Our scripture reading this morning is the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke. So we'll be reading from Luke chapter 2, the first 21 verses. Luke chapter 2, beginning at verse 1, reading the first 21 verses. Let us give careful attention to the reading of God's Word. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary his betrothed who was with child and while they were there the time came for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that shall be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying God and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. So far the reading of God's Word. We gather together to celebrate and remember the birth of Jesus and to worship God for the great gift of his Son to be our Savior. And, you know, when we look closely at this event, as it's recorded for us in the Bible, it's a remarkably simple story. And what we're actually told about the day of Jesus' birth is remarkably little. Mark tells us nothing at all. John tells us about its meaning, but not about the birth itself. Matthew tells us something about the preparation for the birth and the reaction to the birth, but of the day of the birth, he has only one verse. It's only Matthew who tells us a little bit more. It's only Luke who tells us... You've got to keep these Gospels straight. It's only Luke who tells us a little bit more about the day of the birth itself. And I want to focus on what Luke is telling us about the day of the birth. What happens? What happens on that day? Even Luke really gives us only a few verses about it. And as we look at those verses and ponder those verses, one of the things that is very clear to us is Luke is focusing in a variety of ways on places on that day of his birth. And so I want you to look with me at four places that Luke mentions on the day of Jesus' birth. The place, first of all, of the town or city of Bethlehem. Secondly, the place of the stable where the birth takes place. Third, the manger, the place where the baby is laid. And then, fourthly, the region where this all happens, where the angels appear to the shepherds. Four places, the city, the stable, the manger, the region. In just a few verses, Luke is drawing us into these places, and particularly to the city of Bethlehem. The city of David, it's identified. And already, one of the very first things that we're told about Mary in chapter 1 is that she's betrothed to Joseph, who is of the house of David. Luke wants to make this point of connection between this child and David, the great king, because Jesus' birth is a royal birth. Jesus' birth is a birth to the house of David. Jesus' birth is a birth that was promised. And therefore, it has to take place, according to the prophet, the prophet Micah, it has to take place in David's city, in Bethlehem. Now, you notice, if you're paying close attention, which you really should, I have referred to this place as both a city and a town. It's called a city in our text, but we would probably call it a town. It's not a huge place. And it's not even a particularly famous place. Remember when the wise men asked Herod where the Christ would be born, Herod didn't know. Now, Herod may have been an unusually dumb fellow when it came to biblical prophecy. The wise men knew, the priests knew, the scribes knew because they had studied the Scripture. But Bethlehem apparently was not universally a famous place, universally a place of expectation. It may be that not every Jew knew all about the prophet Micah. Maybe if we were given a test about the prophet Micah, we wouldn't do so well. But God had prophesied that in royal David's royal city, his Christ would be born. And Luke is making a point that God is keeping his promise, as he always does. And so, God has brought Joseph and Mary to the city of Bethlehem. It's not where they lived. It's not their home. The coming to Bethlehem is not a homecoming for them. It is a return to a place of their ancestors. But it's not a place where it would appear they ever lived. Maybe some of you know where your ancestors came from. Maybe it's a place you've never been, and maybe it's a place you'd like to go and visit. And if you got there, you might say, hmm, an interesting place. But no one there would know you. That's exactly what Joseph and Mary experience as they go to Bethlehem. They go to Bethlehem because of a government order. Maybe we have a special appreciation of how government orders can change your life on this Christmas Day. They're there because of a government order. It's not convenient. It was not Joseph's plan to go to Bethlehem. It was not convenient for them to go to Bethlehem. It was about 70 miles as the crow flies from Nazareth to Bethlehem and made the journey on foot. That's a long journey. It takes time away from the business. It costs money. And Mary was very pregnant. In the wonderful King James Version, she was great with child. Any of you who have born a child know what it's like to be great with child. This was not convenient. This was not Joseph's plan. This was not his anticipation. But somewhat out of the blue comes this requirement that he has to travel to Bethlehem, to the city of his ancestors. And what we see, of course, is this was God's plan to fulfill his purpose. This was God's plan to mark the background and character of this child who was to be born. It was God's plan from eternity that the gift of his son would be fulfilled and brought to life in the city of David. It was God's plan as had been revealed to the prophet Micah. And God is showing us he always keeps his plans. He always fulfills his promise. He has a purpose and he accomplishes it. And he accomplishes it in a surprising way, doesn't he? He accomplishes it, in this case, through the actions of a Roman emperor. You know, sometimes we know these stories so well they don't surprise us anymore. But Luke is telling us God so planned human history that at the moment when he planned for his son to be born into this world, he had also planned that there would be an emperor, the very first emperor in Rome, Caesar Augustus, who would give an order that would lead to a little obscure family traveling to what, from Caesar Augustus' point of view, would be a little obscure town to fulfill God's great purpose in history. I got a text yesterday, or an email yesterday. I'm not sure of the difference. I got an email yesterday announcing that in March of next year, the tomb of Caesar Augustus will be opened in Rome for tourists to visit. This has been a project apparently in Rome for a decade or two to restore what's left of the huge mausoleum of Caesar Augustus in Rome to the public. Caesar Augustus was a famous man in his day. Caesar Augustus has been a famous man through history because of the greatness of his accomplishments. Caesar Augustus, Octavian, a nephew of Julius Caesar, is the one who established the empire, the Roman Empire. Now, I'm a historian. I may get carried away here. He defeated Brutus and Cassius. He defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra. He established peace in the Roman Empire. He was the greatest of rulers in the Western world at that time. He thought he ruled the whole world. He sent out a decree that all the world should be in rule. He wasn't as powerful as he thought he was, but he was a great man at the time. And God used him. God used him to do something that Caesar never knew had anything to do with the coming of the Son of God into the world. But God had a plan, and he used Caesar to accomplish that plan so that this little family, this unknown family, this obscure family would come to an unknown place so that Jesus would be born in the city of David. And when they got to the city, what did they find? Well, it appears what they found is that a lot of other people had followed the law and come to be enrolled in the city of their ancestors, and there was no room for them. We have in our Bibles no room for them in the inn. That's probably not a correct translation. There were inns in the ancient world. This is more the word used for a shelter. There was no room for them in the shelter. They weren't looking, perhaps, for something as grand as an inn. There wasn't any room. And so they ended up, we're not told exactly what it was they ended up in, a stable. A barn might sound too grand. Some have thought it was a cave. Anyway, it was just some kind of getting out of the weather place where animals normally were. That's why there was a manger there, a feeding trough. There they are, this little unknown family. No place for them where travelers usually stayed. No welcome for them as they arrived in town. No recognition that they amounted to anything. No relatives. There have been relatives. They probably have stayed with the relatives. No relatives. This isn't home. This is just a place to go to do what the government wants you to do. Sort of like lining up at the DMV. You just have to wait. And so they're waiting. They're there to do their enrolling. And what Luke is painting for us here is this picture of how ordinary this family was, how unimportant this family was, how lacking in any sort of power or influence this family was. And the remarkable thing is this family would not have been surprised that when they got to town there wasn't a place for them. They wouldn't have been disappointed or shocked or offended. These are just common people doing what they have to do. They know what it is just to get along, face the circumstances, live and let live. But Luke wants to say to us, this is an ordinary family. And what happens in this very ordinary family is something very ordinary. The time came for her to be delivered. We don't know whether Joseph may have thought there'd be time to get to Bethlehem and back. We don't know if he had anticipated that they would have to have the delivery in Bethlehem. One of the fascinating things about the Christmas story is there are so many questions we'd like to ask and we don't have answers for. We don't know how much the baby weighed. Isn't that one of the first questions we always ask? We do know that mother and child were healthy. We do know what they named the baby. But Luke's stress is this is just an ordinary family. And so when the baby was born, what did they do? They wrap the baby in swaddling cloths. That's what happens to every newborn baby in that world. Straighten out the limbs, wrap them up, keep them safe. And almost all that the modern world thinks about Christmas or all the ways in which the modern world represents Christmas to us is wrong. There were no halos over the head of Mary and Joseph and Jesus in that barn or stable. there was no star there were no wise men they come later if you read Matthew carefully Mary and Joseph were in a house by the time the wise men arrived they come later there were no angels there's not even a record that there were any animals there there may well have been some other people there because verse 18 says that they all took to heart what the shepherds were saying later on that same day. Maybe there was a midwife. Maybe there were some other people who had to take shelter in that same stable. But if we had had a camera there, everything in that stable on that day would have appeared just terribly ordinary. Because God is coming into the world to be one of us. That's Luke's great point. He's to be one of us. One of our problems sometimes in thinking about Jesus is not really being able to believe that he's one of us. That he's fully and entirely human as well as being fully and entirely God. And when we can't really appreciate that he's fully one of us, it's hard to appreciate that he can fully appreciate our struggles in life. And yet the New Testament wants to say over and over again, he does fully appreciate our struggles in life. He faced all the burdens, all the struggles, all the temptations of human life. He understands us. and even understanding us, he loves us. That's what this ordinary story is meant to underscore. I don't know if you've ever had this experience. It's probably just my family. But occasionally when I get together with some of my relatives, not the immediate family that you know, other people that you don't know, One of the things that comes home is that sometimes family knows too much about you. And that gives them an ability to needle you or maybe even torment you in ways that nobody else can. Well, it must have happened to one or two of you. And we might be tempted to think, well, if Jesus knows us that well, can he still love us and care for us? and call us to himself? And this story is saying, yes, that's what he's all about. That's why he came this way, to say to us, I'm one with you. I love you and care for you. And I will provide for you as my people. This is the blessing of Christmas, as Luke is presenting to us this ordinary child. and more than just an ordinary child. This is a child who is born into what we might say is the very humblest of circumstances. He's placed in a feeding trough. I'm pretty sure there were no nurses there with spray bottles disinfecting the feeding trough. This is about as humble a place as a newborn baby could be put. It's not a bed. It's not even some clean hay on the floor. It's the place they had. And it's meant to say he emptied himself of his eternal glory to take the very lowest sort of place that is imaginable. In just these few verses, Luke mentions the manger three times. He doesn't want us to miss that. Christ has descended to the very lowest, humblest point to identify with his people. Now, it's interesting that this should be true because when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, as we read in chapter 1 of Luke, Gabriel said to Mary, And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. You shall call his name Jesus. he will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom there shall be no end. But when Jesus is born, there's no throne. There's no throne room. There's no crown. What a contrast with Caesar Augustus who had a throne and a palace. Jesus is on the throne today, the throne of his glory. But when he was born, the only place for him was a manger where he would be crowned only in humility and reminded that he came to deny himself and take up our burden that we might be saved. He came to suffer before he was glorified. He came to a manger and a cross before he came to an empty tomb and a throne in heaven. And so again, Luke is telling us in this place, this manger place, how humble, how caring, how loving our Savior is. And then having almost taken a camera and drawn us to a city and a stable and a manger, Luke now asks us to step back into the broader region. And he says, in that region, there were shepherds on that day. And as you know, shepherds were the lowliest members of society. And so Luke is continuing his theme that this birth was ordinary and humble and lowly. And so who would be interested to know about it except shepherds, the lowly? And to the shepherds, God sent angels. And you know that the word angel in Greek means messengers. He sent preachers. Everyone's always excited when they see a preacher. What could be better than having a preacher arrive? Well, the angels were more impressive than most preachers. And the angel told the story of the meaning of this birth, that this child is the son of David. This child is the Christ. This child is the Lord. This child is the Savior. And the angels remind us that we wouldn't have known anything about this ordinary birth if there weren't words to tell us its meaning. If you'd been in Bethlehem, if you'd walked by the stable on that first Christmas day, nothing would have caused you to pause and be impressed. Nothing would communicate to you what had happened. We need preachers to tell us. We need messengers to declare the meaning and to help us to see in that manger, in that ordinary-looking little baby. You know, almost the only thing we know about the physical appearance of Jesus is that he had no form or comeliness that we should desire him. He wasn't a cute baby. And there he lay. The shepherds hearing the words and wondering about it. Wondering about what the Lord had made known to them. They had words before they had sight. They rushed to the manger and saw the baby. Caesar, whenever he went anywhere, had courtiers, noblemen all around him. Shepherds, these lowly members of society, were the first courtiers of Jesus. Not impressive. The angels didn't come to the stable. They sent shepherds. And the shepherds bore the message that the angels had borne. And some of them standing around were told wondered at what they heard. This reaction would accompany Jesus all through his life. People would wonder about him. People would be amazed by him. But the crucial thing is not that we should wonder at Jesus. The crucial thing is that we should believe in Jesus. Luke records in chapter 1, verse 45, that Mary responded to the words of the angels and it reads, Blessed is she who believed what was revealed to her. The call of Christmas Day is to believe that that ordinary little baby, born to an ordinary family, in a historically relatively unimportant town, is the son of David and the son of God, the Lord, the Christ, the Savior, the only one in whom we can find hope and peace and joy. May that Christmas gift be in every one of our hearts today. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, our God, again, we marvel at the surprising character of your ways, how we thank you for a fully human Savior who understands us and loves us in spite of ourselves and calls us to himself that by his divine power he might save us from ourselves. Hear us, bless us, and give us joy on this day for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.