LIBERATION LECTIONARY ~ Christmastide

God’s Dwelling Place

“What has kept me going has been the development of new modes of community. I don't know whether I would have survived had not movements survived, had not communities of resistance, communities of struggle survived...It is in collectives that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism.” -Angela Davis

Christmas Day Lesson

The God Who Dwells Among Us

“I will strengthen them in the Lord and in his name they will live securely,” declares the Lord. “ Zechariah 10.12

In the first chapter of Matthew, four mothers are named among the long list of the forefathers of Jesus. God’s plan is very intentional. God wants us to see that Jesus is not ashamed of the people in his family. In Matthew’s time, only fathers' names were recorded when people wrote the history of someone’s parentage. This is because of a yet unnamed rule in most cultures called misogyny. The entire Bible was written during a time where misogyny controlled culture in more ways than it does today. The list of relatives by generations is called a genealogy. God promises to dwell with everyone in every genealogy, especially the people who are cast out, condemned, erased and attacked by misogyny. Jesus’s Great-Grandmothers each have an important role in his story. He attends his mother like Ruth with Naomi. He fellowships with women who are prostitutes like Rahab. He embraces abused women like Bathsheba. He shows solidarity with the power of women like Tamar. God’s promise that They are coming to dwell among us is fulfilled in Jesus - the Son of God. This is something to celebrate today! God’s Son is making his dwelling with us, and generations of God’s daughters - their spirits and their stories - have already made their dwelling in Him.

Dwelling in the Biblical Story: Mary and Joseph and Jesus

Before Jesus was born, God’s angel visited each of his earthly parents. God blessed Mary and promised her that she would bring up a son who would change the world. God told Joseph not to be afraid to keep his promise to make Mary his wife, and to be a father to their son. When it was time for Mary to have their baby, she and Joseph had to travel far from home for a mandatory census, which is a time when governments count people. In their time in history, people had to travel to their family’s homeland in order to be counted. Mary was in labor after the journey. The Bible says that there was no room for them in guest houses - similar to a hostel, a motel, an inn, an Airbnb, or a bed and breakfast. Joseph and Mary did what they had to do to prepare for baby Jesus to arrive. They went to a stable. They laid the baby in a manger, an open container where cattle are fed. Have you ever been to a stable, or a barn? Maybe it would help to think about a shed. We might not feel at home in a place like a shed, but God did. God made a home with the dust and the cattle feed. God felt at home with the tools and the animals. When Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph had to give him a dwelling. That’s what faithful parents do. But God was with them, in the body of a newborn baby, and because God was dwelling with them, they made a home right where they were. Shepherds came to see them, angels brought good news to people who needed to come see the newborn King who had made a dwelling from a barn. The story of Christmas is that God loves to live with us. Wherever God dwells is home. Read the story of Mary, Joseph and Jesus in Luke chapter 2.

Dwelling in Black History: Patricia Okoumou

Patricia Okoumou was 23 years old when she immigrated to the U.S. from the Republic of Congo, and she was 45 years old when she climbed the Statue of Liberty on July 4, 2018. She did it to protest the unjust detention of migrant children by the Trump Administration, and she didn’t stop there. Later that year just before Christmas, she protested again by climbing the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In February 2019, she protested at a school owned by the CEO of a company who was profiting off of migrant children. Patricia Okoumou came to the United States for the freedom, peace, and opportunity that Lady Liberty is meant to represent. There is a poem on the Statue of Liberty that says “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” but this place does not live up to those words. This place does not feel like a home that is safe for all to come and dwell, and Patricia, an immigrant herself, understands that. 

Today’s Reading: A Scripture for Christmas Day

During the first week of Christmas, we celebrate Kwanzaa. Daily readings will be shared each day of the week by the theme of the Nguzo Saba: The seven principles of Kwanzaa. For today’s reading, we look at the biblical story of Jesus’s arrival. From the gospel writings of Matthew and Luke.

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).  When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

And in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.  This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

While they were traveling, Mary gave birth to her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were in the same area shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock during that night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and over all the earth let there be peace, goodwill toward all people!”

Then when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see what the Lord’s messengers told us.” And they came immediately and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen the baby, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered in her heart. 

Then the shepherds returned to their fields, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had witnessed, exactly as it was told to them.

Matthew 1, Luke 2

Music: The Night That Christ Was Born

“Listen to the angels, rejoicing ever so sweetly, receiving heaven’s glory, the night that Christ was born. Can’t you see the people, coming from every nation, pleading for salvation, the night that Christ was born. Oh such a wonderful Savior, to be born in a manger, so that I can share His favor, and my heart be made anew.”

Christmas Day reminds us that we are God’s dwelling place. Our homes are the places that God has chosen to make Their home. Meditate on the ways that God’s presence makes you feel at home no matter where you are. Share the good news with your loved ones that every place is a space that God can help us to feel like home, because the birth of Jesus reminds us that God is at home everywhere.

View the throwback original music video here: The Night That Christ Was Born, Kirk Franklin and the Family

Prayer & Meditation: How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place

Read and repeat the theme scripture for this devotional. Think of each of Jesus’s foremothers as you speak the verse. Think of Patricia and Àbáké and Ella and June. Think of the mothers in your family, think of all of the femmes. For every pain and every joy, speak this promise over them. "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for I am coming to dwell among you. This is the Lord's promise." Zechariah 2.10

Read Psalm 84. Take time to remember and repeat verse 1. Look around your home and repeat it. Think of or look at your loved ones in person or in pictures and repeat the verse. Picture yourself in your mind or look in the mirror and repeat the verse.  “How lovely is your dwelling place, Oh Lord!” Psalm 84.1