Christmas DayA, 2007
Luke 2:8-20
HAVE YORSELF A VERY, MERRY, POLITICAL CHRISTMAS…
This year has been the Year of Politics in Australia.
A year when federal politicians attempted to ‘wedge’ opponents
and ‘woo voters’ prior to an election.
And where we saw some do a chameleon trick and change their colours
on such previously closed fisted issues as
climate change,
education, and
indigenous affairs.
Well, as you all now know, we have a new Australian government
as a result of all this political ‘argie-bargie’.
Complete with the eagerness and new possibilities victory brings,
as well as the weeping and nashing of teeth that defeat brings.
I mention this not to demonise one and sanctify the other.
But to suggest that it is within a political context
we should hear the Christmas stories.
A context not often mentioned in church.
Or put another way… the infancy narratives of old
need to be set within the modern framework of
steroids, waterboarding (or repeated drownings),
global climate scorching, and aerial bombing raids.
They all grow from the same root: the will to control.
oo0oo
So what of Christmas? Let me share an observation or two.
Today’s Christmas celebration is a date on a calendar.
A public holiday.
A red letter day.
A start to holidays – sun, sand and surf.
In the biblical scheme of things, these stories are late in the tradition.
Eighty to hundred years late.
It then took nearly 400 years before the early churches decided,
mainly for reasons of control and political expediency,
to celebrate the birth of the sage Jesus of Nazareth as one of its festivals.
And then another 250 years or so, again
amid great debate and various other religious practices,
for about half the churches to celebrate it on 25 December.
Which is still the case today.
And even then for the next 1200 years or so, it remained a bit of a mixed bag
of both celebration and being banned, until the mid 1800s.
Then it’s celebration became popular and sentimentalised,
especially through the writings of Charles Dickens,
a poem, and then later, through
a 30-year long advertising campaign.
These days, if you believe noisy evangelical preachers,
the really big controversy over Christmas is whether or not
commerce and extravagant spending has overturned and destroyed
the so-called ‘spirit’ of a Dickens-type Christmas.
Hence the pious but often equally commercial protest:
'put Christ back into Christmas'.
But are these and other claims ‘fair dinkum’? And is this
what the religious infancy or nativity stories are all about?
Doug Adams was the former professor of Christianity and the Arts
at the Pacific School of Religion in California.
Unfortunately he died this year and will be greatly missed.
A great advocate of joining the arts and theology,
Adams often pointed out that in nativity scenes, many great artists
portray the child Jesus as drawing together
the full diversity of humanity.
Shepherds appear ragged and poor.
Magi or astrologers appear elegant and wealthy.
One of the Magi men is old.
Another middle aged.
And another young.
All are foreigners. And one may be black.
Closest to the child Jesus is a woman,
Mary his mother, who is visible to all.
Adams says:
the so-called unrighteous as well as the so-called righteous, are in Jesus' company (PSR web site).
Now I don’t have a colourful painting of a nativity scene to show you.
Least of all one done by one of the world’s great artists.
But I do have some art to show you (Shuck & Jive blog).
And I have printed it on the Liturgy sheet you received this morning.
It’s reproduction is not as clear as I would have liked
so let me paint some descriptive words to go with it.
It’s a nativity scene.
It’s a nativity scene in Bethlehem.
It’s a gated or walled nativity scene in Bethlehem.
It’s a political gated or walled nativity scene in Bethlehem, today.
“For Israelis, the suffering comes from suicide bombers and other acts of terror. While terrorist attacks have reduced in the past year, the people of Israel still have a well-founded fear of life-threatening calamity striking them without warning. And they are surrounded in the Middle East by nations that make no secret of their enmity towards them.
“For Palestinians, the suffering from 40 years of occupation is immense. Life in the West Bank is very difficult. Unemployment is rife. Some 50% of the population is in poverty. Food parcels still have to be distributed in refugee camps, where thousands of families have lived for 60 years.
“The heavy restrictions placed on Palestinians by the occupation seem to be counter-productive. They may be a justified response to terrorist attacks, but the daily harassments and difficulties deepen the enmity; they do not make for peace.
“For instance, did you know that 15 year-olds are locked up in prison for six months for throwing stones at military watch-towers? Did you know that Israel is building a segregated road system in the West Bank, so that Israelis and Palestinians won’t have to travel on the same roads? Did you know there are 90 military checkpoints and 562 other obstacles (trenches, roadblocks, etc.) placed on the roads in the West Bank? It’s hard to see how Palestine can develop a sustainable economy, let alone form a viable state”) (Henderson, UCA web site).
And this is an important clue to the nativity or infancy stories which the church and some religious folk hear at Christmas time.To really hear the infancy stories of the gospels, again,
we need to hear them as political, subversive stories,
with a sting in their tail.
These stories, like the gospels they overview,
are fictions or parables, rather than so-called historical fact.
They draw from a collection of legends, in the
Hebrew scriptures and from pagan mythology, to tell their story.
They paint a word picture of the kingdom or ‘empire of God’
as opposed to the kingdom or ‘empire of Rome’,
and their paranoid rulers often called ‘Son of God’, ‘Saviour of the world’…
Caesar Augustus, in the midst of storyteller Luke’s palette
of bright primary colours and rejoicing.
Herod, in the midst of storyteller Matthew’s palette
of somber, darker hues and political intrigue.
As John Shuck, a colleague in the USA suggests on his blog site:
“According to the gospels, Jesus did not come to preach some metaphysical nonsense about life after death and secret spiritual kingdoms. He preached politics, down and dirty. ‘Whose side are you on?’ is the message of the Gospels.
"Are you on the side of the powerful and the paranoid, (in our day corporations and militaristic madness) or are you on the side of those who are adversely affected by the politics of empire?” (Shuck & Jive blog).
Listen to some of Luke’s rhetoric, put into the mouth of Mary:
YHWH has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty (Luke 1:51-53).
As John Shuck goes on to say:
“Read 'em and weep, you who think Christmas is not about politics” (Shuck & Jive blog).
oo0oo
Let me again share with you another observation.
More than 600 years ago, a male Catholic Christian mystic and theologian asked:
‘What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the son of God 1400 years ago and I do not also give birth to the son of God in my time and in my culture?’
The mystic was Meister Eckhart.
His question is still valid these long centuries later.
Because I reckon Eckhart's query is about
birthing new qualities into a waiting world that needs them.
This is both the promise and the provocative challenge
of a political (and personal) Christmas.
So this year, I join several others from the progressive religion world
in wishing you and yours a political Christmas.
And I also wish you courage and understanding
as you make your political – and hopefully – imaginative decisions,
to bring about a different kind of world for everyone.
For this different kind of world is
not only about personal peace of mind, tinsel and Christmas pud,
it is also about political peace on earth! (Borg & Crossan 2007:x).
Notes:
Borg M.; J. D. Crossan. 2007. The first christmas: What the gospels really teach about Jesus’ birth. NY: New York. HarperOne.
Holy bible. (NRSV). 1989. TN: Nashville. Thomas Nelson.
Roll, S. K. 1995. Towards the origins of Christmas. The Netherland: Kampen. Kok Pharos Publishing.