There comes a point in every conspiracy when it ceases to be a secret. We don’t usually notice, because we don’t think of them as conspiracies. We just say, “Oh look. That’s the way things are.” But before there was an American Revolution, it was a conspiracy. Before there was the Underground Railroad, it was a conspiracy. Before anyone invented the word Christmas, there were people meeting in secret, looking for a way to change the world. Real conspiracies are never meant to stay secret, and they never do. One way or another, word gets out.
I really wish we could just skip to this part, skip Advent and do Christmas. If love is the point, then let’s just skip all the planning and the preaching and just be good to each other. Is that so hard?
Uh… Yeah. Surprisingly, it is. If Christmas is real, then it is not enough to sit in a church service, sing some songs and go home. It is not enough to trade gifts and cards. It is definitely not enough to stand on the outside of our consumer culture and shout into the middle that Jesus is the reason for the season.
Because the truth of Christmas is simply this: God loves the poor.
Let me prove it. Of all the times and all the places God could have chosen, why should Christmas happen in first century Israel? In this election there was only one vote, and God chose the working poor.
Joseph was a carpenter, but it wasn’t enough. We know because when it came time to present their offering at the temple, they only gave two doves. The law said you should give a lamb and a dove, but if you’re too poor for a lamb, you could give two doves.
She gave birth in a manger! Sure, it looks all cute when it’s doll sized and made out of porcelain, but how many ladies in this room have ever carried a baby? And how many of you would volunteer to give birth in a drafty, dark, stinking manger? What? No volunteers? She should have had a midwife! She should have had family. She should have had a bed that wasn’t previously used by a farm animal! They were poor.
Of all the people and all the times, God picks them. You can hear it in the refrain of the Old Testament, that we should care for the widow, and orphan, and the stranger. You can hear it in the Proverbs. “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker”. You can hear it in the words of Jesus himself. “As you did it for the least of these, you did for me.”
God loves the poor. Some have even said that Jesus’ first act of communication was a cry of solidarity, a wordless scream that said, “I’m scared. I’m cold. I’m hungry. Feed me. Help me. Hold me.”
That’s the message of Christmas. God doesn’t just love the poor. In the endless struggle between the haves and the have nots, God votes for the poor, God sides with the poor, God becomes poor.
We cannot call ourselves Christians and ignore this truth. Many times, you’ve heard me say, “This is Rob’s translation. This is my interpretation. I have the freedom of the pulpit. You have to freedom of the pew.”
Not today. This not optional. This is not interpretation. This is fundamental. To be a follower of Jesus is by definition to love the poor. To fail at loving them is to fail at loving him, because he sides with them. He’s one of them. He is them.
Are you with me? Because if you don’t have this, there’s no point in all the rest. As a church, as the gathered body of Christ, are we agreed in this? The message of Christmas is God loves the poor.
If that’s the starting place, how do we apply it? Let me give you three ways, and then we’ll be done.
First, and most obviously, love the poor must mean caring for and defending the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner. Or to translate it for Saugatuck: the single mom, the hungry child, and the migrant worker. Yes, that is Rob’s translation, but I think it’s a fair one. We’ve made a good start here, but there’s more to do, and this is only the most obvious form of love.
Jesus said, “If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.”
To summarize G.K. Chesterton, love means forgiving the unforgivable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing when it is hard to believe or it is no virtue at all. Modern translation? You gotta love the jerks.
And lastly, if you are truly going to love everyone, you have to love yourself. Because we are all poor in our own way. By global standards, we’re rich, but by God’s standard we’re still babies screaming into the night, “I’m scared. I’m cold. I’m hungry. Feed me. Help me. Hold me.” God chose us. Emmanuel, God with us. God loves the poor, and if we have the eyes to see it and the ears to hear it, that means God loves us.
If God loves the poor, then we have to love everybody! If all you want to do is keep having meetings, go start a club. You can have a secret handshake, and keep people out, and have no end of fun. Clubs are awesome! But if you want more than that, if you actually want to change something, then take this conspiracy public. Love everybody: even the poor, even the jerks, even yourself.
