"Occupy Christmas"

One of my favorite Christmas carols, for sheer aesthetic beauty, is "O Holy Night". According to Wikipedia, the popular English version was published in 1855 by a Unitarian minister named John Sullivan Dwight. You can find the words (of four distinct versions) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Holy_Night. The Reverend Mr. Dwight wrote that as Jesus is born "the weary world rejoices,/For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn."

According to most contemporary scholars, that moment occurred around 4 B.C (it seems the ancient scholars who calculated the break between "before Christ" and "the year of our Lord" got it slightly wrong). Today we find ourselves in "the year of our Lord" 2011 wondering when the sun will come up.

Of late there’s been a lot of chatter about the end of the world, as we know it, happening in 2012. Apparently it isn’t just that the Mayans got tired of calendar-making, but a variety of folks have found scientific and mythical clues that make them believe next year is the year. Though pessimists may believe everything will end next year, optimists tend to believe that’s when "breaks [the] new and glorious morn." I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait. There’s only one problem: I’m not sure I believe it.

One of the most titillating developments of 2011 has been the "Occupy" movement. Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Boston. Occupy San Diego. Occupy Everywhere. A lot can be said about the Occupiers on all sides. I haven’t spent much time following or researching them, but I’m struck by the timeliness of their initiative. Before we can have a "new and glorious morn" for our world, we have to stop what we’ve been doing. That seems undeniable. Wouldn’t it be nice if 2012 were the year we finally figured it out?

When I was young I was a grumpy little kid who soured early at arguments at holiday gatherings and presents I didn’t want. For a few years I was a fundamentalist Baptist and tried to make Christmas mean something by recourse to what I thought was its real meaning–celebrating "the night of our dear Saviour’s birth." That episode ended 32 years ago. About the intervening years, the less said the better. But as the song says, I do find a "thrill of hope" anticipating that coming dawn.

Except among fundamentalists, there is a growing consensus that Jesus saw his mission as announcing the kingdom of God–and perhaps helping to inaugurate it in his lifetime. (Scholars seem unable to agree on what role he expected to play in the new kingdom, but they think it was a prominent one.) There’s an impressive resonance between the things Jesus is supposed to have taught and the type of world the Occupiers seem to want. Consider:

Then someone came to him and said, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? . . . Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me." When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. . . . it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19: 16, 21-24, New Revised Standard Version)

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6: 19-21)

"Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you." (Matthew 5: 42)

Many of Jesus’ ethical teachings are even more radical than these. They reflect the way he thought people should live in order to bring about the era of peace, justice, and abundance that was to be the kingdom of God. They reflect the selflessness that was to be the essence of that kingdom. They assume that there is enough for everyone–if no one insists on accumulating and keeping it for himself.

I am not so naive as to think the Occupiers are as unselfish as they ask others to be. No doubt most of them want what they think others are keeping from them. In that respect they’re no "better" then those they seek to influence. Neither, however, are they any "worse".

It’s been almost 2,000 years since Jesus died and supposedly rose again. In those 2,000 years the faith he inspired has changed human nature in the Western world for the better through teachings like those quoted above. But a world of universal peace, justice, and abundance has not been forthcoming. Enough has been written elsewhere about how Christmas has been hijacked by materialism. None of it matters. But Jesus did matter, and he still does, as and when people take his intentions to heart. His life and work are worth celebrating for that reason.

The "new and glorious morn" may not break for the world today or tomorrow, or next year. But perhaps it can break for each of us, and those whose lives we touch, when we choose to let it.