This year has been a dumpster fire for the world at large and a trash can fire for me personally. I think this presidency has turned into a straight up landfill fire at this point; I really can't stay engaged in the full news cycle for my own sanity and well-being. I took a deeper dive today and need a strong drink, an intense workout, a long hot shower, or something else I can't imagine.
And because of all of that, here is the sermon I will preach in another week:
In the year that Jesus was born, there was a revolt in Germania, now southern Europe, that had to be quelled by Roman governors. The Kingdom of Aksum was founded in what is now Eritrea and Ethiopia, one of the greater trading nations. In modern day Georgia, Arkshak II, the king of Ibera died, as did Amanishakheto, the queen of Nubia which occupied Kush, Egypt and Sudan.
In the year that Jesus was born, Rome executed several of its leaders for treason against the Empire, will completing a major aqueduct as well. One of the most accurate censuses in Chinese history was completed. While we hear of the terror of King Herod in the biblical story, Caligula was not the far away, the blood thirsty Roman emperor whose reign was far more terrifying than anything Herod imagined.
In the world where Jesus was born, political boundaries were shifting daily. With those shifts came all the danger and uproar one would expect.
In the Roman Empire into which Jesus was born, people moved to cities looking for work and often ended up homeless when work was not there. Slaves were often the people used for menial labor. Conquest mean that the skilled work of teachers, architects and doctors was also done by slaves. Ordinary citizens ended up with no work.
Rome itself was home to some of the first tenements, poorly built apartments that could and did easily burn down. The poorest people rented the homes highest up with the least access to amenities. Many of those people paid rent daily because they were so poor they literally lived day to day.
Into that world, Jesus was born. Into that chaos, a savior came.
When God chose to be made flesh and dwell among us, it was in all that messiness. The absurdity of the incarnation remains: how could God make that choice in that chaos? How could God look at all the mess and say, "I need to be even more a part of that."
So we tell that story on this night--a story that is anything but perfect with a very pregnant woman making a long journey and finding no good place to rest. A story with her giving birth with no midwife to help. A story with only a feedbox for a bed for the baby, something worse for the parents. A story where smelly shepherds are the only other people celebrating the child's arrival. A story that turns quickly into them fleeing the country, becoming refugees in Egypt.
And still we tell the story to remember the deepest truths of our faith: there is beauty in the midst of horror, truth in the midst of lies, love in the midst of hate, and light in the midst of darkness.
God shows up, no matter what.
Celebrate. Rejoice. The Christ Child is born.
Here is to the hope of this season that transcends the raging dumpster fire.
