In those days a decree went out from the Government and the Chambers of Commerce, fearing a recession, that all the country should spend money. This was the first Shopping Mandate, and was taken while Greenspan was head of the Federal Reserve.

And all went to their own shopping centers to make their purchases, braving gridlock on the freeways, and the crush of other shoppers in the malls; queuing up in airports and in front of cash registers…

And when the time came for Mary to deliver her child, there was no place for them in the stores or the public buildings or even some of the homes…

Traffic jams and crowds – in airports, parking lots, shopping centers – have become our modern-day version of "each to his own city to be counted."

In my lifetime we have gone from the strident voices who said "Keep ‘Christ’ in Christmas!" when one sought so much as to abbreviate "Christmas" as "X-mas," to a culture reflected in a cartoon I read the other day which spoke of a holiday program about "Mary and her Magic Baby."

Christmas for many has become less an observance of the birth of Jesus, the Christ, than an economic indicator, a successful season based on dollars, on how much merchandise has changed hands, and the percentage of the year’s retail profits recorded in December.

And the season, like our presidential campaigns, begins early and stretches on and on…

This season we are once again faced with the challenge of how to keep the awe and wonder of Christmas when, on the one hand, it so easily gets lost in commercialism, and, on the other hand, is so familiar.

Christmas isn’t NEWS: it’s lost its cache.

We no longer gasp in amazement at the fact that God broke in on history – our history – taking on flesh and blood to live among us.

If we know the story at all, we respond as though – "of course." "Yes, I know that." "Well, that was a long time ago…"

Like it’s no big deal.

And yet, of course, it IS a big deal.

How do we claim the marvel of Jesus’ birth when it seems to have gotten lost in the marketing, the detritus of torn wrappings and discarded ribbons, the piles of bills, the groaning tables?

How can we remember that Jesus’ birth isn’t just a marketing ploy, an excuse for a school vacation, or something that happened once, a long time ago, but something that continues to happen, now, today, again and again?

Something with implications beyond our imagination?

The author Ted Loder once described a night shortly before Christmas when he had to walk into a strange and not-very-good neighborhood. He was moving rapidly and purposefully along the sidewalks in a very self-focused way, hoping to get in and out as quickly as possible, when he came upon a house with a large picture window overlooking the street. Inside, taking up the full space of the window, was a nativity scene: Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds… The scene was strikingly in contrast to the dark and dreary neighborhood, and there was something about it that arrested his footsteps. As he stood before that nativity scene he realized what it was: there was no manger. Instead, Mary and Joseph and the angels and the shepherds were all looking directly at him. He was a part of that scene. He was the manger in which the Christ child was being held.

He was the manger in which the Christ Child was being held.

Can we put ourselves in that scene?

Can we stop hurrying through our own dark streets – or brightly lit shopping centers – and allow our attention to be arrested by such a nativity scene?

Can we stand before it – Mary, Joseph, farm animals, the sounds and smells of life all around us…

God in a manger.

God in – US!

Think of it: God as a human baby.

God in us.

If we can grasp that reality – God as baby, God in us – we can begin to reconnect to the awe of Christmas, the hope and wonder of God’s flesh and blood arrival in our mortal world.

It is no accident, I think, that God comes to us as a baby, for it is a way of engaging us.

Not just because babies are cute and – well, engaging!

Babies are a responsibility.

Babies need care and nurture to grow in this world, and they are dependent on us for that to happen!

Jesus-as-a-baby is God’s way of engaging us in doing the work of this world, a way of reminding us that God does with us not for us; that we are co-creators with God.

This year, as every year, we pause in the midst of our busy-ness to remind ourselves of the birth of Jesus, God-as-baby.

There may be no room for his birth in the mall, or the public places, or even in some homes – but there is room in our hearts.

Can we open them once again to receive his life in us?

Can we begin to feel the new life, the newborn babe, stir within?

May his life in us grow, that we may carry him with us into all our this-world endeavors, and that through us his presence may be felt, a wonder that the Lord has made known to us!

Amen.