A Christmas Rebellion / Summer Hendry

Our society has a growing dissatisfaction with Christmas. We are tired of being stressed, tired of unnecessary gifts, tired of the effect on our bank accounts. We are tired of a season that is supposed to be the ‘hap-happiest season of all’, which actually isn’t. We want to stop buying so many gifts and stop getting useless gifts, stop having so many things to go to and so much to do. We want to stop the season of craziness and make it about something meaningful.

I overheard someone today saying today that they wished Christmas could JUST be about people. I think we long for this simplicity. But our society demands more.

For myself and many other Christians, the story of Jesus’ birth is an important part of Christmas. We love to read the story and reflect on the significance of the events. I so desire to feel the joy of the Shepherds, or Mary when they are told of the Saviour. It seems so simple, and so good. I want to identify and connect with them, so I can learn to treat the Christmas season as they treated the events it remembers. The problem with this is that society in and around the time of Jesus’ birth, was very different from the society I live in today.

Mary and Joseph, and about 90% of the Jewish population at the time, were extremely poor. The Roman empire that had conquered them had set up a violent King Herod to collect heavy taxes and keep them in line. The people were starving, displaced and some were forced in slavery just to survive. In and around the time of Jesus, the Jewish people revolted against this oppressive empire several times, each time with a new Messiah, or saviour, to lead the way. They were desperate for freedom.

So, when Mary is told she will give birth to a king and it is announced to the shepherds that a Messiah has been born, it isn’t just nice to hear. It is with the desperate hope of the poor and oppressed that this incredible good news is received. There is hope for life, for freedom.

I am not this desperate. I do not know what it is like to be this desperate. I have never had to wonder where my next meal would come from or if a family member would be killed at the whim of a violent king. The great joy of those in this story comes out of long endured pain and a great hope for freedom from their oppressors.

The problem is that I know much more what it is like to be an oppressor than someone oppressed. The western world is built off the back of the poor in other places in the world. Much of what we buy was made by people who have to work in horrible working conditions with little pay just to survive. The woman who made my jeans probably understands much more what it would mean to have hope of freedom like Mary does then I ever will. But there isn’t much I can do about that, because this is how jeans are made and I can’t very well go without pants. I’m stuck as an oppressor, just as she is stuck being oppressed.

Only, there is a difference.

If she rebels against the oppressive system trapping her, she dies, through violence, or maybe starvation. If I rebel against the oppressive systems that I perpetuate, I may have to pay more for a pair of fairly traded pants or buy second hand pants. Rebellion for me means inconvenience, for her, it costs her life.

As people of the western world, we are the ones with the power and wealth to change the oppressive systems in our world. We can rebel, we can refuse to give in to the systems.

We can refuse to allow individualism to dictate what we can and can’t do.

We can refuse to allow consumerism to tell us how to celebrate.

We can refuse to allow ourselves to ignore the suffering in our neighbourhood and our world, instead we can choose to see it and work against it.

This is not easy though, because these systems are what our society is built on and we can so easily go with the flow. To resist takes a lot of work and it is so easy to be overwhelmed, but these things are all part of this system and resisting them is part of the fight. Do it with others, take it one thing at a time, and don’t give up.

Christmas and life can be full of joy and simplicity, but only comes if we fight for it.

Also, don’t be discouraged if this Christmas doesn’t look like you might want, but don’t let another Christmas or another year, sneak up on you unprepared. Plan your strategy now.

Wishing you all a reflective Christmas and a rebellious new year.

Summer Hendry