Christmas Incongruities and Hope from the Margins

As the celebration of the birth of Christ approaches, I’ve had a few emails come to me with reflections on the holiday. I read this today:

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:1-7 TNIV)

Imagine the announcements being sent out...

I’ve heard this story year after year and yet something new strikes me almost every time. Today reading that on the bus I recalled some things I’ve been told by the church in the past and noted an incongruity with the message of this story.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that Christians should be very careful about how their lifestyles might be perceived from the outside as non-Christians may presume hypocritical living. And of course there’s a degree of truth to this, but also a vast amount of room for legalism, self-righteousness and a lack of transparency to occur with this practice.  Yet in this story, the very birth of himself, God initiates a total scandal for this young woman (teenager more like), Mary, and her fiance Joseph. We all know that but think about it a minute. Think about how ludicrous it is.

One measure I’ve been taught of how to know if something is God or not is how ‘honouring’ it would be to him- in other words, how ‘right’ and ‘moral’ does it seem to the observer or how compatible is it with scripture. Little Mary, heavily pregnant and not married was certainly not right nor moral in those days and seems to conflict with some laws somewhere in the OT. It’d be foolish to imagine that she wasn’t ostracized and rejected- marginalised by her culture for being a whore of sorts. ‘No, really guys, this is God’s baby!’ would only lend her to be further condemned by her society as a lunatic or fanatic. Joseph’s contribution to the conversation of not being the father would probably lend more credibility to him as a man but contribute to her negative image even more so.

Reflecting on all this makes me rethink what I’ve been told about discerning God’s activity around me and in my own life. It confirms to me that he’s poised to bring his kingdom through actions that would make the average church goer squirm in their pew. Of course I’ve known this, it’s just good to be reminded and to have a few more of those wobbly walls in my cozy Christian construct be dismantled.

And it’s also comforting to know that as unkind as it may seem on the one hand to give someone such a burden of rejection to carry through life as he did Mary and even Jesus the bastard himself, I’m not alone in living this way and great things come from living in the margins.

Paul wasn’t the only Christian jail bird

If you Google ‘Paul in prison’ and check out the images you’ll see a host of inspired artwork of a pensive, well groomed man, frequently gripping a quill as he stares off into the distance recalling stories which he then presumably scribes for you and I to read in our Bibles today. You’ll also find colouring book pages for those of us with less artistic prowess to indulge our creativity. I wonder if it was really like that.

Rembrandt's Idealistically Imprisoned Paul

My thinking about Paul was spurred by my husband’s arrest a couple weeks ago for supporting striking public sector workers in London, merely with the intention of distributing tea and biscuits. As Christ-followers involved in the activist scene locally, we have friends from both spheres who have supported us via text messages, emails and social media in this time. Rob’s activist friends who have a great deal more familiarity with the process of being arrested, either having been there themselves or having supported others before were unflinching in their ability to provide information and ensure that we were well looked after.

Our Christian friends, while very good at sending message of support and offering prayer were not so great at offering practical help. I hope that this experience of ours will serve to enlighten our Christ-following friends in ways that they can help out in a more hands-on way where possible, but that’s for another day and another post.

Along with offers for prayer we were overwhelmed with statements comparing Rob’s arrest and 12ish hours in jail to the apostle Paul who was also imprisoned and wrote much of the New Testament letters during that time. I wondered why with every new message sent comparing Rob to Paul I went from shaking my head in good humour, knowing that this was an example of Christians taking experiences totally out of context, to becoming increasingly frustrated with the comparison. I just couldn’t put my finger on why I was so annoyed as I know that every person who sent such a message did so intending to give encouragement and identify with the experience in possibly the only way they knew to do so.

We escaped to the seaside the weekend after the ordeal and sat on the beach talking about why I felt so miffed. As we talked on, I realised that my issue with this comparison stemmed from the fact that Rob was arrested with 36 other people also doing good in their community. Maybe they weren’t doing it as an act of love for their neighbour explicitly following Christ’s example, but nevertheless they were doing it equally. It seems like a real double standard to select the Christian for a biased pat on the back, neglecting the others who were unjustly repaid for the same good deeds.

This is one of the real problems we’ve got with the church right now- the near inability to see or acknowledge Jesus values that are embedded all around us. Perhaps if we did so others would feel a closer kinship with Jesus rather than an increasing sense of alienation.

I also realised that this is a great example of an unhealthy tendency I’ve seen the church charged with before – the tendency to align itself more with Paul than with Christ. Listen to Christians in Bible conversation and you’ll probably hear more reference to Paul than Jesus. We spend more time studying his letters than the gospels and life of Christ. I wonder why people felt compelled to compare Rob’s arrest to Paul instead of Jesus who also was imprisoned without cause. Who exactly are we following? A guy who, I have to be honest, at face value seems like a real sexist jerk sometimes* or a guy who we confess to believing lived a perfect life?

Not to seem thankless to those who have offered their support and been inspired by a fellow Christ follower who ended up charged with violence by following Jesus’ call to love his neighbour. Just to challenge and provoke thought.

* When I first started reading the Bible for real I actually crossed through some of what Paul said about women because it infuriated me. I could think of several things to call him before ‘apostle’. Having studied a bit more and getting a cultural context for what he said and looking into the way things were badly translated I know that he has been misquoted in most of our translations and isn’t such a bad guy after all and actually quite pro-women. But I have real empathy for anyone reading the Bible without this understanding.

Agents of Future: Because life, love and faith are messy

I had the radical privilege last summer to spend some time with Portland, Oregon’s Agents of Future. The band is facilitated by Todd and Angie Fadel who have become awesome friends who I wished lived closer, and they’ve really inspired Rob and I in our living and our worship. They’re part of a killer church family in Portland called The Bridge.

When they were with us last August, the band did a collaborative worship thing with our collective (also called The Bridge). There were balloons being pulled out of a refrigerator, toilet paper enveloping everyone in the room, buckets and pots and pans serving as instruments, children playing, and a genuine ‘I have no idea what’s happening but it’s marvellous’ feeling amongst all of us involved. Things like that just don’t happen in London. You can check out the videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/thebridgecollective#p/u/1/B3-4a3uVYgk and here http://www.youtube.com/user/thebridgecollective#p/u/2/dmGUMFURdmU

Anywho, why bring this up now? Well I was just sitting and listening to the chunk of their material I’ve got on my iTunes and this group makes me love Jesus more like few do. They’re so honest and so real and so raw. No worshippy BS that ignores the real life muck. True, real, gut-wrenching faith. I love it. And you should too ;0)

You can download a lot of their stuff on Soundclick  but I would totally recommend getting a CD or two or ten off of them. If you happen to be one of my real-life friends, ask me next time you see me and I’ll give you one as they gave us a few to hand out. If you happen to be at Greenbelt this year, I think they just might be there again. Do come along and expect anything to happen.

Liberation

- Lila Watson | ABORIGINAL ACTIVISTS GROUP, QUEENSLAND, 1970s
Poster by Ricardo (http://www.freewebs.com/edchx/)

Socialism to the rescue!!!!! *set to superhero theme music*

I was just passing through Sainsbury’s the other day (after realising that I’d forgotten my wallet… thankfully before doing any shopping) when I was accosted by a Socialist fellow. I don’t know what made me actually stop to talk to him, perhaps it was just a moment of weakness- not that I disagree with keeping conversation with socialists- just speaking to anyone carrying a bucket and asking for money really.

He quickly handed me a leaflet inviting me to join a young socialists march (which made me smile to think he thought me a youth) taking place, even though a subsequent review of the flyer proved they were using last year’s calendar for this year’s date setting (surely that’s not a socialist hallmark?). Not too interested in marching on behalf of their party, I did engage in some conversatio with the man. Well, I say engage in conversation- perhaps what I should say is that I stood there and listened to him for a good while.

Naturally, as any politically bent individual would do at this time in history, I was informed that nobody was safe- all jobs were at risk, nobody could count on tomorrow’s wages or institutions. The economic crisis effecting the globe would some day end up, decidedly sooner rather than later, knocking on my door and demanding my securities. In the back of my mind all the while I’m thinking that this bloke has no idea about the economic system I subscribe to. I guess the problem was that I was wearing a coat from Top Shop and therefore I was sniffed out as one of those capitalist scum (little did he know that my hoodie underneath heralded a hand-stitched socialist inspired patch proclaiming ‘Join the Revolution’, complete with raised fists and all.)

I digress however. Listening to this well-meaning man who was surely freezing his balls off, snot dripping down his upper lip, a wild look in his eyes as he preached about the saviour, socialism, I could no longer just stand and agree with him on the following points: The middle, working class must be cared for and given a fairer share of the power; Revolution is just around the corner. At that last point I decided I’d heard enough. I explained to the bucket holding man that I agreed with him about caring for the poor and middle classes (actually he didn’t mention the poor, only the middle class), and I certainly agree that revolution will shortly take place. However, I explained, the revolution I believe in and ascribe to begins with the hearts of people- not a political system.

Differing drasticaly in the methods of change, he believing it must start from some dudes on the sidewalk in front of Sainsbury’s to youths marching on behalf of socialist causes, to raising up socialist leaders who will give the power to the people. Personally I’m rather fond of grassroots movements and I’d beg to differ about the approach- I explained that the way I see it, the hearts of people are going to have to undergo revolutionary change that only comes through Christ. Jesus was the most revolutionary thinker of all time. And he did it in a very different way- not from a top-up approach as many would argue on behalf of political parties such as the socialists, democrats, conservatives- whoever really. Jesus argued that revolution comes from the lowest. He really didn’t seem overly concerned by the leaders of his world. He hardly batted an eye at them and he certainly didn’t call their way of doing things into question. What he did was address the lowest of the low. He called them to change, to radical subversive ways of thinking and acting- all motivated by love.

As soon as I mentioned ‘Jesus’ this guy’s nose went up a little bit into the air, as if he smelled more than just my capitalist-aiding coat. Seriously the conversation was over- well not really- he first had to get his bit in about religion and the church and American presidents. First, American presidents have weilded their faith in inappropriate ways. Second, the church is the cause of this whole mess to begin with- she’s apparently in some sort of romantic relations with our governing powers and their capitalist practices.

In the short amount of time that I had left before being abandoned, standing in front of St. Michael’s church in Camden Town, I explained to this fellow that what he must know of Church is all wrong. I told him that in no way is it fair to lump all churches together- he has not been to the church I go to for one. I explained to him that we do agree with some of the tenants of socialism- in terms of supporting the poor (although again, I’d say that he seemed bent only on the middle-class working man), and in terms of agreeing that revolution would happen. He had by this point however tuned out and was only interested in if I wanted a paper for 40p or not. Apologetically- since I indeed had no money in my pocket and furthermore seldom have enough money to buy a 40p paper- I declined.

I’d really be interested in hearing his thoughts when he returned to the table with his colleague. But truthfully, I felt unvalued, rejected because of my faith and my vision of revolution. He could have just as well shoved the bucket over my head and walked away. Is that what socialism is about? Thinking the same? Liberty to think? Or freedom from thought?