LOSING THE BABY JESUS

In a journal entry a couple of weeks ago I wrote that we had lost the baby Jesus at our house. Early in December after we had taken the Christmas decorations out of their boxes and returned the ones we weren’t using this year to their place in the garage, we discovered that we had misplaced the baby Jesus. Today when we were putting the Christmas things away, we found Jesus. During the holidays the creche on our mantle was just fine without the baby Jesus in the manger. I had found it somehow satisfying to use a little jade reclining Buddha as understudy for Jesus in the Creche this year. Maybe if we could combine the Goodness in all religions, we could make some progress toward healing a troubled world. We’ve got a baby Krishna that might take the part of the babe in the manger next year.

Losing the baby Jesus at Christmas wasn’t unsettling, but misplacing the adult Jesus would be another thing. I like the grown-up Jesus who had the courage always to say what he thought was right even when it was risky to do so. I like the Jesus who insisted on actually doing the right thing in a situation and not just talking about it. I like the way he often cut through a lot of religious nonsense and simplified the problems of living by insisting that there is just one basic rule: Treat other people the way you’d like them to treat you. I like the way he was gentle with children. I like his insistence that we ought to love even our enemies. I don’t know how to do it all the time, but it’s clear that the world would be better for everybody if we could find a way to replace hate and disrespect with love and respect.

I’m quite sure the grown-up Jesus would not have danced in the streets at the news that Saddam Hussein had been hanged. Revenge was something he said people should avoid. I’m sure the adult Jesus who went around the countryside showing great concern for sick people would be in favor of a national health program. He seems to me to be the kind of guy would would drive a pickup but wouldn’t have a gun rack in it. Can you picture the grown-up Jesus refusing to have anything to do with a church with a woman pastor or priest? The grown-up Jesus had something to say about repressive laws in the First Century, so can’t we assume the adult Jesus would not approve laws that limit civil rights of people on the basis of their expressed sexual orientation? I think I know what he would say about stem-cell research. I’m not the first one to say it, but maybe the religious right has got it wrong.

The baby Jesus is sweet and looks great in mangers at Christmas time, but it is the adult Jesus in the New Testament who gets my attention. I can’t be sure which parts of the disparate Gospels describe and quote Jesus accurately, but the pattern is consistent enough for me to seriously consider what is written there as a way of figuring out how to live with the other people who share the world with me.