" A DECREE FROM CAESAR AUGUSTUS"

 “A DECREE FROM CAESAR AUGUSTUS”

From my point of view, the two Gospel versions of the story of the birth of Jesus give us Joseph’s perspective (Matthew) and Mary’s perspective (Luke).  While John’s Gospel has a more philosophical approach in chapter 1 (“The Word was with God”), Matthew and Luke both seek to ground the story in history, in the societal realities of the time.  Matthew has Joseph confronting  difficult choices, once he has found out that Mary is pregnant by someone else.  Being a decent man, Joseph decides to quietly end their engagement and send Mary away, back to her birth family, rather than exposing her to the harsh light of public humiliation, including the possibility of her being stoned to death.  He receives a vision from a messenger from God, telling him to stay with Mary, adopt the baby as his own, and raise the baby as his son.  Joseph agrees, and in so doing, he gives Jesus (and Mary) cover and a supportive and present father.  

Luke’s Gospel tells us that rather than being born in his parents’ hometown of Nazareth, the baby Jesus is born in Bethlehem.  Why?  Because the Roman Empire needs more tax money.  The Emperor Augustus (nephew of Julius Caesar and successor to him) sends out a royal decree telling all citizens to return to their hometowns to be enrolled for taxing purposes.  Chapter Two tells us that Joseph and the pregnant Mary make the arduous trip to Bethlehem, where the baby is born on the streets.  Luke wants to make sure that the readers know that the birth of this baby Jesus is no event divorced from human history, that God’s revelation to us comes not outside the swirl of human life, but rather right in the middle of it.  He not only mentions the decree from Caesar Augustus but also tells us that Quirinius is governor of Syria – who is Quirinius, anyway?  Luke wants to remind readers of every age and in every generation that this birth of Jesus should not take us out of the world but should impel us into the hurly-burly of the world.  As Mary put it in her Magnificat, in her song of praise in Chapter One, “God has scattered the proud….has filled the hungry with good things, and has sent the rich away empty-handed.”  In the birth of this baby, it is God’s intention to turn the world upside down.

Decrees from Caesar Augustus – with the coming of our imperial president Donald Trump, this story has been on my mind and heart lately, as I struggle to make sense of the election of Donald Trump as president again.  He certainly would like to be the imperial one, and I’m hoping that Congress will have the will and courage to blunt aside his imperial desires.  With the Republicans controlling all branches of the federal government in 2025, I am skeptical that Congress will have the will, at least until the midterms in 2026.  So, I am thinking about the imperial decrees that President Trump will issue on “day one,” as he puts it.  Surely something on immigration, something on declaring a national emergency at the border, perhaps declaring martial law so as to suspend elections and keep the power in his hands.  And with the adolescent Elon Musk running around, throwing money around everywhere, this could be a grim year of 2025.

Decrees from Caesar Augustus – no matter how grim it looks to us for the future of the United States, we must give thanks that Matthew and Luke have shared these Biblical stories of the birth of Jesus.  While there are some glorious moments in these stories, most of the time, they take place where we live, in the craziness and messiness of the world.  Mary pregnant before marriage, Joseph wanting to get rid of her, the baby Jesus born on the streets, hunted by government soldiers to be executed, the Holy Family fleeing for their lives from the soldiers, refugees on the run, becoming immigrants in a foreign land – we are so glad that Egypt did not have the closed walls that Trump wants to build!  These Christmas stories remind us that God is in the middle of the messy and messed-up world, that God intends to work Her powerful Spirit not as an escape from the world, but in the midst of the mess.

Decrees from Caesar Augustus – we will have plenty of those soon, and in the midst of the suffering and chaos that these decrees will cause, let us draw strength from these Christmas stories.  God has come to us in the flesh-and-blood lives that we live, and though the Caesars roar and maim and kill, God’s truth abideth still, as the Roman Catholic monk put it so powerfully 500 years ago.  As we receive this Christmas season as a time of love and mercy before the would-be Caesar’s onslaught, let us prepare to be as courageous as Mary, as open as Joseph to seeing a new world, and as dedicated and loving as Jesus.  May the power of love and justice sustain us, as it did the Holy Family.