I’ve heard it all around me this past week – in the car, in my house and in myself as the song gets stuck in my head and I end up singing it. Have you ever heard it? The song that proclaims “A Baby Changes Everything.” As I sit here on Christmas Eve, I can’t help wonder what does this baby that we call Christ really change? And as I sit here I am decompressing after a difficult Christmas Eve sermon – difficult in the way that it makes me what to run out of the church because it reminds me so much of where I used to be – the theology that I used to claim as my own.
Let me give you a picture: Its 11pm on Christmas Eve at a UM church. A youth band has kicked off our church service with a rock-n-roll rendition of O Holy Night. Later on in the service a young white, male pastor gets up to preach the Christmas Eve sermon.
This sermon that was preached involved a lot of yelling (I mean a lot). My guess is the preacher wanted an emotional response from the congregation that was gathered. When describing the sermon to a friend I called it an alter call sermon. You know those sermons that tell everyone that the reason for the seaon, the reason that the baby Jesus came and that God came down in the flesh, is because we all need to be saved from this thing we call sin. The theology behind the sermon is simple, the evil in this world, the harmful relationships, the abuse its all caused by sin. By the separation between us and God. This separation is not something that we can fix, but only God. If we come to God and are saved then all of the shit in this world will be ok.
I was cringing in my seat as I listened to the words. Cringing because I believe in sin and in evil, I believe that powers oppress and people oppress. There are people on the streets that go hungry; people who are killed because of something that makes them different from others. There is evil in this world. But does a baby coming into this world really change all of it? When one is saved by God does this evil stop?
I recently preached at my church about social justice and the need for the church to get involved. Within that sermon I talked about how identifying as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer is still seen as a sin in many churches and in my conservative christians. And this view when it leaves the church is translated in our world into bullying and suicides. Those churches who uphold these views are full of people who have been saved . Has the baby changed anything?
You know that baby eventually grew up to be an adult. And according to the scriptures of the Christian tradition this man who is called Jesus, did things that were not always seen as good within the eyes of the religious system that was established. Jesus healed people on the sabath, he talked to women and others, he was present with lepers. All of these people that Jesus spoke to and healed were seen as outcasts in the religious tradition (cultural tradition?) that he was a part of. Yet Jesus saw that they were people. This Jesus shows me that the salvation that we speak of all throughout the Christian year and on Easter is not about this great divide between God and God’s people.Its about a great divide between people.
I’m sitting in my home and I had plenty of food to eat today; we have leftovers piled in our fridge. My family and friends are all asleep, protected by the cold outside by the warmth of our walls and furnace. But I know there are people here, in my city, that do not have any of this. We’ve given to shelters and families, but there are still more who need, because our system is broken.
I am with my family and do not have to fear being arrested in order to go see them, because I was born here and am a citizen of this country. These fictitious borders that we have created, create further divides between the people.
We took communion tonight at church and I went up to take it. There was no recognition from the pastor that the communion table was open for ALL, but because of how I am seen by my congregation I am welcomed to participate. Others who are out and identify as glbtq may not have felt comfortable in my church, which does not proclaim open doors for all people – in both their direct words and indirect words.
There is a great divide between our people. There is a great divide between our people and the land, animals, air, sky, sun…
So I have to ask if a baby really does change everything. Is it really all up to God to change the shit that is wrong in this world?
This may not be coherent, just some random thoughts floating in my head.
~ carissa
