Stinky Night, Holy Night

Ever wonder what that first night was really like?  What it would be to travel back in time to Bethlehem when everything was happening, the chaos of a baby’s birth in such a strange place in an insignificant town in a tiny remote province of the great Roman Empire?  It wouldn’t have been as pretty as a Christmas card, that’s for sure.  The mom and dad were wandering from place to place, looking for a roof over their heads for the night and not even finding a tent to keep the snow off.  No cell phone to find an Air BNB either.  The desperation Joseph felt searching for somewhere safe, the frustration Mary had, and maybe fear of having to go through an ordeal she had never personally experienced before, and to do it far from her family and community, is not what we talk about when we think of the first Christmas.

And the stink would not have been mentioned either.  Animals kept indoors will do what animals do.  No litter boxes back then, no paper training or air freshener there.  No toilet paper either.  All the time travel novels don’t mention that the hardest part of going back in time would be the smells because our plumbing systems and soap for personal hygiene didn’t become popular or affordable until the crusades!  

We don’t think about stinks and spirituality combining, and yet isn’t that the picture we see when we look deeply at a Christmas card?  A holy baby, glowing with a special radiance, right beside the animals, the cows and sheep and donkeys and camels and probably a few rats as well, hiding in the hay.  That is the scandal of the Christmas message.  The scandal that when something so special, so unusual, so surprising, so hopeful comes into our world, that you would think belongs in palaces or beautiful places, that’s not where it comes.  It comes into our messy everyday lives even in the midst of chaos and confusion.  We may be living the stress of finding a place to live, or the frustration of feeling out of control of our world.  We may be living in the fear of what may happen next, of politics being done to us rather than with us, of decisions being made far away that will impact our daily lives.  All these frustrations and fears and anxieties were present in Mary and Joseph’s world.  They knew war and hunger and strife.  They lived in a land where they had no vote, where the only police were the occupying army, and where there was only justice and law for wealthy Roman Citizens.  Into this time of uncertainty, a baby was born.  He grew up to be a man of such extraordinary ideas and incredible vision that his followers wrote stories to try to put into words all that he meant to them.  In a time when very few people had the skills and knowledge to read, never mind write, this would have been astonishing.  More writing was done about Jesus than any other person until that time.  Writing was also for keeping track of records or sending instructions and was expensive.  Hard-working peasants who had to work to keep from starving, were not going waste their precious time or money to get someone to write down their memories of some guy they knew, any more than they had time to take a bath with a bar of soap.  

And yet this man turned their world of fear, anxiety, hopelessness, and conflict on its head, so much so that they wrote that on the day he was born, the first good news was that humanity was not to be afraid, that there were tidings of great joy.  This surprising message of hope was delivered to the stinkiest place in town, a stable full of animals and homeless refugees.

We need tidings of great joy.  We may have soap and sanitizers and air fresheners, but our souls, our character, our thoughts may be needing a thorough scrubbing.  What would it look like if we could hear those words of the angels with fresh ears, “be not afraid” in ways that gave us life and energy?  These words have inspired great change and great hopes.  Where would Gretta Thunberg be if she let fear hold her back?  Where would Barack Obama be if he let fear hold him back?  Where would Mother Theresa have been if she had let fear hold her back?  Where would Volodymyr Zelensky be if he let fear hold him back? 

In 1961, Dr. Howard Thurman wrote: The symbol of Christmas… is the brooding Presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked paths straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hopes stirred with the newness of life. It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil. And from a German prison during World War 2, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “Human beings are dehumanized by fear but we should not be afraid.”  Living fearless compassionate lives changes the world for the better.

The surprise of the Bethlehem story is that the strength to live fearless lives comes even in the strangest, stinkiest places, and if it comes in a manger, that surprising gift of hope will come even into our lives no matter how chaotic or painful, like the most gloriously surprising song of angels and shepherds, cows and sheep.  Thanks be to God for this wonderful Christmas present, given freely to us all! Amen.