Christmas Ponderings

We are besieged by Hallmark pictures of some idyllic setting for Christmas, sanitized and sparkling manger scenes, steeped in a sense of joy and wonder and stripped of the reality of living. We picture angels singing to shepherds, Mary and Joseph dressed in clean clothing, and a stable devoid of barnyard smells. None of that seems to do justice to what the gospels actually tell us about the birth of Jesus, even if they don't dwell on the details.

Matthew tells us Mary was pregnant and Joseph was surprised, recognizing he was not responsible. He was getting ready to end their engagement when he had a dream of an angel telling him God was blessing Mary's pregnancy and to go ahead with the wedding. Matthew tells us Joseph's own lineage included several women who were outcasts, outsiders, and victims of sexual abuse. He sets the stage for Jesus growing up under a cloud of shame and being considered a bastard son very much in keeping with elements of his ancestry. Just as Joseph found the news of Mary's pregnancy worthy of ending their engagement, doubtless her family and neighbors had their own notions of how she came to be with child.

I don't know many mothers who would take a teenage daughter's word that her pregnancy out of wedlock did not mean she had not lost her virginity. We might accept the word of our traditions about Mary being a virgin, but her neighbors and family assuredly did not. Jesus would be born under a cloud of shame, while Mary and Joseph lost a measure of respect within their community. Traveling to Bethlehem would have granted them some measure of escape from the sidelong glances directed their way. It also meant Jesus would be born to Mary without the assistance of her support system in a strange place devoid of the comforts of home.

Perhaps they traveled with family, but the gospels are mute on that point. From what they do tell us, however, Jesus was not born under ideal conditions. The inn where they were taking shelter did not have an appropriate place for giving birth. They resorted to using a shelter for animals to keep the humans from becoming ritually impure from exposure to birthing fluids. The laws of ritual purity Jesus would rail against played a big part in the setting of his humble birth.

There were no angels singing on the hillsides or from the top of the stable. Luke tells us angels appeared and spoke to a band of shepherds, but nothing about singing. He speaks instead of angels rejoicing or yelling praises to God for the wonder of the incarnation.

Meanwhile, Mary, Joseph, and most likely a local midwife struggled with the process of bringing Jesus into the world from Mary's womb. There were few comforts for Mary. Joseph was likely no help in the process, unless he had some experience in animal husbandry. Mary suffered through birthing will little if any help for the pain. She most likely relied on strangers to help her understand how to care for the child coming into the world. The library in Bethlehem held no copies of What to Expect When You're Expecting or The Care and Feeding of Your Newborn.

This was no luxurious setting into which Jesus was born. The manger in which he was laid still smelled of the animals who normally ate there. He was wrapped like a burrito in whatever cloth was available. His mother lay exhausted and recovering from the trauma of birthing, dreaming of having her mother and grandmother to offer comfort and help with caring for this newborn dropped from her womb and into her arms. Joseph, a day-laborer (not the carpenter so often touted in our traditions), would have to abandon her in a strange town come morning, while he sought what work could be had.

God did not choose to enter the world of humanity in an idyllic, romantic setting of so many stylized Christmas cards and displays. God was born amid the earthly aromas of a stable, so as not to bother the regular guests at the inn. God was not born in a palace or a modern hospital. God was not born in luxury, not even into the comfort of an established family under the adoring gaze of proper society. Rather than having the religious elite greet his birth, it was a band of dirty shepherds who staggered in to find Jesus lying in the stable with Joseph and Mary. God was willing to take this path into the world because of God's love for all humanity. The wonder of this birth is tied to Jesus coming among those struggling for survival and assuming the realities of their rough and tumble life.

The most beautiful aspects of the message of Christmas are not our sanitized presentations of Christmas. It is rather than God set aside the comforts of privilege to be born into our daily experience of life. Jesus made his home in a setting much closer to an African mud hut than a middle-class suburb. His home was closer to the projects than a high rise tower apartment, a trailer park than a villa. The message is that God came for all of humanity, especially those we would tend to exclude or deem unimportant.

In Jesus, God embraced the stigma of being born before his parents had consummated their marriage. Jesus embraced the life of a commoner. Jesus embraced life as we know it, not as we dream for it to be. He embraced the struggles of common people, the harsh realities of subsistence living. He embraced messy people, just as we are, ensuring us that God loves us all.

That is a much more interesting message than the sanitized versions we so often embrace. God came to earth to live among us just as we are. God embraced humanity with all our problems, failures, and messiness. We don't need to sanitize the experience of life for God to participate in our journey. We just need to welcome God's coming and presence.

The shepherds went as they were to see the child the angels announced to them. God was happy to welcome their arrival, no questions asked. Christmas means we don't need to put on airs. We just need to welcome God's coming to us, even as we wonder at God's wonderful acceptance of us without question.

— ©Copyright 2019, Christopher B. Harbin

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