INTRODUCTION:

When I was a boy, Mom and Dad would come home from the grocery store and unloaded the brown paper sacks of groceries. If we saw anything wrapped in butcher paper, we knew we were in for treat. That meant Dad was either going to barbecue or better yet, they had visited the lunch meat counter and brought home a bunch of fresh sliced lunch meat.

But if we pulled out a long brown paper bread sack, we knew immediately that Mom and Dad had gone to one of the Jewish Delicatessens and inside was a fresh loaf of sliced Jewish rye. And that meant that somewhere there was a package wrapped in a slightly different color butcher paper. And inside that package was either fresh sliced corned beef or pastrami. We knew by the wrapper what it was.

It's the same this time of year and any time we give a gift, right. We can pretty much tell by the wrapping paper what holiday or special occasion it is. Birthday wrapping paper doesn't look anything like Anniversary wrapping paper. And Valentines wrapping paper doesn't look anything like Graduation wrapping paper. And Christmas wrapping paper doesn't look anything like baby shower wrapping paper. But that's really what it is. We can tell a lot about a gift, just by the wrapping paper.

This is the season of wrapping paper but modern technology is making it harder and harder to unwrap Christmas. It has given us shrink wrap, which defies all attempts to tear it. We have fiber strapping that some knives won't cut. And we have adhesives that you can't get off with dynamite. And toys are wired into packages so pieces don't inadvertently disappear. I ran across a poem dealing with this subject, by Mary Elizabeth Counselman, that sums up the difficulty in unwrapping Christmas.

"hats off to you makers of gadgets galore.
hooray for your shipping and stackage.
but why do you make it so hard, more and more,
to take all your wares from the package?

your cartons and bags, i can't cut with a knife.
the strength of your cardboard - fantastic!
i'm sure i've spent easily half of my life,
just fighting my way into plastic.

your labels resist any solvent on earth.
your tape is as tough as an ox.
i've paid for my purchase - but what is it worth,
if i can't get it out of the box?" (1)

Half the fun of Christmas morning is seeing the excited look on everyone's faces as they look at all the brightly wrapped packages under the tree. The other half is opening those packages. Some you savor and take your time opening; others you just rip your way through. We know from the packaging and the wrapping paper that this is something special.

In an old "Family Circus," by Bil Keane Billy is standing in front of a calendar that reads December 18, and he says: "Only seven more hoping days 'til Christmas." And in a very real sense, he's right. These are our hoping days. This IS the period of anticipation and hope. The packages are piling up under the tree. And come the 25th, that hope will become a reality. But if we're not careful, we might just miss the most extraordinary gift of all. You see, this gift is wrapped in plain brown wrapping paper.

It's always under the tree, but because it's in plain brown wrapping paper, it's often overlooked, forgotten or cast aside as not being worth very much. You see, while we can tell what season it is by the wrapping paper used, we also think we can tell the worth of a gift by how it's wrapped.

But in the Kingdom of God, that's not true at all In the Kingdom of God, God turns everything on its head. And what we discover is that the gift that looked the least promising, the one that was the most plain looking was actually the greatest gift of all.

On Christmas day, the hope of the world was born. God's gift of grace to the world came packaged and wrapped NOT in the splendor and glory of Heaven; but in the plain brown wrapper of our human flesh and blood. The Hope of God, the Hope of Humankind, the Hope of Salvation and Forgiveness came wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Our Hope came in the plain brown wrapper of the Christ child, the people and the events surrounding his birth.

Let's look at Mary's reaction to the announcement and visit from the Angel.

Luke 1:46-55 (NRSV)

[46] And Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord,

[47] and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

[48] for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

[49] for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

[50] His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

[51] He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

[52] He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

[53] he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

[54] He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

[55] according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

I think it's extraordinary how God always uses the ordinary to do the extraordinary. That's one of the things that fascinates me about God. God can take the simplest thing, the least likely person, the one who would go unnoticed by anyone else and lift them from obscurity into eternity.

We get distracted by all the glitter and glamor. We get distracted by the wrapping paper of the world. But God always reaches for the gift in the plain brown wrapper first.

Look who God chose to be the emissaries of this world changing event. Event he setting could have come in a plain brown wrapper.

I. MARY:

Why, just look at Mary. She wasn't a beauty queen. She wasn't a star. She wasn't noted for anything. There's no footnote about how glorious she was anywhere that would cause God to choose her. She was just a young, every day sort of girl, filled with faith. We don't know much about her other than she had an Aunt named Elizabeth and she too was chosen for something special.

There is some speculation and even an old tradition that says her mother's name was Anna. And that Nicodemus was their brother. So, if she was his niece, that made Nicodemus Jesus' Great Uncle.

But that's about all we know about Mary, other than the genealogy we find in the gospels. God wrapped the birth of His Son in the plain brown wrapper of Mary.

II. JOSEPH:

The same holds true for Joseph. God could have chosen someone who was wealthy. God could have chosen someone with money, fame and influence. The message might have gotten spread quicker. More people might have believed.

Instead, God chose the plain brown wrapper of Joseph. And he was just a carpenter. Worked with stone, iron, copper and wood. It wasn't a trade to make a fortune in, but it kept food on table and a roof over their heads. It was steady work. And the carpenters of that day were respected and needed.

III. BETHLEHEM:

Then there's Bethlehem. A town of not much repute. It's not for from Jerusalem, half days journey on foot. It's now like a suburb of Jerusalem. Only mentioned briefly in Scripture. It's where Ruth and Naomi settled. It's where Jacob had Rachel buried. It was the birthplace if David, who later used it as his home. That's why it's called the city of David. It's the birth place of the prophet Micah. But by the birth of Christ, it was of little consequence. The Temple had been built and it outshone everything.

The prophet Micah wrote: "But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days."

Bethlehem was just a small town, like Joshua. It's name means "House of Bread." God took the plain brown wrapper of Bethlehem and made it a Jewel of hope.

IV. STABLE:

And what about the stable. Surely god could have come up with something better than that for his own son. And yet this simple stable and manger changes the world. Who but God would have thought of it. Who would have thought that something as simple as a manger could melt hearts that have frozen and re-frozen through the years. Hearts that have forgotten the origins of love and grace, hearts that have built walls to keep themselves from getting too battered and bruised. Hearts that have seen so much grief and tragedy on television and in life itself, that most of us suffer from compassion fatigue.

A Missionary with the Pueblo Native Americans told our church that in the sheep country of New Mexico, the shepherds were having trouble losing lambs in the late winter and early spring. It seems the ewes would take their lambs out to graze, and late in the day it would start to snow. The temperature would drop, and the ewes would continue to graze. The lambs would lie down on the ground and before long would freeze to death.

The shepherds got together to discuss the problem. They determined that the ewes, covered with wool didn't feel the temperature change. The shepherds came up with a rather unique solution. They took shears and sheared just the top of the head of the ewes. Then when the weather changed, they felt it and headed back to the barn, thus saving many of their lambs.

Sometimes our hearts get all warm and woolly. It's not wrong; we like that warm fuzzy feeling, and we get comfortable with it. Sometimes the wool around our hearts builds, not for warmth, but for protection. It acts as a cushion against the blows of the world, the crushing sorrow we feel, that compassion fatigue. At times it gets so thick that we need to get it sheared, like the ewes.

And that's exactly what the stable and manger do for us at Christmas. God uses the plain brown wrapper of the birthplace and the birthing place of Jesus to melt our hearts.

V. A BABY:

And there was the baby, God, entering into the world as an infant. There is nothing more ordinary or more hope filled than the birth of a baby. God took something as simple as the birth of a baby to usher in hope. Christmas and Advent remind us of the hope we felt at our own children's and grandchildren's birth. Somehow, during the year, that hope gets lost in the pile of dirty diapers and wad of paper towels used to clean up the spit up. Somehow, during the living out of our daily lives through out the rest of the year, the Hope of the that birth gets buried beneath the toys and clothes and the accumulation of stuff and the accumulation of years.

But this season of the baby lets that Hope be reborn. We hear the baby cry from the plain brown wrapper of the manger and our hearts find their place and their peace once again.

CONCLUSION:

Today we come face to face with a mind-boggling, bumfuzzling idea and story. It's a story that is almost incomprehensible in it's simplicity and truth. It's a story that is a gift. It is a gift wrapped up in a plain brown wrapper. But it is the most exquisite gift imaginable. This gift was left for each of us, under the tree of life nearly 2,000 years ago by Him whose birthday we celebrate today. The gift was withheld from no one. Some have left their packages unclaimed. Some have accepted the gift and carry it around, but have failed to begin unwrapping and thus have failed to discover the hidden splendor and grace of God's love. The packages are all alike: in each one is a scroll on which is written, "I love you!" and it's signed God.

Won't you reach out and accept the gift which God has for you? Won't you reach out and receive God's love and forgiveness in this plain brown wrapper and begin that lifelong adventure of faith. Receive God's gift to the world as your own.

1. Mary Elizabeth Counselman, THE MISSION HOUSE

2. The Pastor's Story File (Saratoga Press, P.O. Box 8, Platteville, CO, 80651; 970-785-2990), November 1994

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