The Christmas Story

Sermon | December 24, 2023 | Lisa Jebsen

Have any of you heard of the Christian pastor Nadia Bolz Webber? She is a strong voice for progressive Christianity. She has spiky black hair, is covered in tattoos and swears like a sailor from the pulpit. She is a former stand-up comedian, and a recovering alcoholic, and she started a church, called the House for all Sinners and Saints in Denver and a NYT best selling author. Her church is full of people like those Jesus surrounded himself with: prostitutes, tax collectors, fisherman. So depending on your personal view of Christianity, you may or may not be surprised that she is also very traditional when it comes to Christianity. She’s traditional in that she believes Christianity needs to remember its origins. About Christmas, she says: 

Think about the Christmas story. How did it go from what it was originally – a story of political tyranny, alienation, and working class people, with Harrod, an insecure troglodyte, who puts a hit out on a toddler and the magi (who were pagans), to what it is today?  This snow covered, sugar cookie, Norman Rockwell delusion?

I begin with this Christian pastor’s words, because I’d like all of us this morning to regard the Christmas story with new eyes, mindful of its historical context, context that would have been obvious to the original hearers of the story, but is usually lost on us.

Luke’s telling of Jesus’ birth, cannot be understood without understanding the empire lived under. Now you may think you know empire but you probably don’t. It was an empire of violence and oppression, and certainly no separation between church and state. Listen to the titles actually used for the Roman emperor Caesar, Augustus: son of God, God, God from God, Lord, Redeemer, Liberator, Savior of the World

Of course, these are the titles used in the Bible for Jesus. Calling Jesus by these titles was a daring, subversive treason – the kind of thing that could and did get them killed. 

The Roman Empire was about peace through war, division, and oppression.

The Gospels were stories about peace through peace – or even more radical: peace through justice. Let’s look at the Christmas story, again, with new eyes.

Biblical experts say that the Christmas story is an overture to the rest of the Gospels. And it doesn’t matter whether this birth story was “true“ or not, because the heroes of the story back then would recognize it as a parable told in the same way that Jesus told parables. No one would think to ask Jesus whether his parable of the Good Samaritan, for example, was “true” or not, because that’s not the point. The point is to shock you into a changed mind, a transformed heart

So let’s look again at the story of Jesus’s birth – this new savior of the world, set against, in contrast, to the Roman Emperor, who carried the same titles – This Savior was born not to royalty, but to a poor, unwed mother. And the angel’s announcement of his birth came first to shepherds, who, during Jesus’ time, were considered some of the lowest of the low class. Jesus was cradled in a manger, likely surrounded by animals.

So this story is telling its hearer that this is a very different kind of King. What kind of peace will this King bring?

Let’s look to our first reading – Mary’s song to God – first, the fact that Mary, a woman, is granted so many speaking lines in this text already signifies the radical change this new king embodies. Mary sings, “he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree, he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.”

This birth set up for us the rest of Jesus’ teachings, subversive teachings that turn upside down our understanding of the world, Blessed are the poor, turn the other cheek, love thy enemy. This Jesus, this God, is about peace, not though oppression and division but through justice.

So what does justice mean? The liberals in our country talk a lot about Justice, and whenever they do, I think some on the far right respond in fear because they think it means something will be taken away from them. So they critique the Black Lives Matter movement by saying, all lives matter, or respond to mass shootings by saying, don’t take my guns away, or tell welfare recipients they deserve to be poor. That’s the kind of either/or thinking that some people also apply to biblical readings like Mary’s song. When Mary says, “he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree“ I don’t think she, or the gospel writer, or Jesus is literally trying to say the rich should become poor, that the mighty should become oppressed, or that Black people should now enslave white people. That’s not peace. That’s still the same paradigm of the Roman empire: peace through oppression and division. Jesus was trying to issue in a new paradigm. His mind boggling parables were meant to shock you into a new understanding. Saying the good Samaritan would have been like saying the good Jihad. With these radical teachings, Jesus was trying to issue in a new paradigm, a world transformed by the knowledge, deep in our hearts, that we are all one. 

Let’s look at this famous line from the Bible: and the king will answer them, “Truly, I tell you, just as you do it to one of the least of these, you did it to me.”

Yes, he is clearly saying that we must care for the poor but he is also saying something even more radical – he is saying when you did this to them, you did it to me

What does this mean, you did it to me?

It means that in Christian language, we are all the body of God. In more familiar language to some of you here: “Namaste.” Meaning the divine within me salutes the divine in you.” Knowing that we are all made from the same One Divine Consciousness. This is what Emmanuel means to us, God with us.

Jesus didn’t want a world where we fought over power and wealth. He didn’t even want a world where we gave to the poor because it made us feel good. Our belief in separation and scarcity is the cause of all war and despair. Jesus wanted us to believe in communion. Jesus wanted changed minds and especially changed hearts.

So, with this odd subversive Christmas story, Luke was trying to do exactly what Jesus was trying to do with his crazy parables: shock us into an experience of communion – communion, with even the outcast of our society – communion with even the darkest parts of ourselves.

It begins within our responsive reading, which actually had it reversed: we said “peace, my neighbor, peace, my soul. But this is first, peace, my soul. As Mary said, in our reading, “my soul magnifies the Lord.“ For non-theists, you can translate,: my soul magnifies the piece of oneness.

If we know communion deep in our bones, if we know in our hearts that we are all one, and if we act from that deep knowing then true, peace and justice will flow.

This Christmas let our hearts and our souls be open, be vulnerable, be eager to know that deep oneness. Let us know that in the same way that a savior was born to the mind and the muck, among those of the lowest estate, so, too can peace come into our hearts, as hard or burdened or wounded as they may be. Let peace dwell within us, so may it come to the world. 

Amen. Blessed be. Namaste.