Luke 2:1-20

Rediscovering the Wonder of Jesus’ Birth

It is said that familiarity breeds contempt, but sometimes familiarity breeds something far less intense, but equally as destructive—complacency.

As a child, I attended a parochial school, in which we were required to memorize Luke 2:1-20. The rote memorization became a chore that somewhat clouded the meaning of the text for me. Subsequent years were filled with Christmas pageants, some dull, some humorous, all insipidly reductionistic in the way in which they sucked the wonder out of Luke’s narrative in exchange for a ho-hum, kitsch child’s play. Now, please do not misunderstand me.

Memorization of scripture and the innocent reenactment of such a narrative are in themselves very beautiful and worthy,…