Mennonite Weekly Review

One year for Christmas Eve, instead of having a live manger scene, our Education Committee decided to have the children act out the story ahead of time, take pictures and then project them on screen. That way even children who would be away at Christmas could be part of the story, and everyone could relax and enjoy the evening without getting nervous over presenting a live pageant. Since we were also able to arrange the picture-taking at a farm, the pageant could include real sheep and a real donkey.

April Yamasaki is lead pastor of Emmanuel Mennonite Church, Abbotsford, B.C., and author of several books and many articles.

A few weeks before Christmas, I saw the pictures — only at that time there was a white gate clearly visible behind the sheep, our “Mary” was sitting on a chair, and there was a separate picture of a donkey. But with a few clicks of the computer mouse, the gate disappeared, and with a little more work, our “Mary” appeared sitting on the donkey. It was like being behind the scenes of a movie set! Our Mary looked like she was sitting on a donkey, even though in real life she had been sitting on a chair. The sheep looked as if they were out in the open, even though they were really fenced in.

The first Christmas

At that very first Christmas time long ago, things were not really the way they appeared either. As a young, unmarried girl, Mary learned that she was pregnant. In her culture, that looked like a bad thing. But the angel Gabriel, who gave her the news of the coming birth, said, “Mary, you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). In other words, the angel was saying, this is a good thing.

As a man engaged to be married, Joseph found that his bride-to-be was pregnant with a baby that was not his. In his culture, that looked like a bad thing. It was more than enough reason to break the engagement, and to look for another wife. But an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20-21). In other words, what might look like a bad thing was actually a very good thing!

An upside-down Christmas

In this lesson, Mary offers a song of praise to God that also tells us that things are not what they appear to be. The proud may still look proud, but in fact God has scattered them. The rulers may still look powerful on their thrones, but in fact God has brought them down. Appearances aside, the humble are really lifted up. The hungry are really filled with good things. The rich are really empty.

For my congregation, celebrating Christmas Eve together is an important tradition. Individual households also have Christmas traditions that are important to them, like Christmas baking, decorating a tree or other things that they do year after year. But in the midst of these traditions we celebrate the coming of Jesus, which was anything but traditional.

As Mary’s song tells us, with the coming birth of Jesus, everything is turned around and upside down. That first Christmas was an upside-down Christmas, a profoundly unsettling Christmas. For all our traditions, that’s still the upside-down Christmas we can all look forward to, with sinners forgiven, the proud brought low and the humble lifted up. Christmas is coming!