ICC Note: This is a fitting story when one views Christianity from a world perspective as opposed to a Western Perspective. In the West, Christians live in safety and suffer minimal harrassment. Many Christians around the world will celebrate Christmas in secret and in fear wondering if they will be called to suffer for their Lord this coming year.
An Unsentimental Christmas Story
By Joseph Loconte
(As heard on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered) We hear a lot of complaints this time of year about the commercialization of Christmas or the so-called war on Christmas. But I wonder if believers arent ignoring a much more serious problem: the sentimentalizing of the Christmas story.
You know what I mean: Joseph and Mary, smartly dressed, ride bravely into Bethlehem in the dead of night and cheerfully turn a stable into a maternity ward. Various farm animals provide local color. Foreign dignitaries offer impractical gifts. And a chorus of angels announces peace on earth to all men. Thats pretty much the story line, delivered faithfully in school plays, greeting cards, nativity scenes and, I suspect, in more than a few sermons.
Yet after reading a Holy Christmas Day sermon, preached by Martin Luther in 1534, I was struck by its lack of sentimentality. There is, of course, a cord of celebration in his message. But it is joy in the midst of sufferingjoy that requires, according to Luther, a defiant state of mind to meet the struggles and sorrows of this life.
The angels may proclaim peace on earth, Luther says, but the kingdom of the world is characterized by stealing, robbery, murder war and bloodshed. In summary, Luther warns, on earth there is nothing but lack of peace. That sounds like a fair description of our world, whether its the streets of many American cities after dark, or downtown Baghdad in broad daylight.
Many religious skeptics do not reject the Christmas story; they reject a childish caricature of the actual story. But mature faith, the faith of a Luther, is forged amid the bewildering and burdensome facts of everyday life.
The gospel stories do not hide these facts from us. Even as Mary is told that she will give birth to the Messiah, for example, she is warned that a sword of grief will pierce her souland it does. Likewise, the birth of Jesus prompted a ruthless despot, King Herod, to order the execution of every male boy in Bethlehem under the age of two. Think about the parents of those boys: There was as much weeping that Christmas season as there was rejoicing.
Put away the sentimental illusions about life, Luther seemed to be saying. As one historian described Luthers insight: All Christians live on the razors edge of faith and despair, freedom and bondage. Here is a faith that does not ignore the heart of darkness in our lives; the deep mystery of evil remains.
Yet the hope of this story, a hope that engages the mind as well as the soul, is that the evil will not remain forever: God himselfhere now among us, in this crib of strawwill overcome it.
Joseph Loconte is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington , DC .
