Not your typical Christmas Card

Prior to returning to Summerland where Kathie and I lived and worked from 1994-2005 we needed to make a decision. Would we have our mail re-directed to our new address? I thought it was a waste of money; Kathie, however, wanted the service. So we now receive correspondence from gutter cleaners and weed removal services; also an endless stream of sales catalogues.

We do however receive more important material, which at this time of year includes Christmas Cards. Again, I am less enthusiastic about these; I often assemble PDF versions for email and social media distribution. (How “Jetsons” of me.) Certainly in earlier times we used to have many rows of Christmas Cards festooned along the stairway. We now receive less than a dozen each year.

For the most part these greetings contain words and images associated with joy, love, Christmas, God, reindeer, and a smiling Santa Claus. Such Christmas images are bright, happy, and cheery. You know, a baby Jesus tucked into the manger bed, as comfy as a Labradoodle after a romp at the dog park. But was it really like that? And does it matter?

Truth be told (Spoiler alert—this will upset some readers) we really do not know the physical details of the nativity story except as told by the Gospellers, prejudice and situational interest admitted. We do know however, without any reservation or historical doubt, that Jesus was born into a highly conflictual culture. Social tension was the norm. The Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem of his day were tempestuous places to live and work, all violent beyond our wildest imagination.

So if God came amidst creation, in the context of violence, animosity, and profound injustice. It makes total sense to me that in the current climate of war and abuse of human rights on all sides of the Gaza conflict, that the image of “Jesus in the Rubble” is both timely, relevant, and truthful.

“The image of the baby Jesus placed on rubble in a church in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, symbolizes a cry for peace at the gates of a wartime Christmas in Palestine. “We are all shattered by the images of children being pulled out from under the rubble,” writes the priest Isaac Munther.

On Christmas Eve, as we hear the text from Luke’s Gospel, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace . . . ” (Luke 2:14) the question remains: What is God’s part in such peace-making?  And what is our part?

None of this need diminish the joy and celebratory spirit of the season. For me however, it adds a particular ring of truth. And let’s face it, Christmas is only the beginning of a much longer and larger story. To be continued . . .

Happy Christmas to all