Mr. Jones Response

A Reflection for Christmas Eve                                              All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, NC  December 24, 2014                                                                Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Isaiah 9:2-7        Titus 2:11-14         Luke 2:1-14

Mr. Jones' Response

Steve Blackstock, our organist, sends me all sorts of stuff, and last week he sent me a Saturday Night Live skit  http://www.hulu.com/watch/726779    about a college kid coming home for the holidays and attending Christmas Services.  As a newly-arrived atheist, Devin say, “You can always tell a sophomore, but you can't tell him much.” I was a bit of a rebel and a wannabe atheist coming home from Carolina for Christmas break, and I went to the Christmas Eve service at the downtown church. I saw all those people who seemed so focused on the ceremony and saying Peace on Earth when there was this war going on. At that time I wanted to sing a song from one of my favorite albums, Highway 61 Revisited, by Bob Dylan. The song was Ballad of a Thin Man. This is the part that I wanted to sing out:

And you know something is happening
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones ?

Now you see this one-eyed midget
Shouting the word "NOW"
And you say, "For what reason ?"
And he says, "How ?"
And you say, "What does this mean ?"
And he screams back, "You're a cow
Give me some milk
Or else go home".

Because something is happening
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones ?

I did not sing that song out loud that night, but it went coursing through my brain. 49 years later that song came back to me, and I realized that this was what was going on in Luke's Gospel message for tonight. Luke starts off with Caesar Augustus, the one who destroyed the Roman Republic and became its military dictator, the “First Citizen”, and began the Roman Empire. Augustus proclaimed the “Pax Romana”, Roman Peace, which was done by military conquest followed by state-sponsored terror over its citizens. That is what Caesar meant when he proclaimed “Peace on Earth” from his sumptuous palace in Rome with battalions of bodyguards protecting him and brigades of servants catering to his every desire.  His wife was waiting for him to die, and some say she poisoned him in 14 AD, so that her son from a previous marriage, the sociopath Tiberius, could really show the world how to bring “Peace through Terror”.  “Something is happening and you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Caesar?”

Luke remembers Caesar Augustus, sure of his power, calling for an Empire-wide census; as misers like to count their coins, so tyrants like to count their subjects. At the same time in a nowhere part of the Empire, there is a little nobody called Mary. She, unlike Caesar, is outwardly vulnerable. She has no servants to care for her during her pregnancy, she only has Joseph, a man who married this young pregnant and unwed teenage girl. Joseph is called a “tecton”,  which we like to translate as “carpenter” but could also mean itinerant laborer, a very vulnerable person.  Joseph probably lived in Nazareth, probably working in Sepphoris, a city built by the Roman Client King Herod the Great and later destroyed in the same year as his death and Jesus' birth.  Joseph probably was a poor man and there were no servants. According to the story this poor family has to make a trip to Bethlehem, 80 miles, a week-long journey for a pregnant woman walking barefoot. Herod the Great  was a good client and friend of Augustus ever since Augustus defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra for control of Rome, and Herod changed sides and sucked up to Augustus. Herod was a ruler who had killed one of his wives and three of his sons because he was so paranoid - and he had good reason to be paranoid.  His life was centered in his fear of being vulnerable. He was afraid of losing his title,  “King of the Jews”. And now, in Herod's own Kingdom, there was a defenseless family whose son would be heir to the title of King of the Jews.  Something is happening but you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Herod?”

Luke calls the town of Bethlehem “the city of David” because David was born there, but Jerusalem is also called the “City of David” because he made it his capital; so Jesus will be born in one of the cities of David and will die in the other. There were David's descendents all over Bethlehem who were having family celebrations because of the census which called people to go back to their families’ hometown. They probably had connections and found out about the decree before it was announced and booked all the rooms in the inns.  There was no room for this poor family with no connections. They have no time to care about these poor relations; but something is happening and you don't know what it is, do you Mr. David?”

There were shepherds outside of the town, expecting a quiet night watching their sheep  and the angels appeared to them and they knew something was happening.  They wanted to know what it is and they made the journey to go to the center of their soul and find out what it is. “Something is happening and you want to know what it is, don't you Mr. Shepherd?”

Tonight we remember the night something happened. Tonight is like that night; every night is like that night, when something is happening and if we become still and listen to the angels speak to our hearts, then we will know what it is. Bless you for coming here to night and being open to what God is doing.

Mr. Jones' Response (poem)

Now, listening for it.

Now, beyond the fear we know.

Something happens, now.