Comfort and Joy

I would like to begin by wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. Or, by India’s rather British tradition, a Happy Christmas.

As I write, the skies have just begun to open into a warm rain; as the monsoon is long over, rains are only punctuated by rumbling from the quarry next door. I realize that the United States have been suffering under a very white Christmas this year, and I cannot help but feel very far away.

Christmas this year was not my usual tradition, but rather traditional in its own sense; I spent Christmas with David and Mary Selvaraj, attending a midnight service on Christmas Eve and seeing both sides of their family and many friends over the course of the holiday. It was all very comfortable, aside from the rather jarring moment when I realized that "Away in a Manger" was being sung to a tune that I attach in my mind to an entirely different song. Christmas trees and thoughtful gifts and heavy foods were all around, and everyone was very sweet in making me feel right at home. And, in the case of David's brother's family, half the family had married and had children all over the world, creating a veritable UN Council of Family Gatherings, with members from 4 of the 6 populated continents represented. Somehow, everyone else knew the words to Cotton Fields by CCR better than I: "It was down in Louisiana/ Just about a mile from Texarkana/ In them old cotton fields back home."



While the celebrations themselves have been very comfortable indeed, I cannot help but revise my reading of the Christmas story in the context of my surroundings. For the past week, a group of children have been staying here at Visthar; all of these children are either affected or infected by and with HIV/AIDS. The connection has been made in my mind between these children and the girls at Bandhavi-- all of them have been outcast by society as mere children, fighting through life from birth as a result of circumstances over which they had no control. Of course, as children, they are lovely, playing with David's pet rabbits and excitedly recounting the games being played to the boring grown ups.

But, context! It is not a far leap to connect the children with HIV, the Bandhavi girls, and another child born about 2000 years ago. Through the lens of actual poverty, de-Currier and Ives-d, Jesus looks very different. Here, he is the child of dubious birth, born quite literally in a barn to parents who amounted to day laborers. Jesus, historical Jesus, came out of this physical setting to protest empire and exclusion by challenging the all people with the Kingdom of God, where the poor are blessed and the weak are strong and with God. Jesus sided with the oppressed; He could understand their oppression all the more, because it was also his human experience. David often speaks of siding with the poor. It would seem that siding with the poor is quite literally siding with Jesus.


And so, back to contemporary India. There are a lot of children here. There are more children here than there are PEOPLE in the United States. Many of India's children are being born into comfortable homes, with the promise of education, and comfort. But there are staggering numbers, overwhelming numbers, of children that are born in India even today that will face malnutrition (almost 50% of them), illiteracy, child labor and social exclusion. These are the children with whom Jesus would be born. I see these children every day as I walk the streets; they sit quietly on sidewalks outside the blue tarp tent-homes their families have propped up on sidewalks on the side of the road.

To return to "Away in a Manger" (regardless of tune):
"Away in a manger, no crib for a bed...
The cattle are lowing
The poor baby wakes
But little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes."

But really, what Lord is here? The lord of a barn, valued less than the cattle nearby, already learning that crying will not improve circumstances. In this new context, this fluffy little carol is actually the daily story of millions of children, in India and around the world. The Jesus of Christmas is hope that this will not always be the case, and provides the imperative to respond to these situations.

For me and in this place, the message of, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me" becomes more poignant every day.



So, with that, I wish you all a Christmas of comfort of spirit and heart, and with the joy of the promise of a Kingdom of God, guided by the children of sidewalk huts and of devadasis and AIDS victims.


Peace, Shanti, Peace.