DO YOU BLEED?

The Bible is a library. It is multivocal and pluriform. The Canonical Gospels are good examples. They begin their narratives in different ways. Mark starts with an adult Jesus who is baptized by John in the Jordan. Matthew has a birth narrative that features Magi who follow a star and spend two years searching for the child. Jesus was already a toddler when they reach Bethlehem. Luke's version has angels announcing the birth and shepherds visiting Jesus as a newborn baby lying in a manger. John's origin story, which is Sunday's reading, begins in "The Beginning."

Many people who memorize Bible verses know John 1.1 (with Genesis 1.1 and, almost everyone's favorite, John 3.16). The Word became Flesh and lived among us. God has stopped watching from a distance. 

Stories of Gods taking on human form abound in many of the world's mythologies. Many of the heroes of ancient peoples were demigods or super humans. For the Gospel of John, when the Word became Flesh, the Word was totally and fully Flesh. In other words, God was not Superman disguised as Clark Kent. God was Clark Kent. God bled.

For the Gospel of John, God Incarnate gets tired and thirsty; eats and drinks with family and friends; experiences love and loss, and cries, like all of us. God Incarnate takes the side of the poor, feeds the multitudes, experiences betrayal, and suffers torture and crucifixion by empire. Like many among us. Especially these days. 

God bleeds. God dies. God is one of us. 

My Friends, to believe in the incarnation is to embody justice, accompaniment, solidarity, and life-giving, like Jesus did. The incarnation required a warm body: Jesus’s. The incarnation still requires warm bodies: yours and mine. 

Especially these days! 

*photo of a newborn baby from shutterstock images. ID 223586497. 

SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM THE "HOW MANY SQUARES DO YOU SEE?" COMMUNITY

 

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THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!

It is time we took another road. Over and over again we take the same road. We never learn. We imagine that doing the same thing will change the outcome. It never has. It never will. 

The Empire strikes back--always. In the case of the Magi, innocent children were massacred. And innocent children will continue to die as long as we try to save Baby Jesus from Herod. We should stop. He is not a baby anymore. He also does not need saving. The Magi did that already.

The Empire always strikes back. There are more Herods today. They are purveyors of war. Last year alone, over 2 trillion US dollars were spent on the arms industry. Over half a trillion more was spent in the illegal drug trade. The War on Terror and the War on Drugs have left a trail of suffering and death on the innocent. Over 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have been massacred by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza and the West Bank using US-made arms and weapons of mass destruction.

Thus, you and I need to be wiser. We need to be Magi-er. We need to be more sensitive to the warnings in our shared dreams. We need to know when to beat swords into plowshares--and when to beat plowshares into swords. We need to take other roads.

We need to do all these to make sure that the massacre of the innocents in the Holy Land and elsewhere ends now! 

We need to make sure that those responsible--the Herods, Trumps, Netanyahus, Marcoses, Dutertes, and their ilk--are made accountable. 

We need to act, wherever we are, right now!

["Scene of the Massacre of the Innocents," Leon Cogniet, 1824]

THERE WAS REALLY NO INN IN BETHLEHEM

Let us point out what Christmas Eve's Gospel Reading does not say. 

The text does not say that Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem when Mary was about to give birth. The text does not say that Jesus was born in a cave or stable where most of us imagine he was born. The text does not say that Jesus was born among animals. More importantly, the text does not say that Bethlehem was unwelcoming of the Holy Family. It doesn't say that they were sent away by an innkeeper. 

Now, what does the passage actually say? And what do decades of archeological, sociological, and anthropological research about Ancient Palestine tell us? 

There was a census, and everyone went back to his or her hometown to register. Joseph went with a pregnant Mary to Bethlehem because he was a descendant of David. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn, a son, wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no space for them in the guest room. (The Greek term is kataluma. The NIV and NRSVUE translate it correctly as guest room, not inn. Kataluma is also used to refer to the upper room in the Last Supper.)

Joseph and Mary go from Nazareth to Bethlehem. They travel about 150 kilometers. She is pregnant so the trip probably took a while. They get to Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown. I’m pretty sure a relative or two would have welcomed them in his or her home. This act of hospitality is as true today as it was then, especially among peasants. Don’t forget, Elizabeth, Mary’s relative lived nearby in the Judean hill country. They could have stayed with her and Zechariah if there was no room in Bethlehem, but they did not. Joseph’s relatives had space--just not in the guest room. 

Archeology has shown us that most peasant homes in Ancient Palestine were a one room affair. There was a yard usually shared with other homes where communal cooking was done. The immediate space through the main door of the house had a mud-floor where animals were brought in at night to keep the home warm and the animals safe. A manger or feeding trough was part of this area. The animals were let out first thing in the morning.

Side note: When Jepthah in Judges 11 vowed to sacrifice the first thing that comes out of his house, he was thinking of the animals being brought out first thing in the morning. Not his daughter.

The main family section, oftentimes a bit elevated from the animal area, was where the family did most of its affairs, mostly resting and sleeping. Homes, in those days, were really shelters because most chores were done outside or on the roof. Stairs to the roof were outside the house. Many homes had space for guests in the main family section or a small guest room--sometimes, for those who can afford, on the roof (hence, the upper room). 

When Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem, the home of Joseph’s relative was filled, the guest room occupied, so they stayed with the family in the main room. When the time came, the animals were brought out of the house, the manger cleaned and prepared and served as a crib for the newborn. 

My friends, the first Christmas happened when Palestine was under Roman Occupation. Life was very, very hard. Fifteen percent of the population was unemployed. Half of the people survived on a thousand calories a day which meant they were slowly starving to death. Average life expectancy was 28. 

But despite all these, many remained faithful to what Yahweh required of them: to welcome the stranger. There should always be space for the guest, a meal of fish and bread, and a place to lay one’s head. Kataluma. 

Jesus was born among those whose only hope is God, among peasants who shared a small house, among the poor who offered the best to a pregnant couple, among kin who opened their simple, one-room home to welcome the birth of the Messiah.

My Friends, millions among us are dealing with joblessness, homelessness, and hopelessness. In the midst of these, how do our lives proclaim, Immanuel? How do we actualize "God is with us?" How do we welcome God who comes as a stranger? Or as a baby? 

*Art from the Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital art collection, JESUS MAFA, 1973, Cameroon, mafa001 ("The Holy Family")

 

RETHINKING BIBLICAL AUTHORITY, CANON, AND INTERPRETATION

 

The Bible is not a book. It is a collection of books. It is a library. The Protestant Canon has 66 books. The Roman Catholic's has 73. The Orthodox' has 79. The Ethiopian Orthodox' has 81. The Jewish Canon has 24.

This very short work argues that this ancient library is important to many people, but its authority, canon, and interpretation are always shaped by context and community. It is not a science library, nor does it provide all the answers to life's questions. Instead, it is a diverse collection that can be used to heal or harm, depending on how it is interpreted and applied.

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IMMANUEL!

I have always argued that Immanuel, "God-with-Us," serves as the thread that binds the 28 chapters of the Gospel of Matthew together. Sunday's Gospel Reading, in 1.23, proclaims that Mary's son will be called Immanuel, meaning "God-with-Us" (echoing Isaiah 7.14). At the end of the Gospel, in 28. 20, Jesus proclaims, "I am with you always..." God-with-Us to the end of the age!  

The Gospel has one promise to its hearers and readers. It is not complete understanding. It is not triumph nor victory. It is Immanuel. 

We will never, ever, be alone. 

What does it mean to experience Immanuel, to experience God's presence in our lives? Many times we forget that the best way to experience God's presence in our lives is to be God's presence in someone else's life. 

Feed the hungry. Give drink to the thirsty. Visit the prisoners. Welcome the stranger. Care for the sick. Clothe the naked. Befriend the lonely. Protect the most vulnerable. Stand with Palestine. 

Be God's presence in someone else's life. This Christmas. And always. 

THE GREATEST

Sunday's Gospel Reading reminds me of Muhammad Ali. Today, people will not hesitate to describe him as "The Greatest"--with the same energy he called himself "The Greatest," to boot! 

But those same peoole who praise Ali now often forget--deliberately, even--the times in Ali's life when many treated him with hostility, disdain, and called him a "loud-mouthed nobody". Especially in the 1960s. 

His close friendship with Malcolm X, his decision to become a Moslem, and his being a conscientious objector against the Vietnam War made him one of the most hated men in America. Like John the Baptist, he was one voice crying in the wilderness. 

Sunday's reading also reminds me of young Emmet Till. His abduction, torture, and lynching at age 14 in 1955 for allegedly offending Carolyn Bryant and the acquittal of his murderers illustrate the depth and breadth of racism, injustice, and evil that victimize the most vulnerable in society: children. 

Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the world continues to treat prophets and children as dispensable and replaceable nobodies.  Prophets are silenced while children are traded. Prophets are vilified while children are comodified. The criminalization of anti-genocide protests worldwide and the murder of thousands of children in Gaza illustrate this tragic reality. 

Sunday's reading reminds us how Jesus feels about prophets and children. For him, they are the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. But that's for Jesus. He always took the side of those in the margins. 

How about us who take pride in calling ourselves followers of Jesus? Where do we stand? 

*images of Emmet Till (from the Emmet Till Research Collection, Florida State University Library) and Muhammad Ali (shadow boxing underwater, 1961).

**The song "Greatest Love of All" was composed for the Muhammad Ali biopic in 1977. George Benson did the original recording. Whitney Houston's 1985 version made it a worldwide hit.