{"id":4495,"date":"2022-12-25T13:07:47","date_gmt":"2022-12-25T13:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2022\/12\/25\/explaining-christmas-based-on-luke-21-12\/"},"modified":"2022-12-25T13:07:47","modified_gmt":"2022-12-25T13:07:47","slug":"explaining-christmas-based-on-luke-21-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2022\/12\/25\/explaining-christmas-based-on-luke-21-12\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cExplaining Christmas\u201c based on Luke 2:1-12"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"image\"<\/figure>\n

\nOne of the privileges I have
\nthis year is to explain Christmas to a 2 year old. \u00a0I’m aware many
\nhave done this before me, and at this point I’m pretty sure most have
\ndone it better than I have. \u00a0But, I’ve learned along the way that
\nwhen I have to explain really complicated things to very small
\nchildren I end up learning what I really think.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nNow, I think the common answer
\nto give a young child about Christmas is \u201cIt is Jesus’ birthday.\u201d
\n Which seems legit, and I know my child has some grasp of birthdays.
\nI am, however, less confident he has a grasp on Jesus. \u00a0And while I
\nsimply adore Marcus Borg’s explanation that Jesus was \u201ca Jewish
\nmystic,\u201d \u2026 well, that wasn’t going to help.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd, if I’m honest, we may think
\nof Christmas as Jesus’ birthday, but that only matters because of who
\nJesus was. \u00a0For those who think of Jesus as fully human and fully
\nDivine, Christmas could be summed up as God being born on earth. \u00a0A
\nlot of Christian Christmas derives from this idea. It gives us the
\nspace to consider the vulnerability of life, and how dependent we are
\non each other. \u00a0For those awed by a powerful God becoming vulnerable
\nas a newborn, it follows that the vulnerability of our humanity is in
\nfact quite tender.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nFor me though, Jesus was a man
\nwho knew God intimately and taught of God and lived a God-centered
\nlife in profound ways that continue to be useful for knowing God even
\ntoday. \u00a0And THAT, also, it turns out, doesn’t translate well to a 2
\nyear old.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nSo I found myself saying,
\n\u201cChristmas is when we celebrate someone who taught us about God’s
\nlove.\u201d \u00a0Well, I’m not entirely sure if I said God. \u00a0But I’m OK with
\nthat because I think the phrase \u201cGod’s Love\u201d is redundant. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd, by the grace of God, that
\nline got accepted, and I don’t have to answer more questions. \u00a0Yet. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nNext year promises its own
\nchallenges. \u00a0\ud83d\ude09 \u00a0I suspect by next year I’ll be learning that my
\nseminary degree and nearly 20 years of ministry experience are
\ninsufficient to the task. \u00a0I’ll let you know. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nBut for now, Phew!<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd also, I’m sort of interested
\nto learn what I really think of Christmas.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Christmas stories in each
\nGospel are sometimes called \u201cthe Gospel in miniature\u201d and they
\nreally do an amazing job establishing the setting, foreshadowing the
\nstory as a whole, and setting up the themes of the Gospels they
\nbegin. \u00a0Luke focuses on women and shepherds, the outcasts being the
\nfirst to receive good news for all people, the looming presence and
\npower of the Empire and its taxation methods, the cycle of birth and
\ndeath as a way to talk about the fullness of life, humility, and the
\nvalue of pondering the wondrous things of God. \u00a0I even see in the
\nstory the foreshadowing of Jesus rising from the tomb, as the animal
\nfeeding trough he is said to have been laid in at birth was BELOW the
\nfloor and chiseled out of rock. \u00a0He would have been lifted out of
\nthat to be held. \u00a0(I swoon a bit at this metaphor.)<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nSo of the Christmas stories are
\nGospels in miniature, than what we say about Christmas is what we
\nhave to say about Jesus. \u00a0And if this implies that I think Jesus is
\n\u201csomeone who taught us about (God’s) love,\u201d then I’m at peace
\nwith that conclusion. \u00a0(I’m also relieved to already be ordained and
\nnot have to attempt to justify this to a Board of Ordained Ministry).<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nThere are a lot of fabulous
\nnuances to this story, and I would have a ball playing with them.
\nI’m entranced by the Isaiah passage and the space it gives us to
\nconnect birth and death as well as connecting the delivery of a child
\nwith the \u201cdelivery\u201d of a nation into safety and well being. \u00a0AND
\nI’m going to let it all rest.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

\nToday we celebrate the birth of
\none one who taught us about God’s love. \u00a0Today we celebrate one who
\ntaught us about God’s love. \u00a0Today we celebrate God’s love. \u00a0Thanks
\nbe to God, who is love. \u00a0Merry Christmas, and Amen!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she\/her\/hers
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a>
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

December 25, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the privileges I have this year is to explain Christmas to a 2 year old. \u00a0I’m aware many … Continue reading \u201cExplaining Christmas\u201c based on Luke 2:1-12<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,28,33,1135,1265,1516,94,1484,56,57,1515],"class_list":["post-4495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fumc-schenectady","tag-rev-sara-e-baron","tag-umc","tag-christmas","tag-first-umc-schenectady","tag-j","tag-luke","tag-pandemic-preaching","tag-schenectady","tag-sorry-about-the-umc","tag-what-does-it-mean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}