A Sweet and Subversive Christmas

+“Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to God’s People on Earth. Tonight, in the City of David, a savior is born, the messiah, the Prince of Peace.”
Sweet words.
The account of Jesus’ birth is one of the most familiar stories of all time, filled with classic images: angels and the heavenly hosts, that wild star, a young peasant girl and her stalwart betrothed, a barn with sheep, cows, goats, donkeys, straw and that feeding trough—the manger—it’s a sweet tale.
And one of the most subversive, revolutionary and radical stories of all time.
Did Jesus’ birth really go this way? Who knows? . Early Christians didn’t seem to care how or where Jesus was born. ..so writing a birth narrative just didn’t seem necessary. But, for some reason, the story developed late in the first century, over 50 years after Jesus’ death. Is it Fact or Fiction? Well, frankly we don’t know. As Biblical scholar Marcus Borg puts it, it may not have happened this way, but it sure is true.
In other words, the story of Jesus’ birth, while it may or may not be Fact, certainly represents a fundamental Truth of our faith, expressing the absolute foundation of what Christianity is all about: that the oppressed, the outcast, the outliers of society are beloved by God and until they are treated with respect and dignity, our job, as Christians, as people of faith, as the descendants of Mary and Joseph, is not finished. As Martin Luther King, in his Letter from a Birmingham jail said: injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. This is the legacy of Mary and Joseph, the legacy of the birth we celebrate tonight, the subversive meaning of the Christmas story: everyone, lowly and despised shepherds, mysterious Hindu star gazers from the east, a woman and her betrothed, a simple carpenter from the non-descript village of Nazareth, everyone is beloved, adored and cherished by God.
 We, as followers of Jesus, as believers in the dignity of every human being, must take this sweet story of Jesus birth and live into the subversive message within it.
We are called on this most holy and peaceful of evenings, to be subversive through our own sweetness and concern.
When we are sweet to the outcasts of society—when we care for the rejected, the hated, the despised—we are being subversive. When we reach out a hand of greeting to the mentally ill, the imprisoned, the sick, the different, the unusual then we are, through our sweetness, being subversive. Being radical, being revolutionary.
When we treat creation sweetly, caring for the environment, protecting our natural resources for our grandchildren, we’re being subversive. When we say no to big oil, to pharmaceutical companies, to the users of pesticides, the industrial polluters, the people who refuse to accept any responsibility for tomorrow--- when we say no to them-- then we are, through our concern, being subversive. Being radical. Being revolutionary.
When we stand up to those who bully, when we say no to those who abuse, when we say yes to the children, the elderly, the ill, the lost, the frightened,
 when we expect, when we demand, integrity from our elected officials we are being just what, just who Jesus came to be: a sweet yet determined soul who will not rest until the Kingdom of God on earth is full of grace and truth, full of mercy, justice and peace.
And therein lies the real truth of the Christmas stories, therein lies the reality of our task on this Christmas Eve and all the days to follow: we must stand on the shoulders of Mary and Joseph, the couple who birthed and raised the source of all sweetness and subversion, a revolutionary preacher, a radical rabbi, a man who was from God, who was of God and who has left us, his children, to fulfill his mission. We stand on their shoulders knowing that in the sweetness of Christian charity and hope lies a revolutionary and subversive fact: that all people ALL PEOPLE, are as loved by God as that sweet baby, born in a barn, wrapped in rags, resting in a manger. And that it is our duty, our job, our goal to make sure they—all of them----know it. Glory to God in the Highest and Peace to God’s People on Earth. Tonight, in the City of David, a savior is born, the messiah, the Prince of Peace.
And tonight, in this City of Good Neighbors, in the streets of Los Angeles, in the prairie of Kansas, in the bayou of Louisiana in the streets of Baghdad and the alleys of Kabul, in the neighborhoods of Beijing and in the savannahs of Africa many babies will be born, children who, along with their parents, their siblings, their friends and neighbors, deserve the respect, the hope, the dignity and the justice demanded by, pleaded for and lived into by God in the flesh, Jesus, the Messiah. The Son of God, The Prince of Peace. And our job, as lovers of that babe in a manger, as followers of the radical revolutionary and subversive preacher man from Nazareth is to continue to offer the hope, demand the dignity and strive for the justice given to us this night, wrapped in rags and laying his head on straw.
May your Christmas be sweet and may the revolution, begun in that barn, continue in all of us, the subversive children of God. +