Noticing Nobodies

Christmas is normally associated with the fabulous -- the splashy -- the marque.  You know...the Radio City Christmas Spectacular...the exquisite gift from Neiman Marcus...the silvery tinsel and bright ornaments of the Christmas tree.

But in reality, Christmas, when viewed through the lens of the first Christmas, is anything but fabulous or famous.

In fact, the first Christmas is rather ordinary, 'down to earth' -- 'starring' nobodies.

Think about it:  if you were 'in charge' of birthing the long awaited Messiah, wouldn't you pick someone notable to mid-wife the task:  perhaps members of a royal family -- or -- members of a wealthy clan, able to resource and network the path forward.

But our 'odd God,' chose the lowly and the unassuming:

• a teenage girl from a remote, hilly village
• a blue-collar carpenter, with no connections or lofty credentials
• a band of smelly, discounted shepherds at the bottom of the financial and social heap 
• a band of mystic sages, apparently wise, but untitled, without wide-fame

Yet, from these nobodies, came the ultimate somebody:  the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ,  Master of the Universe, Savior of the World. 

Ironically, it is this somebody from nobodies, that we remember -- rather than the powerful and famous in the Christmas story.

Like powerful and famous Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, who's actually launches the Christmas story ("…And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed…”  Luke 2:1)  It's important to note, that Caesar Augustus wasn't just any Roman emperor, but one of the greatest Roman emperors to ever live.  Why, Caesar Augustus expanded the Roman Empire in unprecedented ways – oversaw the golden age of Roman literature and architecture – and established the greatest era of Roman peace, the famed Pax Romana.   

Yet this somebody from somebodies (Caesar Augustus) is largely forgotten -- but the somebody from nobodies (Jesus Christ) - is now the most notable person in human history.  As one anonymous writer mused:  "...the cradle of Jesus -- became the cradle that rocked the world!"

But that's the oddness of God:  God shapes the real somebodies out of nobodies -- birthing a Jesus who went on to teach us:  “…So the last will be first, and the first will be last…”  (Matthew 20:16).   

But we still don't get it.  Fawning over the somebodies, and largely bypassing the nobodies.

I was convicted of this anew, while riding Amtrak from Bridgeport, CT to Baltimore, MD on Sunday.  Overjoyed at the time and space encouraged by train-travel, I read articles in the New York Times, I normally by-pass.  Like an Op-Ed piece by Frank Bruni, entitled:  "Are You Old? Infirm? Then Kindly Disappear."  In this piece, Bruni tells the story of Nancy Root, and her experience in using a wheelchair, as a result of post-polio syndrome.  "...Nancy Root remembers when she vanished..." Bruni writes: 

"...Not the exact date, but the occasion: She went shopping for a mattress. This was a few years ago. Because the mall was so big and her legs were so weak, she used a wheelchair, which was new to her, and had a friend push her...In the chair she became invisible. In the chair she turned radioactive. People looked over her, around her, through her. They withdrew. It was the craziest thing. She had the same keen mind, the same quick wit...[Why?]...[Nancy]...has her own theories. Maybe strangers worry that she’ll need something from them. Maybe they see in her their worst fears about their own futures. Probably they extrapolate from her physical diminishment...They make dismissive assumptions about people above a certain age or below a certain level of physical competence. Or they simply edit those people out of the frame..." https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/opinion/sunday/are-you-old-infirm-then-kindly-disappear.html

Wow.  Let that last sentence sink in:  they simply edit those people...diminished people...out of their frame.  

We do that.  I do that.  It's wrenching and embarrassing to confess, but I do tend to edit out -- bypass -- dismiss -- diminished people.   

Yet, ironically, God's marque folk -- as headlined in the Christmas story -- are diminished people.  The people the world -- including many of us -- including me -- consider, on too many occasions, nobodies.  

And so a forgotten theme of the Christmas story are the forgotten people.  For as we see Jesus anew this holiday season -- we are also called to see the marginalized, the diminished, the forgotten, anew this holiday season.  For with God, to quote Francis Schaeffer, "...there are no little people..." 

 "...[For]...Scripture emphasizes that much can come from little if the little is truly consecrated to God. There are no little people and no big people...but only consecrated and unconsecrated people...[Thus] our attitude toward all men should be that of equality ...We are of one blood and kind. As I look across all the world...I must be careful to have a sense of our equality on the basis of this common status...We are fellow-creatures.
 (Francis A. Schaeffer, No Little People, Ch. 1)  http://www.rationalpi.com/theshelter/little.htmlhttp://www.rationalpi.com/theshelter/little.html

Thus, Paul admonishes us to be especially sensitive to those we are prone to marginalize -- either young or old.    

"...Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity..."  I Timothy 5:1-2

Years ago, I discovered a poem that convicted me of this necessity, in particular, toward older folk.  It was found among the possessions of an elderly woman, soon after her death.  It's entitled:  "See Me."    

"...What do you see, nurses, what do you see? Are you thinking, when you look at me —'A crabby old woman, not very wise, Uncertain of habit, with far-away eyes]...[Yes] I’m an old woman now and nature is cruel —‘Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool. The body is crumbled, grace and vigor depart, There is now a stone where once I had a heart -- But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells, And now and again my battered heart swells. I remember the joys, I remember the pain, And I’m loving and living life over again, I think of the years, all too few, gone too fast, And accept the stark fact that nothing can last —So I open your eyes, nurses, open and see, Not a crabby old woman, look closer, nurses — see ME!..."  [for the full version, see:  http://www.nursinghomealert.com/share-this-poem ]

I think, in part, that's what Mary is singing in the famed Magnificant in Luke 1.  See not just the lofty -- but the lowly.  See not just the enlarged -- but the diminished.  For in seeing what is not popularly, readily seen -- we see -- the face of God.  

“…Then Mary said, “My heart is overflowing with praise of my Lord, my soul is full of joy in God my Saviour. For he has deigned to notice me, his humble servant and, after this, all the people who ever shall be will call me the happiest of women! The one who can do all things has done great things for me—oh, holy is his Name! Truly, his mercy rests on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, he has swept away the high and mighty. He has set kings down from their thrones and lifted up the humble. He has satisfied the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away with empty hands..."  (Luke 1:46-55, Phillips, emphasis added]

And so notice the nobodies this Christmas.  See Mary.  See Joseph.  See the shepherds. See the Magi.

And turn, see their counterparts today:  the marginalized, the diminished, the forgotten.

But most importantly, see Jesus -- who began as the supreme nobody, born in feeding trough, in a backwoods village -- to become the supreme Somebody:  Savior of the World.