12-21-08

In declassified State Department documents, dated, Sept. 12, 1954, there is a paragraph from the minutes of a National Security Council meeting, which reads as follows: "Secretary Dulles said that in Japan he had a lengthy meeting with Premier Yoshida. Secretary Dulles told Yoshida frankly that Japan should not expect to find a big U.S. market (for Japanese made goods), because the Japanese don't make things that Americans want." So much for free advice from the State Department.

I share this tidbit for two reasons: 1) to demonstrate the depth of research to which I go for you in search of sermon stuff. 2) To tell you, there is a behind-the-scenes history of humanity, unseen by those who see the only center stage. And it is this behind-the-scenes where much of history is in the making.

In 1954 the United States was center stage. Unchallenged militarily and industrially, we were basking in the bail out of the Western and Eastern worlds following WWII. Our status on the world stage was ostentatiously demonstrated in the cars we drove - big and powerful. You remember the fins of the fifties.

So big and powerful, nobody noticed what was going on backstage. In the Far East, a new born industrial base was beginning to build automobiles and many other things "Americans didn't want." And in the Middle East, oil was being produced, upon which our gas guzzlers were dependent, and upon which our very life style was becoming dependent.

But nobody heard. Not here. Nobody noticed and nobody heard back-stage. Not the State Department, not Detroit, not Wall Street, not Hollywood. Nobody was looking behind the scenes.

We had the attitude that what we did here in America would affect the rest of the world, and it does, but not what the rest of the world was doing would affect us. In fact, we referred to the rest of the world as "dependent nations" and "third world countries."

Now we are dependent on those oil sloshing countries and China to continue to buy our government bonds and bail us out, as we sink deeper and deeper into their debt.

My point, relating to this Fourth Sunday in Advent, is not to preach economics or international relationships, of which I know little, but to suggest the way it was in the U.S. in 1954, has similarities to the way it was in Rome in the first century A.D., of which I know a little more.

You see, the Rome of Jesus birth was center stage, big and powerful, with "dependent nations" surrounding it. All kingdoms looked to Rome. Records from this period in history - official decrees, declassified documents, dispatches to provinces, reports from consulates - all center on Rome.

No mention is made of the birth of a baby named Jesus, to peasant parents named Mary and Joseph, in a tiny town called Bethlehem, in a poor province known as Judea. Not one word. No official record anywhere. We're talking away in the wings here.

Luke. Luke is the one who writes a behind-the-scenes history of the 1^st century. Luke has a historical bias, as does every historian, but his bias is backwards. Luke believes the real drama is backstage, behind the scenes, and not what we see propped up on center stage.

There are historians who in more recent years take Luke's approach. Some are women historians, who believe a truer reading of history, a keener feeling for a society, can be found in the behind-the-scenes people of a nation, in the wives, the laborers, the poor folk, the children, more than the good ol' boys of center stage.

If you want heart and soul, if you want faith and fortitude, if you want struggle and courage, look deeper, backstage.

Richard Avedon, the famous photographer, published a photographic essay of the West a few years ago. Probably some of you received it for Christmas that year, it was one of those coffee table classics.

How did he capture the West? In the faces of the inhabitants. In the weather beaten, wrinkled faces of farmers and cowboys, homesteaders and housewives, drifters and disenfranchised. Now you remember the book.

This was Luke's approach. He covered "the rest of the story" historians tend to ignore. His special focus was on the forgotten, the downtrodden, the woe-begotten of his time. The "anawim (Heb.),"as the Bible calls them, "anawim," meaning "the poor ones," the ones nobody notices.

Luke says, "lookey here!" For when God acted in history, God acted through the "anawim."

When God took on human flesh, God took on poor flesh. When God sought to save humanity, God sought first to save the lost.

Luke wants us to know this, for Luke wants us to be saved, too. And Luke knows how easily we get stuck on center stage. Luke begins his history as he must if he is to capture the attention of his audience. He begins his story on center stage, with Rome: "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus..." Mighty Rome, issuing an edict. And when Rome speaks the world listened, even in backwater Judea on the edge of the empire, the people listened.

But Luke quickly moves backstage, to another scene. At the same time, in the same year, in the same impoverished province of Judea, another announcement is made. But this one not from Caesar, but from God. And this one not to the governors of the principalities, but to the shepherds, "And the angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them." What this means is, when Rome roars, the world listens; but when God speaks, sometimes it goes unnoticed, for God is known to whisper, "How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given .."

The Roman decree was that a census should be taken. The Hebrews hated censuses, much like we Montanans might, when it causes us to lose representation and federal revenues. For the Hebrew people it determined taxation and the number of armed guards that would be garrisoned in their land. Not fun subjects for anybody. The census was bad news to the Jews. But in this year of bad news from Caesar Augustus, good news comes from God, "Behold, I bring you good news that has come to all people."

Luke wants us to know this. On center stage, same old bad news, same old Caesar stuff, same old power over the poor. But backstage, in the wings, knew news to all people: a savior is born, who is Christ the Lord.

The message is delivered to shepherds. Luke makes a big deal of this. He is the only gospel to mention shepherds at the manger. Yes, we have Luke to thank for our cr�che scene.

The problem is we've lost a little in translation over the years. Our image of shepherds has been shaped by children in bathrobes presenting Christmas pageants. A little unruly at times, but overall, a scene of innocence and affection. Weren't they lovely last Sunday? Thank you for those of you who were here.

The shepherds of the first century were not like our children of today. Shepherds, as a class of people, were considered lowly, dishonest and unprincipled. As Martin Luther wrote, "watching flocks by night was a mean job. Common sense calls it low-down work, and the men who did it were regarded as trash." At the very least, they stunk. Not the kind of guys you'd expect God to hang with. In Luke, the angel of the Lord appears to the shepherds, to make Luke's point that when God acts in this world, God often acts through the "anawim," the poor ones, the unnoticed, the unattractive, the unlikely ones, who can be found on the back stages of life.

So in the year of bad news, when Caesar Augustus sends out his imperial decree by ruthless Roman soldiers to the ends of the earth, there came good news, as God ushers in a heavenly word by angels to the poor ones. Luke would have us think about this at Christmas time.

Furthermore, Luke would not want us to miss the means of the message. In one corner, Caesar Augustus. Heavyweight champion of the world. Considered to be a god. So great, a calendar month is named after him, and the word itself, "august," or "au-gust," means "revered" or "grand." But even more significant to Luke's place and time, Caesar Augustus was known as "the Prince of Peace." He ruled the world's mightiest empire for 45 years, twice as long as any other Caesar. And he had brought peace to the empire, putting an end to tribal feuding and petty rulers. Mostly, he crushed them.

Caesar Augustus. There were shrines and statues of him in every province across the empire, with inscriptions like, "Caesar Augustus, Savior of the World."

And, lo, in this corner, way over here, far away from the Roman Coliseum, in the dusty, unnoticed wings, backstage in Bethlehem, in a crude stable behind a crowded inn, a peasant girl, married to a common carpenter from the country, gives birth to an infant son.

There is no greater mismatch in all of history: center stage Caesar vs. backstage baby, not even in the picture. Unrecorded in history. Luke would have us think about this at Christmas time, that we might not miss the message and the miracle of Christmas, which is three-fold:

1) GOD IS IN CHARGE.

We forget this. Most ironically, at this most blessed time of year, when we are running around performing a hundred wonderful tasks, we forget why we are doing this.

We even forget what the Christmas story is about. We think the Christmas story is about Mary and Joseph, wise men and shepherds, stables and mangers. But it isn't. Not really. These are the props. God is the stage manager here.

Caesar Augustus, Quirinius, Herod... hired help. God is the director. God is in charge. What we do at Christmas is to remember what God has done, and ponder what this means for our life.

God took the mightiest man on earth, the most powerful person on the planet, Caesar Augustus, and confounded him, let alone his puppet, Herod, through the birth of a baby. As Mary sang in the Magnificat, "God has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree..." (Luke 1:52).

This planet is God's place. This life is God's gift. We are actors upon God's stage. What roles will we play?

It is Christmas and God is again directing the pageant. So when you take an angel tag from the tree, you are not doing this for yourself. You are not even doing this for the recipient child. You are doing this for God. For the love of God. Welcome home.

2) THERE IS HOPE.

No matter how overwhelming the odds, how impossible the task, how negative the news, how long and dark the night, with God in charge good can happen. Point #2, with God there is always hope. There is always hope because God is the director and God likes happy endings. This is what the Christmas story says: God is at work in creation, in the babe born in Bethlehem, to confirm happy endings at curtain's close.

This means at any time, even in a year of bad news, whether it be Quirinius as governor of Syria, or Al-Quida still terrorizing the earth, good news can come from unlikely partners, in unlikely places.

Which means all experiences in life, whether they be experiences of suffering and sorrow, or experiences of gladness and joy, are opportunities for epiphanies, that is, for appearances of God. We never know when or where the heavenly host might enter in. So stay loose. And be expectant. There is always hope.

3) And finally, CARE FOR THE POOR.

If we read Luke's Christmas story, we will never be able to forget the poor or take lightly their cry for justice in this world. For in Jesus' birth, God identifies with the poor.

Luke wrote his gospel to a well-healed, well-educated congregation. It might very well have been the first UCC church. Luke, of all the gospels, emphasizes Jesus' teachings on humility.

These teachings are not to keep the poor in their back-stage place. These teachings are to instruct the proud, the healthy, the wealthy, not to take their center-stage stations too seriously. For God does not love us any more.

These teachings are to instruct the privileged that no person stands taller than when he or she stoops to serve the poor. Humility means remember your humanity, and remember your God, and remember to distinguish between the two.

We are not God. Not even Caesar Augustus was God. We are God's children, like Jesus. And we should live like it. And we should act like it. When we do, we keep Christmas, merry, which is an old English word which means, "blessed." Mother Teresa said: "I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love. As I held and fed the morsel of life that was a dying child, as I held the hand of a man dying from cancer and felt his trust and gratitude, I could see, feel and touch God's love which has existed from the beginning."

This is the message and miracle of Christmas: that we might "see, feel and touch God's love which has existed from the beginning."

Merry "blessed" Christmas.

AMEN.