\\
For most people, I think they would say the songs and the creche or maybe perhaps the candles and the calmness of the sanctuary at 11:58 when you have all finished silent night and are awaiting the blowing out of the candles. At least, that's what I would say. That calmness, to me, is the moment when I know God has been made present in the world. Well, John Bell thinks differently, and for good reason too.
\\
Before we go on, let me quote that which he says to help us understand first and foremost what Christmas is all about: "It is the time when the Creator of heaven and earth decides, out of love...to forgo the distance and safety of heaven in order to experience the risk and joy of life on earth in solidarity with humanity. This is God forgoing privilege... becoming one of the crowd and doing so in the person of a peasant girl's son" (27). I think this is something upon which we would all agree and do, to some extent, all recognize but can never put into words. With that said, let's carry on.
\\
Nativity plays: These are just calling for havoc, right? You have all of these kids participating in it running around as donkeys and sheep and angels and shepherds and magi and mary and joseph... But guess what? Kids probably weren't present at Jesus' birth... besides baby Jesus and teenage mother, Mary, no kids! Also, why is it that Elizabeth and Zecheriah, Ceasar, Herod, and Simeon and Anna rarely make it in the story? "Christmas is about old people. That is the Gospel truth" (26). God is doing amazing things in the lives of the older people, and here we are, in the 21st century, making it about kids. Besides, the Shepherds that were out at midnight tending the flock would have been men, not boys; and wise men in the ancient Middle-Eastern cultures considered wisdom not as something that comes with having piled-upon degrees, but "experience, reflection and longevity" (26). So, this story is not about kids.
\\
"Silent Night...": Yea, it totally wasn't. I mean, think about it... you have all of those animals lying around! No... those animals have been written in. Go read the birth narrative in Matthew or Luke... animals do not exist. The closest we get is the flocks over which the shepherds are tending in the Luke narrative, but sheep are dumb and most likely wouldn't have followed their shepherd. And most likely, the shepherds would not have brought ALL of their sheep with them... So back to this quiet situation that didn't exist. See, it was census time. People were coming and going, to and from various places. Bethlehem wasn't necessarily a town in the middle of nowhere. We hear of other people (in the Gospel) that were from Bethlehem. So, it wasn't the middle of nowhere. Besides, just because Jesus is Jesus doesn't mean he didn't cry... Thanks, "Away in the Manger", but no thanks. Plus, if the hotels in the area were so full Mary and Joseph couldn't get in, well, then that means even more people running around. Bell is sure to point out, also, that no one knew the Messiah was being born... Angels had to go TELL the shepherds... otherwise, no one would have ever known! It wasn't this grand production where Jesus was made the center of attention throughout ALL of Palestine, as we like to think... It was bustling with busyness... people didn't know. (Even in his baptism, people didn't recognize him...)
\\
Now that we have debunked two of the greatest myths of Christmas... :] Bell says one more thing that really grabbed me, in terms of Christmas... It is about the incarnation... Emmanuel, God with us, in this world where we are imperfect beings, where we have denied God in so many ways... But God did it anyway. Perhaps December 25 is about allowing "ourselves to marvel at God's risk, trust and surprise" (34).
\\
Here is "O Little Town of Bethlehem" as switched up by John Bell to speak the truth:
--
O little town of Bethlehem,
how rowdy you appear
as homecome emigrants ar buoyed
by sentiment and beer.
The long-haried tearaway returns,
grandfatherly and grey,
and former glamour-pusses' pasts
emerge in all they say.
.
Who knows if Ned the publican,
whose rooms could take no more,
would pleasently or angrily
greet strangers at the door?
Who knows if he had cats and dogs
around his cattle shed,
or whether robins twittered on
or even Mrs. Ned?
.
But if he let his stable out
to be a labor room
for some expectant teenage mum
and her embarrassed groom,
the breath and stink of tethered beasts
would set the midwives wild
if keen to minimize the risk
to Mary and her child.
.
And would poor shepherds, when disturbed
from midnight peace and calm,
presume a newborn baby boy
would want to hold a lamb?
And if the Magi from the East did "enter in all three"
was it true they, in homage,
bent a single knee?
.
And did the baby never cry, and was the mother mild
when Herod sensed that he'd been duped
and let his men run wild>
And was the father pre-progremmed
to take the passive part
when one old man foretold the child
would break his mother's heart?
.
Christ was not born at Christmas time
invoked by practiced choirs,
embraced by plastic mangers
and fulfilling our desires.
No kindergarten was his home,
no drummer-boy his page,
no earth had frozen snow on snow
when God had come of age.
.
Instead, on the periphery,
eccentric through decree,
the power behind the universe
was born a refugee;
a refugee from heaven above
became the world's creator,
and chose an unknown peasant girl
as host and liberator.
1 comment:
"There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?"
Post a Comment