Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph but before the marriage took place and while she was still a virgin she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph her fiancé was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this an angel of the lord appeared to him in a dream. "Joseph son of David" the angel said "Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit and she will have a son and you are to call him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins". All of this occurred to fulfil the lords message through his prophet. "Look the virgin will conceive a child, She will give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel which means ‘God with us’
When Joseph woke up he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife but he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born and Joseph named him Jesus. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod. At that time the Roman emperor Augustus decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for the census and because Joseph was descended from King David he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him his wife Mary who was now obviously pregnant and while they were there it came time for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son, she wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no room in the inn for them.
That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby guarding their flock of sheep. Suddenly an angel of the lord appeared before them and the radiance of the lords glory surrounded them and they were terrified but the angel assured them "Don’t be afraid, I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people, The saviour, the lord, the Messiah has been born today in Bethlehem the city of David and you will recognize him by this sign. You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth lying in a manger"
Suddenly the angel was joined by a heavenly host praising God and saying "Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth and goodwill to all men" When the angels had returned to heaven ,the shepherds said to one another "Let us go to Bethlehem, let us see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about. They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger. After seeing him the shepherds told everyone what had happened and that the angel had told them about this child. All who heard the shepherd’s story were astonished but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought often about them. The shepherds went back to their flocks glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen it was just as the angel had told them.
About that time some wise men from the eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem asking "Where is the new born king of the Jews. We saw his star as it rose and we have come to worship him". King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this as was everyone in Jerusalem. He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked "Where is the Messiah supposed to be born"? "In Bethlehem in Judah" they said for this is what the prophet wrote "Oh you O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be a shepherd for my people Israel".
Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. Then he told them "Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child and when you find him come back and tell me so that I can worship him too". After the interview the wise men went their way and the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem, it went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star they were filled with joy, they entered the house and saw the child with his mother Mary and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.
When it came time to leave they returned to their own country by another route for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod. After the wise men were gone an angel of the lord appeared to Joseph in a dream "Get up flee to Egypt with the child and his mother" the angel said "Stay there until I ask you to return because Herod is going to search for the child and kill him". That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary his mother and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the lord had spoken through the prophet "I called my son out of Egypt"
Herod was furious when he realised that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the stars first appearance. Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God has spoken through the prophet Jerimiah. When Herod died an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. "Get up" the angel said "Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel because those who were trying to kill the child are dead. So they returned to the land of Israel but when Joseph learned that the new ruler was Herod’s son Archelaus he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned in a dream he left for the region of Galilee. So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said "He will be called a Nazarene"
SOME THOUGHTS In most religious traditions God is a remote and distant figure to which humans need to find favour by doing certain things. In the Christian faith God comes down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ and shows us that God wants to be in relationship with us and guide us to those spiritual things which will both fulfill and satisfy but which also redeem his creation. He shows love and grace and wants us to have faith in him as the pathway to the kingdom of God. Jesus came to us in a lowly stable in humility among shepherds. He in turn would himself be a shepherd guiding us and we would be his flock. At Christmas we not only celebrate the birth of Jesus but the fact that God wanted to came down to meet with and redeem those he created.
Readings Luke 2 1-24 Matthew 1 19-24