The Blessed Event

We mark the blessed event of EMMANUEL in 2020.

We remember God being born in human likeness.  We have a very serene picture of this event in our minds and our homes, as we have been fed images of it for generations.  We ignore the fact of the scandal of an unwed mother and father, too poor to bribe an innkeeper, must give birth in a barn and lay their newborn babe, Son of God, in a feeding trough for animals.  We certainly do not mention that this God incarnate is born as we are born, "between feces and urine, in blood."  We don't like to mention such things.

But isn't that exactly the point, that God comes to us to identify with us as WE experience life, and not like royalty, but as one of the lowliest in the world?  It was night shift shepherds who were heralded as they do their menial, dirty and dangerous job in the dark and cold of night.

And Jesus' dedication, full with sacrifice, not of a lamb as people with means do, but with two turtledoves - the sacrifice of the poor.

And Jesus' flight from a country of political oppression of him, and life as a refugee, a resident alien in a foreign land.  Funded by the gifts of the magi who adored him and worshiped him - foreigners who recognized this Son of God as his own King was trying to find and kill him.  

This was for a people who had "walked in darkness" to see light.  It was for a people who "sat in a land of deep darkness" to have light shine.  They had been occupied and oppressed by the Roman Empire for generations.  They had everything taken away from them to feed the insatiable appetites of empire.  They were demoralized, marginalized in their own country, disenfranchised within their own nation, brutalized by a police state, incarcerated, executed and shamefully treated.  And the religious leaders of their time were corrupted by the wealth, power and status of empire, and in collusion with it, just as was the king and prophets of their time.  It was truly a dark place.  They were sitting in it for a long time.  But the prophet's promise of a son who would come and set things right was being fulfilled!  
God is with us!  And not out of the palace or the temple, but among the poorest and most vulnerable!

That was Good News for the people!

It still is Good News for those who are marginalized, disenfranchised, downtrodden and oppressed.  It still is Good News for those who have been held down, back and out by the purveyors of empire.  It is still bad news for those in power, with the wealth and status in the land, who occupy and oppress them.  God identifies with the lowest, with those oppressed.  God takes sides, and is on the side, not of the powerful and wealthy who have status in the world, but on the side of those who have been victimized by them for generations under empire.

To kill the Son of God who has come to "the least of these" today, American Christians have re-invented Jesus and the message of the Gospel.  They have co-opted the story and have made it in the image of empire instead of God and Kingdom of God.  They have replaced the truly morbid with a false serenity and glamour.  They have replaced God's identification with the lowest with a false belief that God honors the wealthy and powerful.  They have replaced the scandal and humility of God in human form and frailty with bold, royal divinity.  We have all been subject to that for years.

But the message of the Gospel is clear:

God is with those who are homeless, cold and hungry.

God is with those who are resident aliens, forced as refugees from their violent homes.

God is with children in cages and their parents who are not allowed to be with them.

God is with those who resist, protesting the injustices imposed upon them and others.

God is with the menial laborers whose toil rewards the wealthy with more than they need.

God is with those who are forced to beg, because all means of living have been taken from them.

God is with those who are sick and dying because only those with means can get healing.

God is with those who are victims of empire and its values.

God is with those who suffer under the inequities and false inequality of empire.

God is with those who resist empire and live the values of the Kingdom of God.

God is with those who refuse to give their devotion to the gods of empire.

God is with those who suffer - the dirty, cold, hungry, afraid and morbid.

God is with us, not in the Palace or Temple, but on the street, in the field.

God is with us and will address those abuses of power, wealth and status with the Good News.

God is with us and will deliver us from the evils of empire in the world.

God is with us, identifies with our frailty, even pain and eventually with our death.

God is with us and will suffer the injustices suffered by so many at the hands of empire.

God is with us to usher in the Kingdom of God in the face of empire, to destroy it.

God is with us to lift up the lowly and bring down the mighty in empire.

When we "clean up the story," we throw out the message of the Good News.  We must look at this narrative in its historic, cultural contexts and understand why it was such Good News to those who first heard it read to them.  We must not clean it up, but understand how it speaks to empire here and now, still an evil of the world that occupies, oppresses and victimizes millions, even billions of people.  We must not clean it up, but look honestly at how the Good News condemns empire and its values, while lifting up the lowest among us according to Kingdom of God values.  We must not clean it up, but rather apply it to how we live in this part of God's Kingdom, here and now - politically, economically, socially and ecclesiastically.  For when we "clean up the story," we render it irrelevant to our lives with God today.  When we look at the Good News honestly and apply Jesus' Way of being children of God to our lives, we live the Good News in the world, and are thus faithful to God.

The Gospel is a call to revolution.  It is about the living of revolutionary Agape Love, applying it as the Word of the Word Made Flesh to the world.  It is about revolting against the greed, lust for power and desire for status that are empire values, which have held God's children down, back and out for generations.  The people have walked in darkness and sat in deep darkness long enough. 

EMMANUEL!

Pastor Jamie