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The socio-political context of the biblical
accounts that form the basis for our observance of the
Christmas holy-days, are stunningly similar to that of our
own day.
Both Mathew and Luke paint a much darker
historical picture than the traditional joyful images of
angels, expansive feasts, and expensive gifts brought from
distant lands.
Rather, the birth of Jesus occurred in the
midst of a culture of fear and spiral of violence, kept in
place by the hateful rhetoric and consciousless social and
economic policies of Herod, the narcissistic provincial
political leader.
But there is plenty of other drama.
The birth narratives also include
less-than-minimum wage agricultural workers who toil away in
dangerous working conditions, Arabs who visit from the
land-rich East but are feared by the political establishment
and a tax policy that placed an obscene physical and
economic burden upon its poorest citizens while favoring the
richest “1 percent.”
Succinctly, the Christmas story is about a
baby who was born into poverty and to a dark and violent
society that had no room for it.
However, Wisdom recognizes this young life as
a bright light shining in the dead of night on the longest,
coldest and darkest night possible.
The “Wise Men” searched to give honor and
reverence, but Herod, viewed this young luminary as a threat
to the status quo and attempted to extinguish it.
The good news is that the Jesus child does
not stand above the social, economic and political turmoil
his day. Neither is the bible, written to a people
desperately trying to hold on to their cultural tradition
and political-religious forms, unaware of the contemporary
evils that surround us.
It is imperative that vulnerable populations,
including the poor and our children, overcome the evils that
attempt to extinguish their potential and the world’s future
- especially the evils of violence, bigotry and poverty and
all of its derivatives.
Senseless murders like the death of Zaveon
Dobson, a 15 year old Knoxville, Tennessee area honor
student and football player who died last week trying to
shield three girls from a random shooting, happens more than
30 times each day. Almost 1/3 of the victims are under the
age of 20 and half are under 35.
There are more than 10,000 annual gun
homicides in the U.S. compared to less than 200 in Canada,
150 in Germany, Italy and France, and less than 50 in Japan.
In the spirit of Christmas and our future,
Let us raise our voices loudly that our
leaders may prioritize the issues of poverty and violence.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
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