I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that I follow news about religion very closely. In fact, I receive daily email alerts and summaries about religion in the news. While there are a variety of headlines each day, some of which are awe inspiring, there is a consistent topic in the news that distresses me a great deal: the lack of tolerance among many believers regarding people of different faiths.
We are familiar with the headlines about the Taliban destroying Buddhist statues and holy sites. There’s also the horror of DAESH/ISIS killing thousands of people who don’t follow their teachings including other Muslims, Yazidis, and Christians. Recently, restrictive laws in Russia have been increased to prevent the growth of Protestant and Catholic churches in favor of the Orthodox Church. As distressing as these kinds of religious oppression may be, the more subtle religious intolerance in the United States is cause for my concern because I live on a day to day basis with it.
A wide variety of Evangelical Christians insist that mainline and Progressive Christians are not actually Christian because mainline and Progressive Christians don’t share the same literal beliefs about the Bible and particular dogma as do conservative Evangelicals. A quick search on the Internet leads to pages with statements like “Beware of Progressive Christians” calling them “Jesus-haters” and writing manifestos calling Evangelicals to “resist Progressive Christianity.” There are even statements claiming that Progressive Christianity is a set of “lies from the devil.” Such sentiments are no different from the claims made in past centuries that if someone was not a member of a particular church or denomination, that they were going to hell. Consistently in these arguments, the words of Jesus recorded in the gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 6, are distorted and taken out of their original content. (The verse: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to {God} except through me.”) Yet, the gospels are full of stories in which Jesus welcomed people who held different beliefs and treated them with respect.
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In the story of the birth of Jesus presented by the author of the gospel attributed to Matthew, we find the familiar story of the star rising at the birth of Jesus — a star that was followed by three magi. It’s worth noting that the gospel of Matthew is considered to be “the most Jewish” of the gospels by biblical scholars. It is commonly believed that Matthew was an observant Jew who wrote to a community of other observant Jews. Matthew’s account of the life of Jesus describes many things that would have been significant for Jews in the first century BCE that are omitted in the other gospels.
Despite Matthew’s focus on Jesus as a Jew, the narrative presents us with something quite odd: the birth of Jesus is marked by an astrological sign that was recognized by non-Jewish foreigners who practiced astrology! They were from the East — perhaps Persia or maybe Syria. The Church of the Nativity erected in 329 BCE contains art that depicts the magi dressed in Persian garb. Based on this image, they were likely to have practiced the Zoroastrian religion. But whoever these mythological visitors may have been, Matthew makes it clear that the first people to recognize Jesus were foreigners of a different religion.
Of all the things that Matthew could have conveyed about the birth of Jesus, it is significant that a central part of the story he presents is about foreigners and their strange religion. By following their religion, they are led to the child Jesus. They were not pious Jews. Clearly, they weren’t Christian. They were followers of a religion that would have been viewed as idolatry by the Jews of the first century. According to many Christians today, they practiced a false religion. Yet, no matter their beliefs and practices, their culture and customs, they are main characters of the story.
If we are serious about Keeping Christ in Christmas, then we need to push the boundaries of our own comfort in regard to those who are different from us. Rather than demonizing people from Middle Eastern cultures who hold religious beliefs different from our own, we need to follow the example of Mary and Joseph who welcomed the magi even if their visit made little sense. The good news of Christmas is that grace comes into our lives in unexpected ways. Sometimes, it is the foreigner with different customs and beliefs who brings the best gifts of all.