Choosing Danger (Sounds of Blackness)

There are no Christmas cards about courage, have you noticed? Peace, Joy, Goodwill to All... check, not much mention of courage. But if the Christmas story is about anything it is about the angels’ oft-repeated message: Do Not Be Afraid. And if anything is antithetical to the message of Christmas, it's fear.

Today, Sounds of Blackness sing these words into our consciousness:

What a lowly place to be born
What a lowly place to be born
Like a stranger, not far from danger
He was born in a manger: My Lord

This song reminds us that God chose to be born into a lowly place: born to refugee parents, of the underclass, homeless at the time of his birth. More than that, God chose to be born into danger, the very real dangers of poverty and oppression, and, later, the danger of an infant genocide sparked by the fear of a ruler.

We believe that this kind of birth, God breaking into the world in this way, reveals to us God’s deep concern for those on the margins of society.  The lowly birth of our God, and the ensuing life of Jesus, lived in solidarity with those on the edges of community, tell us that God stands with the suffering, the oppressed, the victims of injustice in every time.

Born In A Manger from Sounds of Blackness on Myspace.



This brings many of us to the discomfort of today's song: In the grand view of our country’s population (let alone the world’s population) most of us have received enough privilege to make the above theological claims feel a little dangerous.  Following a God who choses to stand with those on the margins, has implications for our own lives that might make us feel a little afraid.

Can we find the courage to question our own social privilege, our own wealth in order to be found, like our God, on the side of the lowly? Do we have the heart to wonder, as love is born again and again each year at Christmas, if there's a danger into which we are called to follow the lowly babe in the manger? Will we follow if the danger threatens our comfort, our image, our lifestyle as we seek to follow the God who stands with the marginalized and loves the lowly?



Let's hear, today, this Christmas message: 

Courage. 

Do not be afraid. 

For the Divine Love that was born in Bethlehem turned the world upside down to bring justice, peace, and fullness of life; and that Divine Love, seeks to do the same, as it is born anew in every time and place and heart (even ours’).

                                                                                                      - Lindsey