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The Christmas story in modern-day life

The Christmas story resonates with new families, refugees and the homeless

BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE

Date published: 12/25/2007

By Flowers Umble

BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE

In area churches, aspiring actors don bed sheets and bathrobes, tinsel halos and cardboard wings to re-enact the "good tidings of great joy."

But the Nativity of Jesus Christ in the second chapter of Luke has an earthy, real-life side that still resonates today.

About 2 million Americans seek shelter every night as Joseph and Mary did.

New parents struggle to deal with demands of their first baby.

And in war-torn countries, people flee their homes, fearing they'll be killed if they stay--just as Mary and Joseph took the toddler Jesus to Egypt to escape King Herod.

"Many Christians care about the happy Jesus in the cradle," said the Rev. Allen Fisher of The Presbyterian Church in Fredericksburg. "Few really want to take the next step."

But the Nativity is more than a story, he said. It's a reality, which doesn't come nicely packaged in a creche.

"I never cease to be amazed at the power of the story to humble people, that this God would actually come to be with us," Fisher said.

The holy family faced difficulties harsher than most.

"We don't understand why God does what God does," said the Rev. Larry Haun of Fredericksburg Baptist Church. "But we do understand what we're supposed to be doing: Living a right relationship with God and living a right relationship with our brothers and sisters."

Both Haun and Fisher said the Christmas story shows a definite responsibility for social justice. The lesson continues today.

Fisher said, "Jesus made that clear in his teaching. He had a clear preference for the weak and the distressed, the disenfranchised, the orphans and the children."

THERE WAS NO ROOM FOR THEM IN THE INN

Glen Johnston likes to remember that, eventually, Mary and Joseph found shelter.

First, they found it in a stable. And later they had a home to raise Jesus.

"We have to go through it in steps," said the man in his 40s who sleeps in a tent in Fredericksburg.

Some nights, he finds a warm place at the cold-night shelter at the Bragg Hill Family Life Center.

To Johnston, the churches that make up Micah Ecumenical Ministries serve as the innkeeper now for the chronic homeless.

They provide not just physical relief but spiritual help, he said.

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Date published: 12/25/2007