12172022 – Matthew 1. 18-25
With just a handful of days TO GO before Christmas…many Americans will be scurrying and rushing around… completing their FINAL Christmas preparations or at least attempting to do so.
This is a HIGH DRAMA time of the year.
They will hopefully be COMPLETING their last-minute SHOPPING, finalizing their TRAVEL PLANS, and figuring out “HOW TO” deal with those “awkward family DYNAMICS” that are sure to take place…
Some people are still BAKING and MAKING cookies…and SENDING OUT Christmas cards, based on whom they received cards FROM…
Who knows, maybe some even, are still putting up their Christmas decorations or hauling “THE TREE” out – from wherever it was – that they stored it last year…
You understand HOW EASY it is for us to PROCRASTINATE…and put things off…
We are BUSY PEOPLE, after all.
And to put things off, until the last minute…well it is the “American way.” (At least for some of us)
Unless you are one of those little “ENERGIZER BUNNIES” who get everything done, the minute the thanksgiving trash is taken out for the night.
There happens to be a whole bunch of us, who WAIT until the very last minute.
I mean, WHY NOT? Right?
There are ONLY so many hours in a given day…
CLEAN “too early,” and you will only have to clean again!
Packing the SUITCASES can wait. Right?
PRESENTS for Uncle Henry can wait, who even knows if he is going to show up this year? The “leaker…”
I CALLED him, TEXTED him, EMAILED him, and let us see if he shows…
Besides work STILL takes precedence. It has to!
And who do you think is going to have to clean the whole house? It does not CLEAN ITSELF you know!
In many cases, we are faced with what is “popularly” known as “FIRST-WORLD PROBLEMS”-problems of “inconvenience,” “privilege,” and problems of “affluent people everywhere”- delayed flights, out-of-stock gift items, and spotty cell phone service or those detested dropped calls.
Who cares if your credit card is maxed out, it is Christmas time, after all…
Did you hear that MOST AMERICANS carry between $6 – $7,000 in annual credit card debt?
What do you mean there are shipment DELAYS?
Call another store!
I want to speak to A MANAGER.
How did you know my name was KAREN?
At the same time, there are MANY PEOPLE, hidden amidst “the consumer celebration that Christmas HAS BECOME,” that will be STRUGGLING just to find their “next MEAL,” “SHELTER for the night,” and “a couple of BUCKS” for a present for Mom.
The plight of the poor is HIDDEN by the “BRIGHT LIGHTS,” the “PUSH and the RUSH of the season,” and “the WARMTH of our cozy little dwelling places.”
To say we get wrapped up in our own little worlds – is a TRUISM.
Well, the Biblical story of Christmas is told over and against the RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL, and ECONOMIC happenings of that day – and it is a story that is marked by “homelessness, immigration, and oppression.”
The fledgling little HOLY FAMILY lived a very FRAGILE existence, just like SO MANY in our world today!
In Matthew’s version of the Christmas story, Joseph, not Mary, is the MAIN CHARACTER, and he is immediately faced with a “DILEMMA.”
Mary, to whom he was betrothed, WAS PREGNANT.
(And immediately, we are all pulled into the story. Attentive to every word, as if, we are hearing it for the first time!)
Talk about your “awkward table conversations” …and family dynamics…
Hi! This is Mary, My betrothed, she’s PREGNANT…
Followed by uneasy silence…until someone finally has the courage to say something…anything…
In the first century, of the common era, “betrothal” was “a BINDING LEGAL AGREEMENT” (a covenant, of sorts) that PRECEDED the actual marriage, itself.
Thus, they were “legally PROMISED” to one another, but NOT YET married.
So, there was a “WIGGLE ROOM, there.”
And now, there is a pregnancy TO BE DEALT WITH…an impending birth…
Which led to all kinds of UNCERTAINTY and SPECULATION…
Jesus is born to a lowly, persecuted, itinerant, and ANONYMOUS couple.
Into a “YET TO BE FORMED FAMILY,” into their INSECURITY, ANXIETY, and into their many FEARS, a newborn child IS TO BE BORN.
He was born into “their POVERTY.”
Born into what was then, “a whole world of POVERTY and economic injustice.”
He is born AMONG and TO THOSE IN POVERTY: the poor, the hungry, and the forgotten, the outcast, and the marginalized.
Jesus is also born into “the spiritual poverty of the Empire,” into “a COMPLACENCY,” and into the “INEQUALITY” perpetuated by the then, economic, and political systems of that time.
The DRAMA is just BEGINNING to unfold.
As we know, Joseph is going to have to take the child and his mother and flee to a foreign land, to a foreign empire.
All the way to EGYPT, they will be forced to flee…the shortest route being a distance of 775 miles, fifteen ½ hours by car or 1 hour and 35 minutes by air. They would be walking. Fleeing. Needing sustenance along the way.
And the big line coming from Matthew alone is that – God is with you. No matter what you go through this holiday season, God is with you, you are never alone.
Amen.