December 24, 2022
Christmas Eve – George Yandell
Who or what affects you most strongly in the birth story of Jesus? With whom do you identify? Is it Joseph? Or the inn-keeper, or the shepherds? What about the other guests in the inn? I suspect many of us identify with Mary. Maybe it’s too much to focus on Jesus – but we might be well-served this Christmas to do so.
What exactly are the ‘inn’ and the ‘manger’ described in Luke? Those terms fit well with what we know from the later Ottoman Empire. Its ruined caravansaries still border the Silk Road in central Turkey. (Caravansary literally means “camel-caravan-palaces”.) A more primitive version of those structures was likely found in Bethlehem. The inn had a gated enclosure with a central courtyard for the animals; around that were covered rooms without doors from which the animals’ owners could keep an eye on their livestock. Toward the back there were regular closed rooms. Luke mentions those details not only to emphasize the poverty of the holy family, but to be as accurate as possible. As the census drew so many to Bethlehem, the closed and private rooms were gone, and so were all the covered and semi-private ones around the open courtyard. Therefore Jesus was born among the animals in that open courtyard and laid in one of their feeding troughs. [Adapted from The First Christmas, Borg and Crossan, 2007, p. 150]
Had you ever considered that Jesus was born under the starlit sky,
December 18, 2022
Advent – 4A – George Yandell
I knew Mary. She was in first through third grades with me and she went to my Church. Mary was a freckle-faced strawberry blond who walked home from school with me. Her eyes were crossed and she wore light blue-framed glasses with thick lenses that swept up at the temples. She was shy and didn’t talk much. Sometimes in class she had to step up close to the chalkboard and squint to make out the figures Mrs. McGuffy had written. Once in Sunday School class, Mary was being made fun of by two nasty little boys because she couldn’t see too well. I’d never heard Mary raise her voice before that, but she lit into those two boys – “You don’t think I can see you making fun of me. I can. I’m smart, and I know lots of things you don’t know. For one, my name means ‘one who is loved.’ I know that God loves me, and even loves you. But I don’t know why He loves you. But He does.” And they were stunned to silence. As were all of us third graders. She earned my respect in a big way. For years after, whenever I heard about Mary, mother of Jesus, I always pictured her with light blue glasses, in the image of my friend Mary from down the street. They may have more in common than you’d think.
Mary of Nazareth was given a new title by teachers of the Church almost 175 years after Jesus’ birth.
December 11, 2022
Advent 3A – George Yandell
The story goes that John the baptizer was born on the summer solstice. Six months older than his cousin Jesus, John is a dynamic figure, a man of judgement and light. John burns bright- he lays peoples’ sins bare, his prophecy calls down fire. Yet in today’s gospel passage, John is alone in a dark prison cell. He who recognized Jesus as the Messiah now seems to have doubts. “Are you the one to come,” John asks through his disciples come to Jesus, “or are we to wait for another?” [Adapted from “The Christian Century”, p. 22, November 23 issue.]
John might well have doubts since the deeds of the Christ are acts of compassion rather than the fiery judgement of the anticipated Messiah John had preached about. (That was in the gospel for last Sunday.) It seems John had backed off his earlier confidence that Jesus was the expected one. [Adapted fm The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol.8, p. 266]
In ancient prisons, prisoners were cared for by friends and family. Their needs were not provided for by the state, but by supporters of prisoners. News traveled freely. Witness the letters Paul wrote from prisons. In the chapters preceding today’s reading, Jesus has cleansed a leper, made the lame to walk, restored sight to the blind, and raised the dead. John must have known these stories. And he must have known that these miracles followed a pattern traced by Isaiah hundreds of years before–
December 4, 2022
Advent 2A – George Yandell
I offer you an exercise, a thought experiment. You may close your eyes. Recall your favorite childhood memory from the days leading up to Christmas.// Did you keep peering under the tree, hoping presents would appear? Did you add figures to the crèche as the days drew nearer? Did your family light an Advent wreathe to mark the passing days? What was it like for you? Do you remember what you felt? //
As adults, has anything changed? Ha ha. What do we anticipate now? Is it family gatherings? A feast? Do some of us anticipate sadness at losses that are accentuated near Christmas? The adult preparation for Christmas is often doing for others rather than ourselves, isn’t it? That gets lots closer to the scripture passages for today than our childhood anticipation.
Centuries before John the Baptist appeared, the Prophet Isaiah described a time of universal peace under the rule of an ideal king (Is. 11:1-5). Over time, Christians came to associate this figure with Jesus. This Messianic king was to be a descendant of David, the son of Jesse-hence the reference to a green shoot springing to life out of a stump.
The image of a stump here also conveys the strength and humility of Israel in contrast to the imperial arrogance of the Assyrians (“majestic trees”) that the Lord will cut down (Is. 10:33-34). This king will be filled with God’s Spirit and endowed with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. His delight will be in the Lord,