What if the Angel of the Lord appeared to Mary and told her she was with child, and Mary said, “no way?” That’s sort of sums up William Gibson’s sweet retelling of the Christmas story, The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut & the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree.

What would happen, Gibson asks, if miraculous events befell average people with all their faults? Suppose Mary was a headstrong teen who couldn’t stand the thought of changing diapers. Suppose Joseph was a dirty old man with lust in his heart. And if the angel were a bumbler, who made it up as he went along, asking for directions from God, but receiving none.

There is, of course, an air ofirreverence to this wonderful little play, which is getting a first-rate outing at Warren’s 2nd Story Theatre. But in a sense that makes it all the more touching, all the more human. When the angel wonders if God is out there, Mary says no, he’s within.

Gibson, author of The Miracle Worker, wrote The Butterfingers Angel in the mid-1970s for a Jesuit community not far from his home in the Berkshires. The play, which is rarely staged, was intended for non-actors, for members of the congregation, and meant to bring a smile at holiday times.

It is also a celebration of hope, Gibson has said, an affirmation of the belief that every life matters.

Mary, as we all know, ends up accepting her fate, but not without some arm-twisting. Motherhood is not in her plans; she’s saved her money and wants to move to Jerusalem. And she’s not interested in romantic advances from Joseph.

But a clumsy angel appears and tells her she is about to bear a son named Jesus. I’m what? she says. Are you sure you’ve got the right Mary, there are three of them on my street alone?

But Mary comes to understand the responsibility that has been thrust upon her, and decides that she might just be able to make a life with Joseph, who is having issues of his own. He is jealous of the angel, thinking he must be the father of Mary’s baby.

What makes this play so endearing is that it is religious without religious trappings, without a lot of dogma.

And it has a sense of humor. When the three wise men appear and ask to worship Jesus, Mary says not until after naptime. Mary also refers to Jesus as a “normal” child, as if to say by inference that all births are miraculous.

If the presence of God is hard to detect in this play, the same can’t be said of the devil, who appears at every turn, trying to hinder the natural order of things. Bob Colonna plays the so-called Man in Gray with a delicious sense of malevolence. He also doubles as a wacky bongo-playing King Herod, who is obsessed with finding the baby Jesus, whom he views as a threat. That’s where Colonna relies on his comic gift to make the scene sing.

But the show really belongs to 19-year-old Gabby Sherba, the play’s feisty Mary. Sherba, who is taking time off from college, has been in several 2nd Story productions during the past three or four years, but this is her most polished showing. Sherba only continues to become more at ease on stage, to seem more natural. And she’s funny, proving to be a real master of timing, of the right gesture, the right facial expression.

Vince Petronio makes a fine Joseph. Although he is at his core a good man, Petronio’s Joseph is also a complicated man, someone beset with insecurities and doubts, who has a hard time trusting Mary’s love.

Dillion Medina is the bumbling Angel, played with a sort of wide-eyed innocence of someone who means well but can’t quite get the details right.

Like all Christmas pageants, the show has its share of stable animals, most of them played by the Kinnane kids — Evan (by now a 2nd Story veteran), Eileen and Patricia, who are all cute as they come.

And there is Isabel O’Donnell’s miraculous tree, who is beguiled by the Man in Gray.

As for the dozen “slaughtered” carols of the title, which are sung by various cast members a capella, some are familiar, some offer a refreshing change of pace.

The staging is simple, with a long piece of blue fabric doubling as the stream that women wash their clothes in. The cast sits on-stage when they are not acting, and there is a basic stable, which the angel booked thinking he was getting the “bridal suite” not a place where “bridles” are kept.

When not seen as a theological argument, the story of Christmas can be taken as a humanistic encouragement of peace on Earth and goodwill to humanity. From that agnostic starting point, playwright William Gibson went even farther in The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut & the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols In a Pear Tree. 2nd Story Theatre is currently staging it in a production as entertaining as the title suggests (through December 16).

Although I didn’t canvass Christians in the audience afterwards, I’d be surprised if many believers will find the play offensive, despite the whimsical treatment. This account of the purported birth of God is perfectly respectful, once you accept that we are seeing things through the point of view of a skeptical Joseph and a strong-minded Mary.

The ensemble establishes the tone right away with “fill the stage with bits of folly” to the tune of “Deck the Halls,” before the Angel (Dillon Medina) sets forth the argument of the play. “Either God exists or not,” he begins, and the clumsy emissary soon confesses, “that they sent me is enough to make me disbelieve.” As he stumbles along his task’s path, when he lifts his eyes to his Boss and asks a question, silence is the only answer. It’s good that heavenly Providence (OK, director Ed Shea) has chosen Medina for this role, since his aura of innocence strikes just the right tone for religious credulity. In a way entirely unpredictable, the Angel becomes the hero of the story, and Medina convincingly pulls off those final moments.

As for Mary (Gabby Sherba), she is portrayed as a spunky, no-nonsense teenager. Her lighthearted enthusiasm hasn’t yet been dampened, despite living with 17 brothers, represented by three snuffling, incoherent homunculi who threateningly huddle around her. She wants to never marry and thinks little of the silly girls in her village: “I’m not going to be like them, dumb as cows and stand here drooling all my life.” When a neighbor, an older carpenter named Joseph (Vince Petronio), hits on her, compulsively, reluctantly, craving “young flesh,” it’s easy to turn him down. Sherba, whom I’ve never seen strike a false note, supplies Mary with that refreshing honesty and a beguiling spontaneity. As written, this Mary could come across as pretty bitchy.

But what’s a girl to do when she’s unaccountably pregnant and living with brothers who drunkenly threw the last baby born in their house into the fire? When she goes back to Joseph to say she’s changed her mind and will marry him, between the admitted pregnancy and the accompanying Angel who looks very much like an unacknowledged father, Joseph can be forgiven for thinking he’s one of the “horrible numbskulls” that she’s described all of humanity as being. But what’s a lusty old goat to do? He marries the girl. Petronio is all the Joseph we could hope for in this tale, angrily real but human enough to believably soften.

We get a Herod (Bob Colonna) who is mean as a knife, having ex-wives skinned for the drums he plays and wondering if babies’ skins would be better. He is billed as the Man in Gray, and Colonna pops up several times as You Know Who, the emissary of dark doubts and temptations, playing him as coolly feral.

Traveling ahead to Jerusalem, the Angel thinks he has booked Mary and Joseph into the bridal suite, but it ends up being the “bridle suite.” Funny bit. As in a school pageant Nativity, the stable is filled with animals, most notably with a sick donkey that young Evan Kinnane turns into a wonderful, unforced acting accomplishment, as the coughing beast keeps begging to be carried. The three wise men show up (Jon Brennan, Kevin Delaney, Tom Bentley), although the guy who sings about his myrrh (“bitter perfume,” “gathering gloom”) understandably gets ragged on by his companions.

The dozen carols announced are here, some briefly excerpted, some lightly spoofed. There is also the promised pear tree, played by Isabel O’Donnell in a shag-bark dress, that becomes a cherry tree at the end. (Those of you who know your Christmas carols can figure out Joseph’s enlightenment from that hint.)

William Gibson also wrote The Miracle Worker, so he knows his way around a dramatic arc. As befits its subject, this is as thoughtful a play as it is delightful. As usual, 2nd Story Theatre brings out both elements with skill and charm.

Playwright William Gibson’s comedic interpretation of the immaculate conception and the birth of Christ - The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut, & the Slaughter of 12 Hit Carols in a Pear Tree - is a delightful yuletide treat and the perfect reminder for the cynic in all of us to keep the faith, courtesy of the 2nd Story Theatre.

In Gibson’s world, Mary is a spunky yet subservient hausfrau who wants desperately to escape from living in the shadow of her semi-human, rambunctious brethren. When she’s not rejecting the advances of her much older, longtime admirer Joseph, her time is spent doing household chores in the company of other women her age, a veritable coffee clutch of ladies who launder rather than lunch. Enter the Angel, who turns Mary’s life upside down with news that (surprise!) she’s carrying a child who just so happens to be the son of God. She quickly accepts her newfound predicament, welcomes Joseph as her counterpart, and the two begin their life together and journey toward Bethlehem, (so the story goes) guided by the Angel - all the while followed by the mysterious Man in Grey.

Written in 1974, The Butterfingers Angel presents perhaps the most familiar (and arguably controversial) story of all time in a theatrical setting that is simple yet thought-provoking. Complete with all the major players - Mary, Joseph, Three Wise Men, et al - his most intriguing cast member is actually a tree. The tree doesn’t say much, but rather represents Christmas itself - an inanimate object to be decorated and then discarded shortly thereafter--or how Christmas has come to be known. And Gibson’s reinterpretation of our favorite carols reminds us not to take his viewpoint so seriously.

Dillon Medina’s performance as the Angel is genuine, profound, and above all, touching. Vince Petronio masterfully portrays Joseph as a jealous yet committed suitor who provides many of the shows funny moments. The Man in Grey, Bob Colonna, is quietly threatening, almost to perfection, and the remaining members of the supporting cast (especially the children) deliver fine performances. The show, however, belongs to Gabby Sherba (as Mary), whose unrelenting sarcasm and indomitable wit fittingly supplement her understated cuteness and knockout voice, all of which beautifully complement her stage presence.

The Butterfingers Angel is a welcome addition to your catalog of traditional holiday classics, to be treasured again and again, year after year.