I helped move and reconstruct the stable we use for the Living Nativity. City Park Church asked to borrow it for a drive-thru nativity, which they are hosting in partnership with three other churches.
I noticed three things.
First, it's impossible to move and construct the stable alone. It requires a group to handle it and figure out how it goes together.
Second, at least one person needs to have some history with the stable. It's assembly is not self-explanatory, and really breaks the brain of anyone who tries to figure it out alone.
Third, it requires repair every year we pull it out. Often it's the new folks who fix it. This year, a length of angle iron pulled out of a rotted section of plywood. I tried to put it back together the way it was, but that simply wasn't going to work. One of the people I met today came up with a clever fix.
This is a good picture of Christian faith.
First, faith is shared. It's not something we do alone. God gives it as a gift, often through others. Maybe our parents, or a friend. Fellow church members provide guidance and forgiveness. And even strangers can reveal God to us (Matt 25).
Second, faith is learned. It helps to have some people around who can explain the faith. Often it's someone older in the faith who has been through some rolling sea billows of trial, or doldrums of doubt. Or a teacher who can raid the storehouses of our history and the scriptures, and bring out "treasures old and new" (Matt 13).
And finally, faith is mended. Sometimes we need to mend part of what we've inherited. Faith is passed down by humans, and humans aren't perfect. Dante Aligheri mended the church's imagination. Dr. King mended the church's compassion and justice. The Church of God mended its own history of legalism. There is still mending to do today.
Today strangers helped me mend our old stable. Their repairs will remain, becoming part of its history for as long as it holds together. Like the stable, our faith can be shared, learned, and mended. Unlike the stable, our faith will last forever, because Christ is the one shared, and his life is endless; Christ is the one learned, and his wisdom is infinite; and Christ is the one mended from death, and his resurrection is the future mending of all things.
Pastor Eddy
