Afraid.

I love the Christmas story. Not to be confused with the movie about the kid and the lamp, but the Christmas story as found in the bible and in Luke and Matthew. Yes, I know that historical criticism says this did not happen on the winter solstice and the story probably took place in June or July.

It is still the story we tell at Christmas. It is woven into the culture and it is the center of the high holy day of Christmas in the Christian Church.

But here's the deal y'all...

We have sanitized this story to death.

It isn't any one person's fault, but it's the reality. We paint these pictures in our heads and on our lawns of these put-together scenes of a man dressed in tan, a woman dressed in blue, and a baby in a manager. We remember, we exchange gifts, and we hold a candle in the air. We talk about the "meaning of the season," we read a portion of the story from chapter 2, and we hear a boy with a blanket from the 1960's recite it on broadcast television.

But what does it all mean?

What really happened?

Mary is told by the angel, "Do not be afraid." This is a glorious moment for Mary. She does not respond meekly and lowly. She says "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word."

She is ready that night when she surrenders to God's will. And she is ready nine months later.

She is not afraid. Of course, I have to wonder what was going through her head that night we remember. She is in labor. She's traveled hundreds of miles to a strange town. She's been on the back of a donkey. Her husband comes out of the inn saying, "Hey, Mary. Guess what?" They have to be in a stable. A dark, dirty, smelly, drafty, and unsanitary stable. Her baby is to be born in literally (LITERALLY) a place meant for slop, animal food.

This isn't how this is supposed to go.

This teenage girl in a strange land giving birth to a baby in a slop pit.

While this scene, put plainly, seems insignificant, it was in fact the most significant moment in our world. God's Word was made flesh. Christ has come to earth. In a broken and dark world, a light breaks in. Hope, peace, love, and joy are personified. In a world where empire rules and power is everything, a new order is ushered in that is upside down. It is brought in not by the conventional means and conventional wisdom, but instead by a baby. A baby that grows up and changes everything.

God is telling us something. Do not be afraid. Everything is changing.

For many of us, this event can be sanitized. It can mean that power and comfort are brought in. Now we are the ones in power led by our king. It was they that ruled, but now we rule.

But that is not what the story is about.

This story is about the lowly being lifted up. It is about meeting power not with the same power, but with love. This baby that grows up into a man teaches us all about what it means to live in this upside down way, where power is not met with power, but instead met with love and justice. It is an upside down story that shakes us to our cores and means something for us, right here, right now.

We have reason to be afraid. There is a lot of fear in this world right now. It can be tempting to cling to power, comfort, and security because, quite frankly, those ideas are familiar. It can be tempting to cling to that fear so that we may excuse our search for power.

But guess what? This story calls us to something different.

Do not be afraid.