A Living Nativity dominated my Advent and Christmas in both 2020 and 2021.
We first put it together during that curious COVID 2020 when we needed to social distance, or, better yet, stay outside.
Our church’s Board of Education wanted to provide a healthy outing to honor the season.
For the first time since we began attending our Lutheran Church, we had no Advent services in 2020. We may have sat outside in the Christmas Eve cold, but we did sing Christmas carols.
Fortunately, we had a Living Nativity!
I don’t recall who thought of the idea, but in October, when indoor gatherings looked unlikely, we began to plan something different.
“Why not put together a living Nativity, outside, in family ‘pods.’ They could move together from station to station, seeing the Christmas story?”
This also meant each station of the Christmas story had to be composed of family pods–or actors standing at least six feet away from each other.
Would it work?
It did.
Wonderfully.
In fact, our friends and church family enjoyed the Living Nativity so much, we reprised it in 2021.
Merry Christmas!
Mary meets the Angel Gabriel
Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
The angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
Seeing and hearing the angel troubled Mary.
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
“Behold, you will conceive and bring forth a Son. You’ll call him Jesus.
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.
He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
“Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age . . For with God nothing will be impossible.”
Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”
And the angel departed from her.
Alas, no room at the inn!
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. All went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. He was of the house and lineage of David. Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child, went with him.
While they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
The Shepherds
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.
They were greatly afraid.
Then the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy for all people.
Today in the city of David a Savior is born. This is the sign: you’ll find a baby lying in a manger.”
Angels!
Suddenly a multitude of the heavenly angels filled the sky praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see what’s happened that the Lord sent angels to announce.”
Living Nativity
The shepherds came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.
Now when they had seen Him, the shepherd told Mary and Joseph what the angels said!
They marveled at the shepherd’s words.
Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they saw.
Camels and Herod
After Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, wise men from the East traveled to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?
We saw His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
This troubled Herod and the rest of Jerusalem.
Herod gathered all the chief priests and scribes together and asked where they expected the Messiah’s birth to take place.
“In Bethlehem of Judea, as written by the prophet,” they explained.
‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah;
For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
Herod secretly called the wise men and learned at what time the star appeared.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young child. When you find him, bring back word to me, so I can worship Him also.”
When they heard the king, they departed.
Toddler Jesus
(We didn’t have a baby so we used a toddler.)
When the wise men saw the young Child with Mary His mother, they fell down and worshiped Him. And when they opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Then, being divinely warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.
On those chilly December nights in 2020 and 2021, visitors received a gift bag, an individual snack, and greetings for a happy Christmas.
The actors?
We shared our acting to a recorded narrative about 15 times.
Even though we couldn’t mingle ourselves, we enjoyed a different way of celebrating the nativity story.
In 2021, we get to sing in the 11 o’clock Christmas Eve service–wearing masks.
Maybe next year we can be mask-free.
Regardless, Jesus is here.
Thanks be to God.
Tweetables
How one church presented a Living Nativity to celebrate Christmas. Click to Tweet
Happy Advent and Merry Christmas–one church acts out the Savior’s birth story. Click to Tweet
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