Only a few verses from "the people who walked in darkness" we hear, "Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!" The prophets often rail against the rich and the powerful, against those who insure that the laws and the policies of the land favor them, who worry more about their own profits than about the poor.
And Jesus aligns himself with these prophets, proclaiming "good news to the poor" and warning those with wealth that their many possessions are a curse rather than a blessing, that it is harder for a camel to pass through an needle's eye than for a wealthy person to enter into the kingdom.
On some level, Christians seem to know that the coming of a Messiah calls us to care for the poor. The outpouring of charity around Christmas, by people in and out of the Church, is quite impressive. Yet I fear that it is only a token of the life the prophets and Jesus call us to live.
We had an interesting discussion the other day in a Bible study about the distinction between service and servanthood. The first are things we occasionally do while the second is a pose, a way of life. When Jesus washes his disciples' feet on the night of his arrest, it is an act of service, but more importantly, it is the pose of a slave or servant. Jesus does something not done by dinner hosts but done only by slaves and servants. And he says that this is an example for us to follow. We are to take the pose of servants and slaves.
Amidst all the hoopla of Christmas, it is easy to forget that Jesus comes to call us to a new way of life. This is the true gift of Christmas, even though we often see the call to discipleship like a child who got socks for Christmas. It seems to us an unwelcome burden. But Jesus insists, "Those who lose their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it." Jesus offers the gift of true and abundant life to those who would walk in his ways, the ways of servanthood, self-giving, and social justice that both he and the prophets proclaim.
The true gift Jesus offers us at Christmas, and every other day of the year, is the hardest gift for many of us to receive. We struggle to believe that this gift could bring us happiness and fulfillment because we have believed the false gospel we hear every day, that happiness comes from having more - more and more things, more and more power, more and more prestige. We struggle to trust Jesus when he tells us that less is really more, that crosses and self-denial are to be embraced. But still Jesus comes to us, and still he offers us new life.
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