Emmanuel

Emmanuel: the name means, “God with Us.”

Has it occurred to anyone that Jesus was a bastard? That there were no virgins; no stable; no inn?

Think it through.. if God’s Spirit moves in us and through us, as well as through all of Creation; if we are God’s hands and feet and voice, then how about we re-imagine how the Christ Event came to pass?

Let’s extract the core elements of the Christmas story:

First there is a pregnant teenager, Mary, engaged to a man that is not the father of her child.

Then there’s Joseph deciding whether it’s in his best interests to marry this girl or not.

Then there are the shepherds, who were considered untrustworthy day-laborers; pushed to the edges of respectable society, and viewed with a suspicious eye.

The preacher at midnight mass last night said some interesting things, many of which caused me to roll my eyes a bit, but buried in his text were shining glints of something new.

He talked about how we tell this same Christmas story over and over again and never get tired of it. He said that we must be finding some meaning in the story that we think is worth reminding ourselves about. I took him at his word, and started listening to the story with my inner ear.

I got something new alright!

I got a story of a teenage girl in love with someone, but not the one that it’s been arranged for her to marry. She loved someone that she will never be able to marry. Someone that she loved with all her heart and soul and body, and with whom she conceived a child in Love.

What a disaster that could have been!

But then, she got word from a messenger of Love, a messenger that told her what the Truth of it was:

“Don’t be reluctant! The child you conceived out of your wholehearted, impetuous Love will be the Child of Love in truth. This wonderful child will move the whole world toward Love, and the domain of God will be in his keeping for all time. All of this has come about because of your Love, which has found favor with God.”

So Mary sings this triumphant rebel song:

“My soul increases Love, and my very breath is joy and praise, because God has approved his servant’s humble status!  See! From now on all generations will regard me as fortunate— because God has brought about wonderful things on my behalf. Holy is his Name! and Mercy belongs to all who revere it, from generation to generation! He reveals strength with his arm; he scatters the arrogant in the thoughts of their hearts! He brings down rulers from their thrones; and raises up the lower-class people! He fills the hungry with goodwill, but sends the rich away empty-handed! He has always helped his child Israel, calling to mind kindness in the way that he spoke to our ancestors— to Abraham and his descendants for all time.”

Then Joseph got pretty much the same Message:

“Love will make all things right. The child that Mary carries is the child of Love. Don’t make the mistake of rejecting her, because if you do you will be rejecting Love, and closing your heart to its power. Think of it like this: Add your love to hers! Take her and the Child into your heart and love them with the spirit of Love that comes from God. Raise that child in love, and teach him how Love works…. that nothing can destroy Love, not death, or any power in this world or in Heaven. You can reject Love and turn it homeless out of your heart, but that will only cause you to live without it. Let Love in!”

So he did. He didn’t put Mary and her child aside, but instead he put aside all the whispers and the head-shaking; the tsk-tsk’ing, and the pointing fingers.
Oh, he minded all right, but in his heart there was something new and true… Love. Not just his love, or Mary’s, but God’s Love, that moves in us all, and through us all, and gives birth to more Love.



Then, the shepherds in their disreputable gypsy camp hear about it. The shepherds who are out at the edge of town, watching the sheep out there because nobody trusts them, and nobody wants to have them anywhere near the respectable folks. These vulgar, uncouth herdsmen are brave enough to come into town to find this girl and her silly husband who aren’t ashamed of their Holy Bastard. They just have to come and see! There’s a Light shining out of the idea that it doesn’t matter what the righteous, self-satisfied prigs say. These day-laborers want to see it for themselves; this unashamed couple with their little baby, staying right in the thick of things; thumbing their noses at the status quo, and daring to shout out the Truth— that no amount of self-satisfied arrogance can hold a candle to the power of Love. These crazy folks hollering it from the rooftops so loud that it seems like the whole Host of Heaven is shouting it with them—

“What you think doesn’t matter! We know what really matters, and it’s Love. It’s kindness! It’s taking care of one another! It’s remembering that this is what God cares about, too!”

And last but not least… Mary and Joseph raised Jesus to believe in the same things that they did—
They brought up a Child who was so dug-in and settled in the Way of Love that he couldn’t be shaken.

His step-father taught him not only about the joy of love, but also about the price it calls on us to pay.

His mother taught him about being brave enough not to care about disgrace and humiliation, but to see just exactly how God goes about claiming all plain, ordinary folks as his own, and dismisses the haughty, high-handed people to go about their empty-handed business of winning status, wealth, and fame.

Those Holy Parents didn’t just talk about it, either; they showed their Child the meaning of Love.  

Love with all its ramifications; its consequences; its joys and its sorrows.

They leaned hard on the Spirit of God;  and they taught Jesus everything they knew about what really matters.

They taught him so well that Jesus learned to feel the breath of God in every waking moment, and that’s how he was able to hold true to Love— to the bitter end.