S-E-X and other Christmas Matters

A number of years ago, on the outskirts of Auburn, Maine, there stood a billboard that had splashed across it in bright red letters S-E-X.  Then, beneath the word sex, in small black letters, it said, "Now that we have your attention, we'd like to share the following information with you."  The billboard then went on to advertise a product totally unrelated to sex.

I used to wonder as I drove past that sign if it really was an effective form of advertising.  Sure, it was an attention-getter, and one doesn't easily forget the billboard itself, but for the life of me I can't remember what was being advertised.  The method, the medium, was so controversial that the message itself has been lost!  Thirty-five years later I remember the billboard, but not the product being promoted!

I think that is often what happens when we consider the nativity story.  Mary is visited by an angel who tells her that she is going to give birth to the Messiah.  When Mary questions how this can happen, after all she is a virgin, the angel tells her:  Nothing is impossible with God.

The important fact of the announcement is who is going to be born--not how that is going to happen!  But we get so hung up on debating what the story says or doesn't say about the virgin birth, that we often overlook its central affirmation:  the one to be born is the Saviour.  Like that billboard in Maine, too often we focus on the medium, rather than the message.