Emmanuel, God with us. Matthew 1:23 (MSG)
Where You Hope – The Christmas Series – Part 2
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How can I possibly rejoice at this time of year when much of the world is grieving? I can switch off to it – the pain and the atrocities and the injustices. But I’ve committed myself to a life of faith: of wide eyes and being wide awake. I’m paying attention (finally) to the world around me. And much of what I see is hard. From the third world to the western world, pain spares none. It seems odd to celebrate and get fixated on Santa Photos when there are more important things that need my attention.
But all pain in the world – without and within – is the reason WHY I cling to joy. It's that tiny hope birthed in the liminal space of waiting, wanting, and expecting. That's what Advent is about: living in the now and the not yet. It's the time between times, where you hold the tension of where you are and where you hope to be in both hands. Of what the world looks like today, and what you hope, what you know, it could look like in times to come.
In the Ancient Near East, being unmarried and pregnant put Mary in a very precarious position. She was already betrothed (promised) to Joseph, and she would have to explain this pregnancy to him and trust that he would believe her. Joseph had every right (culturally) to reject Mary, and her family had every right (culturally) to evict her from the family home.
She had very few legal rights, and there was no welfare system… In the Ancient Near East, unmarried pregnant girls often ended up as slaves, exiles, living on the streets and becoming sex workers. If Joseph and Mary’s family weren’t willing to stand by her, she stood to lose her security, her family, and even her baby. She could have lost everything.
I don’t for a second believe that all was smooth sailing those first months after Mary became pregnant. Matthew wrote in his book that Joseph planned on quietly leaving Mary and her child. Yet, he stayed.
Did he believe her? Did they wrestle with the story? Did they dream that the child growing in Mary’s womb would be a war hero? A political activist? Would he rally the Israelites and lead them to victory against the Romans, freeing them from oppression and restoring their dignity and place of belonging in the known world?
And if the answers to these questions were anywhere near yes, why would God choose to incarnate himself into an unwed, unknown, ordinary Jewish girl who stood to lose everything if the people around her didn't buy into her story?
This kind of pain and tension creates room in our lives. And the Israelites had plenty of room. Mary, too.
All the uncertainty, the worry, the fear – it all prepared space in her heart for the miraculous, for the “something more.” It cleared out the certainties, the “this is how it is,” the distractions, and the platitudes and made anticipatory space for comfort, peace, joy… maybe even hope.
The beauty of Christmas is that God came to man, became a man, in the midst of great suffering and uncertainty. He didn't come as a knight in shining armor ready to sweep us off our feet and procure us a tower to live in for the rest of our lives. He came as a baby, vulnerable, and ready to grow with us, alongside us. He became present to our pain, through the pain and bloodied struggle of birth.
Emmanuel, God with us.
God is with us in our pain, in our suffering, and in our hope for tomorrow.
The deep ache of “wanting” in your heart – and around the world – does not go unheard, unseen or unrealized by the Divine. The hope of Christmas is that God dwells where we would least expect him.
Like in a broken nation.
Like in an ordinary, unmarried, virgin Jewish girl.
Like in the middle of the muck and mess and beauty of your life, just as it is.
Go to Part 3 – Peace To All Men »
Written by Liz Milani
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