We have heard the Christmas story so often that we often look past what it really says in the gospel texts of Luke and Matthew.
The Christmas story — the birth of Jesus in the context of the rest of his life — is a radical way of looking at the world, one that, by implication, criticizes the way society and empire are structured while simultaneously recommending a whole new way of understanding, relating to, and living life by a wholly different set of values.
Repudiated in the Christmas story is domination culture, classism, militarism, uneven wealth and power distribution, and the assigning of different worth and value to different people based on their occupations, nationality, religion, gender, social status, and other humanly created societal constructs.
Affirmed in the Christmas story is an egalitarian ethic and spiritual perspective in which the divine enters even an immigrant infant, recognized as sacred by foreign wise people and local shepherds, in the hinterlands of a conquered territory, an infant who will grow to challenge not only the ideas of the ruling classes, but will identify the behaviors of those classes as antithetical to the divine will, thus challenging the values of the culture and empire itself.
This purveyor of the divine will propose a new value system that is the polar opposite to that of the society in which he lives. The good news was not good for the ruling classes, but for the oppressed classes from which the social critic was born.
The Christmas story is the beginning of a story of counter-insurgency against a system of corruption, violence and social cruelty in which most people were treated as commodities by those who had power over them.
Perhaps we need to recall that the meaning of Christmas is not evidenced by consumerism, religious exclusivity, national identity and boosting the economy, but by affirming the worth and sanctity of even those considered to be the least worthy in society, the affirmation of religious wisdom in people of all cultures, faiths, and nations, and the idea that all people should have their basic needs met while loving one another.
Rev. Bret Myers
Designated pastor, First Congregational Church of Paxton, United Church of Christ
