EMMANUEL

Every year around this time we can expect a number of stories to resurface in the media.

Someone will try to put a nativity scene in a public place and someone else will be offended

at having to look at it. This can lead to protests and from there, full-blown court battles.

Bill O"Reilly will rant and rave about if this is the Christmas season or merely a generic holiday

season. A new theory will surface about what the Star of Bethlehem could have been and Israel

will beef up its security to protect their tourist trade in Bethlehem. In other words, welcome

to another Christmas season as we've come to know it in America.

Christmas, the most widely known and told story in Western lore, is the celebration of

the birth of Joshua bin Joseph, son of Mary and Joseph of Nazareth. It is a holiday with

layers of tradition and meaning. However, in this country, much of its religious significance

has been lost, drained away to be replaced by jolly old Santa and his elves, Christmas trees,

holly, egg nog, and presents--lots of presents! Yet, the story surrounding the birth of Jesus,

in its truest sense, is a celebration. A celebration of the seminal moment in the relationship

between us and God. A moment of such inspiration and grace that two evangelists

memorialized it in a dramatic story complete with good guys, villains, kings, and choirs

of angels.

Matthew and Luke felt it important to include infancy narratives at the beginning of

their gospels; whereas the gospels of Mark and John simply introduce the adult Jesus as

He starts His public ministry. Why did Mark and John ignore the event? More importantly,

why did Matthew and Luke feel the need to write about it? As they were writing in about

70CE(70A.D.), what message did they want to convey? Matthew and Luke are two of the

three synoptic gospels. Mark was the third. "Synoptic" means coming from one or a similar

view. Most scholars believe both Matthew and Luke had Mark's gospel already. It is also

believed that there was another source of Jesus stories known as "Q" (Quelle) which predates

even Mark's account and to which Mark, Matthew, and Luke each referred in their writings.

No one has ever found "Q", but scholars believe it existed.

Matthew and Luke are writing for different audiences and this affects the way they tell

the infancy story. Matthew is writing for Jews. He wants to emphasize Jesus as the Messiah

prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures. For Matthew, Jesus is the new Moses who brings a

new law and covenant to the Jews. This is why he includes a genealogy, or family tree, which

traces Jesus's roots back to David. Jesus is a descendent of David; and Matthew wants to

reinforce Jesus's family returning to Bethlehem, the city of David, to respond to a world-wide

census. It is Matthew's gospel which includes the story of the three wise men, a story which

allows Matthew to proclaim Jesus a new king. It also has Jesus's life in jeopardy from Herod

and his order to kill all first-born male children. (Sounds similar to Passover, doesn't it?)

The family flees to Egypt only to return later. For Matthew, Jesus, like Moses, miraculously

escapes death as a child due to God's intervention and comes out of Egypt to lead his people

to a new promised land.

Luke, however, is writing for Gentiles. Luke's infancy story emphasizes a different Jesus,

one who is for everyone, not just Jews. Luke stresses the poverty Jesus is born into and

stresses His ministry to the poor; thus Luke includes the lack of inn space, the birth of this

extraordinary person in a barn, and His divine cradle as a mere feed trough. While Matthew

writes about a star and kings and valuable presents; Luke writes about poor shepherds

tending their flocks, hearing choirs of angels and being directed to a manger to worship

the one who brings glad tidings of peace on earth and good will towards all.

Are these stories intended to be taken literally as eyewitness reports about the events

surrounding the birth of Jesus and mankind? Or, should the unified story be used to relate

important beliefs about the nature of God, Jesus, and us? Is this a classic example of a

hopeful story being more important than historical fact?

As you may have already noticed, the classic Christmas story is an amalgam of both

Matthew's and Luke's gospels. Both evangelists have structured their "truths" within a

construction of mythic elements. With this in mind, scholars have found no evidence of

a census in the Roman Empire around the time of Tiberius. There is no evidence of a

slaughter of innocents around the time Herod was tetrarch of Judea. Astronomers have

tried for 2000 years to explain the star with little success. The wise men might have been

Persian magicians (thus the word magi). Then there is also the matter of Christ's birthday.

It's clear if shepherds were in their fields tending their flocks, this could not have been

winter. The reason Christmas is on December 25th is due to a combination of the politics

of religion, the politics of nations, and a calendar adjustment. When Christianity supplanted

pagan religions in the Roman Empire around 300CE (300A.D.), one of the biggest religious

celebrations was the Winter Equinox. It was the shortest day of he year on December 21st.

Among pagans, it was called the"Feast of the Unconquerable Sun". Christian leaders

appropriated the holiday and it became the "Feast of the Unconquerable Son". Later,

because of a calendar adjustment, December 21st became December 25th, and thus the day

we celebrate as the birthday of Jesus.

With this said, the "facts" might not seem to add up; but the "truths" Matthew and Luke

offer us stand out clearly. Over and above all this awkward contradiction remains that

simple question. What were the evangelists ultimately trying to say about the Jesus event

with their infancy stories? Why did they call Him Emmanuel (God with us)? How is the

world different before and after the birth of Jesus? How is God different after the birth of

Jesus? One of my favorite questions is: How is God plus Jesus different from God alone?

Up until Roger Bannister ran a mile in under four minutes, the experts, coaches, and

scientists didn't believe it could be done. After he broke that barrier, many others came

along and broke it again and again. Today, high school students have run a sub-four-minute

mile. Up until Joan Benoit ran and won the first women's marathon, it was accepted wisdom

that women couldn't run distances of that length without harming themselves. Most felt

women's bodies were not built for the stress and that their reproductive capabilities would

suffer. She ran that marathon in 1976, not in some ancient time; and today women are

running 100-mile ultra marathons as fast as men in many cases.

When Sir Edmund Hillary ascended to the top of Mt. Everest, it was considered

impossible and news of his achievement rocked the world. Since then, hundreds of men

and women have made the same climb. The breaking of a barrier, the conquering of the

unconquerable, the act of achieving something new somehow convinced or allowed or

encouraged others to have a new relationship to time, effort, or their presumed physical

limitations.

We call Jesus Emmanuel. We celebrate Christmas and talk about the incarnation

(God uniting with our humanity in a whole new way). This is why Christmas is such an

incredible day. It celebrates something new, and because of this a barrier has been broken!

It reminds us things were not always like this and because of Jesus things are changed forever.

Scripture is the chronicle of the saga of God revealing and humans seeing. It is the story

of revelation and epiphany. The insight of Abraham, that Yahweh is knowable and wants

to relate to us; is played out in Scripture from the Patriarchs through Moses and the prophets.

God continuously tries to draw us into a relationship. However, some of us choose to place

distance between God and ourselves and those choices are often understood as sin. But

despite rejection, disobedience, rebellion, and infidelity, God continues to try to be more

and more intimate with Her creation.

Imagine being a parent estranged from your children. Friends, I speak of what I know.

Just being far away from my wife and children is painful beyond words. But...to have them

choose to be separate from me would be unbearable. God created us for one reason. God

created us in a relationship of love. But love is a two-way relationship. No relationship can

exist in only one direction. It's a mutual giving. From the dawn of creation, God's desire was

to know and love Her creation. God wanted to relate in an intimate way; but despite moments

of transcendence and glimpses of imminence, we continued to fall short. And as much as we

longed to have God with us in what is often a dark, lonely, and dispiriting world; it simply

was not possible...until the birth of Jesus.

The birth of Jesus opened up a new relationship, a new intimacy with God. Jesus

actually chose to love God and His neighbor. He turned the other cheek, forgave an infinite

number of times, served the least of His brothers and sisters, and in the process drew so close

to God and God to Him; the only way He could describe the relationship was to call God

"Abba". In this name everything became clear. The word "Abba" stands for the most

affectionate, loving, and trusting name you could come up with to call a parent, Daddy, Pop,

or whatever pet/intimate name you have for a parent.

Because Jesus chose to be as close to God as possible, because He had eyes to see and

ears to hear, because He never chose to have any distance between Himself and God; Jesus

achieved an intimacy with God never before realized in the world. As Matthew and Luke

looked at the Jesus event through the prism of His short life, death, and resurrection; they

saw the incarnation. They understood something new had occurred. Something was open

and available that hadn't existed before. Light had conquered darkness! The good news

needed to be proclaimed. So, they created the most powerful vehicle they could to convey

this most unique and liberating insight: The Christmas story! A story of God becoming man,

of choirs of angels, of stars pointing out His location, and of kings that bowed to a baby.

It is a message intended for the rich and poor, the powerful and weak, the kings and the

shepherds.

So, this year, as you put your Christmas tree up and hang the ornaments with their

Santas and reindeer, reflect on the moment when light conquered darkness and love overcame

fear. And when you see the candles and hear the bells and sing the hymns, take time to

marvel at the greatest gift mankind has ever received: The birth of the first baby, the living

link between God and the future hope of God's kingdom on earth. A kingdom founded on

love. A kingdom that transcends nations. A kingdom that promises peace on earth and

goodwill toward all. For on this day Emmanuel was born...God's gift of love. Now it's our

turn, don't you think? Merry Christmas! I welcome your comments. Please send them to

lionoftheleft@gmail.com