In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night…
We love Christmas music in our house. Love it. It is embarrassing how early in the season we start listening to Christmas music. It is shameless really. We love them all, from White Christmas to Dominick the Donkey to Christmas in Hollis we appreciate the whole canon of Christmas Carols.
Except for one.
Whenever ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ comes on there are lots of groaning. A LOT. And all that in spite of it having a pretty epic video to go with it.
There is something about the idea of ‘praying for the other ones’ and asking if they even know it is Christmas in Africa that just rubs me the wrong way. I mean, there WILL be snow in Africa, and there is plenty of water that isn't tears, and they will get better gifts than life!
However, the idea that famine and drought are geological problems and not man made problems still persists in the world. As does the concept that what people need is just a little food or water or love to get them through this crisis, and not a drastic re-ordering of the entire economic system.
Did you know that famine is rarely the result of a lack of food, but rather that food is often taken from those with little and given to those with much?
Did you know that drought is often the result of water being stolen or diverted for swimming pools and resorts and not because there hasn’t been ‘enough rain this Christmas’?
When the shepherds re-orient their lives towards Christ, they take their flocks with them. When the wise men arrive they bring signs and symbols of their world to the Christ Child. When we come into contact with the divine in our lives, our hearts, minds, souls and ‘stuff’ should be re-oriented towards Jesus. Have you re-oriented all of your life?
When we look a little closer to home, we often find the same attitudes exist and persist. We all feel a pang of guilt around the holidays realizing how good we have it compared to ‘the other ones’. But instead of appeasing ourselves with toy drives and food deliveries, perhaps you should consider what you can do the rest of the year to change that reality. To make ‘the other ones’ less other and more neighbor. To make the stranger less strange and more family.
I remain incredibly grateful that Memorial and so many others have embraced our reparations fund, which has set out to do just that. That as a community we have decided we value the building of relationships, of the strengthening of communities and community partners more than simple charity work. If you have not supported these efforts yet I hope that you will, with your time, talent and your treasure.
And if you are worried it is too late, that you have not done enough please don’t worry. Bono, the lead singer of U2 has gone from cringely crooning ‘tonight thank God it’s them instead of you’ to being universally acknowledged as one of the most generous people in the world and one the most active in causes of justice and equality the world over. There is always time to repair, restore, and reframe how we understand ourselves in the world and there is no better time to start than Christmas.