As we get ever closer to our Christmas celebrations, the nearness of the Lord is in the air and at the heart of today’s Gospel reading from Luke. Luke has always been my favorite of the 4 gospels because of his attention to detail.  Luke is precise about everything; he even says at the beginning of his gospel that his purpose is to write an orderly account (Luke 1:3b) of all that took place surrounding Jesus’ life and ministry. My theory is that Luke was actually the first Presbyterian because of his love of order. Luke’s detail in the gospel of Luke and in the Book of Acts has even helped modern scholars find historical correlations to people, places and events with the stories of Jesus, which, in my opinion, serves to make the testimony of scripture even stronger.

Look at the way Luke describes Jesus’ birth in today’s reading.  This passage is only 7 verses long, but it gives an incredible amount of detail about names, places and historical context.  He mentions who the Emperor was when the Census was ordered and where and how it took place.  He gives great detail about where Joseph and Mary must go because of Joseph’s family line – showing us that he, and therefore Jesus, are related to Israel’s king David. That combined with the fact that they were in Bethlehem for the birth, serves to fulfill Hebrew prophesy.

Luke even talks about the kind of cloth Mary used to wrap the baby, which tells us so much about their circumstances.  Swaddling cloth is the traditional translation, which was literally several strips or scraps of cloth, like for a bandage, that were wrapped tightly around the baby’s whole body.  This kind of cloth indicated just how poor this family was, added to the fact that they were in the stable where the animals lived and had no other place than a feeding trough in which to lay their baby. Luke paints a vivid picture with just a few words.

As a matter of fact, Luke’s gospel is the only one of the 4 gospels that gives any detail about Jesus’ actual birth.  Matthew talks about Mary and Joseph and then just says the baby was born in Bethlehem – nothing about the Census, no room at the inn, or laying the baby in a manger – not to mention the kind of cloth he was wrapped in.  Mark’s gospel does not talk about the birth at all and neither does John’s gospel, except in a poetic fashion – in the beginning was the word and so on.

So, if it weren’t for Luke’s gospel and his painstaking attention to detail, we wouldn’t have a stable scene with a manger in the Church to celebrate Christmas, we wouldn’t have the joy of the re-enactment of Jesus’ birth in the annual children’s pageant.  Christmas Caroling, like we’re doing this afternoon, wouldn’t be nearly as much fun because we wouldn’t have some of our favorite songs like Away in a Manger. We wouldn’t have any of that because Luke’s gospel is the only one that gives us the detail of Jesus’ actual birth.

Isn’t it interesting that some of the most cherished and well-known parts of the Christmas story, No Room at the Inn, Baby Jesus in a Manger, are only a small part of the total gospel account.  We might ask, why was the birth detail only included in one gospel? Or, perhaps more compelling to us personally, Why is the detail of the birth itself what we remember the most?  Why are we so captivated by where Jesus was born and what his parent’s went through to get him there?

I think it’s because these details, while in an ancient context, resonate with us.  We may not have been born in a stable or had a manger instead of a crib, but all of us know what hardship is.  Each of us in our own lives, in our own ways, have met with circumstances we could do nothing to change, but just had to find a way to deal with.  Maybe none of us has lived in the kind of poverty that Joseph and Mary knew, but I think we have all experienced to one degree or another, poverty of spirit, scarcity of love, hardship in relationships or in our families.  We don’t know exactly what Mary and Joseph went through, but our hearts go out to them because in some way, we understand.

For me, it was as a young adult that I finally came to a soul-deep awareness of what it meant for God to come into our world—taking on our flesh and entering the most depraved circumstances of Jesus’ impoverished birth, only to later endure the tragic injustice of His execution. Understanding that about my God was what ultimately broke my heart open to faith in Christ.

To know that God not only took on the worst of what we face but chose to do so, all to reveal God’s eternal and unconditional love, brought me to my knees in gratitude for such an un-repayable gift. The details matter to our faith.

A year or so ago, I was thrilled to discover that the old sitcom Mad About You was finally released on a streaming platform. I had searched for it on various platforms over the years, and when it became available again, I couldn’t wait to re-watch it. Thinking about the details of Jesus’ birth and what it took for Mary and Joseph to prepare for it, brought to mind an episode from this old show.

It was toward the end of the series when Jamie had to go to the hospital to give birth to their first child.  Paul and Jamie get to the waiting room of their New York hospital and find another couple in the same situation.  Both Moms are in wheelchairs with their husbands behind them ready to take them to the birthing room.  But this is not the first child of the other couple, they’ve had 3 other children over the years in this same hospital and they seem very anxious to get ahead of Jamie and Paul who don’t understand the sense of competition.

What the other couple knows from experience is that there is one birthing room there that is like a master suite, with real furniture and beautiful décor, a truly luxurious room in which to have your baby.  Once Jamie and Paul learn this, they get into a fierce and funny competition with the other couple to get to what they refer to as the “Good” Room.  In the end, the other couple gets the fancy room and Paul and Jamie are stuck in a regular room which makes Jamie complain and feel slighted as she begins to go into painful labor, which is like adding insult to injury.

Then their baby is born, and all thoughts of where they are and what room they did or did not get evaporate. All they can see now is the beautiful gift of a child that has come into their lives.  As they bask in the glow of the moment, Paul says very softly, as it turns out we did get the “good” room.

The details about where Christ was born only show more brightly the gift that Christ is for all of us.  I think this is why we cherish these details and make them apart of joyful Christmas worship, because the birth of God’s love into the world in a newborn baby, transformed the lowliest circumstances to the highest, the most impoverished birth to the richest,  and the emptiest hearts to the fullest.

The details of Christ’s birth remind us that God’s love transforms everything it touches, turning humble beginnings into profound blessings. As we continue our Advent journey, may we carry this truth in our hearts, rejoicing as we prepare for the promised birth. In the name of our Emmanuel, who is God with us. Amen.