The visit to the Shepherds
I am always amazed and intrigued in the way the gospel writers tell tehir stories. A comparitive approach helps flesh out the significance of each writer's message to their communities. When asked which Gospel I like most, I am hard pressed to say which one. I know John, Luke and Mark are my top three. Yeah, not much narrowing down. However, it usually is between Luke and Mark.
I am drawn to the message of Luke. I was reminded of it as I read this passage ofthe angel's appearing this morning. In Matthew's gospel, the infant Christ is visited by Magi (rich powerful individuals) who in a reversal of events prostrate themselves before and offer gifts unto an infant child. Perhaps it is akin to Donald Trump and the President visiting a local homeless shelter and expressing teh superiority of some destitute soul. A mockery of the proper order of things. However, Matthew does this as a way of emphasizing a view of Christ as King.
Luke's telling is much more "common," more prolatariat, more egalitarian. It is the gospel come to teh trailer park not Beverly Hills. Who is it that the angels come to, coomon working folk out in the field. It is they who fully appreciate what God is doing. It is they that embrace both fear and joy. Fear at the visitation of God, Joy at the birth of Christ. It is important that the purpose of the visit of the angel is nto to tell them to do something. It simply chooses to announce teh birth of Christ to these most lowly of folk. IF one doubts that LUke's telling seeks to emphasize these marginal souls, one need only read a little further and see that he narrates the visit of Jesus to the Temple and the encounter with Someon and Anna, an old man on the verge of death who has lived a life fo rthis moment and an old widowed woman who have lived nearly half a century alone and on the margins of society economically and socially.
However, Luke's telling of teh birth of Christ in this way is not some feel good approach that one is supposed to get when you buy clothes for the homeless or give to the United Way. It is much more powerful AND subversive than that. IT is these that society marginalizes that not only does God go to but whom recieve God. Case in point, find a single example of a wealthy person that is affirmed in Luke's Gospel. Case in point: where do we find the parable of the Good Samaritan. Case in point: compare the Beatitudes in Matthew and Luke's gospel.
Yet, one should also be cautious and see this simply as a political and economic revolution in sacred text. The gospel isn ot an economic or political agenda. However, living the gospel ethic has political and economic implications. Here, the one whom God visits, the ones who understand and are receptive to God are the ones the rest of society would marginalize.
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