Sunday School Christmas PJ Party & Movie Night: December 27, 2024
And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2:7
St. Luke seeks to place the birth narrative of Jesus within the wider political and historical sphere in a bold attempt to postulate the collision of the full humanness of the birth of Jesus with the theological understanding of the incarnation (God becoming human). God actually took human form at a certain place and time in human history. The historical perspective is quite vital to the narrative as it places it within the reign of one of the most influential leaders of Roman history. Caesar Augustus was an astute leader who transformed the economic, political and social structures of the Roman empire. Many of his ideas still can be found in today’s societal norms. Notable for the birth story was that he utilized the wealth of Egypt to spread war veterans around the empire. In so doing, he created a sustained Roman peace Pax Romana). The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is built on a similar construct of the need to care for veterans.
To support his many initiatives, he introduced a new system to make tax collection more efficient and equitable. Every male over 14 and every female over 12 was assessed a tax of one denarius (approximately the daily wage of a laborer). He ordered a census to be taken to register each family for tax purposes (see Luke 2:1). He totally restructured the Roman tax code to include many who previously would have eluded its grasp. This of course created serious challenges for religious leaders who were already divided in their ways of worship and teachings but united in the payment of religious taxes. In the past, religious leaders as tax evaders often were collaborators with the Romans so it was quite easy for truth and faith to be offered up on the altars of expediency and greed. Politics and faith collaborated against the poor and marginalized.
Thus, my friends, at the birth of Jesus the world was in turmoil, struggling to sustain norms of the past while being challenged to accept fresh starts and new beginnings. All the stories about the birth of Jesus can be grounded within that understanding of humanity struggling to find meaning and purpose in what Chaplin David Gooding claims as his favorite Aretha Franklin song “these are ever-changing times.” Or, theologically, one can easily say time is forever unfolding and revealing the presence and the immanence of God.
Yet the Christian is called to not to look away but to look even deeper within the socio-political arena to best understand the power of God. God is that almighty being that emanates its presence within nature and the unfolding of time. God cannot be ensnared by human machinations. He is that logos who stands outside of time yet through Jesus breaks into time to reveal the power of his love. My friends, God’s love came into the world in the vulnerability of an infant born to two impoverished people struggling to pay the multiple taxes demanded by multiple players in a complex system. Indeed, it was a daunting time – and even more so for those on the margins.
Christmas is a celebration of God’s act of breaking into time to remind us that God is the ultimate source of being and this is exercised not by power or might but through humility and love. He is a God of and for those on the margins.
Christmas became a revolutionary story of God turning the power structures of the world upside down. God came and dwelt among all humanity, as a gift from and through the marginalized. They who sat in darkness saw and experienced a marvelous light. (Mat.4:16)
My friends, the Christmas story is the fulfillment of a hope passed down through generations that God will come and dwell with his people. It is a celebration of those to whom the torch of hope was passed while the world sat in unbelief, turmoil and darkness. They carried the flickering light of hope, guarded with their faith in a God who acts in His time. This torch was passed from one generation to another with unquenchable courage. The gold, frankincense and myrrh gifted by the wise men were older than the men who gave it. They had been received along with the oral tradition. They were given as heirlooms along with the knowledge that in a time to come, the embodied God will come to his people and set them free. Through the ages they were told that when He comes, you will know him and you will offer these gifts to him.
And little children would surely ask their grandparents, “But how will I know?” And they would be told “If you keep looking up, God will show you. I may not be there when it happens, but my spirit will be with you.” My friends, it’s the reason why Christmas is for children for only they can receive it in all its purity.
St. Elizabeth’s is a place where a few of us gather each Sunday to carry on the tradition of looking up to see what only those with Godly-trained eyes can see – the wonders of God. One of the cultural gifts of our communities is our understanding that we stand upon the shoulders of those who have gone before us even as we strengthen our own to carry the next generation. The reason why Christmas is so meaningful to us is because we are passing a timeless message of hope in times of hopelessness – a light to those who sit in darkness that God will act in His time.
It’s the reason why I see our Haitian brothers and sisters struggling to fill out T.P.S immigration forms even as the newly elected incoming regime is already laying plans to discard the program. They say simply that “We fill it out and we pray will you pray with us father?
Christmas is about Mary and Joseph not knowing what awaits them in Bethlehem, but they acted and prayed. My Christmas message to you is that we all act and pray! We must continue to pass on the message of hope in times of hopelessness. We must continue to carry the torch into the darkness of the unknown. Act and pray! Then we stand still and see the glory of the God! Glory to God in the Highest.