anarchival

It’s been a long couple of days, so here’s another short entry. It’s a good one, though, because it has a clip from my favorite Christmas movie. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. It always puts me in a good mood.

The nativity scene of baby Jesus lying in a manger is a common symbol in American culture. As Christmas grows closer, Christians display it in their homes and yards and churches, a physical reminder of the scene from Luke 2:7, “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” Jesus was born during a census year, when his family was required to journey to the nearest census-taking center (in Mary and Joseph’s case, the town of Bethlehem), and when they arrived there the inn was already bursting with visitors. The innkeeper didn’t outright turn them away, however; he offered to let them stay in the stable, where Mary gave birth. Shepherds, answering the call of angels while they worked in the fields, joined with Mary, Joseph, and the livestock in welcoming the new infant. The three kings didn’t arrive until a few years later when Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were already back at home, where the wealthy Magi bestowed gifts on Jesus that would lift his family out of poverty.

Like most Bible stories, the account is sparse on some details, so we’re left to speculate about the exact circumstances. This is where exegesis usually begins. Some readers speculate that the innkeeper was callous to Mary’s condition of being near childbirth in a strange town with nowhere safe to stay. The moral is that we should sympathize with the humble beginnings of the Son of God and learn to exercise compassion as the innkeeper should have done. Other readers speculate that the innkeeper’s act of offering them the stable was compassionate, considering the crowded conditions and total lack of privacy Mary would have suffered inside the inn. If the innkeeper had truly been callous, he would have left the young woman to sleep out in the street, and Jesus would have been swaddled in a gutter instead of a manger. In that case, the innkeeper is an example of how best to be compassionate when resources are scarce and the need is great. The teachings of Jesus are very clear on one point: whatever we do to the least valued person among us, we are doing it to him (Matthew 25:40).

Thousands of people in my home town will not have shelter through the winter. More than fifty homeless people died on the streets of Nashville in 2008. The Metro Nashville school district reported 1,600 homeless children last year alone, and over 50% of the adults reported as homeless were working. The image of the dirty, scary, drunken man most people conjure in their minds when they hear the word “homeless” is far from accurate. Drug abuse and mental illness are often factors, but so is losing family, losing jobs, returning from war, or serious illness. Not only are most homeless people willing to help themselves, but relatively small amounts of help can assist them in making tremendous gains. My local government spends approximately $35,000 per year per homeless person providing emergency management services, but it costs approximately $17,000 per year per homeless person to provide housing and other necessary support services to get them back into a stable position. Faced with that sort of cost inefficiency, Nashville has decided to join a number of other American cities in providing real assistance to its homeless population, primarily through maximizing the efforts of private agencies.

There are ways that you can help. Volunteer or donate goods for Homeless Connect. Volunteer or donate with Room In The Inn. If you attend church and they are not a participating congregation, consider getting yourselves involved. Also, buy a copy of The Contributor (or three or four or five…) from every vendor you meet. This is a simple way for homeless individuals to legitimately earn money for themselves, and often the proceeds from their sales make a huge difference not only in the quality of their lives but also their dignity. As a man of God once asked me, “What if that person on the street was an angel of God sent to test your compassion? Would you pass the test of the innkeeper? Would you leave them out in the street, or would you offer them your manger?”

I’m not sure who originally wrote this poem. I found an unattributed copy of it online years ago (I no longer have the link), which I cleaned up a little to create this version.

Twas the Night Before Christmas,
He lived all alone,
In a one bedroom house
made of plaster and stone.
I looked all about,
a strange sight I did see,
No tinsel, no presents,
not even a tree.

No stocking by mantle,
just boots filled with sand,
on the wall hung pictures
of far distant lands.
The soldier lay sleeping,
silent, alone,
curled up on the floor
in this one bedroom home.

I realized the families,
that I saw this night,
owed their lives to these soldiers
who were willing to fight.
Soon round the world,
the children would play,
and grownups would celebrate
a bright Christmas day.

They all enjoyed freedom,
each month of the year,
because of the soldiers
like the one lying here.
Then the soldier rolled over,
with a voice soft and pure,
whispered, “Carry on, Santa,
It’s Christmas Day. All is secure.”

I considered another sermon for the first day of Advent, maybe something on a personal virtue to cultivate over the next month, but in the end I decided on something more practical that I’ve been working on. It stems from my love of writing, particularly letter writing. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved to send and receive mail. I even collected stamps (it helped that I had relatives who worked at the local post office). Beyond pens and stationary and stamps, though, there is something magical about communicating through the post.

Many writers now lament the death of letters since we can communicate online instantaneously and worldwide, but then writers had those same laments as far back as 1890, reportedly due to their busy lives and the advent of newspapers. Services like Postcrossing demonstrate how people still long to make a personal connection through physical correspondence. Online communication is fantastic precisely because of its ease, speed, and low cost, but that also makes a letter or card that much more special to the recipient. Since sending a card or letter requires extra effort (and if you’re creative, allows for much greater expression), it has the potential to give a much greater message of hope, affection, or encouragement to the person receiving it.

Christmas cards are already a time-honored holiday tradition, but for the past two years I’ve decided to send some of them with a different recipient in mind. The Red Cross has started the Holiday Mail for Heroes program which gives Americans the opportunity to send holiday mail to soldiers serving in the wars overseas. I bought a box of cards and wrote a message in each one, sending them as a package to the Red Cross, who then forwards them to the soldiers. I encourage everyone to write at least one card and send it this holiday season. The submission period closes on Monday, December 7th.

Tomorrow is the first day of the season of Advent. It marks the beginning of the Western Christian liturgical calendar and lasts approximately four weeks until the celebration of Christmas. The name of the season is from the Latin word “adventus,” which means “coming,” but Advent Sunday is rarely a focus on the first coming of Jesus Christ in the nativity. Instead, its liturgy tends to focus on the second coming of the Messiah in latter-days. Given what the Bible says about this Apocalypse (from a Greek word meaning “revelation” or “lifting of the veil”), it seems a strange thing to celebrate. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke predict a time of wars and rumors of wars, all manner of natural disasters, famines, epidemic plagues, and the breakdown of most of what we consider to be human civilization. The Gospel of Luke also predicts that Christ will appear “coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Many Christians imagine it something like the movie 2012, but instead of John Cusack surviving until the end, the Son of God appears.

Not all of Christian theology takes this rather dim view of eschatology. All mythologies tend towards some prediction of the end of the world, and these predictions serve their purpose. They warn those of us who are lulled into security by our privileged circumstances that life, even life on Earth, is finite and often brutal. We should therefore show gratitude and sacrifice to do good while we still can. It’s often even a message of hope for those who find this world to be a disappointing and corrupt place, since it teaches that what exists now will certainly be destroyed in the future and a new (hopefully better) reality will be built in its place. The description of events in the Gospels in particular sounds a lot like today if for no other reason than life on Earth has always been filled with war, disease, starvation, and disaster. Jesus teaches in Luke that when we encounter these events we shouldn’t be filled with fear, but be mindful, pray for strength, and stand with God. Christian eschatology is unique in the sense that it does not in fact take place at some point in the future, but has already taken place and continues to take place and will yet still take place. Christianity in its highest form is a special mythos encapsulating the best values for overcoming tribulation and for making the world a better place. Christ has already come, and continues to come through the every day lives of Christians. The utopian ideal of a perfect world might someday be achieved, but only if Christians first make the presence of Christ real in the here and now.

This year, Advent season lasts for 26 days. Traditionally Advent was a time of penitence and fasting, much like Lent, although more recently the emphasis has shifted more to hope, anticipation, and rejoicing at the birth of Christ. All of these are appropriate responses to the liturgy, but this Advent I’ve decided to focus on the literal meaning of the season by finding ways to more fully welcome the Second Coming. This is a good time to ask ourselves, “If Jesus truly walked the Earth today, where would he be? What would he be doing?,” and most importantly,” “Would I be following his example?” The Christmas season has long been associated with gratitude, generosity, and giving, and the answers to those questions is why. American consumer culture has done its best to cannibalize the true meaning of Christmas, but we can still claim the holiday as a season of Advent when we make the conscious effort to do so. For the next twenty-six days on this blog, I will dedicate each day of Advent to a specific way we may welcome Christ to Earth for Christmas. I welcome you to join me.