As most of you know for the last few years I have become increasingly liberal in my biblical theology. This year as whole I have been attempting to look beyond the simple bible stories as they are told and really take a fresh hermeneutical look at the Bible and my personal religious philosophy.
I had the privilege this year to attend a church pageant at the UCC church I now attend. I have never been to a church pageant before and still am confused at what the difference between a pageant and play are. As I sat there and watched a very comical re-imagining of the traditional nativity story I saw the story from a new light.
Truthfully there is no way to tell if Mary was technically a virgin and the text is vague. I'm not going to go into a sex education lesson here but as we all know a person can technically get pregnant without going 'all the way,' especially in pre-birth control and pre-Trojan man days.
BUT the story though isn't focused on the pregnancy! Look at the text, look at the story. The actually pregnancy takes a back seat to what happens next. Mary got pregnant, Joseph freaks out and has a dream (in which an angel visits him and says chill out) and then he comes back welcoming Mary. He could have literally had Mary stoned to death but instead he took the embarrassment and loved Mary even though EVERYTHING within logic told him she was lying. The first story in the New Testament of unforgiven love isn't one of a god-man showing mankind how to properly love. Instead its one of a teenage boy going against everything he knows and instead runs away with his bride to be.
Mary should have never been on a trip 8-9months pregnant (though the journey itself could have had baby Jesus early due to the stress from the traveling. Maybe that's what gave Jesus the blond hair and blue eyes that all the American religious stained glass windows show). I suspect Joseph took her and both knew they weren't going home. Instead they planned to up and leave for good. They went to Bethlehem knowing it would be a good life. I suspect on the way they transformed from bride and groom to married couple, no one would know the difference and the simple lie would be all it took to stop people from judging Mary.
As best we know both Joseph and Mary were religious people, following Yahweh was what they did. Then they woke up on the other side of the tracks, they woke up being those that their religion judged. The only thing they had left was love, beyond the judgment of religion the love of humanity is found.
Then in Bethlehem they are forced to sleep in a stable. (If everyone was traveling to their families hometown why was the inn keeper still in Bethlehem? was he originally from there? And if so shouldn't he have known Josephs family?) Sleeping in a stable was not an uncommon happening in those days. Some where along the way we have cleaned up this scene. Sorry a stable has more than a couple of sheep and a donkey in it. It would have had all the slaves and lower class working people sleeping in it, tons of animals, possibly an elephant or two, lots of camels, few sheep because those were kept outside of the city in little round holding pens, but overall the stable would be a crowded smelly place.
So we have a young scared couple in a room filled with slaves and low class people. Then in the midst of this a birth happens. I'm imaging a loud, messy, scream filled, birth with everyone in the stable involved. So we have a story of love and birth within community. From the very moments Jesus was birthed it was in the midst of community. I imagine it was these loud noises that the young (being the night shift means it was more than likely the youngest of the shepherds in the fields) shepherds heard. The shepherds just a few years separated from childhood then arrive to witness a birth in process with people running all about. The next morning the entire city knew of the birth, remember they didn't have windows in those days so a woman screaming in a stable down the road could easily be heard.
Beyond the supernatural elements we find an amazing story of love and equality. We find people of different socioeconomic standings coming together. Young shepherds, slaves, stable keepers, and a newly wedded couple all celebrating a birth. At that moment Joseph and Mary knew their lie could come to an end, the wedded couple were in a new city beginning their new life and on that first night community was already being shown to them.
Beyond the supernatural we find a young groom loving his bride even though deep down inside probably still doubting the story Mary told. Beyond the supernatural we find a story even richer, a story of love beyond all common sense and we find a story of equality during a usually very personal occasion.
This year the Christian Christmas story was not one of supernatural pregnancies and unquestioning religions followers. This year I found a story of love and equality. And that story seems even richer to me.
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