Day 25 • The Week of Love
Scripture Readings:
Isaiah 62:6-12
Psalm 97
Titus 3:4-7
Luke 2:1-7, 8-20
We have arrived. Today is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus in the world. The beginning of peace and joy and the end of violence and cruelty. The hope we find in the world Jesus’ birth ushers in is always something worth celebrating, worth hoping for, and worth working for, but how do we know what that world looks like? Luke tells us in chapter two of his gospel.
Before studying scripture more deeply, I always took the angel’s announcement to the shepherds for granted. I had absolutely no idea how radical and earth-shattering, how political, and how good their announcement was to the shepherds that night. I tend to blame modern depictions of the nativity for my missing this power. So many of them present the shepherds and even the holy family dressed in flowing royal Victorian garb that framed their milky white skin. People who I would later discover look nothing like the poor, dark-skinned people who were actually at the center of the Christmas story, people who bore visible marks of brutally difficult lives under the Roman Empire. It is this context that makes the angel’s announcement so radical.
In the Roman Empire, kings were announced with great fanfare in palaces among the wealthiest and most elite members of society. These announcements would all be marked by the popular words within the empire. Words like “good news,” “savior,” and “Lord.” These words were exclusively applied to the wealthy and elite few at the top of society. The Emperor, who worked for those at the top of society, was given the title Soteyr, which is the Greek word for “savior.” The glory of the empire was revealed by the peace perpetually experienced by the wealthy and elite, which was enforced by violence towards anyone who threatened to disrupt that peace on the fringes.
In the midst of this word, God, the creator of the cosmos, sends angels to announce the savior of the world, not in a palace among the wealthy and elite, but on a common hillside among poor, lowly shepherds, who were utterly terrified by their arrival. The angels tell them not to be afraid, for they are bringing good news that will bring great joy to all people, not just the wealthy few. They proclaim two phrases together, “Glory to God in the highest” and “peace on earth,” pointing to the reality that the glory of God in heaven is revealed most fully by peace on earth. A peace that was not brought by violence but by great love.
The Christmas story is such a radical and politically subversive reality when we really understand the context in which it was written. God chooses to come in humility among the very people those on the top of society ignore, exploit, and brutalize for their own pleasure, safety, and peace. The “good news” of God begins with them and is ushered into the world with them, too. Not through peace in the way that empires like Rome define it but through the radically nonviolent way of peace the way Jesus defines it.
So, as we celebrate the birth of the Christ child in our world that is so often defined by fear, oppression, and the stratification of wealth and resources for the few at the expense of the many, may we celebrate and embrace the good news of Jesus who brought, and continues to bring, “joy to all people.”
Reflection Steps
I want to invite you to think of the “shepherds” in your life. Who are those who toil in the shadows of our world to make our lives possible? Who are the ones who pick our food, make our clothes, grow our coffee, or clean the public restrooms we use, often for compensation we would never settle for ourselves? What would be a radical way to proclaim the joy and peace of Jesus for all people that would center people just like them today? Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. I hope you have such a beautiful and meaningful time this Christmas season. Joy to the world! Our Lord has come.