The Gospel of the Christmas Pageant

By Michael B. Lukens 

Few traditions in church life are as secure and set as the annual Christmas pageant.  Treasured and rarely revised, it endures as a staple in the rhythm of celebrative seasons.  Yet, there is always the possibility of interruptive grace.The church home for my wife and me has such a pageant, with the same script and costumed scenes over many decades—until this year.  Following a long-standing tradition, the live baby Jesus in the manger scene is always the newest infant in the congregation, male or female.  There has always been such a really new “new-born,” and the realism of this infant with its parents as Joseph and Mary has been a superb tradition.  This year, however, there was a Big Change.The most recent infant this year was the month-old son, Elijah, of Michael and Todd, a young gay couple who have been together, active and leaders within the church, over many years, and recently married from the impact of judicial decision and, then, successful in an adoption.  Whoa, what about the traditional pageant script and symbolism?The back story here is that this church is “open and affirming” and a signal beacon for its hospitality and celebration of diversity in a traditional wider community environment, typically resistant to change.  It simply never occurred to anyone in the church to depart from the common tradition in the selection of the infant to represent Jesus in the manger scene.  The central commitment remained, i.e., staying faithful to historical re-presentation and to the radical message of the Gospel that enfolds all people and reflects a celebration of “new being” in Christ.The director and her staff swung into action.  In a brilliant adjustment, the familiar manger birth-scene was subtly split into two parts with accompanying adjustments in the staging directions.  The lead-up with the Herod tirade, the annunciation, the endearing encounter of Mary and Elizabeth, the chaos of enrollment in Bethlehem, including the travail of those for whom there was no room—all went as by custom expected.  Mary and Joseph, a teenage couple, then emerge from the shadows carrying the newborn and proceed to the manger and crib, as the familiar text from Luke proclaims the birth that night. The infant, “Elijah” (interestingly) this year, is coddled by Mary as Joseph looks on with care and concern.

Voice over Reader: So the tired travelers slept on the straw-covered floor.  Jesus was born in the stable that night.  Mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes and held him with love and wonder.

Then, as Michael and Todd emerge from the shadows behind the open manger to stand behind the crib, there is quite a remarkable alteration toward the truly expansive meaning of the Gospel: the gift of Jesus, as Immanuel, God among us, expands from the gift of the child to Mary and Joseph, as savior of God’s covenant people, to redeemer of the world.  Mary rises with the baby and presents him to Todd and Michael.

Voice-over:  Mary and Joseph loved their baby with their whole hearts.  But even that night, they knew their baby was born not only to them, but to the whole world.  Just as they promised to love and cherish him, we, as the family of Christ, love and cherish him today.  All are welcome to behold the miracle of the birth of Jesus.

The pageant then goes on with the traditional drama and narration of the Magi from Matthew’s Gospel, with a manger company now revised.  A simple addition but such a significant shift.  Just as Jesus is Lord that night and for all time, so is Jesus Lord of the Church and also of the whole world.Christmas Eve 2014 Michael B. Lukens is the Stated Clerk of the Presbytery of Winnebago.