The shepherds, like the wise ones from the

East,

stand at the manger

not as converted sinners,

but simply because they had been drawn to the manger

just as they are.

Excerpted from Christmas with Bonhoeffer

It’s Christmas-time and “free” sounds real good right now, doesn’t it? Here’s three chapters from my unpublished work, A Nativity of Misfits. It’s a memoir of how I wrestled trying to reclaim the meaning of Christmas. The books is the marriage of memoir and historic research. I’m sharing the first section “Jesus Came for People who Struggle with Faith.” Hope you enjoy it.

By all means, work that “Share” button on the bottom of this post.

And then come back and comment.

Why I’m I giving away a few free chapters? A few reasons. Every author wants their work to be seen, and I’m having a hard time interesting publishing houses and agents with this book. They love the writing but point out that this is not a feel-good Christmas story. It’s a bit dark, emotionally. I don’t disagree with that, but so was It’s a Wonderful Life , right up until the end. Anyhow, if this post were to be widely shared and commented upon, well that wouldn’t hurt the cause at all, would it?  So go ahead and give it a read, and if you like it, share it please.

Peace,

Larry

This page will help you quickly get oriented to the gist of “Real Life George Bailey.”

Christmas had stopped making sense to me. I understood the holiday, I had just stopped feeling it. Take a peak at the introduction and a few chapters of A Nativity of Misfits if you want the details. Here’s the short version. I realized that those glazed porcelain figures in the Creche look nothing like those people God invited experience the incarnation. That’s a huge problem because the medium is the message. Each person God engaged was a clue just how big the Gospel is. So, porcelain witnesses yield a porcelain gospel.

I decided to research just who the original cast of Christmas was. Here’s what I learned.

Some of  witnesses teach us that Jesus is God’s gift for those who struggle with faith:

Zechariah was a cynic: He was a country priest alienated from position and power. In his lifetime he witnessed Roman oppressors invade his country. He witnessed the burning villages and the enslavement of the able-bodied. The Romans installed a warlord, Herod, as a regional “king.” Herod installed his own high priests to make sure the clergy were supportive of his regime. Nothing in Zechariah’s life prepared him for the possibility of hope. So when Zechariah took his turn to pray for the Salvation of Israel and an angel responded, you’d expect him to roll his eyes in disbelief.

Joseph struggled with will. You’ve seen the movie where Joseph and Mary were kids madly in love? That’s probably not historically accurate. Joseph was a widower and he had already raised a set of children.  The Eastern Orthodox place Joseph as a ninety-year old man in their tradition. He was an old man would was engaged to Mary for convenience, not for romance, and definitely not for adventure. Joseph considered quietly divorcing young Mary to preserve the quiet comfort of his life. But eventually he surrender his will, embraced adventure, and choose following Jesus over his well  groomed reputation.

Mary: Mary was young, brash, and idealistic. If her neighbors ever overheard her working on the verse of her “Magnificat” they would have accused her of being arrogant, boastful, and perhaps mad. She had the audacity to pen a treasonous song about how her son would pull Herod down from his throne. Yes, Mary wasn’t cynical like Zechariah or willful like Joseph, but her faith God-honoring but youthful. Her struggle of with faith would come later, when Jesus didn’t work her plan.

Others among the Misfits teach us that God is for those society marginalizes:

The Wise Men. The wise men weren’t M.E.N.S.A. candidates. Their oblivious posture toward local politics resulted in the slaughter of the innocents. They didn’t possess common sense, but they did possess knowledge regarding the occult. They were pagan priests. Historians place these magi as begin part of a Babylonian sect of Zoroastrianism. As such, they weren’t welcome by the pious in Israel. Israel had found themselves in exile, in part, because they turned to pagan religions instead of placing their trust in the true God. But now, here was God welcoming them, and inviting them to worship his son. That couldn’t have won them many points with the Jerusalem clergy.

The Shepherds. Shepherds were known for being thieves and for being quick to start a fight. they lived a semi-nomadic existence when they ran out of a staple, well they just stole whatever was available. When confronted, they would fight to defend their honor. Their reputation was so poor and pervasive that they were not allowed to testify in court.  There were wings of the priesthood would believed that men like the shepherds would meet ultimate justice when the Messiah returned to purge the nation of it’s lawlessness. The court system wasn’t interested in their word, but God made them eye-witnesses to an angelic declaration:God was declaring peace toward sinful humanity.

Women. God revealed himself to a patriarchal society. Sometimes it’s just plain uncomfortable to read how women were treated in the Old Testament. The Prophet Joel prophesied that this would change someday. Women would become the recipients of divine prophesy. At the Incarnation, those prophesies became true.

The Poor. There were better places for God to have “The Anointed One” born. Jerusalem comes to mind. Having him born in Rome would have had an ironic touch. It never hurts to have your Messiah born into the seat of power. Instead, Jesus was born in an impoverished village that had outlived its usefulness. This dirt-village was chosen by God to communicate that the Messiah was for the weak and the lowly.

And then there were some that Jesus came for, but not in a friendly sense. Christmas, when properly understood, is God’s response to evil.

King Herod. War Lord or thug would describe Herod more accurately than “king.” The Roman’s rewarded Herod for his role in putting down the Jewish resistance by making him a regional ruler. He was known for his paranoia and willingness to kill anyone, even family, if they became a perceived threat. Herod was the one who rebuilt the Jerusalem Temple. This had earned him popularity in some circles. However, in the eyes of the pious, the temple had become a travesty. Gentile art graced the walls. The Temple had become a tourist attraction for wealthy Romans and Jew who had been dispersed through out the Empire. The Temple also become the site for some of Herod’s most brutal acts of violence.

The Snake. There should be a snake in every nativity set. The Incarnation was a counter attack through which God break the power of the being that tricked Adam and Eve into biting the forbidden fruit. Christmas shouldn’t be a sentimental holiday. It’s a military anniversary, like D-Day, should remind us of an epic story.

I sat down with my Bible, a stack of commentaries on the Gospels, my journal, and a mug of black coffee. I began reading the infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke, making notes on each character. Next I turned my attention to the commentaries and searched for historical clues about the Christmas witnesses. It didn’t take much time to discover that one of the earliest recorded responses to Jesus’ entry to earth was cynical disbelief and faithless rejection. The witness who gave Heaven a derisive eye roll wasn’t a heathen but a member of the religious order, one of God’s own, a career priest.

(more…)

I started reading Chuck Palahnuik’s latest novel, Damned, last night. Palahnuik’s protagonist is thirteen-year-old Madison, who will not be patronized by anyone, not even the Prince of Darkness. Early on, Madison realizes that her parents instilled a quality in her that has no purpose in Hell. Madison complains about her parents:

“No, it’s not fair, but I guess the worst thing they taught me was to hope. If you just planted trees and collected litter, they said, then life would turn out okay. All you had to do was compost your wet garbage and cover your house with solar cells and you’d have nothing to worry about. Renewable wind energy. Biodiesel. Whales. That’s what my parents considered out spiritual salvation. We’d see approximately a quatrillion Catholics throwing incense at some plaster statue, or a billion-zillion Muslims all lined up on their knees and facing New York City, and my dad would say, “Those poor ignorant bastards…”

Her biggest complaint about Hell, other than the constant airing of The English Patient, is hope:

“In Hell, hope is a really, really bad habit, like smoking cigarettes or fingernail biting. Hope is something really tough to give up. It’s an addiction to break. “

The chapter ends with the readers realizing that she’s addressing Satan:

“Who Do I Think I Am? In a thousand words… I don’t have a clue, but I’ll start by abandoning hope. Please help me, Satan. That would make me so happy. Help me give up my addiction to hope. Thank you.”

Madison realizes that hope is a universal drive, whether it shows up in the environmentally conscious form of her “secular humanist” parents or the way the “bat-sh__-crazy” Baptists express it. Hope is needed on earth, but is an unscratchable itch in Hell.  The placard at the entrance of Dante’s Hell, “Abandon hope all ye who enter here” was a warning. Madison sees these words more as a coping skill.

Hope makes Hell a bit more hellish. On this side of death, however, its the lack of hope that makes Earth more hellish.

At least that was true for Zechariah. An emissary from Heaven met him with a hope filled message and he responded with an eye roll. There was a point in his life, after witnessing Roman armies march into Galilee and burn villages to the ground and enslave the strong and install a cruel warlord to be the regional king and after that king filled the temple with pagan art and idols and after Zechariah and his wife came to grips with the fact they would never hold a baby in their arms, that Zechariah gave up hope and life on Earth became a bit more hellish.

The third advent candle is the “Shepherd’s Candle. It’s a reminder that God came for the most unlikly people.

The Archangel told the shepherds of a baby was born in Bethlehem that was given to them. This baby was the long awaited Messiah. The angel described the child as “the savior for all people. Christ, the Lord.” As if to punctuate the moment, a choir of angels appeared and sang a chorus: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his peace on Earth.” (more…)

Not much is known about the man who became Santa. He  born during the third century in the village of Patara, in Asia Minor, was known for his generosity to the poor, children, and sailors. He ascended to become a Bishop. Nicholas was imprisoned for his faith and later participated in the Council of Nicea. He was so beloved that his legend grew into the figure we call Santa Claus today. After doing a little digging, here’s three things I could learn from St. Nick. (more…)

God becomes human

out of love

for humanity.

God does not seek the most perfect human being

with whom to be united

but takes on human nature

as it is.

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, excerpted from “Christmas with Bonhoeffer”

I don’t break character often, but when I do its big. After gorging myself on the Thanksgiving meal I sat on the floor and browsed through the four inches of store fliers in the newspaper. For me, shopping is a chore and seldom a pleasure. If I ever won the bid to design the eighth ring of Hell, I’d model the experience after Black Friday. But Amy needed a laptop.  A few years back Amy was enrolled in an online English-as-a-Second-Language certification program. She wanted to work with the growing immigrant population in Erie.  We’ve been married for over a decade and have managed to have to purchase just two PC’s. Both computers were reliable workhorses, but neither had a fast enough processor to handle online learning. We had intentionally placed the computer in the highest traffic area of the house. This way we can easily monitor our children’s Internet travels. This might be a strong parenting move, but it does nothing to increase one’s capacity to have an uninterrupted thought.  Amy needed a laptop and a Best Buy advertisement promised me $500 off if I would simply in line early enough to be one of the lucky fifteen shoppers to get a voucher.

I stuffed the flyer into my coat. Amy could suspect nothing. (more…)

If the medium is the message then it means something that God included women as participants in the incarnation.

It’s obvious that God needed an available uterus to pull off the Incarnation. Only a sinless human could break sin’s power. Hatching Jesus from a giant egg or parachuting him from Heaven would have demonstrated more panache on God’s part. However, Jesus would have been something less than human. Our savior’s life needed to begin in the womb.

Mary is the most famous female in the infancy narrative. She obediently submitted to the will of God and gestated. Mary suffered all the indignities of pregnancy. Her teenaged waistline ballooned. She waddled down the streets Nazareth as she did her chores. Jesus pressed against her bladder forcing frequent stops to relieve herself. Mary suffered fatigue and napped often. She might have suffered morning sickness and constipation as her hormones transformed her body into a living incubator. Mary’s agreeing to “let it be done” to her was noble and self-sacrificing. But being a surrogate is not the same thing as being an equal.

(more…)