Christmas Day C, 2006
Luke 2:8-20
CELEBRATING THE GOOSE-BUMP EXPERIENCES OF LIFE
Today is Christmas Day. We’ve been waiting for it for weeks.
Some of us more than others, I might add!
We’ve worked our way through the Christmas card list
and supermarket queues.
We’ve planned our meal (probably a hot one at that),
erected the tree and ‘fairy lights’,
exhausted ourselves with endless christmas CDs,
and wrapped the last present.
Some of us will soon rush home to finalise preparations for that meal.
Some of us are anxiously waiting to open our gifts.
Some of us are hoping the phone won’t ring calling us back to work.
So before we turn the page on all those preparations
and expectations and well thought-out plans,
let us take another look at some of the characters
who have played a part in our Christmas story so far.
For the sake of brevity I will only mention three.
But behind what I say is a question:
how can we see the unexpected in Christmas?
1. Santa
Despite what we may all think, in his earliest appearance, Santa Claus
- European birthed and American developed - was not a gift bringer.
His literary forerunner was shaped by Professor of Divinity,
Revd Dr Clement Moore in his 1822 poem, 'A visit from St. Nicholas',
or as it is more commonly known,
'T'was the night before Christmas...'
His artistic development came with Thomas Nast's drawings
in the mid to late 1800s.
But it didn’t really start to blossom until the 1930s when
soft drink manufacturer Coca Cola employed
artist Haddon Sundblom and adopted Santa Claus
as a salesman for the idea that ‘thirst knows no season’.
2. Jesus
The biblical stories are extremely brief... about baby Jesus.
So we tend to make up for the brevity of the story with our vivid imaginations.
Jesus, as peasant baby,
as refugee baby,
becomes the loveable infant in his crib,
smiling and cooing, ‘no crying he makes’.
But beware! Such a sweet baby Jesus can be dangerous.
And anyway, while these stories around the birth of Jesus
may have provided the fundamental rationale for the festival
within the church, for the most part and for most people,
they no longer function as determinative.
3. Mary
Mary, probably 12 -13 years of age, finds out she is pregnant.
And that’s very scary. Even in 2006.
While young she is also a strong character in our religious story.
But what does Mary's story have to do with me?
Or put another way: In what ways can I be a person
through whom something
creative,
sustaining,
transformational, enters these times?
oo0oo
How can we see the unexpected in Christmas?
Let me offer a few more comments.
Doug Adams is professor of Christianity and the Arts
at the Pacific School of Religion.
Those of you who are regulars at St James may remember
I introduced Adams yesterday when I talked about Mary
and Michele Zackheim's 1985 art work called ‘The tent of meeting.’
Well, Adams has also had something to say about nativity scenes, too.
He says that in nativity scenes, many great artists portray the child Jesus
as drawing together the full diversity of humanity.
Shepherds appear ragged and poor.
Wise men appear elegant and wealthy.
Yet they participate in an act of civil disobedience.
Legend has it - one of the wise men is old. Another middle aged.
And another young.
All of them are foreigners. Of non-Western appearance.
And one may be black.
Closest to the child Jesus is a woman,
Mary his mother, who is visible to all. And Joseph.
Whatever the exact nature of their material state,
they are hardly people of power and wealth.
So what have we got in these artistic interpretations?
The so-called ‘unrighteous’ as well as the so-called ‘righteous’
are in Jesus' company.
Such diversity within a community would be a scandal in some countries.
oo0oo
The Revd Gregor Henderson is the National President
of the Uniting Church in Australia.
In his message ‘Christmas - A time for all of us’, he says:
“Because people of diverse backgrounds welcomed the birth of Jesus - Judean shepherds, Galilean peasants, Persian sages - multiculturalism is to be welcomed and enjoyed. God's intention for the world was not for people to be integrated into one uniform culture.
"Because Jesus came for the whole world, Christians are called to see themselves as world citizens. National boundaries are secondary. National citizenship is secondary. We must carefully examine the values which lie behind Australian policies on border protection, immigration and citizenship tests. Diversity, inclusiveness, and multiculturalism are blessings to be celebrated, not policies that can be shelved” (Henderson. Insights web site).
He then concludes with this expression of hope:
"My hope this year is that Christmas will remind us that so-called ‘Australian values’ are human values and that the birth of Jesus Christ teaches us that they are part of God's gift to us, for what kind of world would it be without the gifts that lie within us all - compassion, forgiveness, prayerfulness, justice, inclusion, and the celebration of life” (Henderson. Insights web site).
Listening to both Henderson and Adams
let me again ask the question: how can we see the unexpected in Christmas?
Well, I reckon an appropriate answer is something like this:
It is important not to read or hear the religious Christmas story too narrowly.
But rather to feel its texture and discern its breadth.
For it is indeed the bearer of many messages.
In the expected language of ‘old-time’ religion
Christmas is about God out there coming to us,
to dwell with us and within us.
In the unexpected language of ‘progressive’ religion,
Christmas reminds us that we can discover
a broader dimension for our ordinary humanity.
We can rediscover the sacred character of human existence.
And we can find all kinds of ways to celebrate it.
That’s why I reckon it is important
not to read or hear the Christmas story too narrowly.
So this Christmas, this day, be
moved by generosity...
encouraged by hope...
uplifted by love...
Celebrate both the birth and the tinsel.
But more than all else, be aware of the goose-bump experiences of life!
Because the world and the universe is an extremely beautiful place,
“and... [i]t is an immensely exciting experience to be born... and look around you and realise... you have the opportunity of understanding an immense amount about that world and about... life... far, far more than any of our predecessors ever. That is such an exciting possibility, it would be such a shame to blow it and end your life not having understood what there is to understand"
(Richard Dawkins. Radio interview/book release)