Christmas 2005 : Reflections on Mary and Joe

Tonight is the first performance of The Music of Christmas 2005 : A New Day. Yes, I am painfully aware that our fair program shares a portion of it’s title with a melismatic songstress who’s prone to odd stage posturing and clearly has daddy issues. Believe me when I tell you that this fact gave me great pause when I was naming this concert. Just FYI, every year the Christmas Concert is called The Music of Christmas… something. It’s kind of like Star Wars Episode XVII : Wookies on Ice.

It pleases me greatly to inform you that I have managed to rope the entirety of the Addison Road writing team, upper management, and custodial staff into this weekend’s performances, despite the fact that we attend four separate churches. Should you desire to come to Agoura Hills this weekend, you could catch Mike on keys, me conducting, Aly, Ash, Gretchen, and Erica singing, And Matty’s killer video production skillz. Tickets are $5 at the door and include coffee and dessert.

Because I am a glutton for punishment, I decided to attempt something that I have never done before : video production. With Matt’s expertise, we crafted a 20/20 style news report that chronicles a modern day telling of the Birth Narrative, with scripture and music woven in. I sincerely hope that this might someday be considered the first Post-Modern Church Christmas Musical. An Emergusical, if you will. We are going to tape tomorrow and Sunday night’s performances and edit them together with the video footage to create a record of what we’ve done. Perhaps we’ll post some of the segments here for your viewing pleasure in the weeks to come.

To create this story, we really dug deep into The Bible and tried to put ourselves in their shoes. The narrative is fairly clinical, with the exception of Mary’s Magnificat and Zechariah’s song following the birth of his son, but we all know that these were flesh and blood people. I would like to share with you all just a few of the observations we made, as always, in no particular order.

Mary got zero parental support, or at least it’s not recorded in Scripture. There is no mention of Mary’s family in any of the four gospels. There’s a hymn we’re singing tonight that mentions the name of Mary’s parents as Johachim and Anna, but I confess that I don’t know where their names are recorded. Anyways, I think Mary was a good kid. Luke’s gospel recounts Gabriel telling her that she is highly favored. Great kids don’t emerge from the mist. I think her parents were good people, who had raised her well, and most likely loved her to pieces. I think it makes it even more poignant that they were unable or unwilling to support her through this trial. Sure, everyone thought she was nuts, but isn’t it a bummer when we allow cultural expectations to wreck relationships?

The Magnificat comes after someone is kind to her. Mary has to bail out of town and go stay with her aunt and uncle, who’ve had a little encounter with the Lord themselves. We liked to think that the first thing Elizabeth would have done would have been to get her some decent prenatal care, whatever that may have been in 1st century Palestine. In the video, we have a segment where Mary and Elizabeth are shopping for maternity clothes and getting an ultrasound, while our narrator (with her ever-so-hip Aussie accent) reads the entirety of Mary’s song while the band gently plays O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. It’s quite a moment.

Anyways, anyone else think it’s funny that maybe Mary was led to say this amazing prayer of thanksgiving only after someone had taken a few moments to be kind to her? I think sometimes we underestimate the impact of our relationships on one another’s spiritual walks.

Mary and Joseph’s reconciliation was not recorded in the Scripture, but I bet it was a doozy. So here’s Mary, thinking that she’s going to lose her man, her reputation, and her life while carrying out this task that God had given her to do. But then God, in His graciousness, decides to include this righteous man in his plan. I have always been fascinated by Joseph. I bet he was a great guy, or else the God of the universe wouldn’t have chosen him to be the earthly father of His Son. I would be willing to bet that when Mary got her man back she was a pretty happy lady.

Jesus was born in a time of profound social unrest and political upheaval. Can you imagine what a pain in the ass the census was? Can you imagine how frustrated you would have been to have to put your 9 month pregnant wife on a donkey for a 75 mile plus journey? My wife is in the last few weeks of her pregnancy, and I don’t like to take her to the mall. I must add, and I won’t spoil it for you, that the way we set up the census is just about the coolest thing since spice racks.

And yet, off they go. No record of them griping. No record of shaking their fists at the sky. No record of them mounting a grass roots campaign to change the Roman government. These people were about the business of Jesus Christ, and that business alone.

Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if Christians are missing the point of Christmas. It’s not about making sure that we can still call it a Christmas Tree. It’s not about protesting the removal of the manger from the town square. There is not a government in the world that can stop us from celebrating the birth of our Savior. Let’s not allow them to steal our joy by getting all wrapped up in all this bull-crap. Let them attempt to dumb down and whitewash and homogenize the “Holiday Season.” If Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against His church, surely we can rest easy regarding the knuckleheads of Anytown USA’s city council. I think we’ll get a lot further with our communities should we commit ourselves to serving the poor, sick, and lonely, as well as nurturing the heart of Christ within our own souls.

Ok… you may now have the soapbox back, but I have one more observation.

What’s the deal with the shepherds? What purpose did they serve? I can’t help but feel that they were sent by God to reward Mary and Joe for their faithfulness, and serve as an immediate confirmation of God’s continued sovereignty in their lives. I happen to think that there are shepherds (or, if you come to the show… mall-cops) all around us. I think God is revealing Himself again and again to us, should we be watching and listening.

May Jesus be real and tangible to you this season, this most blessed of seasons.

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