Tag Archives: Jesus

Bastards, two dads, unplanned pregnancies: the Birth story of Jesus

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What a crock! Have any of you paid attention to the lyrics to “Away in a Manger”? Really? Jesus didn’t cry as a baby? Have you ever bucked hay before? Try sleeping in it! You ever see a baby that never cries? That song is just one example of how we have romanticized and thus taken away some of the power of Jesus’ birth story.

How cool is it that Jesus was the bastard child of an unwed teen mom? How cool is it that Jesus has two daddies? How strange is it that Jesus was poor? That he grew up as an illegal alien? That he spent his formative years in the ghetto? That he pooped his pants as a baby. That Jesus had to be potty trained. Potty trained!

The story of Jesus’ birth is not a romantic pretty story of God coming to meet his subjects. No, it is a story that completely captures the experience of humanity in so many ways. When we dull it over we ruin the reality of the story. We miss the beauty of the gift.

Here’s the Christian birth narrative–

A divorced God* decides the only way to bring hope and restoration back to humanity is to work within it. So he sends himself in Jesus as an unplanned pregnancy to a poor teenage mom. He was a child who had to not only hold the tension of having that stigma but he also held the tension of having two dads, one was Joseph and the other was Yahweh–both fathers, both real, both belonging to him. He was born in a barn ’cause apparently daddy number two wasn’t on good speaking terms with his family in Bethlehem. Their impoverished family soon had to flee to Egypt where he grew up as an illegal alien until he was able to return back home to Nazareth–a place that you NEVER want to live and always want to be leaving. It’s the ghetto, it’s Detroit (sorry Detroit).

We’ve missed the story and I think we’ve missed out because of it. Christmas season should propel us to reorient our lives not only around the ideals of the Kingdom of God but around the manner in which that Kingdom was brought to earth. Single moms in our neighborhoods must be cared for! We can’t give them the ugly eye when their kids act up with the store, we must extend grace! The ghetto can’t be avoided as a place too dangerous for us in the burbs (or wherever you live) because Jesus grew up there. That’s his hood…and I  if I were you I’d try to go where Jesus goes ’cause I think he was on to something. Whatever we think about gay marriage maybe we should have space to honor any two individuals regardless of gender who want to love on a child–Jesus seemed to do alright. Maybe we should be gentle with those who come across our border because like Jesus it’s quite possible they’re running from hell on the other side. Maybe the Christmas story is even more than just a season of giving (though that’s pretty frickin’ important and totally fits the story too) but it’s also a season of reorienting our view of humanity because of how Jesus chose to redeem all of it…even Detroit.

 

* All throughout the Bible a metaphor is used referring to God as a jilted lover. As someone who has given his bride (us) everything only to have us turn our backs on him and demand a divorce. Even though he repeatedly says that he hates divorce (’cause divorce so often sucks. We know that) he, in fact, within the metaphor (and everything when talking about God is in fact a metaphor isn’t it?) is a divorced and hurt groom still waiting for things to be made right. God totally gets divorce and thinks that it sucks.

The Scars of Humanity

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To be human is to be wounded–it is to have scars. Scars are just mile-markers in a story and to be human is to have an active part in the telling of yours and others’ stories.

The massive scar on my back is an often hidden testimony to my surgery over the last month. My limp is a memorial to my fight against cancer. In the Jewish scriptures their ancestor Jacob walked with a limp and it reminded him (and everyone else) of his struggle with God. Jesus has scars on his wrists and his side that bear testimony of his being human. Gandhi’s physique told a story. Mother Teresa’s crippled feet capture that she always gave away the best shoes to others while keeping the worst for herself. Her feet (and her shoes) told a story about her life. Scars. Markers. Memorials.

I’m not placing myself as an example next to Jesus, Mo T, Gandhi, and Jacob as if I’m anywhere near their level of sacrifice. That’s not the point. No, I’m actually placing all of us next to that lineup because like those icons we all bear the scars of being human. We carry with us baggage from how our mom or dad parented us, from how a family member inappropriately touched us, from the death of a friend, from depression, from an epic fight with God, or from an innumerable list of things that scar our bodies, our hearts, our selves.

We are scared people and we need not be ashamed of them. They are a part of us but they do not define who we are. Think about scars. What do you do with a cool scar? You show it off right? You’re proud of it. You’re not proud of a scar because you’re proud of the fact that you don’t use proper knife safety; no you’re proud of it because its in the past, because you’ve moved past it (though its not left behind), you’ve overcome it (though it has left a mark).

I like the term coined by the late Henri Nouwen–we all have opportunity to function as wounded healers. We’ve got scars and scratches of many kinds–but we proudly own those stories as a part of our past, as a part of who we are. We are all wounded. Some of us are being defined by our wounds, we’re living out of the story that caused those cars and thus are dying from them. Some of us try to pretend like we aren’t scared and thus live in awkward ignorance and have little story at all. All of us, however, are invited to live as wounded healers.

The Nerdy Church

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Being different is easy. Anyone who’s experienced nerdom knows this. It’s not hard to stand out as different or odd because most everyone is trying to hard to fit in. The formula looks like this: look around you, observe the customs and norms of a majority of those around you, dress or act in a manner that is either opposite or off just enough to make it weird. It’s as simple as that. I’ve done it for most my life.

Being different isn’t hard. Churches and Christians have been different like this for ages. And like the formula above much of the oddness of Christians and churches has much to do with being intentionally different from what’s considered normal around. We define ourselves based on what we don’t do (i.e. we define ourselves by being weirdly different from those around us)

I suggest that those who follow Jesus should be weird, they should be different, but it should have nothing to do with choosing to be different from the culture around. That’s an easy way to be different but it’s not a wholly redemptive way of being different. The invitation that Jesus brings is to live distinctively. It does not require comparison to live distinctively as Jesus invited–it requires courage. The definition of what that distinctiveness looks like is not formed by saying what we DO NOT do but rather what we do do…yes, I just said do do.

On one hand Christians do not exist in a bubble, they are very much enmeshed with the context in which they live (as they should be! This is not a bad thing and deserves its own blog), but on the other hand they should not seek to be defined simply in contrast to that bubble. Jesus was not about the rejection of culture but about the restoration or renovation of it. There are obviously things that must/need to be rejected in our world, but those ‘rejectable’ things are often bastardizations of something that was actually intended for good.

Defining ones self (or ones church) simply by rejecting things you don’t like or don’t aprove of around you is easy. Anyone can do that. Defining ones self (or ones church) based on an intentionally chosen way to live is much more in line with the life Jesus came to offer…but it is most definitely a more difficult road to follow.

Rejection is easy–direction…devine.

Creating Meaning from Creation

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Many people believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible’s creation story. There are whole conferences and lectures dedicated to defending this point of view. My position right now is that I don’t care.

Regardless of whether you take the Adam and Eve story literally, the point of the narrative is to create meaning. How would Christianity–or better yet, how would our neighborhoods look different if they embraced some of the significant meaning communicated in this story? How would things be different if we understood that…

  • …we were intended to be at peace with the earth, with plants, animals, and each other. The Garden of Eden was a space where all the creatures lived in a mutually beneficial peaceful existence. Adam was even created from the dust of the earth! Essentially the story communicates that if it weren’t for the earth we could not/would not exist! How different would our world be if we tried to lean into this intended reality?
  • …man and woman cannot be separated. I’m not making an “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” play here. What I am saying is that according to the story woman cannot exist apart from man (it took one of his ribs to make her) and man cannot be complete apart from woman (missing that damn rib). In a world filled with broken relationships would it change anything to know that apart from others we are incomplete? We were not created for isolation or complete individualism! The whole man-woman thing is not at all tied to superiority or control, rather it is about connectedness. We are forever and completely connected to each other.
  • …we are partners with God. God invited the humans to name the animals, he invited them to be a part of the creation process by actually giving the animal kingdom some of its identity. How would things change if we viewed ourselves as partners with God in the continued identity-giving process of life?
  • …not only were we intended to be at peace with the world around us, but originally there was a peace and casual relationship between the creator and his creation. It was normal for Adam and Eve to walk together with God in the dew of the morning! How would life be different if we knew that we were intended to be at peace and in relationship with God?
  • …Adam and Eve were naked…and I’m pretty sure they were dead sexy (though probably a bit freakish looking without a belly button). I don’t think this necessarily invites us all to come to a place where we can all be naked together (though some could argue that). Rather I think this reminds us of our intended innocence. We were intended for purity, innocence, and simplicity (don’t clothes bring heaps of complexity to our lives?!). What would our world look like if we embraced our original calling to simple, pure, and innocent living? Jesus invited his followers to be like children…seems strangely similar.
  • …we are good. God looked at his creation over and over again and mused to himself “wow, this is pretty good!” and regarding you and I he even thought “Wow, this is really ridiculously good!” So often Christians start the story with brokenness and sinfulness but the reality is that the story starts with goodness. How would our world be different if when we looked at people around us we saw (and believed) their inherent goodness. It’s not that we’re all good or that given the opportunity we’ll all make good choices, rather its that our starting place, our origin, or beginning is in perfect goodness…what a better place to find our identity than in our brokenness!
  • …destructive things are only bastardizations of the good stuff. The devil came in the form of a snake and tempted the humans to eat the fruit. What I love is that early on in the story we’re reminded that the best that evil can do is bastardize good things. Snakes aren’t evil, they’re kind of awesome. But the devil used it to bring about broken relationship. If we look at most everything that is destructive in our world it turns out to be a bastardization of something that was originally good. Evil doesn’t create. How would like and Christianity be different if we had the courage to own everything good?
  • …work is a gift from God. Work isn’t something we HAVE to do, it’s something we GET to do. God didn’t place humanity in a box, in an empty field, on a cement pad, or in a spa resort. He placed them in a garden with plants and animals to take care of. Work was part of the beauty of their existence–how would life be different if we understood labor as a beautiful part of being human? How would we choose our jobs differently? Hmm…I wonder.
There are so many other bullet points that could be included here! Again, regardless of whether you take this story literally or not the reality is that it is the the defining start to the Jesus-narrative. And I think we have a great opportunity to be shaped by the meaning that this story seeks to bring into our world. Peace, communion, relationship, enjoyable labor, partnership, goodness…this is who we are and what we were intended for…what if we tried to live THAT out?

It's Simple But it's Good

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Six years of education centered around theology, eight years of college level education overall, working in Portugal as a missionary for two years, working for six years starting a new faith community, and beginning a new and different movement here in downtown Vancouver…and my greatest insight, the thing that has struck me the most, what I’ve learned most through my crisis with cancer is that the “good news” is…well…good. When it’s lived out (particularly when it is lived out radically) it is tangibly good to those who experience or observe it. For someone who considers themselves a follower of Jesus this should be common sense, “duh”, obviously, of course-type of information. And yet, and yet…AND YET it is not so commonly experienced! I see far too many people who are followers of Jesus and yet seem to not experience the goodness of it themselves! They equate following Jesus with going to church, they equate it with a system of rules, with a system of morality, etc. While I believe church is a part of the goodness of following Jesus, and while I believe that Jesus invites us to say “no” to certain things…the reality is that when those things are the core to your belief I think you’ve missed the boat! You’ve missed what’s so good about the “good news”.  Going to church isn’t good news–being a part of a community of people who love you no matter what, who will be honest with you, who care for you, and who invite you to learn to reciprocate–that’s good news! Understanding yourself by what you say no to is not good news to anyone (unless you’re a seeker of control)–but learning to say no to things that are destructive to self and others–that’s good news!

Simply put, good news is good. Its tangibly good. It’s noticeably good. It’s nearly irresistibly good. It’s attractively good. And it took me getting cancer to really believe, see, and experience this.

Jesus invites us into a life that the Bible refers to as gospel (good news) and I hope it doesn’t take you getting cancer to truly and honestly believe it in all its beautiful simplicity.