Digging Deeper into the Narraphor of the Nativity: Setting the Stage
Every Christmas the season is ushered in with decorations in stores, the familiar refrains of Christmas music, the scents of holiday goodies and pine, stirring memories and marking the beginning of the season. The music, sights, and scents stir our minds and cause memory recall to Christmases prior- why? Simply put, because humanity is so much more than just minds- we are sensory beings and our senses are intimately tied to our memories. Our memories are so intimately tied to our senses that if I asked you about someone or something, you'd likely relate it to one of those sensory experiences: a scent, the way something felt, a taste and not just data. There's an old Chinese proverb that says, "Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll understand." Totally true for most people and I'll tell you, that is imminently on purpose. The Creator made us to know, understand, and remember with the senses He gave us not just one or the other! So, let's begin to think and assess the familiar Christmas stories freshly through our senses and all that they have to offer.
First, let's think through the lens of culture and language- both the original culture and language as well as our current culture and language. Why? Think about missionaries: they learn the language and culture of the place they're sent to, so that they can communicate effectively. Years are spent learning the culture and language because it is absolutely essential! So how do we communicate to our culture effectively? Think about it- ads, pictures, music, stories. Not words and well crafted arguments, but narratives and metaphors- narraphor to steal a term from Leonard Sweet. The Bible is full of stories (narrative) and images (metaphor). Strangely enough, that is the language of OUR culture now! Why is that important? If we want to communicate effectively it has to speak to people where they are in a way they'll understand. The average sermon is a well crafted argument of 3-5 points, not a story conveyed with images making the point understandable. However, with the Bible being composed (primarily) of stories and their accompanying imagery, we're well equipped to speak into culture, it becomes a matter of doing so. This Advent let's rejoin the narraphors of the Christmas season and rediscover the wonder we've missed and the deeper truth conveyed in the most fundamental of Christian stories. But, let's not impose what we think/know onto the stories, but rather explore them as they would have been understood in 1st century Israel and really understand the familiar refrains of the nativity.
So, as we begin let's get a look at the way things were: Israel has been subjugated by the Roman empire, uneasily enjoying the Pax Romana through on going force to squelch regular uprisings from Jewish zealots looking to restore the kingdom of Israel. There have been no prophets on the scene since Zechariah and Malachi spoke for God, leaving His chosen people in silence for 400-500 years. Various religious factions have sprung up inside Judaism, pushing their agendas and specific goals, whether political, pious, or otherwise. The temple has been rebuilt and the government lives in uneasy peace with the religious factions, utilizing them to maintain peace and power. Most people cannot read. Occupations were generally menial (agrarian or physical labor, primarily unskilled) and lifelong, leisure time unheard of for most (excepting the wealthy). How do we know? Luke tells us the when and where: "when Herod was king of Judea," and "At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.)." These are specific times, people, and places opening the door to a deeper understanding of the culture and what the story looks, feels, smells, and sounds like.
To further our understanding, notice that Mary and Joseph are residents of Nazareth in Galilee (Luke 1.26). Galilee was a distant backwood, far removed from Jerusalem and populated by farmers, fishermen, tradesmen, and merchants. To put it into American terms, Galilee was flyover country. Nothing important there, just people eking out their existence according to the "elite.". Most "good"Jews held Galilee in contempt because of its racial mixture (Jews who intermixed with the Gentile populace), differences in speech (they adopted more Greco/Roman influences), and location (northernmost portion of Israel). We see this attitude in John 1.46: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" and again in John 7.41, 52: "He can't be [the Messiah]! Could the Messiah [possibly] come from Galilee? ...No prophet ever comes from Galilee!" This is the cultural backdrop into which the God of the universe chose to enter into human history: not with the elite, not in the expected places, but in a way that totally upsets the ordinary, expected, and acceptable. Never what we expect, nor what we're used to hearing or seeing, but the truth as it is.
Next time we'll move into the story- starting with Mary and Joseph and moving from there...
First, let's think through the lens of culture and language- both the original culture and language as well as our current culture and language. Why? Think about missionaries: they learn the language and culture of the place they're sent to, so that they can communicate effectively. Years are spent learning the culture and language because it is absolutely essential! So how do we communicate to our culture effectively? Think about it- ads, pictures, music, stories. Not words and well crafted arguments, but narratives and metaphors- narraphor to steal a term from Leonard Sweet. The Bible is full of stories (narrative) and images (metaphor). Strangely enough, that is the language of OUR culture now! Why is that important? If we want to communicate effectively it has to speak to people where they are in a way they'll understand. The average sermon is a well crafted argument of 3-5 points, not a story conveyed with images making the point understandable. However, with the Bible being composed (primarily) of stories and their accompanying imagery, we're well equipped to speak into culture, it becomes a matter of doing so. This Advent let's rejoin the narraphors of the Christmas season and rediscover the wonder we've missed and the deeper truth conveyed in the most fundamental of Christian stories. But, let's not impose what we think/know onto the stories, but rather explore them as they would have been understood in 1st century Israel and really understand the familiar refrains of the nativity.
So, as we begin let's get a look at the way things were: Israel has been subjugated by the Roman empire, uneasily enjoying the Pax Romana through on going force to squelch regular uprisings from Jewish zealots looking to restore the kingdom of Israel. There have been no prophets on the scene since Zechariah and Malachi spoke for God, leaving His chosen people in silence for 400-500 years. Various religious factions have sprung up inside Judaism, pushing their agendas and specific goals, whether political, pious, or otherwise. The temple has been rebuilt and the government lives in uneasy peace with the religious factions, utilizing them to maintain peace and power. Most people cannot read. Occupations were generally menial (agrarian or physical labor, primarily unskilled) and lifelong, leisure time unheard of for most (excepting the wealthy). How do we know? Luke tells us the when and where: "when Herod was king of Judea," and "At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.)." These are specific times, people, and places opening the door to a deeper understanding of the culture and what the story looks, feels, smells, and sounds like.
To further our understanding, notice that Mary and Joseph are residents of Nazareth in Galilee (Luke 1.26). Galilee was a distant backwood, far removed from Jerusalem and populated by farmers, fishermen, tradesmen, and merchants. To put it into American terms, Galilee was flyover country. Nothing important there, just people eking out their existence according to the "elite.". Most "good"Jews held Galilee in contempt because of its racial mixture (Jews who intermixed with the Gentile populace), differences in speech (they adopted more Greco/Roman influences), and location (northernmost portion of Israel). We see this attitude in John 1.46: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" and again in John 7.41, 52: "He can't be [the Messiah]! Could the Messiah [possibly] come from Galilee? ...No prophet ever comes from Galilee!" This is the cultural backdrop into which the God of the universe chose to enter into human history: not with the elite, not in the expected places, but in a way that totally upsets the ordinary, expected, and acceptable. Never what we expect, nor what we're used to hearing or seeing, but the truth as it is.
Next time we'll move into the story- starting with Mary and Joseph and moving from there...
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