According to some translations of the Bible, Jesus would often introduce a parable with the words, “The Kingdom of God is like …..”
As we enter into the magical realm of the Christmas Nativity story, we might want to remember that the whole adventure is a parable about the ways of God, and that life lived in God’s world would be different.
The Kingdom of God is like … an angel appearing to you and offering you an assignment and you say “yes.”
The world we live in is where we are too busy to take on anything new and too bored to be excited.
The Kingdom of God is like … a person knowing the history of the people for a thousand years.
The world we live in forgets everything, so nothing seems to ever change, and so there is no hope.
The Kingdom of God is like … shepherds in the darkest and coldest night hearing the voices of angels and the music of the stars.
The world we live in sees but a few of the old stars and never hears the angel voices.
The kingdom of God is like … a poor family sleeping in a barn, warmed by the breath of gentle animals.
In the world where we live, poor families sleep in their cars or rest uneasily in shelters.
The kingdom of God is like … shepherds running to worship a new-born King.
In the world where we live, there are no kings, and certainly no worship of persons, only a corrosive cynicism and suspicion.
The kingdom of God is like … Kings traveling on camels through the night to bring gifts to a baby of promise.
In the world where we live, the wealthy have private jets and get tax deductions for their charitable donations.
The kingdom of God is like … Kings going home a different way to foil the plans of a fellow ruler.
In the world we live in, governments do not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and heads of state show each other professional courtesy.
The Christmas story, so familiar and familial, is infused with tender affection for a baby. It sometimes seems like a story for children, and numerous midrashes have been invented that further its child-like quality.
(My cynical self that children’s Christmas stories must be not that hard to write. First imagine a kind of animal that can be somehow tangentially written into the Nativity story. Second, imagine the “littlest” of that breed. Third, imagine the obstacle that might prevent the “littlest” whatever from being at the birth, and write your way past the obstacle. Finally a few paragraphs about the sweet little infant and his kind and gentle mother, and voila, you’re done. My Christmas story “The Littlest Christmas Bedbug” nestling in the swaddling clothes will be ready for next year, I hope.)
But the Nativity story is not merely a nice children’s story. In truth, it is a great children’s story, which means that it should scare adults half to death.
It tells of world turned on its head, and most of us have become quite well adjusted to up and down where they presently are. Even though the poor are ground underfoot while the wealthy float above this gritty world, most of us cling to whatever middle rung we have grasped.
The Nativity tells of the eruption into this world of a different way, a new sensibility. One of the magi, now retired, reminisces that he has "seen birth and death, but had thought they were different; this Birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death." (T. S. Eliot)
One might say that it tells a magic story, but in truth, it tells of a world in which God has come and is changing everything.
And that story is always happening.
Monday, December 7, 2009
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