Christmas is coming… and after a series of community interfaith services, and a successful Doctor of Ministry degree defense last Monday (!), I got to the end of last week ready and able to engage. I did my one mall trip on Friday and came home loaded with gifts. That evening I made rum balls and Italian wafers (a batch of each with nuts and one without) and the next morning finished my baking before my house got cleaned. Advent IV, our annual "Baby Shower for Mary," church decorating and music rehearsals – check. Finally, Sunday afternoon; it was time to haul down the Christmas boxes and begin my own preparations.
"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…"
It gets real for me when I set up the crèche. I do it the same way each year, placing the figures the same way in the stable, and the angels at the same angles on the gold lame cloth that represents the glory of the Lord (that “shone round about them…”). The three kings are on a higher book shelf, still on their journey. The shepherd and the sheep are nearby in the field. This year, shock of shocks, I made a change: I moved the stable cat down from the hayloft, closer to the manger. (The velociraptor remains in the loft… danger lurks in the most pastoral of scenes.)
And Mary and Joseph await the birth, gazing at an empty manger, waiting… waiting… waiting for the moment when it all changes, when new life brings an end to the old. Mary and Joseph were never going to be able to go back to what they’d known. No new parents can – and these two were going to face more change than most.
What are you waiting for in your life this week? Perhaps it’s related to Christmas, perhaps not.
What new life are you praying for?
And what are you hoping will never go away?
New life is always coming at us, sometimes taking up the space of something we rather liked, or had grown comfortable with. Is there something yearning to take up space in your life, space you’re willing to make by letting something else go?
On Christmas Eve, when I get home from church, I will fetch the baby out of the little wicker trunk in the back of the stable (hey, Mary had to have some luggage…) and place him in the manger.
Jesus always shows up, eventually.
Sometimes we just have to let him out of the baggage…
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” is an expression I hear. It can sound tunnel-visioned, oblivious to what are in some cases competing claims, or the need for a process of culture change. Or maybe it’s always true, and those less hurried are simply getting more from the status quo. “It ain’t that simple,” they say. And yet, when you’re the one waiting for justice, it ain’t that complicated.
After telling how the judge is eventually worn down by the widow’s persistence, Jesus says: “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.”
What do you think when you read those words? I confess, my reaction is, “Quickly? Not delayed? How many have cried out to God day and night, century after century, and still the powerful dominate the weak, and the rich horde resources that keep others poor, and the corrupt steal justice from the powerless..." What do we do with these words?
One thing we do is trust, and wait. Chalk it up to the eternal mysteries and keep our focus on all the times we see justice break through, not just on the times we don’t. That’s important, to keep our focus on where God is.
I want to go deeper, though, to try to understand better what Jesus was saying. And I thought: What if we flip it? What if the God figure in the parable isn’t the judge, but the widow? If we might be any character in a parable, so could God.
How does it change our interpretation if we see God as that helpless widow? We could say that, in giving us free will, God has stayed his own power, and depends on us to choose justice over self-gratification. In the Bible, we see God over and over and over again asking his chosen ones to turn back to him, to righteousness and truth and integrity and justice. And over and over again in those stories humankind refuses. That’s where our belief in Christ’s incarnation is grounded.
What if God, persistent as that widow, is asking us to bring justice into being? What if, rather than waiting for justice to come from “on high,” we answered the call to be justice-makers, participating with God in restoring all things and all people to wholeness? We might feel helpless in the face of great injustices – but we aren’t called to work alone. Enough people working together can overcome any injustice.
If you were to see yourself as a maker of justice, where would you start? (Or continue…) Somewhere in your life or community, among friends or acquaintances? Or with a national or global issue? Lord knows, there’s no shortage.
And what do you see as your obstacles to bringing forth justice in that situation?
Who do you need as allies and reinforcements? List some...
Who are your adversaries – and how might you pray for them?
If you feel overwhelmed, remember this: God has entrusted us with the ministry of peace and justice, and God has equipped us with gifts, colleagues – and the power of the Holy Spirit. With the power that made the universe working in us – we can make some justice. Sooner. Together.
