A Pirate at the Manger

Well, Black Friday has passed and we are headlong into the Christmas shopping season. Those of us that battle with Scrooge-itis this time of year are well on our way to saying “bah-humbug.” Like many of you, I struggle desperately with the secularization of our Lord’s birthday. I struggle with the rampant materialism that is always present in our society but seems to bubble up out of control every December. Thankfully, there is a cure for Scrooge-itis and joy can be restored even when we so regret what this holiday has become.

The cure for me is focusing on the Christmas story itself. While I love the story in its entirety, especially when Linus recites it from the Gospel of Luke in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, there are certain elements profoundly meaningful to me. I guess the part of the story surrounding the birth of Christ that restores my joy most effectively is the presence of the shepherds.

The fact that God the Father sent a host of angels to inform this lowly group of people of the Savior’s birth is astonishing. It both reveals the very nature of the Gospel and the heart of God. Remember, these men were outcasts. They were poor. They were unlearned. They were of no social or political significance. They were nobodies! But God, in His grace, made sure that the glorious news of Christ’s birth was extended to them. Their pronouncement to the shepherds was accompanied by a personal invitation to go and find the babe “wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

I was reminded that the Gospel is for all people on Thanksgiving night. Sherron and I went to her cousin’s house to visit after eating dinner with my family. Her cousin has a house full of children, so their home was already decorated for Christmas. Part of their decorations included a Lego manger scene sitting on a sofa table in their living room. The fact that the set was made of Legos was not what made this particular manger scene unique. On further inspection, we were told that one of the wise men had somehow gone missing since his last appearance in 2007. But not to worry, he was provided with an able bodied stand-in. His stand-in was a Lego Pirate on loan from another box of the colorful cubes. I just smiled.

Not only was I reminded that the lowly shepherds were invited to the manger, this year at least, a scurvy Pirate was as well! And lest we forget, we were no better off than any of these outcasts before God drew us to Himself and saved us. We were all in the same boat as the shepherds and the Pirates (no pun intended). Look at Ephesians 2:1-7:

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

We were all poor, wretched, blind, insignificant sinners who were enemies of God. You see, at the manger and at foot of the cross, all men are equal. All are undeserving of God’s grace and forgiveness. All are born into what John Gill called a “sad estate” because we come into this world dead in trespasses and sins. However, the most powerful words in the Book of Ephesians, and possibly in the entire Bible, are the words that begin chapter two, verse four. Those words are “But God…” These words tell us that God did something about our wretched condition because He is rich and mercy and love. He took the initiative to provide, through His Son, a way for us to be revived from spiritual death and to be relieved of the burden and guilt of sin.

For me, focusing on what the birth of Christ was really all about is the perfect cure for “Scrooge-itis.” Let’s keep praising God because His grace and mercy have been extended to the lowly and to the mighty, to the shepherds and to the pirates, to the kings and to the rulers. There is so much to be joyful about year round if you know the Savior so, don’t let the trappings of how Christmas is being celebrated get you down.

Gloria in Excelsis Deo !!!

David