hospitality to ....

I decided this morning to come in from the patio early so I could sit in the dark of my living room with the Christmas tree lights on.  It's difficult to miss the beauty of this season sitting in the dark with a little white tree glowing with both light and colored ornaments while Mannheim Steamroller fills the air with music.  As I was absorbing the quiet joy of lights, ornaments and music the traditional Christmas story wandered through my mind.

The images of the story: Gabriel and Mary, Mary and Joseph, Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, Mary on the donkey, the darkness of Bethlehem and going from place to place trying to find a bed, the shepherds and more angels and finally the kings, all played in my mind, Seeing these scenes as new in the light of my Christmas tree, I suddenly realized this was a story of hospitality: a welcoming of the unexpected.  Sitting here in the dark as the story playing in my mind, the drama of everyone's 'yes' - their hospitality and willingness to greeting the unknown - hit me as I realized how profoundly each character in the story was changed by their willingness to respond to what on the surface, appeared somewhat ridiculous.

Mary agreed to become a woman of 'ill repute'.  Joseph after his dream telling him that 'all was well' between Mary and himself agreed to let go of his fears about what "really" happened to Mary and thus appear 'foolish' to his community.  Elizabeth shared her own unlikely and quite possibly somewhat 'shameful' (she was after all 'too old') pregnancy as a means to affirming Mary's condition and offering her comfort and companionship.  Joseph and Mary agreed to a difficult and ill-timed journey to take care of some paperwork - as a woman who has been pregnant three times, I cannot see pictures of Mary on that donkey without feeling empathetic pain.  Then, as is in all really good stories, the scenes of 'caution' in case we missed the point of the story as inn keeper after inn keeper said 'no' rather than yes and shut the door as their response.  Finally just as the situation appears dire {Mary is probably having contractions seated on that donkey for heavens sake}, a person answered their knocking with a 'yes' even though their yes meant offering what would be considered less than ideal and shabby: stables are not exactly fine lodgings.

Angels again appear with, what I have come to believe should be called tidings of 'ill repute' rather than joy, as shepherds are asked to leave their fields to respond to their summons which meant forsaking 'responsibility' in order to carry out their part in this story.  And what about those kings?  The story of the kings is almost the ultimate in foolishness: leaving their status, comfort and responsibilities in order to follow a star: A bit of shining light they believed contained their own personal story of the true meaning of their lives. Absolutely ridiculous!

In the light of the story I 'saw' this morning, Christmas appears to be a story of hospitality, of willingness, to respond with 'yes' to what may seem ill-advised, ridiculous, foolish and somewhat shameful.   And, so we ask, to what end?  Within this complex story, the answer is actually simple: to birth God into the world.                              

It seems as I reflect on this story today, that the point of this ancient story is asking us to consider that each of us is asked to live this same story: to birth God as the 'incarnate', that is quite human form, of our self.  "I can't do that, I'm too imperfect, that's too heretical to believe."  Well, the way I see it, the God who designed the human form, must have been quite aware of the imperfection of this grand design of carrying the Source of Love and Goodness into Life and so we have been given a story full of foolishness and discomfort and a great many choices appearing ill-advised in order to believe that is to trust, that a Power Greater than our pride and status may well be quite active today in our life.

If we are to believe the idea that we also are here to birth into human form, the energy of God: of Love and Goodness, we might also want to consider what the difference was in character between those who were able to recognize that it was indeed angels bringing the summons of foolishness.  I think that answer is simple also: relationship.  Our ability to risk appearing foolish for the sake of Love is born from having experienced a personal connection to the Divine that transcends our personality, our ego and our reputation.  Our personal experience of the Divine, our individual relationship, is, in my experience, the space of living containing the courage for a yes to angels and dreams and stars.

However, there is another piece of this story of relationship: while each was alone in their 'yes', no one in the story lived out their 'yes' alone: Mary and Joseph, Mary and Elizabeth, shepherds - the plural form indicating a group: three kings.  God sends us companions for our journey that we might share our experience and strength, hope and courage.  Who are the human forms of God you have been given in order to live your story?