The Times News has teamed up with area clergy to share 'Words of Comfort' twice a week in our print edition and online at . Any member of the clergy who’d like to get involved can contact Emily Stewart at estewart@timesnews.net.
The Times News has teamed up with area clergy to share 'Words of Comfort' twice a week in our print edition and online at . Any member of the clergy who’d like to get involved can contact Emily Stewart at estewart@timesnews.net.
Editor’s Note: Local pastors partner with us to bring a message of hope and comfort to readers twice a week. Look for it on Sundays and Wednesdays.
So much of the Christmas story is miraculous, isn’t it? In the writings of those early evangelists Luke and Matthew, we read about angelic visitations and supernatural dreams. A company of the Heavenly Host is reported to rend the fabric of space and time proclaiming the glory of the Lord over the fields outside Bethlehem. Mary becomes pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit, not through the typically natural means. And at the center of the story, the Virgin Birth itself, is the claim that this baby is “Immanuel,†God with us. Somehow, this small and dependent infant is the physical incarnation of the God who created the physical world.
Almost, this extraordinary story is beyond belief. It pushes the bounds of reason and logic, seemingly upending the natural laws and how we know the world to usually work. For some of us, the miraculous is no problem at all. For others, it casts a pallor of incredibility over the Nativity.
Perhaps because the miracles in this Story are so magnificent, it’s easy to overlook the sheer ordinariness woven throughout.
Jesus, the eternally existent second person of the Trinity, is born to a normal young woman — a teenager by all accounts. He takes on the flesh of a normal baby subject to hunger, fatigue and fear. Joseph, the baby’s adoptive father, has to make hard decisions out of a faith-filled obedience rather than miraculous certainty.
Jesus is not born in a palace or a hospital room or even a guest room in a relative’s house, but in a stable. This baby, “God with us†and the One whose name will cause every knee in the cosmos to bend, is swaddled in normal cloth and laid in an animal’s feeding trough.
Like a plain, white canvas, the ordinary aspects of the Messiah’s birth accentuate the vibrancy of the Artist’s brushstrokes. “Nothing can seem extraordinary,†writes C.S. Lewis, “until you have discovered what is ordinary.â€
The simple message of the Gospel is that the Kingdom of God is available to all people who want it. All of life happens at the intersection of the mundane and the miraculous. My prayer for you this Christmas is that you may know the embodiment of this reality: Jesus, the one at the center of the story who holds all things together.
Stephen Hopkins is pastor at Kendricks Creek United Methodist Church in Kingsport.
Stephen Hopkins is pastor at Kendricks Creek United Methodist Church in Kingsport.
