2022.12.24 | Messy Christmas
“Messy Christmas”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ, Hayward, CA
Christmas Eve 2022
Luke 1:26-56 [Español] (NRSV)
We’ve had some epic weather events across the United States in the past three days. Amen? For those who have been too busy preparing for Christmas to check the weather reports, I offer this recap in two phrases: “bomb cyclone” and “atmospheric river.”
I don’t recall reference being made to a “bomb cyclone” or an “atmospheric river,” prior to this winter. Maybe that’s your experience too, so I’ll share the definitions that I have recently learned:
A bomb cyclone, according to the Weather Channel, is the term used by meteorologists to describe a rapidly strengthening storm resulting from a significant drop in the barometric pressure within a 24 hour period.
Atmospheric rivers are relatively long, narrow regions in the atmosphere – like rivers in the sky – that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics.” So says NOAA. Most atmospheric rivers occur on the West Coast, in the US. They are modest by comparison with a bomb cyclone, and typically provide beneficial rainfall. Every once in a while they result in dramatic rainfalls and cause flooding that tests the strengths of our roofs and gutter systems on campus, like the rain we experienced in early December and that is expected next week.
Holiday travelers and persons serving in the travel industry will not soon forget the bomb cyclone that hit most of the nation this week. According to CNN, more than 5900 flights were canceled yesterday alone as the Midwest, Great Lakes area, and Northeast regions of the country suffer through major blizzards and sub-zero weather.
A friend of mine from Castro Valley, has a son who is a student at the University of Iowa. Their family’s Christmas is quite messed up by the weather. My friend reported two days ago that her son will be spending Christmas in University housing rather than sunny California, because his flight out of Iowa City and his connector through Denver were canceled.
Even though we are both sad that her son won’t make it home for the holidays, we agreed that he is much safer sticking out the holidays on campus than risking travel in arctic conditions.
What a mess! I pity the travelers who are stuck between home and loved ones this weekend, and pity more those who work in the travel business, and who somehow have to rise above their own struggles to comfort their customers.
II
To be sure, the weather and travel conditions in most of the US this Christmas are a total mess. But this weather mess is mostly an inconvenience for those of us who are safe and sound in our own homes or in the guest rooms or hotels where we are staying while visiting loved ones. The same is not true for those who are unhoused or housing insecure.
According to the annual homeless assessment taken this fall, approximately 12,000 people are unsheltered on any given night in Alameda County. Some are in this situation because they are too troubled by behavioral or mental health conditions to accept help, but most (in my experience) would gladly accept a hand up and out if offerred.
The housing situation is a mess in the Bay Area and in other urban areas in the US, particularly on the East and West coasts. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded this situation.
Were it not for the implementation of the federal relief package known as ERAP (Emergency Rental Assistance Program), we would have had thousands of families living in the streets in Alameda County the past 18-months.
According to the Alameda County Housing Secure website, $129M has been allocated by the Board of Supervisors to provide rent relief for most of the county. (The cities of Fremont and Oakland have their own programs.)
In the Eden Area alone (which includes the City of Hayward and surrounding unincorporated communities), almost $47.3 in rent relief has been shared with tenants and landlords, i.e., 36.6% of the $129M.
Despite the implementation of this unprecedented rent relief program many in our community are still suffering from the economic impact of COVID-19, and the worst is yet to come, when the eviction moratorium is lifted on Feb 28, 2023.
III
I suspect we agree: the Bay Area housing situation is a mess. I suspect we also agree that the economic plight of first-generation immigrants is generally worse.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, a global think tank for data collection and policy analysis in Washington, DC, approximately 5% of the world’s population is currently identified as immigrants. This is the highest number in the history of recordkeeping. The reasons for migrants’ displacement today vary. Some have been displaced by civil or international wars, others by economic disasters, and others by climate change.
In North America, most immigrants are victims of failed US foreign policies, such as NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), and/or our government’s support of corrupt authoritarian leaders, which keep the authoritarian leaders in power.
The immigration crisis in North America today is most apparent along the borders of Texas and Chihuahua, near El Paso and Juarez, where many economic migrants are contemplating another mass border crossing, hoping to unite with loved ones in the US.
Circumstances are slightly better for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees and Venezuelan asylum seekers, because they have some chance of obtaining work visas and temporary residency if they can raise $20K for legal representation, and feed, cloth, and house their families without the benefit of a work permit.
Yes. The US immigration system and immigration policies are a mess!
IV
Perhaps you wonder why I am talking about all of these messes on Christmas Eve?
Why talk about bomb cyclones and atmospheric rivers?
Shouldn’t we be shaking little snow globes and watching the flakes fall softly on the roofs of perfectly appointed villages inside?
Why talk about the housing crisis, and the housing whiplash we are about to experience when the eviction moratorium is lifted?
Couldn’t we just collect the hotel toiletries on our holiday trips, pass those along to a local shelter when we get home, and call it a day?
Why am I talking about the plight of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers?
Why not talk about our recent pilgrimages to Christmas fairs, plans for a ski trip or a winter vacation to somewhere warmer?
It’s Christmas, for heaven’s sake? Why dredge up these messes?
V
Here’s why: The first Christmas didn’t look like life in a snow globe. The first Christmas was about a housing insecure family, who took a treacherous trip against their will in order to participate in a census taken by a foreign occupier, so that he could better implement his harsh taxation policy against them.
As the Christmas story unfolds in the gospel of Luke, we learn that the little baby Jesus and his parents were housing insecure. They had nowhere to stay on their journey to Jerusalem. They had no friends or family who could take them in.
When they stopped at the only budget motel that they might have been able to afford, they found that there was no room at the inn. So they slept in the stable, where the baby Jesus was born, and they converted a manger into a cradle.
After the sweetness of the angels, shepherds, and wisemen’s visits to the nativity, we learn of Herod’s intent to kill the newborn king, and the family’s harrowing journey to Egypt.
The flight to Egypt described in Matthew’s gospel wasn’t some holiday vacation for the Holy Family, it was a harrowing attempt to seek political asylum in a foreign nation.
VI
These elements of the Christmas story, which I punctuate tonight, are rarely mentioned in popular culture, because they fly in the face of Western ideals of success.
In the West, success is associated with wealth, power, and autonomy. In the Christian Christmas story, by contrast, the little baby Jesus shows up as the antithesis of Western success. He is poor, weak, and dependent on others.
It’s not hard to understand the strong appeal of secular Christmas messages, but these interpretations will never meaningfully address the depths of the human condition. They will not help us survive, much less thrive, amidst the storms of life. They will never turn a house into a home. And they will never usher in global peace with justice.
Only the one who is portrayed in the biblical Christmas story helps us weather life’s storms, create a sense of home on this planet, and promote safety and hospitality for all of God’s children. Amen.