REsources for Living
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During a preaching class in seminary we were each assigned to read aloud to the class a brief passage from the Christmas story in the second chapter of Luke. I was delighted to be assigned the bit that says:
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
My classmates, it turns out, were not expecting to hear this read as comedic material. But really? It’s funny. Well, I think it’s funny. I mean, here are these regular guys hanging out in a field, doing their job, which in that moment really involves doing not much of anything. And then out of nowhere a freakin’ angel appears. And tells them not to be afraid (as if!), and that they should go off and look for a baby. Not just a baby, the baby—the savior of human kind. Which you will know because it is wrapped—like every other baby you’ve ever seen—in cloths. That’s helpful. But that’s OK, because this baby is in a feeding trough, which is not, in fact, where you usually find a baby.
That’s funny, right? I mean it’s just all so absurd, so weird, so…unexpected. And to me, the power of the Christmas story is in exactly that quality of unexpectedness. I mean, the idea of a savior was an old one even at the time. I imagine that the notion that eventually a person of power will sweep in and save us from all this mess is pretty deeply embedded in our psyches. What else is the whole massive genre of superheroes? Or, for that matter, the ancient myths of warriors who battle gods as well as humans? A savior is almost by definition an expected thing, a thing that you look toward with eager, if long-term, anticipation.
But a savior who’s a baby? In a feed trough? That’s just…well…who would have thought of such a thing? Who would imagine a savior who had no worldly power, no wealth, no physical prowess, no army? A savior who said such inexplicable things as “the last shall be first and the first shall be last” and “love those who persecute you.” A savior who told stories so radically rooted in generosity and forgiveness and grace that his apostles—his inner circle, his protégés—generally had no idea what he was talking about. That’s pretty darn unexpected.
I love that so much. We live in a morass of habits and assumptions and things that we know are true, without being able to explain how we know they’re true. Things like “might equals right” and “more is better” and “humans are the pinnacle of evolution.” The things we “know” are the ocean of the expected that we swim in, and it’s almost impossible to perceive anything outside of that ocean.
But every now and again the unexpected breaks through—maybe it takes a chorus of angels—and it’s like there’s a color that we weren’t able to see before. (It turns out this is actually a thing. The color blue never appears in ancient writings, and it seems that until relatively modern times people simply did not perceive the color blue. Who knew?) It takes a radical departure—something far outside the norm—to rearrange our view of the world. The earth revolves around the sun, and our sun is simply one star amongst many. Who knew? Biology and species are not something fixed and God-given, but rather fluid, flexible, ever-changing. Who knew? Gender is not a male/female binary, but rather an intricate variety of possibilities. Who knew?
The unexpected is, almost by definition, uncomfortable. No one likes having their world overturned. No one likes to find out that the stories underpinning their lives are fiction, not fact. Most of us will do everything in our power to resist. No wonder the angels said “Be not afraid.”
And yet, on the other side of that resistance there can be joy, even delight. Life is not just a bunch of individuals fighting for their own survival, but rather a rich, complex, multi-faceted web of relationships in which mutual aid is as significant as antagonistic struggle. Who knew? It is possible to create massive change through the use of active non-violence, through the direct, concerted application of love. Who knew? It is possible to have a religion that is centered in the direct, concerted application of love, rather than adherence to any particular creed. Who knew?
To me, the Christmas story is a call to live like those shepherds who, in spite of the sheer absurdity of it all, allowed the unexpected to break through, and then made a commitment to following a star, just to see where it might lead them. Aren’t you excited for the adventure?
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