"FOR THE TIME BEING"

“FOR THE TIME BEING”

            In November, Caroline and I went to meet with the Society of St. Anna the Prophet in Atlanta to talk about Ida B. Wells and “Passionate for Justice.”  The Society is a group of lay and ordained Episcopal women over the age of 50 who are living the Christian life within vows of simplicity, creativity, and balance.  Some are single, and some are married, partnered, divorced, and widowed.  They have dedicated themselves to ministries of compassion, justice, and equity.  My co-author, Catherine Meeks, is a member of this society.  In our discussion, these women were engaged and engaging, and their commitment and work reminded me of Ida Wells, who remained in such work all of her life.  Wells was Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, and Presbyterian in her lifetime, and she did this kind of work in the name of Jesus.

            The Society is named after Anna who encounters the baby Jesus when his parents bring him to the Temple to be dedicated. The story is at the end of Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus.   She is a widow and is old (84), and yet she is at the Temple daily, worshipping and fasting.  After she encounters the Holy Family, she begins to praise God and to tell others about God’s commitment to them and to us in this baby, in the Incarnation.  Luke also calls her a prophet – she had ears to hear, a heart to receive, and the will and imagination to find ways to proclaim that God’s justice, equity and compassion are the heart of the universe. 

            The Christmas season is beginning to tip towards its end, with one more blog next week on the end of the story in Matthew’s gospel for Epiphany.  In this twelve day process, we slowly allow ourselves to return to the ‘normal” life, wondering why we can’t sustain the good feelings of Christmas.   As we think about this journey, let us remember St. Anna the Prophet, and our call to receive and consider this baby and his call to justice, compassion, and equity, as she received the message and shared it. 

            The British poet W. H. Auden shone light on this process in his long work “For the Time Being,”  written in 1941, and here’s part of it:

            “Well, so that is that.  Now we must dismantle the tree,

            Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes –

            Some have gotten broken – and carrying them up to the attic.

            The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,

            And the children got ready for school.  There are enough

            Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week –

            Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,

            Stayed up so late, attempted – quite unsuccessfully –

            To love all our relatives, and in general

            Grossly overestimated our powers.  Once again

            As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed

            To do more than entertain it as an agreeable

            Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,

            Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,

            The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.

            The Christmas feast is already a fading memory,

            And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware

            Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought

            Of Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now

            Be very far off.  But, for the time being, here we all are.”

"GOD AT THE MARGINS"

“GOD AT THE MARGINS”

            The Christmas stories in the Bible give Mary the primary human agency, as I noted last week.  As we round into Christmas week, we should also note that the primary agency in the story is God, and that agency is a portrait of God at the margins of life. There is a bit of that marginality in the story of Moses, born to a person held as a slave, abandoned to the waters but raised as a royal son.   Here in the Christmas story we see that God has gone all the way – God is clearly at the margins.

            Those of us who are Christian believe that in the life, death, and resurrection of this baby born in Bethlehem, we see the incarnation of God, the human/divine interaction that is unique and revelatory.  In this context, why in the world would God reveal Herself in this way?  Why not make the revelation a superstar, a superheroine, a rich entrepreneur, a powerful military general, a robust politician?  Our current morass of an immoral President, deemed by his followers to be sent by God, shows us one reason why God chose a different way. 

            God chose to come among us at the margins.   Born as a baby, in need of others to take care of the baby, demonstrating dependency as a primary attribute of human life.  Even more so, God’s revelation comes from a woman pregnant before marriage – subject to the death penalty.  The baby is not born in the house of the Roman Emperor – instead he is oppressed by the Roman Empire, as witnessed by the forced migration from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  The baby is born not in a home but on the streets, with just a slight twang of compassion in the innkeeper’s heart causing him to give the family shelter in the barn.  This homeless family does finally find a house – yay for those who provided a home for the homeless! 

            The respite only lasts a brief time, however, as the police and government soldiers bring their “blood and soil” mentality and marching boots to execute the baby.  The family flees across the border into Egypt, another homeless family (yet again) now made illegal immigrants by the violent policies of their home government.  The Egyptian tradition indicates that there was no Grump Trump to turn them away, and so they found relative safety in Egypt, again depending on the kindness of strangers.

            As we listen to the carols, celebrate with the lights and decorations, gather with family and friends, and generally feel a brief sweetness and longing for more, let us remember the stark reality of the Biblical stories of Christmas.  Let us remember it not as a downer but as the heart of the message of Christmas:  God has come among us to show us a new and true way of life.  In order to receive that message of good news, we will need to start at the margins, where God started in this story.  We may not live at the margins, but if we want to find God, we must go to the margins.  It is one of the clear notes and themes of the Christmas story for life in the Western world:  this baby born to Mary and Joseph is black.  And in this good news is the powerful and redemptive vision of Christmas.

"THE VISION OF CHRISTMAS"

“THE VISION OF CHRISTMAS”

            Last week I concentrated on Joseph’s part of the Christmas story in the Bible.  I usually prefer to start with the women involved in the story (Mary and Elizabeth), but I felt that I had a pressing case to make to men, especially white men, using Joseph as the model for us to begin to take steps out of our toxic masculinity.  The Biblical stories seem to recognize this split and this tension over gender.  The first book of the New Testament, Matthew, tells Joseph’s part of the Christmas story in chapters 1 and 2.  The third book, Luke, tells the story from the women’s point of view, giving both Elizabeth’s and Mary’s story.  I wrote last week about Joseph using his patriarchal power to protect Mary and his adopted son, and in so doing, it may have seemed that Mary was too passive – that is not the case.

            The Christmas stories clearly give Mary the primary human agency.  The angel Gabriel comes to Mary to ask her to allow herself to be put in a precarious position by conceiving and birthing the Messiah.  Mary is already in a dangerous position as a peasant woman – female in a patriarchal society, under the thumb of the Roman empire, without access to economic support except through men.  Dr. Susan Hylen, in her pioneering work, has shown us the remarkable resiliency and agency of women in New Testament times.  Though they were “buked and scorned” - to borrow from the African-American tradition - many of these women demonstrated powerful resistance and adaptability.  Mary was one of those.  Engaged to be married, retaining her “value” as a virgin, she receives a vision from the angel – a vision that requests that she make herself even more vulnerable by agreeing to become pregnant before marriage, pregnant by someone other than her fiancé Joseph.  While some have indicated that Mary had no choice except to say “yes,” the story in Luke seems to make it clear that she could say “no.”

            She chooses to say “yes,” and her choice is the primary human agency from that point on.  As we will see next week, God is the primary agent, but from the human point of view, Mary drives the story.  She must tell Joseph, and we can imagine the fear in her heart as she tells him – will he take her to the elders for possible execution?  Will he abandon her?  Will he still marry her?   We can imagine Joseph’s response –“Oh, pregnant by the Holy Spirit?  Now that’s a new one!”  As we heard last week, Joseph will receive his own vision from God and will step out of toxic patriarchy and step into a new way of living.

            It is this new way of living that is Mary’s first lesson to us in this Christmas season.  Midway through Luke 1, she sings a powerful and astonishing song about the power of God coming over her.  Coming over her to bring her a child, but also coming over her to proclaim a new vision about who God is and who we should be.  She sings about God at the margins, about God taking down the mighty and lifting up the poor and the hungry.  Mary reminds us that this vision of Christmas is not just about Incarnation, not just about God blessing humanity with Her presence.  It also is about God coming to us in a particular way – to a woman pregnant before marriage, coming to us as a poor, dependent baby born on the streets.   Whatever we think about the way Christmas is celebrated, this vision of God at the margins is at the heart of the story.

            Mary’s story offers us many lessons, and a second one is that she emphasizes the necessity and the power of community in seeking to live out and witness to the new vision of Christmas, of God at the margins.  Before she takes her life in her hands and goes to talk with Joseph, she first goes to her cousin Elizabeth to share in solidarity and community with her sister.  She has heard from Gabriel that Elizabeth is also pregnant in a miraculous fashion, and she goes to her to draw strength from her elder and her sister.  She goes to Elizabeth to start building a new community, based on this vision of God at the margins.  No lone rangers allowed here.  Growing out of this visit and this solidarity, Mary’s spirit is strengthened to sing “My soul magnifies the Lord.”  She receives strength for the journey from community.

            As we enter this Christmas season, we don’t know what we are facing.  Assuming that Trump will not be convicted in the Senate, will he be strengthened or weakened by impeachment?  Will we hear the Nazi troopers coming closer, or will Trump be defeated in 2020?  We don’t know the answers to those questions at this point, but we do know that the same forces of racism and sexism and materialism that elected him in 2016 will remain with us after November, 2020, whoever is elected president.  It is in this kind of world that Mary had her vision and stepped forward, the kind of world in which we live.  That is the power of the Christmas story – it is always contemporary, and we are called to listen for the angels calling to us, listen for that new vision of Christmas, a vision which will scare us and trouble us, and yet a vision that will bring us life and help us to join in God’s movement at the margins.  May we find our places in this year’s live nativity scene. 

"WHITE MEN LISTENING TO JOSEPH"

“WHITE MEN LISTENING TO JOSEPH”

            Because the world seems so disastrously patriarchal, I usually don’t like to start with men in the Christmas story.  However, this year I want to start with Joseph because he has a lot to offer to men in these days (especially white men like me). I also want to start here because we are in a time in this country when white men seem determined to keep ourselves at the center of life, as witnessed in the shenanigans of Donald Trump and those who elected him and continue to support him.  Joseph offers us a way to start moving out of toxic masculinity.

            Joseph does not appear much in the Bible – his story is found mainly in Matthew 1:18-25, although Matthew’s genealogy that begins that Gospel seems determined to establish that Joseph is the (adopted) father of Jesus.  Luke’s Gospel tells us that Mary agrees to become the mother of Jesus, placing herself in danger of the death penalty because she will become pregnant by someone other than her fiancé.  The Biblical witness is that Joseph is a good liberal – he will not accept the death penalty, but he will not challenge the system either.  He decides to quietly send Mary back to her father and let her deal with her transgression.

            He receives a different vision from God, though, and he decides to challenge the system.  He decides to take Mary as his wife and adopt Jesus as his son.  In doing this, he offers three lessons to us males on how to begin to find liberation from our captivity to patriarchy.  First, he listens to voices other than his own, especially voices from the margins.  Accustomed to doing “man-splainng,” he decides to listen to Mary and hears God’s voice to him from her.  Many of us males believe that we know so much about others, especially women, and this Biblical story reminds us that we are called to close our mouths and open our ears and hearts in order to listen and to receive the stories of others.  This is the first lesson on the path towards liberation.  

            Second, Joseph not only listens to other voices – he begins to act on them too.  He decides to take a chance and move out of the center of life towards the margins.  Instead of telling Mary how terrible she is for getting pregnant by someone else, instead of beating Mary up or having her executed for her offending him, he goes to the margins of life, where Mary and other women are imperiled and dominated and put in constant danger.  Here, he hears a different voice, a voice that astonishes him – God is not at the center of life with men.  Rather, God is at the margins of life, calling all of us at the center to move towards the margins.  The Biblical story is honest here.  This movement of Joseph to the margins is costly.  He will be forced to watch the baby born on the streets, because he is homeless in Bethlehem.  His life is in danger, when he flees with his wife Mary and his adopted son Jesus, flees from the government soldiers who come to execute the boy and his family.  He and his family become illegal immigrants.  His movement to the margins imperils his status and his life, yet he finds life because of it.  Joseph’s second lesson for us is that we are called to move to the margins of life, so that we can hear a new voice and find our own authentic selves, not the toxic males that society convinces us that we must be.

            Joseph’s third lesson is that he uses his patriarchal power to protect Mary and his adopted son.  He gives them the shelter of male privilege, even when his former self would tell him that they do not deserve it.  No elders in the village come to execute Mary because Joseph gives her shelter.  A single woman traveling with a baby as an illegal immigrant faces many dangers, but Joseph mitigates some of them by giving them male protection.  By Matthew’s account, someone (maybe Joseph himself) has given them shelter in a house – it is here that the magi come to visit and acknowledge the power of this baby and this story.   Joseph learns to use his power not to attack women but rather to protect and nurture them.

            So, as we consider this Christmas story from the male point of view, let us turn towards Joseph and learn from him.  Let us swim deeply in his waters of movement and strength and power, and let us seek to follow his star.  The world would look a lot different if we did.

""A DIFFERENT VISION - ROSA PARKS DAY"

“A DIFFERENT VISION – ROSA PARKS DAY”

            The Christmas season now begins in September, as our consumer culture seeks to tweak the heartstrings earlier in order to sell more products.  Because of this development, it is easy to become cynical about Christmas and the Christmas story.  Many of us are cynical and tend to become jaded in this season – we long to find some respite from its frantic nature.  As we begin another Advent season, leading up to Christmas, let us take some time to reflect upon this ancient story, because at its best, and even at its least, the story itself offers us some opportunities to see a different vision of ourselves, of others, and of life itself.

            I am one of those who tends to be jaded about this season, but in my early years I was given a great gift regarding Christmas.  My mother loved all things Christmas, and she passed that affinity on to me.  We were poor,  abandoned by husband and father, and living with my great-great aunt, who refused to celebrate Christmas for religious reasons.  “Gran,” as I called her, was an Associate Reformed Presbyterian, a very conservative branch of the Presbyterian family.  Coming out of the Puritan tradition, she felt that the cultural trappings of Christmas were an evil that needed to be avoided – no tree, no decorations, no mirth, no presents, although a big Christmas meal was both allowed and celebrated.   When we first moved in with Gran, my mother and I shared a small bedroom with two twin beds.  Gran would not allow Mother to put up a Christmas tree in the common living area, so for several years, we had a tree in our already crowded bedroom.  My mother was a Christmas season evangelist, however, so eventually she won Gran over, and the tree moved in to the common area, along with a growing number of decorations (and most important from my child’s point of view, presents under the tree were also allowed).

            So, I am grateful to my mother for her imbibing me with the Christmas spirit.  Her enthusiasm pointed me and others to see the Christmas season as a time to look for another vision, a vision of life that is deeper and broader and more connected than the current capitalistic, money-is-god vision.  The church uses the Advent season as a time to prepare us to be able to re-focus our perceptual apparatus so that this new vision can come into view and take root.  Writers like Howard Thurman (“The Mood of Christmas”) have encouraged us to understand the Christmas story as a powerful time of re-engaging our imaginations about who we are and what life is.  The Christmas stories in Matthew, Luke, and John urge us to see where God’s preferences are and where God’s energies are.  These Biblical Christmas stories place God’s emphasis on the margins of life:  a teenage girl pregnant before marriage by someone other than her fiancé, the fiancé being forced to engage his patriarchal privilege and make a decision on it, the baby born on the streets, the holy family greeted by working class people and then exotic foreigners, then forced to flee political persecution as immigrants who illegally crossed the border with Egypt.  These stories are not about God at the center of celebrity culture – these stories are about God at the margins.  That should be the first thing that we notice, as we begin this Advent and Christmas season.  Whoever you think is marginalized – that is where God is appearing in 2019.

            Second, we should notice that a central characteristic of these Christmas stories is resistance.  God is resisting the Roman Empire and the powers that be.  The Romans are mentioned in Luke’s version but only as an aside that requires the holy family to go to Bethlehem.  Mary will resist male patriarchal power, and so will Joseph.  It is as if God is saying in these Christmas stories:  “There’s another view of life – look at it and find your way in to it.”  At best, our culture begrudgingly acknowledges the power of love in these stories, but it is the sweet, sentimental kind of love, not the institution-challenging, life-changing love found in these Biblical stories.  They emphasize that this event will challenge us to engage and confront institutions of oppression and injustice.

            I don’t know if Rosa Parks thought about these Christmas stories or not, as she decided to resist the unjust segregation laws on that bus in Montgomery years ago on December 1, 1955, but she did have resistance on her mind and heart.  She wasn’t the first to do it – Claudette Colvin and Homer Plessy and Ida Wells and Frederick Douglass and others had preceded her in challenging the separate accommodation laws.  But, her resistance caught fire, mainly because some other women like Joanne Robinson picked up her witness and resistance and helped it to spread in Montgomery and around the South.  I don’t know if Rosa Parks framed it in just this way, but it is easy in retrospect to hear the angel of the Lord telling her:  “Keep your seat, Rosa – God is with you.”  “But, I’m just one small black woman – how can this be?”  The reply: “With God, nothing is impossible.”  And, a new vision was born and seen, out of her resistance.  This is the different vision – this is the meaning of the Christmas stories.  Let us find our voice also in this crazy season – God is inviting us in.