Throughout the course of history some venues or stadia have become renowned as fearsome places to perform. The Coliseum in Rome; The Nou Camp or the Bernabeau in Spain. Old Trafford – home of Manchester United. Otherwise known as the Theatre of Muppets.
And the Glasgow Empire was a notoriously tough gig, especially if you were an English Comedian. They used to joke that it was a theatre where no turn was left unstoned.
But nothing, nothing compares to the bear-pit that is the secondary school assembly. It’s a place where even angels fear to tread. 200 teenagers there under sufferance, and you – the minister – are in the spotlight.
The writer and pastor J John talks about one Easter Assembly when he foolishly opened things up for questions and one lad said “all this religion stuff’s rubbish – you’ve never seen God, have you?” That would have thrown most of us, but to his credit, J John held his nerve and said “No – you’re quite right. I haven’t seen him. But I would have seen him if I’d been alive at the right time”.
I've always thought that was a good answer because it gets right to the heart of what Christians think was going on in that stable in Bethlehem. This wasn’t just the birth of a great person. This was God entering our world in human form. God putting a face to the name.
So if we’d been around at the time, we would have seen God – God with his face on. But I wonder if we’d have known it.
If Mary’d headed off to the Jerusalem Royal Infirmary instead of the stable, would we have been able to pick Jesus out from among the two dozen scrawny babes born that night? I doubt it. He didn’t have a halo. There was no Ready-Brek glow about him.
When he came to mend your rafters, or deliver that table and chairs he’d knocked together for you, would you have known straight away that this carpenter was the Son of God?
I don’t think so. Even his disciples found it hard to figure him out, and they spent almost every moment with him for a full three years. It was only after the resurrection that they really cottoned on.
There’s no guarantee we’d have been any different. Most people didn’t get it. Some got it badly wrong. The High Priest cursed him and slapped his face; Pilate looked him in the eye and still sent him to his death; the Roman guards toyed with him and thrashed him to within an inch of his life before crucifying him.
And all that shows is that it must have been easy to miss the God part of the man who was God.
But the thing is, some saw it.
Luke tells us the shepherds returned to their fields rejoicing because of what they’d seen and heard; Matthew says that when the wise men finally tracked him down, they knelt down in the muck in their fine robes and worshipped him.
So how come they saw? What’s the difference between them and the rest? Do they have God-tinted-glasses or something?
I think the difference is very simple – these were the folk who went looking.
They went looking for him. They all did – everyone in the story who finds God in Jesus, first goes looking for him. The shepherds left their flocks; the wise men left their homeland; Mary left her reputation; Joseph left his pride; the disciples left their nets; the first Christians left the security of their Jewish or pagan culture. They all left something behind and went looking for God.
And we might well ask, “Why doesn’t God make it easier for us? Why doesn’t he just appear instead of having us look for him?”
And I guess there’s two answers to that –
Firstly – I believe he did appear, in Jesus, but most of us didn’t recognise him, but secondly, let’s give God some credit for knowing what he’s doing here!
Isn’t it the case that everything worth having in life is something you have to go looking for?
You want to learn how to play guitar? You can’t do it without practice.
You want to enjoy the view from the mountain? You can’t do it from your sofa
You want to get fitter? You can’t do it without expending some energy.
You want to own something? Short of winning the lottery or turning to a life of crime, you have to work for it.
Is it the same kind of thing with the incarnation? Is God saying “I know what I’ll do. I’ll come in disguise – that’ll sort out the sheep from the goats. I’ll come in such a way as you have to look hard to find me. And then I’ll see who really wants to know me”.
So here’s something to chew over as we finish. Over the years I’ve heard lots of people say “I don’t think there’s a God. He’s never spoken to me, anyway.”
In the light of the Christmas story, maybe the right response is “.... so what have you done to go looking for him, then?”.
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