Joy Beyond Circumstance
By Charles Rush
December 16, 2012
Isaiah 12: 2-6 and Phil 4: 11b-13, 8-9
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these inspiring passages of scripture, I would add the familiar introduction from the Gospel of Luke that reads, “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed… And Mary and Joseph went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem because he was descended from the house and lineage of David. And while they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child… In that region there were shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid for I bring you tidings of good news and great joy for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find the child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was an Angel in their midst, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace, good will towards all men and women (Lk. 2:5-14)
Now, if you were
a citizen of Rome, that passage would have a haunting familiarity to it. That
is because it sounds eerily similar to the most famous book of the Roman empire, the Aeneid by Virgil, the official poet of the
Romans. The Aeneid tells the story of the founding of the people of Rome from
the foundation of time immemorial and the story culminates with the birth of
“Julius Caesar”, who happened to have been Emperor when Virgil was writing. It
is the most naked example of public “Ass kissing” that has ever been written.
Can you imagine if our poet laureate penned a 400 page ode to the birth of
President Obama while he was still in office? It was on that order.
So in the very
beginning of Book 1, it is not God who speaks, but the chief god of the Roman
pantheon, Jupiter. And Jupiter decrees that the Scroll of the Fates should be
opened so that all people might know of the glorious future.
The Romans
didn't have prophets like the bible that were content to simple express the
simple human hopes for the future. The Romans had fates that foretold the
future in unswerving detail.
This scroll that
Jupiter reads foretells the birth of a nobleman in the pastoral countryside,
where all things innocent resided for Romans in the Roman Empire. And this
nobleman, born in the simple ways of the country, “shall be called Julius,
passed down from the great family of the house of Julius”. And with him, the
god Jupiter proclaims, “I shall impose no limits of time or place. I have given
them an empire that will know no end”. Furthermore, says Jupiter, “In time to
come, have no fear, you will receive him in the sky (that means he is divine.
Indeed, Julius's grandson Caesar Augustus would dispense with the modesty and
simply have written on the back of the coin bearing his visage, ‘Son of God'),
laden with the spoils of the East (like the wisemen
bearing gifts, only these would be trains of elephants carrying a whole lot of
war booty). He too shall be called upon in prayer (an intercessor for us). Then
shall the wars be laid aside and the years of bitterness will be over.”
Yes, already
when Virgil composed his epic poem, they were referring to their conquest of
the Mediterranean basin as the Pax Romana, predicted to last a thousand years, and it very
nearly made it that long. And it did bring incredible prosperity and civic
regularity if you were a Roman citizen, it was era of
cultural and technological sophistication that was only equaled again less than
a century ago.
So this is the
book that Roman school boys would learn. This is the story that you learned
about your humble origins and it re-enforced the civic lessons that you were
supposed to learn for leadership. I just presume that it permeated the culture
pretty broadly.
And then you
read this story told by Christians and it begins with Rome and Roman taxation,
everyone knew about that in the Mediterranean basin. The Romans established the
price of the tax to support Roman occupation by districts and the people in
charge were given wide latitude as to how the actually collected their taxes,
as long as they were collected. It is from this period that we get the
expression ‘scorch and burn'. That is what the Romans did in the provinces if
you didn't pay all of your taxes. They were capable of utter devastation if
necessary and they took anything and anyone they wanted.
But this
Christian story doesn't begin with the birth of a noble child to one of the
founding families of Rome, it begins with two peasants
who are on their way to pay taxes that they can't afford for the privilege of
not being killed.
And far from
being in the rustic family cabin in the fair Italian countryside with the
vineyards around the Villa, our peasant couple is in the middle of the madding
crowd. There was no room for them in the inn, so they stayed in the Manger, the
stable with the horses.
But both of
these births take place in the countryside where things are simpler, where we
get back to the place from where it all began, where we talk about what is
fundamental.
And in this
Christian story, we read earlier that an Angel visited the peasant mother Mary
earlier and the Angel began by saying, “Hail, favored one, the Lord is with
you.” It is a very Roman form of greeting. Ave Maria.
Romans would immediately recognized this way of divine
beings addressing humans… And then this divine communication, “You shall call
him Jesus. (Which means ‘salvation')He will be great,
and will be called the Son of the most High… He will
reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no
end.”
Of course, we
don't know until the end of the Gospel story that the kingdom will not be
established by military might or economic hegemony. It is a spiritual way of
being in the world, not just for Romans, but for all of us, beginning with the
least of these ordinary peasants that pass out of history in one generation and
also perhaps for the powerful. It is the way of love, compassion, acceptance,
gratitude and understanding. It is a way of kindness, forgiveness, and peace.
It isn't
validated by the triumph of civilization. It infuses all civilizations with a
richer, fuller humanity. Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life
abundantly.” It is living that is concentrated, like those little pieces of
chocolate truffle that people give each other this time of year, so good you
just need a little bite.
No, this story
starts, not in Rome but in this back water town that no one has ever heard of,
Bethlehem, on the very edge of the Roman empire and
after that is desert as far as anyone could imagine. So when these people first
heard this story, what went through their mind was, God is coming first for
those on the edges. Imagine that!
And I think that
is part of the power of the story that we almost take for granted. Our story
opens with a primordial snapshot that our people could all immediately identify
with, a pregnant woman forced to give birth in adverse conditions with not
enough resources. Usually either the mother or the baby dies, over and over. But not this time. This time God shines on them, the least
of these, and they are not forgotten.
What a wonderful
surprise. What a deep joy that ‘salvation' is born in their midst. I had a
friend that was on a medical mission to a remote region without a healthcare
infrastructure and he treated a child that had seizures. The parents, of
course, had tried every imaginable cure and had lived in mortal terror that
this child might die. He gives their daughter medicine and the convulsions just
stop. He said the next day the mother had brought these offerings and was
almost weeping praying blessings upon him. The heart of every
mother in grateful joy. And the heart of God to bring
healing to the least of these.
Birth is
incredible like that. I don't care what ails me right now, I'm better when I
get to hold my granddaughter Lily Kate or my granddaughter Janie. They are at
the thumb in the mouth with the blankie stage. Right now Janie says “Papa”
(breathy). I can just feel God giving me a shot of life, a shot of the joie
d'vivre. You just want to bite them. Who couldn't use that right now, just
about everyday.
Maybe you've been sitting in darkness.
Maybe you've been through a season of your live where you've been like a Mother
that is waiting for a child to be healed from something that you can't heal.
Maybe you've had something sitting in the middle of the den of your life like a big block
of stone that you need to get beyond, you've been waiting to get beyond, you
just need to get beyond. In the Spirit of the real Christmas, the Angel comes
first to you, saying “Hail, my child, do not be afraid. For you have found
favor with God… The Holy Spirit shall fall upon you and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you… For nothing is impossible with God.”
God is with you.
God is compassionate for your concerns and your worries. God will strengthen
you.
I wish that
meant that all of your problems would just disappear but they do not of course.
Shortly after this baby is born, the Roman army is sent to the region to kill
all the children because they are looking for this one child. And his parents
have to flee to Egypt and live as refugees. New challenges,
maybe even bigger and more dangerous.
If we are
blessed to live a long life, if we are blessed to have a lot of people to love,
we become that much more contingent, we open ourselves to that much more heart
break when tragedy strikes those that we love and care about. If we are blessed
enough to live into old age, we are that much more likely to suffer reversals
of health and have to deal with our own personal sense of tragedy and loss.
Ultimately, of course, we must all face our own death. So… the challenges of
life get bigger with more at stake.
The point of the
spiritual life is not to try to avoid them but to access God's strength for us,
the Holy Spirit for us throughout our lives. That is the profundity of the
passage we read this morning. St. Paul is a living example. He is in prison and
almost certain that he will be killed. In fact, he will be killed. And this is
the last letter he would write. It is pretty clear when you read it carefully
that he knew it would be his last letter in the last few days. Time is short.
He wants to cut to the chase.
So he says, “I
have learned to be content in all things whether going hungry or having plenty…
for I can do all things through God who strengthens me.”
And then he
offers this “Rejoice in the midst of all things… do not worry..
pray.. be thankful.” He tells
us to access the positive strength of the Spirit that we share. And this wonderful summation. “Finally, whatever is
honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is beautiful, whatever
is worthy of praise, think on these things… and may the God of peace be with you.” What last thoughts. Stay positive, not in the
flaky sense that if you just look on the bright side, it will all work out. No,
even surrounded by gloom and doom, access the gratitude for the fact that you
were born at all, for all the blessings your life has been, and remember the
beauty that it has all been, even til the end.
And you really
can. I've seen people ill to the point that they literally sit in the shadow of
death and you hold a picture up of someone that they love and they smile back
at you, sometimes only with their eyes because they are so weak. Someone they
have been waiting to see comes walking in the room and they light up with joy,
even in the midst of dissolution.
We can invoke
gratitude and feel joy, so much the easier if we live intrinsically all along,
if we live from the inside out because this what we have become. We can learn
how to work in synchrony with whatever life throws at us, even the parts we
really don't want to have to go through.
Even when it is
ignominious and degrading, there is a wonder and a mystery to life and that is
what we remember during the Christmas season. Someone stopped by this week with
a picture of their grandson standing in front of the Christmas tree at night
with all of the lights on. The boy was probably three or four and had that face
full of wonder that a beautiful Christmas tree invokes in us in the middle of
winter. He was looking forward to Christmas day. And that is the right
disposition before Christmas, not only because of the presents we give each
other, but because our lives really are as mysterious and wonderful as children
in footy pajama's believe it to be.
I hope you can
nurture that child this season. I hope that sometime on Christmas eve, you have a moment of quiet before you turn in. I hope
you can become grateful, and “whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever
is pure, whatever is beautiful, whatever is worthy of praise, think on these
things… and may the God of peace be with you. Amen.
