Engaging our World Through the Common: In the Manger



Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. ~ Philippians 2:5-8

 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. ~ Luke 2:1-7
The Christmas story has a crazy good plot with an even crazier premise - the idea goes, if there is a force of love and logic beyond the universe, then how amazing would it be if that incomprehensible power chose to express itself as a child born in **** and straw poverty. Who could conceive of such a story? If you believe it was the protagonist, as I do, then we should try to be really respectful of people who think the whole thing is a bit nutty." ~ Bono (U2)


In a previous post I wrote about the wisdom of God being found on a cross as a crucified criminal.

 That same God decided to be born, not in a palace.

 Not as a pampered prince.

 But in the lowliest of places in the lowliest of persecuted tribes.

 And that same God humbled himself into a life that began in obscurity, and grew into a life of intentional poverty.

 Bono's quote may seem a bit crass, but it makes the point, doesn't it? How weird is it to think that God would come this way? Can we see how the world would take that as crazy?

 And yet it is in both these things - Jesus' inauspicious birth in a backwater town and execution as an enemy of the state - that we find out who God is.

 How God works. And loves. And lives among us.

 How God has an affinity for the lowly. (as Mary attests in the Magnificat).

 How the poor, the outcast, the unlikely, the common, are holy.

 And how we, in solidarity with the poor, the outcast, the unlikely, and the common, can find the holy ourselves.
Prayer: God of the lowly, teach me to find the holy in the unlikely places you lead me. Amen




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