"ANOTHER CHANCE ALLOWED"

 “ANOTHER CHANCE ALLOWED”

My friend and colleague the Reverend Rachel Anderson posted these damning words on Saturday about the release of the Epstein files:  “The fact that people need a dead man’s files to believe a thousand living women tells us everything about whose voices they value and whose they don’t.”  It is a reminder of the fight that is always with us about who is valued and who is not.  I am grateful to Rachel and to many others who are fighting for all voices to be heard and valued.

It is also a reminder of the scandal of the Christmas story – one woman had a vision from God and decided to seek to live it out.  She risked her life in saying “Yes.” She was fortunate that she was not the only visionary in the family – her fiancé Joseph had visions from God also, and he decided to live out that vision also.  His decision gave Mary protective cover in a patriarchal society, where her getting pregnant by someone other than her fiancé was a crime punishable by death.  He understood that while the society did not value women, God did value women as well as men.

    I also listen to Christmas music in this season which I love to do – there are many old favorites, and I especially like newer ones like “Rebel Jesus” by Jackson Browne and “Nothing But a Child” by Steve Earle.  Earle’s song especially reminds us of the fragility of the story of the birth of Jesus – born to a woman who got pregnant before marriage, born on the streets, hunted by the government soldiers, a Palestinian refugee crossing borders in order to escape execution.  The “glory of a King born to rule the earth” is stunningly absent from the details of the birth story of Jesus.  

“Nothing But a Child” puts it this way:

“Once upon a time

In a far off land

Wise {men} saw a sign

And set out cross the sand

Songs of praise to sing

They travelled day and night

Precious gifts to bring

They were guided by the light

They chased a brand new star

Ever towards the West

Across the mountains far

But when it came to rest

They scarce believed their eyes

They’d come so many miles

The miracle they prized

Was nothing but a child

Nothing but a child

Could wash those tears away

Or guide a weary world

Into the light of day

Nothing but a child

Could help erase those miles

So once again we all can be children 

     For a while”

So, as we approach the new year with trembling, let us remember the fragility of this story and how radical it is.  It challenges our point of view of ourselves and the world itself.  And it asks us to remember how fragile life is, how precious life is, and how, like Mary and Joseph, we are asked to be bold and courageous and visionary in a time that looks dark and dreary.  And, indeed that’s why the church chose the holiday of the Sun to attach this Christmas story.  We are asked to be like those magi who set off on a journey, looking for a vision that will fill us and sustain us, and which will make a stunning claim about the power and force at the center of the universe.  It is powered by visionaries who are high on love.  And, most of all, we will find that vision in very surprising places.