tonight I\u2019m thinking about a Christmas story,
\nmaybe a story not frequently told this way,
\nso here it is.<\/p>\n
There were glory days in Israel. Around the time of David,
\nhim having consolidated the kingdom
\nand then passed power to his son, Solomon,
\nwho with clean hands (no wars to fight, his dad did that)
\nbuilt the temple and the wealth of the nation.<\/p>\n
These were glorious days. Then it all fell apart.
\nCivil war, the weakening of the state.
\nNeighboring nations like Babylon and Assyria,
\nobserving the vulnerability, took their chance
\nand conquered first one half, then the other half
\nof Israel, placing the entire nation under subjugation.<\/p>\n
Lots of Israelites were hauled off into foreign lands.
\nForeign nationals were brought in to populate and rule.
\nSo the Israelites had to learn how to do faith
\nwithout a land, without a temple.<\/p>\n
This was the origin of how we do church today.
\nMinyans, ten men gathered in synagogue around
\nsacred texts, keeping faith in exile.<\/p>\n
It was during this time of civil war, this time of exile,
\nthat the prophets wrote. Isaiah, the prophets
\nexpressed first the warning, then the experience of exile.
\nThe grief, the loss, the displacement.<\/p>\n
Also, some hope. There will be one who will restore things,
\nmake them new. He\u2019s coming. He\u2019s on the way.<\/p>\n
Then the Israelites got their wish. Cyrus did for them
\nwhat they had heard, he restored them to Israel.
\nNew temple, new walls of the city.<\/p>\n
Except it wasn\u2019t like it had been. They had their land
\nand temple but all under foreign rule, a sort of puppet state.<\/p>\n
And the oppression of this period is exemplified no more
\nclearly than the moment when Jesus is born, and the ruler,
\nthreatened by his birth, executes all the holy innocents,
\nall the children around the age of Jesus.<\/p>\n
It was into this context Jesus was born. Rebuilt
\nbut not fully restored glory days. The grief and fakeness
\nof fake empire, no empire at all but life under occupation.<\/p>\n
Thing is, people carried this grief, this lament, this pain
\nwith them when they came to hear Jesus. He spoke to them
\nand all this history when he said things like:<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be afraid.
\nMy burden is light.
\nI will give you rest.<\/p>\n
It keeps going like this. I have a friend, Mitri, a pastor
\nin Palestine, who sends out Christmas greetings
\neach year from Bethlehem. He reminds us that the continuing and regular practice in the area of Palestine
\nhas been for empire after empire to tread upon
\nthe people of the land there.<\/p>\n
They are a people perpetually tread upon. And yet come
\nChristmas a little letter emerges from that holy city,
\na reminder that a man was born there, J\u00e9sus.
\nHope in the midst of oppression,
\npromise in the face of lament,
\nrest and freedom from many yokes.<\/p>\n
So the birth of Jesus is not for or unto or really among
\nthe comfortable or the Romans or the empire or
\nanywhere like that, but for those Palestinians,
\nthe ones for whom the worst the prophets spoke of
\nwas living reality, and yet they could say:<\/p>\n
Every valley shall be exalted. Every plain lifted up.
\nAnd all people shall see it together.
\nFor unto us is given\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
tonight I\u2019m thinking about a Christmas story, maybe a story not frequently told this way, so here it is. There were glory days in Israel. Around the time of David, him having consolidated the kingdom and then passed power to his son, Solomon, who with clean hands (no wars to fight, his dad did that) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3589,"featured_media":17023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n