Idaho faith: Look at Nativity to find Christ, as well as our humanity, hope through him

This time of year, Christians turn their attention to the Nativity, the birth of Jesus. Even Christians who might not otherwise have statues of St. Mary or St. Joseph will put up a Nativity scene and turn their hearts to the sacred manger in Bethlehem.

Christians look into the manger and see a future of hope. We join with Mary, Joseph and the shepherds at the manger, putting ourselves back thousands of years ago in Bethlehem in an act of prayerful imagination. Like St. Mary, we can treasure the things we see and ponder them in our heart (Luke 2:19).

Yet as we take our place at the Christmas crèche, we must be mindful of the significance of the birth of Christ. What we are seeing in Bethlehem is not some private spirituality that encourages us to acts of private charity and nostalgia; the birth of Christ summons us to be part of the Kingdom of God, to be part of the healing of the world, to be fully human.

Christmas is more than feel-good stories of helping strangers with a handout and a selfie. Christmas is more than half-true memories and full-guilt expectations about family togetherness. Christmas certainly isn’t the endless consumption and production of consumer goods, and Christmas also isn’t a manufactured tradition around a toy elf who conducts surveillance on children with a threat that if they don’t behave, they won’t get presents.

(Confession: Yes, I am a curmudgeon — just more of a “St. John the Baptist” kind of curmudgeon, rather than the “Visited by three Christmas ghosts” kind of curmudgeon.)

When the pregnant Mary visited her cousin St. Elizabeth, she uttered a song of praise to God. In her song, she said, “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:51-53)

The vision of Christmas isn’t solely about the family dinner and the presents under the tree, but rather a vision of hope and transformation, a vision where the status quo is disrupted to make room for all people.

Look closely at the moral of the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol.” Ebenezer Scrooge gets visited by three ghosts, recognizes his own humanity, recognizes the humanity of others (especially the humanity of his employee, Bob Cratchit), and lets go of his attachment to wealth and power. Scrooge becomes generous not because it feels good to give, but because he sees the humanity of others.

We Christians proclaim that Jesus is God incarnate, God who becomes human. Christ shows us what it means to be human. And in the Gospel of Luke, St. Mary points out that the birth of Christ is not just about individual humans — it is about the transformation of humanity to be fully human, to be humane, to embody the compassion of Jesus.

As we look at the manger in the Nativity scene, we see the power of hope and empathy made flesh, and we join with St. Mary and St. Joseph in rejoicing in the love of God — a love that sets us and all people free to be fully human, as God made us to be.