter who you are, you get to look at the holy family and see your family.
This Nativity goes a different way. Do you see yourself? Probably not. Do you see your neighbor? More to the point, do you see Christ in your neighbor?
Do you see an ugly thing which prioritizes human action over the incarnation? This is the mistake of a Protestant. Faith or works? They cannot be separated. It's not just that we own both as Catholics; it's much much more. They are inseparable. Faith without works is dead, right? Faith in Jesus, who is the Life, is dead. That doesn't mean bland and flat. That means not faith at all! Faith in something other than Christ! The good works are the life of the belief, without which the belief is a cold, dead thing. Without which, Christ is an intellectual curiosity.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word became Life and dwelt among us. The active life of faith is the faith. Word. Life. Incarnation. His mother is our mother. His father is our Father. The Word Incarnate. To love him is to love his people. And let's be perfectly clear: his people are dirty, ugly, sick, broken, naked people.
The acts of our faith are not token gestures. God said do these things so we're checking boxes to get to Heaven? No. Our faith must be a living, loving, active faith because Jesus is the people around us. If you don't see the innocent infant King in the homeless man, you don't know Christ! If you kneel reverently in front of the beautiful and familiar Nativity, but you don't recognize the cries of our Lord in the needs of the people around you, you don't know that child. You do not know the person you claim to worship. You have not met him. Worse? He doesn't know you.
It's ok to dislike any artistic rendering which you don't like.
But if you see a sermon and the sermon places the corporal works of mercy front and center in the Nativity? That's not a distraction. That's the point. The essential being, the story of the Nativity, the person, the living love, our Lord. He is present in the people in need. If the homeless man on the church step is a distraction, you do not know the King of Kings.
You do not have to appreciate the art. But if you heard that sermon and disagreed with the message rather than the presentation? Lord have mercy.
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