Christmas Greetings from Bishop Ough

This Christmas Eve, as you gather in your churches and homes to again read, hear and, perhaps, even enact the nativity account from Luke's Gospel, I invite you to pay particular attention to the manger. Like the shepherds we are called to the manger to witness and experience the "good news of great joy for all the people."

The manger is one of the most important elements in Luke's Christmas story. Three times the narrative in Luke chapter 2 tells us that after his birth Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger:

[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger,
because there was no place for them in the guestroom. (verse 7)

This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.
(verse 12)

[The shepherds] went quickly and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger.
(verse 16)

We generally associate the manger with a lowly, impoverished birth. It is true, God chose to become flesh and make His home among us in the most uncommonly common way. A manger is a trough for farm animals -- a place to feed them hay and grain. But, in scripture, it is more. In Isaiah 1:3, the manger -- the crib -- of the ox and donkey is the place where creatures know their benefactor. The manger is a place of sustenance, solace and security. A farm animal, let out in the morning to freely roam, will always return by day's end to the manger.

Isaiah laments that God's people no longer know their benefactor. They have forgotten and no longer understand what God has done for them. They wander afield and do not return to their manger.

In the Christmas story, the manger is the symbol of God's compassion, nurture, salvation. It is in the Bethlehem manger that God's incarnation is cradled. It is to the Bethlehem manger that the shepherds -- the nobodies, ruffians and marginalized -- are called to witness and acknowledge their Lord. It is from the Bethlehem manger that the message of God's redemptive presence in the world goes forth to all people in all generations. It is Emmanuel -- God with us -- that fills the Bethlehem manger with love, forgiveness, joy.

This Christmas, each of us is being called by the angel of the Lord to come to the manger. We are being called to return to the source of our salvation and shalom. Like the shepherds, we are being called to the manger where the unlimited love of God enfolds and nurtures us. And, like the shepherds, we will receive our mission at the manger: to go and tell everyone what we know about the child of Christmas -- God with us!

Let us dance with delight in the Lord

and let our hearts be filled with rejoicing

for eternal salvation has appeared on the earth --

in a manger!

I pray that each of you and each of our congregations will return to the manger this Christmas to remember, once again, what God is doing in our lives and in all of creation. May it be so!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bishop Bruce R. Ough
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