In a Sunday school class, during a study of the book of Genesis, a member asked, “Why are we reading this? These people are so messed up! Why are they even in the Bible?” And, while it is true that the families in the book of Genesis are incredibly dysfunctional, their stories are important. If the Bible was full of families with no issues, who had perfect lives, I’m not sure what we would have to relate to.
And as I looked at the text for this Sunday, Matthew’s account of the mass murder of the male infants of Bethlehem, my first thought was to pull a Monty Python and shout, “Run Away! Run Away!” Because why would we include a text like this in the days right after Christmas? Maybe you’re wondering why in the world we’re dealing with this text, what place this text has in the Bible, or what it has to do with our Celebration of Christmas? Aren’t we in the most wonderful time of the year, after all?
Of course there are plenty of theological reasons for this particular text: Matthew’s purpose of portraying Jesus as the “New Moses” hence the flight to Egypt and the calling forth from Egypt; Jesus is the new and final lawgiver says one scholar. Jesus, like Moses, will be at odds with the political powers of his time; Moses at odds with Pharaoh, Jesus at odds with both Herod (father and son) and representatives of Caesar. There is the meaning behind power striking out at perceived threats to that power, which is why Herod kills all the male children who might be the one boy born under the star. Jesus’ birth isn’t received as Good News by everyone. There are plenty of academic and theological reasons for us to have this text in front of us, but they don’t really deal with why this is an important reading shortly after Christmas.
So, why then did I not run screaming from this text? I did not run screaming because there are plenty of folks who are in places of pain during the holidays. For some of us, the holidays are simply reminders of what used to be, but isn’t any more, and that’s just plain painful. Celebration is difficult if not downright impossible for those who are working through divorce, for those who are celebrating their first Christmas without a loved one, for those who are facing financial burdens or loss of a job during a time when so much emphasis is placed on buying the perfect gift (after all, every kiss begins with Kay, unless of course he went to Jerad).
There is a growing recognition among congregations that some folks struggle in the season between Thanksgiving and the beginning of the New Year. As a way of recognizing and responding to this struggle, a variety of “Longest Night” or “Blue Christmas” services have been offered.
Taylor Burton-Edwards, director of worship resources for the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee, said the movement has picked up steam in recent years — perhaps due in part to the economic downturn.
“Part of it is a recognition that both the culture and even the church, at this time of year, can tend to completely overlook suffering,” Burton-Edwards said. “Everybody is supposed to be cheery and happy and all of that, and yet that isn’t the case for some people.”*
This text that reminds us that it is okay to not be okay during the Christmas season.
“There is nothing sentimental about Matthew’s ‘Christmas story,’ however. It is set in the turbulence and terror of a violent history. Tyrants kill children, and families flee in the middle of the night…Matthew dares to see things as they are and still affirm that God is working, even in the worst that we can do.”**
The Christmas story is not about undefeated happiness entering our world. The Christmas story is about God becoming wrapped in the fragile flesh that we ourselves are wrapped in and embodying, literally, the identity of Emmanuel. And Emmanuel is God with us—in everything, in every moment.
Mike Yaconelli, was a pastor and minister to youth for forty-two years before losing his life in a traffic accident ten years ago. He is the author of one of my favorite books, Messy Spirituality. He says:
“Spirituality is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about connection. The way of the spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives. Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God’s being present in the mess of our unfixedness. (emphasis mine).”***
As challenging as it may be for us to hear texts like this one from Matthew’s gospel on the heels of our candlelight celebrations of the birth of Jesus, this is an important text for us to hear, because the real gift of Christmas isn’t happiness or a Mr Clean Magic Eraser for all of our life’s pain and suffering—the gift of Christmas is not Our Best Life Now with perfect hair, perfect teeth, or perfect lives—the gift of Christmas is Emmanuel, God with us.
One church I served used to have a live Nativity in the days leading up to Christmas. A member of the community would let us use her live animals, and members of the congregation would dress us as characters to create tableaus of the nativity. One year, as I knelt there in the parking lot in the hay, dressed as a shepherd visiting the young adults dressed as Joseph and Mary, the wind was blowing and I was cold; I was painfully cold. And then the goat in the stable began trying to eat Mary’s hair, and the donkey started biting at the wood of the stables back wall. The blessed pastoral scene was falling to pieces as I knelt there. I could see Mary losing patience with goat, the slapping of wood as the donkey pulled against the back wall over and over and over again was making us all crazy. And that’s when it hit me…
Christmas is not perfect pastoral moments, sanitized Precious Moments figurines, Christmas is the nearness of God in seasons of messiness, in seasons of pain. What makes this the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ is not our happiness in life that goes according to plan, but the presence and nearness of God as we hold our life in our hands and say, this is not what I had planned.
* http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/12/25/world/churches-offer-blue-christmas-for-those-in-need/
** R.Alan Culpepper, “Exegetical Perspective” of Matthew 2:13-23, Feasting on the Word Year A, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration.
*** Michael Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality. Zondervan, 2002, 2007. 22.
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