Don Friesen
The Christmas story is told over and over and in many different ways. It's an old story, easily embellished with time, so consider this rendition ...
Arriving in Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary could not find a place to stay. It was, after all, the Christmas holiday season and the tourist trade was booming! At the last inn in town, the innkeeper pushed back the shutter and threw up the sash, his figure so nimble and quick they knew in a moment his name must be Nick.
"Nick," said Joe, "we need a place to stay."
"No way!" said Nick.
"But we have Visa and Jerusalem Express!"
"No way!" said Nick, "unless you're willing to stay in a stable!"
"Nick, you're a saint." said Joe.
Rudolph, however, was not filled with glee. But Mary pondered these things in her heart and said to him, "Do this good deed, Rudolph, and you'll see, you'll go down in history." Rudolph relented, slept in the stable, and Mary's baby was born, just after the Christmas Eve service.
Meanwhile, in a field nearby, seven dwarves, shepherds by trade, were startled to hear a group of angels singing Handel's Messiah. At the end of the chorus they were told to stand--it was a tradition--and then to go to Bethlehem. So off they marched to the beat of their friend, the little drummer boy.
The shepherds worshipped the baby king while the little drummer boy played his drum--hour ... after hour ... after hour. That night three men arrived bearing gifts, introducing themselves as We-Three-Kings. They came from a place called Orientare, and warned Mary and Joseph that a wicked witch called Herod wanted to kill their baby. So they boarded a flight to Egypt. Eventually the family returned to Nazareth where every spring Santa Christ waits for the resurrection of a groundhog. (adapted from Mark Dunn, "A Prophetless Christmas")
The Christmas story is often lost in the many layers of tradition, myth, misunderstanding and ignorance. It's easy, on our journey to the Bethlehem stable, to get sidetracked, distracted by peripheral aspects of the season. There is no shortage of things available to steer us away from Bethlehem and to take the focus away from Jesus. For example, syndicated columnist Dave Barry says that we can be forgiven if we come to the conclusion that Christmas is a time to sing about the weather! At his son's school, they sing such non-memorable songs as "Winter Wonderland," "Frosty the Snowman," and "Suzy Snowflake". Says Barry, "A visitor from another planet would assume that (my) children belonged to the Church of Meteorology." (Dave Barry, "Notes on Western Civilization," Chicago Tribune Magazine, July 28, 1991)
A recent feature in our own local paper proposed an Advent calendar, suggesting daily ways to pamper yourself. On Monday, for example, you might treat yourself to chocolates; on Tuesday to a time of relaxation with a cup of chamomile tea; on Wednesday by giving yourself permission "not to share". ("Relaxing with the Advent Calendar,"Ottawa Citizen, November 19, 2003) What a travesty! It's nothing less than a bastardization of what is for Christians a time of repentance and preparation for one of our highest holy days!
The Penitential Note Is Lost in the Noise around us
Lest we be in any doubt that Advent is a time of repentance, John the Baptist looms large in the Christian observance of this season. John had rough edges, what with his hairy clothing and unusual eating habits. (Mark 1:6) No wonder John was alone in the wilderness; when he opened up his lunch box, the food inside was often crawling!
John was rough. John was tough. He talked tough. He said to the Pharisees and Sadducees, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance." (Matthew 3:7-8) He told them, You think you can live off the avails of your religious heritage without any effort on your part? Wrong! You're going to burn in hell! (Luke 3:8-9)
If you want to prepare yourself for the Messiah, said John, "whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." (Luke 3:11) This is the real Advent Calendar: On Monday, repent! on Tuesday, repent! On Wednesday, repent and share!
One would think that John's rants would have disappeared into the arid wilderness wind--lost in oblivion--but people rushed out to hear him! (Luke 3:7) It was a long way to walk just to hear a man tell you how bad you are. John sat out there in that bleak and merciless Palestinian desert proclaiming the coming of the Messiah and calling men and women to prepare for it by a dramatic change in behaviour. And crowds flocked to hear him. They heard him demand that they march to a different drummer. The drummer boy's simple ra-ta-ta-ta must give way to more complex rhythms, ones that shake your whole body and rattle your brains!
Getting Home for Christmas
John the Baptist used the image of road construction to illustrate the dramatic changes required. Borrowing from Isaiah, John urged, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth...." (Luke 3:4-5, citing Isaiah 40:3-4)
Isaiah used the image of road construction to dramatize the return of those exiled in a foreign country. Isaiah had just discovered that his people in exile would get to go home, and God will see to it that they will go straight home, said Isaiah. This is the manner of God's liberation. Ain't nothing gonna slow them down! All impediments to their return will be removed. There ain't no mountain high enough; ain't no valley low enough that can't be made smooth in order to expedite the exiles' return home.
The road image is a good one to help us understand the nature of repentance. Suppose you lived at Silver Lake Mennonite Camp and had very little time to get home for Christmas dinner. Tired of camp food, you were looking forward to the feast at home. Dad is roasting a turkey, complete with gravy and stuffing, and you are looking forward to getting stuffed! Mom is baking your favourite Christmas cookies, and you can't wait to get home. But as many of you know, the road from Silver Lake to Ottawa is not a straight one, and you discover, an hour out of Hepworth, that you made a wrong turn! This is an ideal time to repent--for you're a long way from home and getting farther away every minute. Now, if repentance is just being sorry that you made a mistake, you could just keep heading north to Parry Sound, feeling sorrier and sorrier, but no matter how sorry you feel, you're not getting any closer to that wonderful-smelling turkey at home! You need to follow up your sorry feelings with a change in behaviour; you need to turn your car around, and get back on the right road!
Repentance Helps us Find Our Way Home
That was John the Baptist's message, and Jesus' message as well. If your life isn't working, the only way to fix it is to change direction. Repentance begins when we say to ourselves, This road isn't getting me anywhere. I've got to get off this road, and find a better way to get home. And repentance is completed when we do exactly that.
Many western Christians have grown somewhat tired of calls to repentance, perhaps because we've got a vested interest in the way things are, but even secular slogans beg for repentance--slogans like "If at first you don't succeed, try something else." Or: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get the results you've always gotten." They may be simplistic slogans, but it's amazing how many people are determined to keep butting their heads against a stone wall, with mindless allegiance to last year's solution. Someone has said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results." It's like the driver who goes down the same road several times, thinking that if he just goes down it one more time he will find the right turn-off. Only after the fourth or fifth time will he stop, not necessarily to ask for directions, but at least to try a different way.
The road image is helpful in identifying at least three different levels of repentance. The first is macro-repentance. It's the initial decision a believer makes to travel in the right direction, to get onto the King's highway. God doesn't give us a Canadian Automobile Association map with our itinerary highlighted in yellow! God is more apt to give us a compass that simply points north. Macro-repentance is asking for the compass; micro-repentance is using it! Or, to adjust the analogy somewhat, being a Christian is more than deciding which train you will board, and salvation is more than getting your ticket punched for all eternity!
Continuing with the driving analogy, macro-repentance is getting on the right highway; micro-repentance is checking now and then to make sure you're still on the right highway and have made all the right turns; and perhaps a third level of repentance is the daily, even hourly repentance needed to stay in your lane. Perhaps repentance should be as continuous as those twitches on the steering wheel whereby we keep the car on the road.
Finding Our Way Home
It's good to get home. Homecoming is a very powerful and moving experience. Our yearnings for home are intimations of a deeper yearning, a yearning to be in full communion with God, a yearning to experience the full breadth of God's peace and love and justice. To paraphrase Saint Augustine, Our hearts are restless until they find their rest--their home--in God.
Home is our spiritual base, an intimation of paradise, perhaps of paradise lost, but with the promise of a paradise to be regained. As someone has written: "Because of...sin, (hu)man(kind) went into history without a home; (we were) left lonely, longing for someone to come home to, someone to make (us) unafraid again... Of all yearnings, the most powerful, the most painful, the most beneficent is this yearning to come home." (Anthony Padovano, "Home: Yearning," Dawn without Darkness)
As deeply as we yearn for home, God yearns for us to return home, to turn around and head straight for home. God assures us that like the prodigal son, we will receive a warm welcome. God gathers wanderers and exiles, not only from Babylon but "from the farthest parts of the earth," says the Bible. (Jeremiah 31:8) There is no place on earth so desolate and forgotten that is outside the circumference of God's love. There is no loneliness or despair beyond the reach of God. There is no mountain that is so high that God cannot remove it if it is keeping us from coming home. There is no valley so low that God cannot lift us up and set us on our way. There is no wilderness so wild that God cannot tame those forces that lead us away from home. There are no sins great enough to keep God from forgiving us and helping us make a new beginning. Thanks be to God!
Once upon a time ... a decree went out from Caesar in August that everyone should be taxed so that the deficit could be kept to a minimum. So Joseph and Mary travelled to Bethlehem, a taxing trip. Mary rode on a donkey named Rudolph, who was so embarrassed to be carrying an unwed mother that his nose glowed bright red!
Lost in the Layers of Tradition
All quotations of Scripture, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version.