2021.12.24 | Keepin' It Real
”Keepin’ It Real”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, California
December 24, 2021
Mt. 1-2 & Lk. 1-2 (NRSV)
One of the modern conventions associated with Advent and Christmas in the West is the practice of exchanging Christmas cards and letters among family, friends, and business associates.
I’ve noticed over the years that some of the Christmas letters that I have received seem just a little bit embellished when it comes to the positive stories, while the negatives are often understated.
Sadly many of these letters, which I think of as the “abridged versions” of a Christmas letter, are authored by Christians, who seem to think that only good news is shareable, and that their annual Christmas letter has to reflect some idealized version of a life that doesn’t exist--at least not outside of someone’s imagination.
God knows that everyone and every family endures hardship, loss, and failures that test the metal and try the heart. So the good news is that the God we worship isn’t about shaming and blaming. The God we worship is busy acknowledging and healing our heartaches, our spiritual conundrums, and our physical maladies.
I share this observation about Christians and God, not to “shame” anyone about their Christmas letter, but to offer a correction to those who have embraced the erroneous assumption that they or their family is beyond the scope of God’s compassion and grace. It is precisely for these writers of abridged Christmas letters--who may look and sound and act a lot like us--that God’s Christmas letter comes--all wrapped in swaddling cloths.
For those who would like to believe that what I’m telling you is true, but who are hesitant to trust, I’ll show you how the Holy Family depicts this truth, in a 21st Century Christmas midrash-type letter straight out of the manger tonight. What is midrash?
The Rev. Dr. Vanessa Lovelace, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at our UCC seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, defines midrash as "a Jewish mode of interpretation that not only engages the words of the text, behind the text, and beyond the text, but also focuses on each letter, and the words left unsaid by each line." I love that last part about the words left unsaid. Maybe words were left unsaid, because the story teller or the listeners were part of a mono-culture, so everyone had a shared understanding of the scene and no explanation was required. But maybe too, things were left unsaid, because they were deemed unpleasant or shameful. Through midrash, the storyteller and the story listener have an opportunity to plumb more deeply into a story and find illuminating truths.
In keeping with our 2021 Advent and Christmas theme of “Christmas Letters,” I’ll offer a bit of Christian midrash that is based on the Christmas story, and comes from Mary and Joseph. Here goes:
Dear Family and Friends:
Thank you for the holiday greetings that you’ve sent our way. We think of you often and enjoy reading your letters, so we are returning the favor.
Our big news this year is that we are planning a wedding and expecting our first child. Our parents had hoped that the wedding would have preceded this pregnancy, but as you know, things don’t always turn out as planned. The baby’s due in a couple of days, so the wedding will have to wait.
Normally, we would be excited to share travel stories with you, but not this year. We’ve got travel stories but they aren’t about going somewhere exotic or warm. We’re headed to the capitol to enroll in the census.
Everybody and their mother is on the highway this week, and there were so many people headed to Jerusalem that we couldn’t even find a room at Motel 6 in the “campo” tonight.
On a happier note, we are excited about the baby, and we’re trying to absorb all that his impending birth implies. That’s right, we said, “his.” We were told by the angels that our baby would be a boy, and that he will be very special. They also said that our lives and the world will never be the same again after he is born. (We imagine that this is the way most expectant parents feel, and what most experienced parents say--but the angels said that our baby is going to be very EXTRA!
They told us that he will be a new kind of leader, a Prince of Peace, a Wonderful Counselor, the Child of God. We’re not sure what all this means. How can a peacemonger conquer power brokers who are Hell-bent on waging war? How can a listener be a leader? Aren’t leaders supposed to take active rather than passive roles? Can a child really save us from poverty, console widows and orphans, and welcome outcasts and migrants? Any one of those social challenges would be enough. How could one person successfully address all three?
We confess we don’t know. There’s so much we don’t know. Why don’t babies come with directions?!
We’re trying to trust in God’s promises, and be part of the answer to the prayers that we pray; but it’s hard, really hard. And, this “lean to” in the campo where we are staying tonight is pretty breezy, and we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. But we remain hopeful.
Merry Almost Christmas!
Mary & Joseph
My imagined letter from the Holy Family may seem like a stretch to you, but I guarantee you that its narrative is aligned with the biblical story of Christmas, and the plight of the Holy Family. It is a 21st Century unvarnished, unabridged version of the Christmas story.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the nation of Israel was under foreign occupation. Quirinus was Governor of Syria, and he had been charged by the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, with conducting a census in the province of Judah, where Mary and Joseph were residents.
In those days a census was taken for the purposes of taxation, and taxation was prohibited by Ancient Hebrew law. So the very fact that Mary and Joseph were on their way to Jerusalem to participate in a census--late in the third trimester of their pregnancy--illustrates just how contorted things had become in their lives and their homeland.
That’s right, these two Jews were on a road trip at a time when an expectant mother should not be traveling, in order to participate in something that they thought was wrong to participate in. But they were making this trip anyway, because they saw themselves as too poor, too vulnerable, and too powerless to protest, much less decline to fulfill the Governor’s order.
Back in the day, like now, the world was desperate for a word of hope, a change in leadership, and people with the moral turpitude to fulfill the prophets’ promises. Then, like now, Christ’s spirit is reborn in us when we embrace this hope, accept Christ’s call, and join in in his transformative ministry of justice and love.
This is the unvarnished, unabridged truth that God delivered on that first Christmas, and the timeless truth that echoes through the ages. Friends, believe the good news of the Gospel, these words are trustworthy and true. Receive them, believe in them, and have a Merry Christmas. Amen.