Be Vigilant, He's Coming!

Be Vigilant, He’s Coming

That was the header on the email sent by this year’s Christmas Angel. As I sat in my writing-chair, scanning my email, pondering just what I have left to say about Christmas that has not already been said, I was watching our dog, Bella, standing on the chair, looking out the window for something, anything, to invade our property that might be deserving of her barking an  announcement, I thought just how Vigilant she looks. Nothing I say or do can distract her from watching with vigilant purpose and intensity. Someone is coming. That was the message staring at me in my email list: Be Vigilant, He’s Coming. This is what Advent was all about: Watch. Wait. Be Vigilant!

Like the shepherds, I thought, who were keeping vigilant watch over their flocks by night when suddenly, like the email, an angel of the Lord appeared to announce a child had been born in nearby Bethlehem – the city of David, the boy who had become king and had been a good shepherd in these same hills. “Good News!” sang a multitude of angels. “Go and see! We bring you good news of a great joy for all the people!” They bounded down the hillside into the town to see this child of which the angels sing! There they were: the young girl, an older man, and between them the baby, wrapped in bands of cloth just as the angels had said. They tell the couple what the angels had said, how this child was God’s Anointed, the Christ, the Messiah. Then, as they hurried back to keep vigilant watch over their flocks they were glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. That’s what we are supposed to be doing – be like the shepherds: vigilant and telling this story.  While Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

The story, of course, begins with an awkward marriage arrangement. And another angel assuring both Mary and Joseph not to worry. Do not fear. Or, does it begin some forty-two generations earlier with David the shepherd King. Or really, several generations before that with an immigrant family that was forced to flee Israel because of a famine. Elimelech, Naomi and their two sons flee to Moab. It’s in the book of Ruth which I had to translate from Hebrew years ago as a senior in college. In Moab the sons marry gentile Moabite women, Orpah (which is where Oprah gets her name!) and Ruth (which is where Oprah gets her name!). Over time, Elimelech and the two sons die, leaving the women to fend for themselves. Naomi decides to return home to Israel and encourages her daughters-in-law to return to their homes. Orpah leaves, but in what is perhaps the most beautiful speech in all of scripture, Ruth pledges to stay with Naomi: “Entreat me not to leave you, or turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you live, I will live; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die – there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you.” Ruth’s pledge expresses a kind of vigilant faithfulness, love and devotion to God and to care for her widowed  mother-in-law.

Now it is Ruth who is the immigrant in Israel. Naomi has a kinsman named Boaz. Ruth works in his fields to support her mother-in-law. Through a series of astonishing events and negotiations, Boaz marries the immigrant, Ruth; they have a child; the child is named Obed; he becomes the father of Jesse; Jesse is the father of the shepherd boy David – the most renowned King of Israel. All because Boaz the Israelite welcomed the immigrant from Moab, Ruth, she becomes the great-great-great, 44-times great-grandmother of Jesus, for Joseph is from the house of David. All because Ruth was vigilant in her love for Naomi and for Naomi’s God, the God of Israel.

Not long after the child Jesus was born Joseph hears from another angel of the Lord that he is to take the child and Mary and flee to Egypt to escape the terrible Slaughter of Innocent Israelite children ordered by Herod, King of the Jews. Joseph, Mary and Jesus live as immigrants in safety in Egypt of all places! Until another angel of the Lord comes to Joseph in yet another dream to issue the all-clear signal: Herod is dead, and it is time to go home. Where people are watching, waiting and keeping vigil with John the Baptizer for someone to save them from their sins and from the Roman captivity that already seems endless. Their vigilance is rewarded as the child Jesus grows up to show how we are to live in ways that transcend any and all tribalism and to shine light in the darkness despite the threats and machinations of the Empire. Despite the implicit truth of this story: that the wood of the manger turns out to be the wood of the cross. And yet, even Roman crucifixion cannot defeat the power of the child’s Love for all persons.

It turns out that love is the answer – love of God, love of neighbor, love of the poor, love of the hungry, love of the thirsty, the naked, the prisoners and the strangers – immigrant strangers, without whom we would not be here to witness once again the birth of Love in our midst; in our hearts; in our lives; in all that we do and say as we serve the Spirit of Christ that is in all persons, all creatures and all of creation! All this was going through my mind as I watched Bella keeping vigilant watch over our home, when suddenly there appeared in my email the message from another angel – Christina Garvan, my long-time mentor at St. Timothy’s School for Girls, my colleague, teacher and friend of Jesus. Her message was a story. Another story of how we come to be here this night. The story is titled, Be Vigilant, He’s Coming:

Our heroine is leaving her cousin’s house today. It has been a good time but now for María the

journey increases in difficulty with each day as her womb grows. She is a funny kind of heroine

because she is so quiet and even, we might say, passive. She has always been this way. She

did not want or have friends other than her sisters and her dear mother, if you can call family

friends. She listens well and knows no other course than obedience. She hopes to join the

sisterhood when all this is over. She has no brothers and no boys or young men have ever

called. That is not unusual in her town. Lots of children help at home and never go to school.

María believes her mother that babies come from God. Hers surely does.

José comes to take her on the journey. They are married but not really. He has lost his wife and

will be with her for the crossing. They have the papers showing they are official, a husband, a

wife, and a baby to come. Without the papers José is a bandit or worse a coyote, and María is a

pregnant whore. That’s how they are seen. María is a good listener and she has heard the

words. The baby will not be born like she was at home. The baby will be born across the river

and through the gates. The baby is for every town and has to leave behind the humble

beginnings.

The couple are learning to be kind to each other. José has arranged some rides so they won’t

walk the whole way. Usually they will sit in the front of a truck, offer gas money or even spell the driver. María has no license but José does and most vehicles have a long way to go and little

time. Sometimes the two walk and sometimes join others. María left home months ago when the

sun was blistering but now the days are short and the evenings cold. It is best when they ride

through the night.

At the border there are huge crowds. María and José are not worried. They have papers. They

have to make the crossing. The papers say so. María heard why. José has been given the

ultimate responsibility. The baby must learn something of which neither Maria nor José have

knowledge. In their town the poor and rich help each other. Some have more, some have less

but all are as one. The baby would grow there magnificently and in isolation. So María and José

have been instructed the baby shall be among the wolves not the gentle lambs. He will be

helpless and tiny and brown. The border agents will see Him and for the first time will see God.

But that part of the story is coming.

After a long wait the line, the throng, the mass of people cross the river. The bridge holds. María

walks with her head up and hopes for rest soon. The gates are besieged with people and so

another long time for waiting ensues. María is ready to deliver. José has shown the woman

officer the papers. It is time. The officer knows the time is here. She leads the man and woman,

now weeping in fear, in excitement, in awe, to shelter. The officer apologizes, now weeping too,

and shows the mat on the floor. She calls for help. They come. The others who know. They

kneel down. Some gather outside the fenced-in cage. The baby cries.

The Savior has arrived. Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth, Peace.

I asked Christina’s permission to share this with you, and she said yes, “as it is my gift to the ones at the border.” For you see, his story is their story. And their story is His story. And their story is our story.

My sisters, my brothers, this Jesus is the gift for which we await. He comes to remind us just who we are and whose we are – and to remind us of our calling to love our neighbors – all neighbors. All people. As angels continually sing, only we can give Glory to God; only we can be Peace and Love on Earth – Earth which itself is held captive by our over-consumption of its resources. We are to shine his light in the darkness. Know that there is a place deep within you where the Christ child is being born, awakening you and sending you out into all the world to proclaim the Good News of great Joy for All the people! We are to remember all those immigrants without whom we would not be celebrating the Christ child’s birth. We are to be like Joseph, to open our hearts to our dreams and the messages of angels who are, even now, here among us, singing to us visions of Peace and Mercy and Love and Forgiveness for All the people, for all the land. Look up and see that it is Good. By God, it is Good!

Be Vigilant, He’s Coming, even now, to be born again in our hearts and in our land. Who knows? Even now, “some gather outside the fenced-in cage. The baby cries. The Savior has arrived. Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth, Peace.”

May we hear the message of the angels throughout the ages. God bless us, every one!

Thanks to Christina Garvan for her story, Be Vigilant, He’s Coming!