Christmas Day

The Historic Succession of Messengers
Isaiah 52:7-10
John 1:1-14

How did you find your way to this place this morning? How did you know how to get here? How did you know the way to the manger?

The magi had the star to lead them. It stopped right over the manger. The angels joyfully told the shepherds where to go to find the manger where their savior was born. How did you find your way to the manger?

Somebody told you. Somebody told you the Christmas story. Somebody told you the Christmas story in a way that you just couldn’t resist wanting to see it and be a part of it yourself.

As you may know Episcopalians cherish the apostolic succession by which we really mean the historic episcopate. It’s the theory that there is a direct ordination succession going back to Peter. Bishops have laid on hands on bishops at their ordination in an unbroken line that goes back from the present day all the way to Peter. And we perceive some sort of power or meaning in that connection.

But today it seems much more important to me to think about what we might call the historic succession of messengers. The reading from Isaiah has that wonderful description of the messenger who brings glad tidings. How beautiful are the feet of those who share the story. I like to think of the historic succession of messengers who have shared the story. Stretching from today all the way back to the manger.

So all of this now comes entirely out of my imagination. Who might some of those first messengers have been? I imagine that some of those shepherds who were there went back home and with wonder and awe told their wives what they had experienced. And the wives shared the story when they came together to draw water or for other community events. And the wonder spread from messenger to messenger.

Or maybe there was a stable boy there. He would have only been a few years older than Jesus. And he couldn’t forget something of what he had seen in that baby in the manger. So he kept track of Jesus as Jesus grew older. And he told his best friend.

Or the magi, who went home by another road so they would not have to tell the story to Herod. Maybe one of the magi was telling of the holy king he had seen and his gardener overheard him. And the gardener’s lord told the story with such simple but powerful conviction that the gardener sold what little he had and traveled to Judea and became a disciple…

Or maybe there was a neighboring magus who had been invited on the original journey but hadn’t gone… he just had too much on his plate at the time. But when he heard about what they had found he regretted missing out and he traveled to Bethlehem to see for himself and then brought the story back to his own people and his own land.

Somebody who was there told the story that found its way to you. The story of the manger. In your imagination, who was the first messenger who started the historic succession of story telling that ended up with you?

And then someone told the story to you. Maybe your mother told you, or someone else in your family. Or a friend. About Jesus born in a manger in Bethlehem and about how this Jesus brings God to life in our lives. About how this baby is the Light of the world. A light that no darkness can overcome.

Today is a day to give thanks for all of those messengers over the centuries who shared the story so that we could find our way to the manger.

And, of course, we are part of that line of messengers. To whom will you or have you told the story of the manger?