The Last Straw

The Rev. Donna Schaper; senior pastor of Congregational UCC in Coral Gables, Flan, writes in her latest books are "The Labyrinth from the Inside Out" from Skylights Press. "That the last straw of our lives becomes the first straw of Jesus' manger in our hearts."

She brings a sense of reality by placing the birth of the Chirst Child in an ER department. Gradually all within the hospital are caught-up in this nativity and she concludes by saying, "Patients all, we wait".

The image of the cross and he crib are powerful symbols of incarnational humility, but how half heartedly we listen to the carol service reading, "And this will be a sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a feeding trough." (Luke 2:12, international version)

I find this phrase so powerful!

Let's take this symbolism in context. The place of Birth was Bethlehem (بيت لحم, , lit "House of Meat"; Βηθλεέμ; בית לחם, Beit Lehem, lit "House of Bread" a town originally called Ephrath meaning fruitful and it was here the Chosen One was laid in a feeding trough. Here, the Bread of Life is wrapped Swaddling Clothes and laid for all to see. For me, there is a synergy with the story of the burial of Jesus where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrap his body with the spices, in strips of linen according to Jewish burial customs.

I recall a few years ago setting Christmas display at the front of church with the infant Christ-child; arms out stretched reaching out from a large open Bible beneath a large empty cross. Little did I think that such a scene cause such a stir with members of the congregation complaining that it looked as if I was trying to crucify the baby. Hmm!

The crib and the cross are part of the one mystery of the Incarnation, and there really isn't much distance between Bethlehem and Calvary after all.