The Manger is Empty
About fifteen years ago, when I was pastor at the Blue Hill Road Community Church in The Bahamas, I mounted a Christmas display outside the church building. It was a life-size manger scene with hay and still animals, but no Mary, no Joseph, and no baby Jesus. There was only a banner that read, “The Manger Is Empty.” O my goodness! I received so much feedback that Christmas from fellow ministers, church members, and passersby. “Boy, what you tryin’ to do!?” Some wanted to know what I meant by “the manger is empty.” Some took offense at the banner, believing it to be an anti-Christmas statement; it was not. My goal in mounting that manger scene was to disturb my members and churchgoers and everyone who saw it. I wanted to challenge them from thinking about Christmas as a fairytale story that we re-enact each year about a baby Jesus. I wanted to remind them that the Jesus who was born in a manger, who walked this earth teaching and healing, who suffered and died and was resurrect