End of the Quarter Freedom

I just finished the Fall 07 Quarter of studies at Fuller. I always love the feeling of relief and accomplishment at the end of each term. It's great to just crash and have no worries until classes begin after New Years. But there's another part that I love even more - the part where I get to read and do whatever I want. So after a few days of doing nothing, I've had a very productive day of reading and reflecting.

I started this morning by finishing the long half-finished book I've been reading on the side: "The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical" by Shane Claiborne. It's a straight-forward, powerful read, and through his inspirational stories Shane makes the possibilities of living faithfully in obedience to God's Kingdom seem real and profoundly possible. It's just what my cynical mind needs sometimes - especially since this particular period of my life is devoted almost solely to the rigors of academia (for better or worse).

Then this afternoon I spent a prolonged period doing my Christmas devotionals. I decided to read through the birth narratives of Jesus in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Though the stories are familiar, I was able to see them with some fresh perspective having just read Shane's book. I found myself focusing on the "ordinary" parts of the narratives. Those parts that give the narrative its teeth. The parts that I tend to skip over too quickly. The parts that if skipped over too quickly turn the coming of Christ into some cosmic fairy tale rather than the real, historical in-breaking of God's Kingdom on earth. So for what it's worth, here are a few of the things that jumped out to me:

• I imagine Zechariah and Elizabeth (the parents of John the Baptist who came to prepare the way for Jesus) to be like the sweet old couple at your church who are always willing to help and to serve, yet often get overlooked or go unnoticed. (Luke 1:5-25)
  
• I imagine Mary would have at once been both freaked out and felt incredibly loved (by both God and Elizabeth) when Elizabeth speaks great things of Mary's (scandalous?) pregnancy before Mary even had the chance to tell Elizabeth what happened. (Luke 1:39-46)
• When Mary responds to Elizabeth she glorifies God and in Luke 1:53 she says "(the Lord) has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty." Shane's book is packed with stories of homeless men and women, children living in ghettos, people dying of disease, and people who have endured severe amounts of trauma yet live powerfully in light of the Kingdom of God in community with brothers and sisters who support them. Then I think of the high rates of loneliness, isolation, depression, and despair in what are called the "richest" nations in the world. I don't think that's just a coincidence.
  
• The main characters in this narrative had to withstand huge amounts of peer pressure in their roles. (Matt 1:18:20, Luke 1:57-63). Of course it sounds noble to say that I would have acted the same way. But when I'm honest I have to admit the many times I've failed in much more trivial situations.
  
• The "wise men from the east" that visit Jesus (Matt 2:2ff) were #1) not Jewish, #2) not Christian, and #3) likely from a little country we know today as Iraq.
• After the shepherds saw the baby Jesus, they told everybody they saw. The streets of Bethlehem were probably packed since large amounts of people descended upon the small town due to the census which Augustus had ordered (hence, there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn). And the shepherds, who were on the bottom of the economic totem pole of the day (think migrant laborers and factory workers), likely smelled from being in the fields with their animals. Luke 2:18 says "all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary... pondered them in her heart." The contrast between the general public's reaction and Mary's reaction makes me think the word "wondered" is simply a polite way of saying the people smiled nervously, nodded, clutched their purses and wallets a little tighter, and tried not to get sucked into unwanted conversations. And I think of all the times I've done that on the metro, the bus, or walking downtown.
  
• Among those who frequented the temple where Jesus was circumcised, I bet Simeon and Anna had a reputation for being a little crazy, and that parents told their kids to avoid them. (Luke 2:21-38)
  
• When Mary and Joseph were returning home after registering in Bethlehem, they were warned to go down into Egypt because Herod was looking to kill baby Jesus. (Matt 2:13-21) To me, this connotes images of the underground railroad, harboring Jews during WWII, the new sanctuary movement, and many similar movements where provision was offered to those being persecuted and oppressed.
  

So that's my "ordinary" reading of the birth narratives of Christ. For me it makes the story much more tangible while reminding me that true discipleship is not found in the Seminary library but in the real world interactions with confused, smelly, crazy, ordinary people.

Something to Remember During Advent

Given the topic of my Nov. 13 post, I thought it would be fitting to link into a post on the Young Anabaptist Radicals blog. The post offers some thought-provoking modern interpretations of some of Jesus' parables related to consumption and excess. Enjoy!

Remind me againt what Christmas is about

For NFL fans and readers of espn.com, you may be familiar with a column called Tuesday Morning Quarterback where Gregg Easterbrook reviews everything from the latest week in NFL, college, and high school football to current events to society, politics, and culture. Anyway... he had a recent blurb about Starbucks which I've pasted below:

"In the Starbucks Warm, Mighty King -- Do You Hear What I Hear?" Reader Ben Rosenberg reports that his favorite Starbucks, in Brookline, Mass., switched to Christmas music and Christmas decorations on Nov. 8. This, he notes, means Starbucks will spend 13 percent of the calendar year promoting Christmas. Brookline jumping the gun? I went into my favorite Starbucks, in Bethesda, Md., on Nov. 10: Christmas coffee was on sale, Christmas cards were hanging in the window, excruciating Christmas music was playing. I was disgusted -- and I like Starbucks Christmas coffee! The Official Wife of TMQ picked up a 2007 Advent calendar on sale in the Starbucks and looked at the sell-by date -- it read, USE BY JULY 2008.

I found it interesting that Starbucks (and other national retailers - I'm not just picking on Starbucks) spend 13% of the year promoting Christmas. More and more I'm just alarmed at how commercial Christmas is becoming. But here's the rub: my parents own and opperate a local Ace Hardware store and have a major Christmas section this time of year. Every year people pour into their store to buy more stupid junk to put in their lawns and under their trees. And the store benefits from and even needs this Christmas department to succeed. So while I'm critical of this trend toward over-consumption and consumption being linked to civic duty (be sure to watch the video with this link), I understand the murky complexity of the issue.

So as Christians who want to protect the integrity of this season and also claim a higher identity beyond being mere consumers, what do we do? Well, we could opt for the traditional non-participation which is the strategy of Buy Nothing Day. My friend Jason and his community take that approach a step further with the more transformative, positive concept of Make Something Day. But I wonder if the Christian community needs to undergo a complete paradigm shift. One that proclaims and observes Easter as the prominent Christian holiday. My understanding is that that is the practice of Eastern Orthodoxy. While doing so may require that we give up our Rockwellian love affair with Christmas, and while it may forfeit Christmas to its ultimate secular peril, I still see that as a positive step the Church could make. At least it's one I feel I can make in my own faith journey with my family and my church.