Reflections on the Manger in Luke 2

After 46 years as a United Methodist minister, I retired a couple years ago and spend most days working on the family grain and livestock farm. After preaching during Christmas for 46 years, I guess I still am thinking about aspects of the Christmas story in Luke 2, even though I am not preaching this Christmas season. From the unique perspective of feeding cattle every day, I have been reflecting on the fact that the word manger is used three times in Luke 2 (half of the occurrences of this word in the entire NIV Bible). That detail in the story must be important. Here are some thoughts:

1. Cattle wait by the manger each morning. They stand close by.
2. Cattle can’t fill the manger themselves.
3. It is the only place where cattle are fed. No other place.
4. The manger holds life-sustaining food. Every day.
5. Their hunger is assuaged at the manger.

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:11,12)

My Favorite Pearl Harbor Day Story

I have always loved the biography of Rev. Peter Marshall written by his widow, Catherine Marshall. Rev. Marshall was invited to preach at the Naval Academy at Annapolis on Sunday, December 7, 1941.

Here's how she described this event in the book, A Man Called Peter  (p. 220-221):

      Peter was to preach to the regiment of midshipmen at the Naval Academy at Annapolis.
      
      All the preceding week he had been haunted by a strange feeling that he should change his announced topic and preach a particular sermon. It was a feeling he could not shake off. On Sunday morning he confided it to Chaplain Thomas. 

      "If your feeling about it is that strong, follow it by all means," was the chaplain's response.

      So Peter preached on the text, seemingly a strange text for young midshipmen:

      For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away. (James 4:14)

      In the chapel before him was the December graduating class, young men who in a few days would receive their commissions and go on active duty.

      As we were driving back to Washington that afternoon, suddenly the program on the car radio was interrupted. The announcer's voice was grave. His apparently routine words throbbed with emotion. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Stand by for an important announcement. This morning the United States Naval Base at Pearl harbor was bombed in a surprise Japanese attack..."

     Instantly we knew that we were living through one of history's dramatic moments, that fateful December 7th,  "the day that would long live in infamy."
  
      Within a month many of the boys to whom Peter had just preached would go down to heroes' graves in strange waters. Soon all of them would be exposed to the risks and dangers of war, and Peter, under God's direction, had preached to them--young, vital, alive as they were that morning--about death and immortality.