Christ the King Epiphany Church, Wilbraham

The Rev. Martha S. Sipe

December 24, 2025 / Christmas Eve

Luke 2:1-20

Growing up, my family only lived an hour and a half from both sets of grandparents.  Because it was a relatively short drive (though I remember that an hour and a half seemed awfully long as a kid), because we were relatively close, we almost never spent the night.  But Christmas time was different.  Staying overnight at my mom’s parents was great.  I remember being fascinated by the goose down pillows on the bed that my sister and I shared.  We thought it was so funny how our heads just sort of disappeared into the pillows.  Staying over at my dad’s parents, though, was a different story.  They didn’t have a bedroom for my sister and me, so we slept in the basement on a pull-out sofa . . . you know the kind.  Maybe you’re even sleeping on one tonight if you’re visiting from out of town, the kind that has that bar that runs across your back and makes it impossible to get comfortable . . . even for a kid!  But we learned that we shouldn’t complain, because that’s what you do at Christmas when the family is in from out of town.  The host finds a way to fit everyone.  No one is turned away.  And if it’s less than comfortable . . . well, you just put up with it.  Because that’s what families do.

Which is why it is so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Mary and Joseph had no place to stay in Bethlehem.  They had gone there – to Joseph’s family’s ancestral home – to register for the census as they were required by the government to do.  So what I want to know is, if Bethlehem was Joseph’s family’s hometown, then where were all Joseph’s brothers and cousins and aunts and uncles?  They, too, would have been required to travel to Bethlehem.  They, too, would have needed to find a place to stay in town.  Perhaps they were even staying in that very inn that night.  So how come Mary and Joseph had to stay in a stable with no bed for their baby but only a manger, which is just a polite word for a feed box.  I want to know why some relative didn’t give up his bed for the woman who was clearly on the verge of delivering a baby.  And even if we think of the stable as the overflow accommodations of the inn, even if that stable was truly the best hospitality that the innkeeper could offer under the circumstances, I want to know why no one else was spending the night there.  Were Mary and Joseph the very last to arrive in town and the only ones who couldn’t find a place in the inn?  And even if that’s true, I still want to know why the extended family didn’t come out to the stable to help with the birth.  Where were the sisters-in-law and the aunts and the female cousins who could have helped Mary during childbirth?

Why Mary and Joseph were all alone that night is a mystery.  It’s not the primary mystery that we ponder tonight, of course.  That honor goes to the part about how God became human.  But still, it’s puzzling that the holy family was so isolated.  Some have suggested that it was because Joseph was older and Mary could have been his second wife.  Or perhaps Joseph had no surviving relatives in town to make room for him.  Or maybe the scandal of Mary’s pregnancy, coming as it did before the couple was married, had put a strain on relationships in the extended family.  Who knows?  We will never know why things happened the way they did.  But what we do know is that Mary and Joseph were left to fend for themselves that first Christmas night.  And I can only imagine that they felt quite alone as they gave birth to Jesus – which is sort of a sad thought on this night which the angels said held a message of great joy for all people. 

But it is probably for the best that it happened the way that it did.  Because, consider the alternative.  If Jesus had been born in the midst of a boisterous, cheerful, extended family, with cousins playing tag around the manger and aunts fussing over Mary and the baby and uncles smoking cigars with Joseph just outside the stable door – if that’s how the story went, we might have left here tonight with the idea that family is essential to the celebration of Christmas.  But that’s not how the story goes.  The fact that Mary and Joseph were alone is good news for all of us who can’t spend time with our families this Christmas.  And it’s good news for all of us who will spend time with our families, but where there will be tension and stress.  And it’s good news for all of us who will spend this holiday alone.  Family can be great.  But the message and meaning of Christmas is not about the love of family.  Christmas is about the love of God – and that love is for everyone, whether we’re surrounded by family or isolated, like Mary and Joseph were.  I guess God knew what God was doing!

And in the same way, it’s probably for the best that the Savior of the world was born in such humble circumstances.   Because, consider the alternative.  If Jesus had been born in a royal palace, surrounded by wealth and luxury, and wrapped in 800-thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, you might have left here tonight with the idea that money is key to a celebration of the birth of Christ.  But that’s not how the story goes.  And Jesus’ humble birth is good news for all of us who have had trouble scraping together enough money for meager gifts.  And it’s good news for those of us whose employment is less than secure.  And it’s good news for those of us who aren’t sure that our financial future looks very promising.  Because the true meaning of Christmas isn’t sold in a shop or ordered online or even calculated in the checkbook.  Christmas is about the gift of love – love which can’t be bought, love beyond price.  It seems God knew what God was doing!

It’s also probably for the best that the first visitors to see Jesus were shepherds – shepherds who were second-class citizens at best.  Because, consider the alternative.  If the first people to visit our Lord Jesus had been the mayor of Bethlehem and the governor of Judea, if the first people to visit Jesus had been members of the king’s entourage, if the first people to visit Jesus had been the rich and famous, the brightest and the best, the movers and the shakers, you might have left here tonight with the idea that God only came for the smart and beautiful and important people of this world.  But that’s not how the story goes.  The holy family was visited first by some pretty shall-we-say earthy people?  And that’s good news for all of us ordinary and unremarkable people who are just doing the best we can to get through the day.  Because Jesus Christ is born for you and me.  God really did know what God was doing!

My friends, this is the message of the angels:  Jesus’ birth is good news of great joy for all people – those who are surrounded by friends and family and those who are alone, those who struggle financially and those who are comfortable, those who are above average, below average, and just plain average.  Jesus came to bring God’s love for us all.