Glory to God in the Lowest

Are you ready for Christmas?

That’s how way we greet one another the last few days before the holiday arrives, and for good reason.

Christmas takes so much preparation! House decorations, for one thing. Although I hear there are companies who will do it for you. I’m sure that kind of service is expensive, but depending on your level of desperation it might be worth the cost. How about those last minute gifts that you meant to buy but forgot because of all the other things that are on your mind? Thank goodness for Amazon—home delivery is one of the greatest blessings of this or any season.

Then there are the people you need to reach out to: family, friends, business associates, neighbors. For many of us, Christmas is when we connect with folks that we don’t hear from any other time of the year, and we don’t want to miss the opportunity. I think that’s why Christmas cards are coming back into vogue. They can be a chore, but the benefits are worth it. I know I’m happy to see smiling pictures of people I care about posted on my refrigerator this time of year. I hope the cards my wife and I sent out just last week will get the same treatment.

So when we ask, “Are you ready for Christmas?” we’re referring to all the stuff that has to be done before the day gets here. It’s a big list because Christmas is a big deal, a truth made clear by how powerfully it affects us. From holidays for business, schools and government to consumer spending that determines the fate of our national economy to family activites that determine the fate of our personal lives, Christmas is the day that we circle in red on the calendar. Each year, we count the days until it arrives and as soon as it’s over we begin thinking about what the next one will be like.

But in these frantic days leading up to Christmas Day, maybe we should take a step back and take a more measured look at how we’re celebrating the holiday, and why. Instead of adopting a modern American version of the drama of the angelic chorus as it sang “Glory to God in the Highest” at Jesus’ birth, I wonder if we shouldn’t think through what it means to celebrate a Christmas along the lines of the equal but opposite truth and think of Christmas in terms of “Glory to God in the Lowest.”

What would Christmas be like if our perspective shifted from bigness and busyness to smallness and stillness? Before you think I’m crazy or ignoring the biblical record of Jesus’ birth, bear with me. Alongside the glory of the angelic choir announcing Jesus’ birth, there’s another kind of glory that touches us at a more personal level. What I’m getting at is three aspects of Christmas that you might not have thought about before—the lowliness of God’s approach, the lowliness of God’s arrival and the lowliness of God’s audience.

You can see the lowliness of God’s approach in Mary—the young mother of Jesus—through the astonishing events surrounding Jesus’ birth. Just think about it. There was the supernatural visitation to Mary by the angel Gabriel a few months before when she was informed that she would be the mother of God’s own son. The undeniable fact of her miraculous pregnancy. The long journey to Bethlehem that ended with her giving birth in a stable. The visitation of the shepherds, a group of rough, rowdy farm hands crowding around the manger. Later, the Wise Men, a more refined collection of visitors, paid their respects.

But Mary goes through it all with a simple attitude of trust, faith and obedience:

“But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)

She pondered these events. Reflected on them. Turned them all over in her mind and heart and prayerfully sought the Lord on what they all meant and how she could continue to serve him. She didn’t turn to any loud announcments or grand demonstrations. She took as much a lowly approach as did God in choosing such a vessel to bear his son. That’s why the early church named her Theotokos, “God-bearer.”

We live in a time of noise, confusion and agendas. It seems that unless we can read someone’s opinion or hear someone explain, we don’t know what to think ourselves. And when it comes to Christmas, we talk with people, watch videos, listen to music, attend parties. And there’s nothing wrong with those things. But if we want to experience Christmas more personally, more genuinely, more meaningfully, we should consider Mary and the lowliness of God’s approach. Maybe we should talk less and listen more. Maybe we should be still more often and attend fewer Christmas get-togethers. Maybe we should slow down and give our spirits time and space to breathe a little.

The lowliness of God’s approach is a different way of looking at Christmas, isn’t it? But that’s only the beginning. There’s also the lowliness of God’s arrival.

Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth makes it clear how lowly God’s approach was:

“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

In all likelihood, that place where Jesus was born was an open courtyard with a fire surrounded by stalls where people kept their animals. The swaddling cloths would have been a square of homespun fabric with a tail to it. A new mother would place her child in the square of material then wind the tail around it to make what we would call a papoose.

The baby Jesus, then, was wrapped with homespun cloth in a feeding trough surrounded by the smell of dung, the sound of animals, the crackling of a fire and the soft conversation of other travellers as poor as were his parents. Not the kind of place where we would expect a king to be born.

The Orthodox Church includes in its Christmas service a hymn (it dates back to the fourth century) that captures the lowliness of God’s arrival in unforgettable language:

Today He who holds the whole creation in His hand is born of a virgin.

He whose essence none can touch is bound in swaddling clothes as a mortal man.

God, who in the beginning fashioned the heavens, lies in a manger.

He who rained manna on His people in the wilderness is fed on milk from His mother.

The Bridegroom of the Church summons the wise men; the Son of the Virgin accepts their gifts.

We worship Thy birth, O Christ. We worship Thy birth, O Christ. We worship Thy birth, O Christ.

Show us also Thy holy Presence!

The lowliness of God’s approach. The lowliness of God’s arrival. Last, we see the lowliness of God’s audience:

“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to the them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:8-11)

Shepherds were the last people in the world you’d expect to receive such a heavenly message. The religious authorities of the time claimed that six professions were unclean and unworthy of being around good people. Shepherds were one of the six. They weren’t allowed to enter a synagogue because their outdoor life kept them from observing purification rituals. They couldn’t give testimony in a court of law because they were generally considered untrustworthy. People tried to avoid them as much as possible.

God showing up to shepherds would be like reading your news feed tomorrow morning and finding a story about a group of con artists gathered together to count all the money they’d taken from their victims. And while they’re sitting in their run-down apartment, an angel bursts out of heaven and appears in front of them to announce the same unthinkable truth that was announced to the shepherds.

What kind of audience is that? Not an audience of the good, the succesful, the accomplished, the respected. But an audience closer to where most of us live, most of the time.

“Glory to God in the Lowest.” Maybe not a familiar way to think about Christmas but maybe a way that helps you better grasp the truth of this sacred day. As you go through Christmas this year, may the Lord give you and your family a blessed time of renewal, love, grace.

Merry Christmas!

This post is an edited version of a previous post.