First published in the Dec. 2 print issue of the San Marino Tribune.
By Rev. Jenifer Chatfield
Special to the Tribune
Advent is that time when we anticipate the birth of hope in the world.
As I am preparing for our Christmas Eve celebrations, including a pageant for families and children, I can’t help but remember the many videos of Christmas pageants gone awry that inevitably show up in my social media news feed this time of year.
There was an “incident” some years ago during an idyllic manger scene, with children peacefully singing “Away in a Manger,” where a little girl in the role of the sheep took it upon herself to snatch baby Jesus out of the manger. The video showed that she was completely unabashed and quite happy about it. She strutted her stuff across the stage with Jesus in her arms — smiling at everybody watching. But this rose the ire of Mary!
This was definitely not how it all was planned, so Mary got up and snatched baby Jesus back out of the sheep’s arms and put him back in his manger where he belonged. But the sheep snatched the baby Jesus again and Mary’s rage exploded causing a physical tug of war to ensue over who was going to get to hold baby Jesus!
When you see a headline in your newsfeed that says, “Preschool brawl breaks out over baby Jesus,” that’s something that can’t be ignored! A mom finally stepped in and stopped the fight before things really got out of hand. Mary actually shouted out, “But she (the sheep) touched Jesus, she’s not supposed to touch Jesus!”
This made me think about how so often Christians are at odds with each other.
We like to think that we are the only ones who can hold Jesus as if to say, ‘You others, you don’t deserve to because you don’t do as we do — you don’t follow our script.’ But God might just be a little more flexible than we imagine. It’s not ‘my Jesus’ and it’s not ‘your Jesus’ — Jesus is everybody’s.
Everybody can have a turn at any time, at any moment. The birth of hope into the world is not just for some, it is for all if there is to be healing and true reconciliation. At Christmas, we all come together to the manger no matter our station in life to behold a holy child who is “God with us.” There is enough hope to go around as long as we are not too possessive. If we share our toys, we can alter the script together.
When God is truly with us, we see all that we have as a blessing, not just for ourselves, but for everyone else as well. Nothing says “hope” like a newborn baby. When we look at our children, don’t we see the hope for the future? We know that there are many things that need fixing in this world, and children are the ones who just may be able to show us the way.
Because children have imagination and they have the uncanny ability to believe — to believe in the great “what if.” What if the sheep needs to hold baby Jesus at this moment even if we don’t think she deserves it? Not everyone is going to follow the script in the “right way.”
God doesn’t worry about that. God just wants us to come and see.
Chatfield is rector at St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church.
