12.24.15
Have any of you heard of the the Christian pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber? She is one of the new voices for progressive Christianity.
She has spiky black hair, is covered in tattoos, and swears like a sailor from the pulpit. She is a former stand-up comedian and a recovering alcoholic, and she started a church called the House for All Sinners and Saints. Her church is full of people like those Jesus surrounded himself with: prostitutes, tax collectors, fishermen…
So depending on your personal view of Christianity, you may or may not be surprised that she is also very traditional when it comes to Christianity. She’s traditional in that she believes Christianity needs to remember its origins. About Christmas, she says:
Think about the Christmas story. How did it go from what it was originally—a story of political tyranny, alienation, and working-class people, with Herod, an insecure troglodyte who puts a hit out on a toddler, and the Magi, these weird pagans, to what it is today? …This snow-covered, sugar-cookie, Norman-Rockwell delusion?
I begin with her words because I’d like all of this evening to regard the Christmas story with new eyes, mindful of its historical context, context that would have been obvious to the original hearers of this story but is usually lost on us.
Luke’s telling of Jesus’ birth cannot be understood without understanding the EMPIRE they lived under. Now you may think you know empire, but you probably don’t. It was an empire of violence and oppression, and certainly no separation between church and state…
Listen to the titles actually used for the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus: Son of God, God, God from God, Lord, Redeemer, Liberator, Savior of the World.
Of course, these are the titles used in the Bible for Jesus. Calling Jesus by these titles was daring subversive treason – the kind of thing that could and did get them killed.
The Roman empire was about peace through war, division, and oppression.
The Gospels were stories about peace through peace – or even more radical: peace through justice. Let’s look at the Christmas story, again, with new eyes.
Biblical experts say that the Christmas story is an overture to the rest of the Gospels, meaning it tells in miniature the meaning of the rest of the Gospels.
And it doesn’t matter whether this birth story was “true” or not, because the hearers of the story back then would recognize it was a parable told in the same way that Jesus told parables.
No one would think to ask Jesus whether his parable of the Good Samaritan, for example, was “true” or not, because that’s not the point. The point is to shock you into a changed mind, a transformed heart.
So let’s look again at the story of Jesus’s birth – this NEW Savior of the World, set against, in contrast, to the Roman Emperor who carried the same titles…
This Savior was born not to royalty but to a poor, unwed mother. And the angels’ announcement of his birth came first to shepherds, who, during Jesus’ time, were considered some of the lowest of the low class. Jesus was cradled in a manger, likely surrounded by animals.
So: this story is telling its hearer that this is a very different kind of King.
What kind of peace will this King bring?
Let us look to our first reading tonight – Mary’s song to God – first, the fact that Mary, a woman, is granted so many speaking lines in this text already signifies the radical change this new King embodies. Mary sings:
…he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree, he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away…
This birth story sets up for us the rest of Jesus’ teachings…subversive teachings that turn upside down our understandings of the world:
Blessed are the poor, Turn the other cheek, Love thy enemy…
This Jesus, this God, is about peace not through oppression and division but through justice.
So what does justice mean?
The liberals in our country talk a lot about justice and whenever they do, I think the far right responds in fear because they think it means something will be taken away from them. So they critique the Black Lives Matter movement by saying All Lives Matter… or respond to mass shootings by saying don’t take my guns away… or tell welfare recipients they deserve to be poor…
That’s the kind of either/or thinking that some people also apply to Biblical readings like Mary’s song.
When Mary says, “he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree,” I don’t think she, or the Gospel writer, or Jesus is literally trying to say that the rich should become poor, that the mighty should be oppressed, or that black people should now enslave white people. That’s not peace.
That’s still the same paradigm of the Roman empire: peace through oppression and division.
But Jesus was trying to issue in a new paradigm.
He told mind-boggling parables meant to shock you into new understanding (Remember: to his hearers, saying the Good Samaritan, would have been like saying, the Good jihadist!)
Jesus’ peace was about communion –the knowledge that we are all one.
Let’s look at this famous line from the Bible:
And the King will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you do it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”
Yes, he’s clearly saying that we must care for the poor, but he’s also saying something even more radical … he’s saying: when you did this for them, you did it to me.
What does that mean, “You did it to me” ?
It means that, in Christian language, we are all the body of God.
In more familiar language to some of you here: “Namaste”… meaning the “The Divine within me salutes the Divine in you” – a knowing that we are all made from the same One Divine Consciousness.
This is what Emmanuel means: God with us.
Jesus didn’t want a world where we fought over power and wealth. He didn’t even want a world where we gave to the poor because it made us feel good.
Jesus wanted us to believe in (and experience!) communion.
Our belief in separation and in scarcity is the cause of all war and despair.
Jesus wanted minds and hearts that knew communion.
So, with this odd, subversive Christmas story, Luke was trying to do exactly what Jesus was trying to do with his crazy parables: shock us into an experience of communion – communion with even the outcasts of our society – communion with even the darkest parts of ourselves.
See, It begins within us…our responsive reading actually had it reversed… We said, “Peace My Neighbor, Peace My Soul.”
But this is first: Peace My Soul. As Mary said in our reading, “My Soul magnifies the Lord.” For non-theists, you can translate perhaps: My Soul magnifies the Peace of Oneness.”
If we know communion deep in our bones, if we know in our hearts that we are all one, and if we ACT from that deep knowing, then true peace and justice will flow.
So: this Christmas, let our hearts and our souls be open, be vulnerable, be eager to know that deep oneness.
Let us know that in the same way that a “Savior” was born into the mud and the muck, among those of the lowest estate, so, too can Peace come into our hearts, as hard, or burdened, or wounded as they may be.
Let Peace dwell within us, and so it may come to the world.
– Rev. Emily Wright-Magoon