Borders, Mary, Joseph, and Bad Books.

I will miss many things now that Border’s Book Stores are closed; I will miss the time spent pouring over potential purchases with a good cup of coffee or two.  I must admit however, that I probably did help put Borders out of business with my many purchases via Amazon. Hmmm, sorry about that. One of the things I will miss the most though, something you simply can’t do at Amazon (or at least it’s not nearly as much fun) is shopping the after-Christmas sale. 

Oh how I loved to shop Borders for those great Christmas bargains!  I have quite a few nieces and nephews for which my favorite gift to give is books (it’s my favorite gift to give anyone!).  I am especially fond of Christmas books and would use that sale to stock up. At last year’s sale I actually purchased two stuffed moose (mooses? Moosi?)  with Christmas lights on their antlers for two babies not yet born. Both these infants were to be the first-born child of two of my nephews and I wanted some fun things for their first Christmas (both families are big skiers in areas where moose are common).  I almost couldn’t find them this year but finally dug them out and shipped them onto their six-month old recipients. 

At last year’s sale I also picked up a book by Elizabeth Berg The Handmaiden and the Carpenter.  And while I didn’t recall reading any of Berg’s books, I did at least know she was a well received author so I purchased the book with high hopes.  For reasons I can’t remember, the book was packed up with our Christmas decorations and I only rediscovered it after lugging the boxes down from the attic a few weeks ago.

I have no problem with fiction based on the Bible and recognize the story of Mary and Joseph as one with great potential for a rich elaboration. Unfortunately, this book was one of those rare volumes that I simply could not finish.  While we do not have a wealth of historical information about Joseph and Mary, we do have some insight. Berg chose to ignore all existing information on these two people. Rather than tap what we do know, Berg recreated Mary and Joseph into an oddly modern couple.  It was trite, contrived and worse; it totally disregarded known customs and culture of the ancient people of Judea. 

If Berg wanted to modernize this story, she should have put them in a different era, different location; she didn’t.  She characterizes Joseph and Mary as two teens playfully courting in ways that are completely counter to the times. While they may have been aware of each other prior to their betrothal, it is highly unlikely that they spent any time alone together, let alone actually engage in the playful banter of Berg’s writings. 

While the Bible is silent on Joseph’s age, most scholars writing at around  that time, or about that time-period, strongly suggest that Joseph was likely much older than Mary; it is quite possible that he was a widow with children.  Berg’s Joseph was 17 and a very restless young-man.

Both Mary and Joseph were devout Jews, familiar with Scripture and with the ways the Holy Spirit can intervene in one’s life. Joseph was from the Jewish royal line of David. Both were orthodox in their understanding of the Bible and how it guided, even ruled their life. (Joseph)…As an honorable and humble man, as well as faithful in his observance of the Israelite ordinances and feasts (Luke 2:21-24, 41).  Berg not only ignores this but actually seems to want to flout the depth of this couple’s faith.

I appreciate what I think was Berg’s intent to give the back-story about Mary and Joseph, tell us more about what they must be feeling by relying on something we all could relate to…their humanity.

What could be a more common human experience than fear and doubt? While Berg attempts to explore these emotions, she does so in a way that diminishes their faith. Zechariah, Mary and Joseph all experience fear when they first learn of the events surrounding the birth of John and Jesus. And all were told by the angel Gabriel Be Not Afraid. Mary’s response to that command is was confusion but ultimately acceptance (where Zachariah doubts and gets himself in trouble). Accepting what she was chosen to do doesn’t negate her fear. Berg’s Mary was an I-can-do-anything sort of teenager. We have so much evidence of Mary’s true strength, strength that comes from her faith. This was a woman who watched her son grow up to be a rebel-of-sorts; she watched her son become despised and tortured. She stood at his feet, forced to watch is murder. Why did Berg need to create a Mary whose strength seems to come from being precocious and even contrary?

Mary was most likely around 13 years old, her marriage was probably an arrangement between the two families. And while this was customary and something she probably knew she was destined for her entire life (an arranged marriage), knowing what is coming does not negate her fear. This is who young Mary most likely was…full of Grace but also with some fear; humble yet strong; devout yet fragile.  This is a complex woman, not the flirty teenager of Berg’s creation.

After Mary hears Gabriel’s message, filled with all these emotions, she heads out to see her cousin Elizabeth. …Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste (Luke 22).  She beats a path to see her older cousin probably in search of comfort and to see if her older relative could shed some light on what was happening to both of them.  I think that Elizabeth represents a safe haven for Mary in part because travel was definitely not easy at this time, so heading out in haste, without great preparation, wasn’t typical for the time period.  It was an arduous trek but she needed/wanted to see her cousin. She was young and scared and not really sure of what was happening. Like all of us, when we feel overwhelmed, we seek out the comfort of a loving friend or relative.

Berg does explore Joseph’s understandable confusion and doubt.  Much of her narrative centers on a conversation between Mary and Joseph as Joseph lay dying. I think the Bible does a good job telling us just how truly human Joseph was. His first reaction to Mary’s pregnancy was to decide he would “quietly” divorce her. What a good man. In a time when he could have had Mary stoned for adultery and the shame of her actions would have brought down her family if made public, he being an upright man, and not desiring to make her a public example, had a mind to break their brothel  (Matthew 1:18-19).  He could have just left; by law, he needed to be in Bethlehem. But he didn’t, he married her. Again his acceptance of God’s call doesn’t negate his fear or confusion. It is never made clear in the Bible if Joseph ever “got” who this child-Jesus was or was to become. We know that even as Christ makes his bar-mitzvah at 12 years old, Joseph and Mary still do not understand the God-nature of their son. Regardless of his confusion, Joseph was a father committed to his son, he taught him his trade that he would have a secure life.

Berg does much to down play faith in an effort to “disclose” the couple’s humanity. She uses doubt, anger and even sex to show us how human Mary and Joseph really are…but she misses the mark by far. Rather than expand on what the Bible and scripture scholars have shown to be their great humanity, she belittles their faith and takes a great story and writes it into a very poorly written tale with little imagination. I am far from a fundamentalist and I don’t believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible but I am guessing Berg has some issues with Christianity

Some Room at the Inn

We don’t often think of the Christmas passages or birth narratives from Scripture as stories of hospitality. Tradition holds that for Mary and Joseph, there was no hospitality. We are told that the Holy Family was turned away, not welcomed in at all. The Gospel according the Evangelist Luke is the only Gospel that tells the story about the Holy Family facing no room at the Inn. There is no mention of such an inhospitable experience in any other Gospel.  And yet despite the fact that the story of being turned away only appears in Luke, these simple words - -  no room at the Inn- -have become the ubiquitous if not the defining Advent/Christmas narrative.

Both Mathew and Luke speak of Christ being born in Bethlehem. Mathew puts the family there from the start; Luke creates a reason for the Holy Family to travel to Bethlehem.  According to Luke

Caesar Augustus decrees that every person living in the great Roman Empire had to return to their familiar city of origin So Joseph, being from the line of David, takes his young bride and heads to Bethlehem, the City of David.

While there is no real evidence of a census at the time of Christ’s birth, Luke probably used the idea of mandatory census to convey that Christ was born under the dictates of Roman rule.  So the family travels to the City of David because Joseph is from the line of David, a line of kings.  In essence, Joseph is bringing his family home and would therefore have been related to many of the families and households within Bethlehem.  We do know that the cultural tradition of the ancient people of Judea was one of hospitality, especially if you were family. 

As good Jews, the people of Bethlehem knew that Scripture called them to welcome the friend and the stranger alike: “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” Lev 19:34.  Indeed, Leviticus is replete with directives to be hospitable, to share food and lodging with those who appear at your door. The ministry of hospitality abounds throughout the Bible.  Abraham opened his tent to those he thought were strangers. Abraham’s story reflected a formal code in the desert, people were expected to provide some comfort for the Bedouin in return for safety, that is the community would rally to ensure harsh punishment should someone take advantage of one’s hospitality.  Hospitality is the likely response for people returning to their familiar home in the time of Christ’s birth. Doors would be open, not closed. A meal would be set; feet would be washed, the donkey given hay and so on. 

Despite what tradition tells us, we do have some evidence that in fact the Holy Family was welcomed in and even given a special place in someone’s house. It is likely that the term Inn for  Luke’s referred to a guest room and not a B&B. The guest room of that particular house may have been full so the relatives had to make do with other available space.

We know that Mary “wrapped the infant is swaddling clothes and placed him in a manger…” Luke 2:7. A manager could, and often was, built into the family’s home. Many homes in that day were built so that the animals were kept within the confines of the household.  One might envision something a kin to what we would call a loft, although the loft would be a bit lower than modern lofts. Animals were kept in the lower part of the dwelling and people slept in the loft area, a guest room, what we might even call an upper room. The manger was at the end of the loft for animals to feed.

What does this all have to do with me…beyond existentialism?

About a year ago we moved to an area that could be considered our familiar town of origin in that we spent our childhood summers here (Erskine Lakes). We bought a house which we thought would meet our needs but after we settling in we realized that it wasn’t quite our dream home.  We were concerned that while it was plenty big for the two of us, it became a bit tight when all three kids came for a visit. 

Our concerns grew as we thought of future husbands/wives/kids coming to visit…was this a place that could accommodate all comfortably?  We thought possibly not, and so attempted to sell the house but unfortunately the market didn’t support the sale.  And here we are three weeks before Christmas…in the same house after we decided it wouldn’t work for us…

This Christmas Eve, the three kids, one boyfriend, and a cousin-of-the-boyfriend will be again returning “home”; or at least to their parent’s somewhat new home. (Actually, like Joseph, for my oldest step-child Elizabeth, Erskine is her city of origin! She was indeed born here and lived her earliest years in a house a few tenths-of-a-mile from this one).   And while there is no “upper-room” there is guest space.  And we will make it work. We do have two full baths, we do have three bedrooms (though one is more of a storage room), and the family room has a pull out couch and plenty of room for air-beds.  Which is to say , we have a great deal more room than what was offered to the Christ-child.

In fact, we will more than make this Christmas work. We will have plenty of food, drinks, warmth, and love. It will be our second Christmas Eve in this home; the second time ALL of the kids/friends will have spent the night or nights here, together (they have all been here other times as well, just only one other time ALL together).  Each time we inflate the air-beds, fill the fridge to watch it empty, and see the towels pile up on the bathroom floor, our house becomes more of a home. 

And making this house a home is a big deal for my family because we are a step-family and as such we may be a bit more fragile than traditional families, especially when it comes to things like home.

It seems that especially at Christmas, I might do well to focus less on the actual square-footage and more on the hospitality, because I am welcoming in some very important children to celebrate the birth of one very important child.