Christmas Presence

Publication Date

12-20-2000

Publication

The Christian Century

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Jesus’s injunction to love one’s enemies is as integral to the celebration of Christmas as it is to Good Friday and Easter. It was no easier then than it is now. Both Jesus’s birth—in a dirty manger in the midst of an occupied Bethlehem—and his life of unstinting love challenged established patterns of hatred and bitterness that eventually nailed him to a cross. Yet we are empowered by the giving and forgiving love of Christmas, Good Friday and Easter to love our enemies—especially the concrete enemy who is all too present to us.

Perhaps such understanding might help us stand in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters while also offering a glimpse of hope for peace among warring peoples in the Middle East. Earlier this fall, Rabbi Michael Lerner offered a courageous vision grounded in his own tradition’s high holy day of Yom Kippur:

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