Emerging Scholars Blog

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Supporting Cast to the Christmas Story

Supporting Cast to the Christmas Story: Angels

This time of year in churches all over, little children dress up in white robes, put on wings and halos, and in general, look cute! Children dressed as angels are a staple of Christmas plays everywhere. Congregations voice their “Ahhhhs” and parents and family members hope that their “angels” behave themselves.

This is as it should be – angels do play a part in the Christmas story. Christmas pageants are stylized portrayals of the story of Jesus’ birth, and children dressed as angels fit right in. But we should, from time to time, stop and consider: what are angels?

Still of James Stewart and Henry Travers in It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). [retrieved December 20, 2013].
Maybe you don’t believe in angels. Some modern scholars claim that the Jews picked up the idea of angels from the Persians. Certainly some modern portraits add to our incredulity. Clarence, the would-be angel in Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, is a very likable character, but not so good for getting at what angels are (and the movie reinforces the notion that angels are just humans who have been promoted, so to speak). We get more of our ideas about angels (and demons) from the not so modern picture in Milton’s writing than from the Bible.

And we are embarrassed by the kitschy angels sold in gift shops. Nothing this silly could possibly exist. [Read more…] about Supporting Cast to the Christmas Story: Angels

Supporting Cast to the Christmas Story: Zechariah

Pontormo, Jacopo da, 1494-1556. Birth of John the Baptist, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=49459 [retrieved December 14, 2013]. Original source: http://www.yorckproject.de.
In our first installment, we took a look at the shepherds. Last time we considered the Magi. Now it is time to learn from the story of Zechariah.

Zechariah has been in the shadow of his famous son – John the Baptist. John certainly is an important character. But Zechariah was a man who had waited a long time, and so we can benefit from his story as we wait.

First note that Zechariah was “getting on in years.” And he and his wife Elizabeth were childless. In our culture, childlessness has a definite sting. Many modern day parents long for a child to be given to them. But in Zechariah’s day the burden was even greater – especially for the women. To be childless was a curse, possibly for having committed some grievous sin. The text, however doesn’t leave this as an option, for they both were “righteous before God” (1:6).

Are you suffering some kind of affliction? Are thing especially hard for you? It is possible that it is because you have done something that causes the heartache, but it is not necessarily the case. It might be just the randomness of life; or it could be that God has something for you in the midst of it. [Read more…] about Supporting Cast to the Christmas Story: Zechariah

Supporting Cast to the Christmas Story: The Magi

JESUS MAFA. The Three Wise Men, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48399 [retrieved December 6, 2013].[1]
Last time we looked at the shepherds, wondering what they could teach us. Now we are headed to the other end of the cultural spectrum to the Magi. A few picky details to clear up: they were probably not kings. Most likely they are Persian astrologers. We don’t know how many of them there were, but three gifts are mentioned – gold, frankincense (incense), and myrrh (perfume).

Talking about the Magi pushes the boundaries for thinking about Advent, because the Magi don’t enter into the story until almost two years after Jesus is born. King Herod inquires of the Magi the time of the appearance of the star, and when he commands that the infants be killed, it is those male infants two years old and younger. The coming of the Magi is observed on January 6 – Epiphany.

What is of interest to us is the fact that when they inquire of Herod they say, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matt 2:2). They were astrologers, after all, and kept their eyes to the sky. There has been much discussion over the years of what they actually saw. A comet is a common depiction of the event. Some have speculated it was a rare conjunction (several planets being in close proximity in the sky). Whatever it was, they noticed!

We can benefit from noticing a few things ourselves: [Read more…] about Supporting Cast to the Christmas Story: The Magi

Supporting Cast to the Christmas Story: Shepherds

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.” (Luke 2:8 KJV)

The season of Advent is once again upon us. Advent starts four Sundays before Christmas and is a time to prepare for Christmas. This year I want to ponder some of the “supporting cast” of the Christmas story. Specifically, I want to look at the ones who are waiting; in the case of the first Christmas, waiting for the coming of the Messiah.

First up will be the shepherds. There has been some debate on the place of shepherds in the society of the 1st century. The shepherd metaphor is a powerful one in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel 34 God promises to be Israel’s shepherd, to replace the evil shepherds that had ruled over them. King David comes on the scene as a shepherd. One of the best know Psalm, Ps 23, says ‘The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want”

JESUS MAFA. The good shepherd, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48288 [retrieved November 29, 2013].
In the New Testament, Jesus speaks of himself as the good shepherd. Jesus’ call to Peter boils down to a call to be a good shepherd to the people under his care.

But the life of a shepherd kept them on the move They needed to continually be finding fresh pasture for the sheep. The sheep needed constant care. This meant that shepherds could not participate in the usual religious life of the Jewish people. So people, and especially the religious, looked down on them. Notice that Luke seems to have an eye towards those who are regarded as of lower status. Mary (more on her in a future post) says, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;  he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”  Luke 1:52-53 (NRSV) The shepherds, perhaps because of their lowly status, are the first to be told of Jesus birth.

So what can we learn from the shepherds?  [Read more…] about Supporting Cast to the Christmas Story: Shepherds