In Luke 2:1-20, the emperor Augustus and the governor of Quirinius, men of power, wealth, and privilege, are the backdrop of what appears to be an ordinary couple in a difficult situation: they have freshly arrived in town and Mary is great with child, about to deliver, but the inn has no place for them. They must beg for a place, and making do, Mary delivers her baby, wraps him in long strips of cloth, and lays the child in an animal feed box. It was all that was available. The helpless child is born in the vulnerableness of poverty, and the family is in someone’s spare place without the familiarity, comforts, or safety of home, with only the possessions they can carry.
Yet that very poverty – “you will find an infant wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a feed box” – is itself the sign to the shepherds out in the fields at night, marginalized people of whom others are suspicious (poor people mingling with animals, working at night unsupervised, men and women mixing perhaps in “secret”) that the promised anointed one who is the “Lord” (yhwh) has come to be their savior.
The scene out in the grassy fields is remarkable. It is a liminal event where the boundary is so thin between heaven and earth it is as though the animals and shepherds are transposed into the heavenly holy of holies, where the angels who surround the throne of the Holy One are singing. Indeed, the brilliance of the Lord (yhwh) shines around them as they are enveloped in the heavenly singing. It is as though the fields where they are with their animals is the same place as the heavenly holy of holies. Animals, poor people, and angels are together in the holy of holies of the heavenly Temple, the divine Presence in their midst, among them. And vice versa: the very throne of the Divine is amid the sheep and the men and women shepherds taking care of them. The baby, born among them, in his very poverty and vulnerability, was the sign of the divine Presence: not in the imperial palace nor in a governor’s mansion, but in one of the feed boxes the shepherds use to feed the animals.
Angels are the executors of the divine will. When they are not singing praises around the throne of the Holy One, they are passing through the veil to – among other things –stand between the Holy One’s friends and foes – to mete out divine justice. Judgment restores creation; it brings things back into equilibrium. The infant is the Lord of the angelic hosts, their master, who, with angelic help will judge humankind. It is, on the one hand, an awesome and fearsome image, and on the other hand, a shocking one – for the invited guests of this spectacle are the forsaken of the earth, the disinherited, poor, and marginalized.
From the comfort of an armchair someone might muse over what seems like a paradox, but for the prophets and psalmists this was no paradox. This was the direct fulfillment of their hope and proclamations. The object of the Divine concern, the Divine love and passion, was these very people, not the wealthy people of court and earthly temple, but the people of the city and land, the people who worshipped the Divine in their villages and homes away from the judgmental eyes of the religious and powerful and greedy, the forsaken and oppressed, including those who were not able to worship because of their shame, despair, and confusion. Surely, these were Francis’ people, the ones with whom he strove to identify through poverty, humility, and love.
It makes sense that their champion, their savior, their anointed one, would be one of them, and it makes sense that he would not use the ways and means of empire, wealth, power, and violence, to save them from their enemies and oppressors. In ways we have yet to discover, he – through the Spirit within us – will conquer them through the influence and persuasion of love.
We too are the Lord’s “anointed ones.” Walking in the gentle footsteps of Francis and Clare to follow Christ, we are to be among “his people” the same way he was, to live as he did, to be the “sign” of hope to all who – whether in shame, despair, confusion, hurt, or anger – are looking for hope, or who have given up looking for hope. We too, like the baby in the manger, are to be the sign of hope to them.
Your Humble Servant Council
Petra, Owusu, Kathy, Ron, Magdalena, Deb
May we pray for Peace in places where there is war. Reconciliation where there is division.
Hope where there is despair. Love where there is hatred.
