"A gift from our community of faith to you. We at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary are devoted to preparing outstanding leaders for Christ’s church. One of the ways that we nurture leaders is by building a loving community of faith and extending God’s grace to others. In this season of anticipation, we extend God’s grace to you and invite you to explore this book of Advent devotions. Through this collection, please join us as we prepare to receive God’s greatest gift—the birth of Jesus Christ."
• CLICK HERE for a complete schedule of this season's devotionals.
• CLICK HERE to learn how you can support the mission of Austin Seminary
Advent Devotional for Friday, December 25, the Nativity of Jesus Christ
• Luke 2:1-14
“And [Mary] gave birth to her first-born son
and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid
him in a manger, because there was no place
for them in the inn.”
This is the sentence from Luke’s version of the
Christmas story that leaps out at me this year. And
I’m taken specifically with these words, “no place.”
There was no place for them in the inn. No Place.
When God decided to come down and be born into
the world, and thus give us a clear picture of what Godness
looks like, God got it all started by making a place out
of what was essentially No Place. Or at least No Place
Special. God got it all started by coming to people who were
“displaced.” God bypassed all the expected points of entry
and came instead to a truly forgotten corner of the world,
and thus turned No Place into My Place.
This may be why Madeline L’Engle once wrote that her
biggest problem with Christmas is God. “Cribb’d, cabined,
and confined within the contours of a human infant. The
infinite defined by the finite? The Creator of all life thirsty
and abandoned? Why would God do such a thing?” she
asked.
Why indeed, if not because of God’s outrageous,
irrational, holy preoccupation with this place? This place—
Bethlehem, a barn, a manger, some peasants—which is
no place special … unless there is a God! This place—your
town, your street, your living room, your tree, your family,
your joys, your passions, your sorrows—not at all special or
important … unless there is a God, who delights in making
a dwelling there with you.
Once, years ago now, very close to Christmas Day, a
plane crashed in the Andes mountains near Cali, Colombia.
It had veered off course and had struck the top of a
mountain and had burst into flames. It was assumed that
nobody could have survived the crash. But one man there at
the airport, waiting for his nineteen-year-old brother who
was arriving on that flight, managed to hitch a ride with
rescue workers traveling the forty miles to the crash site.
Once there, he told the workers, “Look for a man who looks
like me.” Moments later, they found the brother—banged
up pretty badly, but alive, one of the few who survived.
I think of that story here at Christmas. “Look for
someone who looks like me.” At Christmas, we celebrate
what happens when God goes looking for a host of
someones who bear a divine resemblance. Which is all of us,
of course.
And what God finds—in a place that is no place,
really—is Mary singing lullabies to none other than the
Son of God, none other than the Resurrection and the Life. Until a whole lot of nobodies in a whole bunch of nowheres
become placed in the mind and heart of God.
So Merry Christmas to you, in your place. For God has
business there. Today we kneel at the manger and offer our
worship, because our salvation has come. The hope of all the
world lies wrapped in bands of cloth, in No Place Special.
Rejoice and be glad, for God dwells here, too—in this
terrible, wonderful, hair-raising, frightening, miraculous,
tragic, painful, glorious, risky, redemptive Place.
O little Child of Bethlehem, dwell with and
within us today and always. Make us useful in
joining your holy purposes to ours in this very
place. Amen.
Theodore J. Wardlaw
President, and Professor of Homilitics
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Our mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, we seek to provide an opportunity for people of God to join together, learn about children and their needs throughout the world, and celebrate Christ's love (especially as it relates to children).
