"Good morning Mr. President-elect, or if you will excuse my informality, Donald. We are happy to have you and all the other participants here for the Pageant. I understand from one of your assistants that you have not looked at the script. So, let me just review the story for you.
The place is Bethlehem, a city in Judea. It is now part of the West Bank in Palestine. The story is centered there because Jesus is thought to have born there. He is the one who, depending on your perspective, either went on to change the course of history, or was a weakling who couldn't get the job done and was put to death on a garbage heap. In our use of the story, we are going with the first version.
Jesus' mother Mary is the second most prominent person in the story. Again, interpretations being what they are, she is either chosen by God to bear his only begotten Son, or some floozy who got knocked up before she was married and by someone who was not her fiancé. Again, we are going with the first version, and we do so because it is the way the story is told in our key book, the Christian Bible. It is not a perfect book, but it is one we have stuck with through the years.
I mentioned the fiancé. His name is Joseph. He has a hard time with this pregnancy until an angel told him that the child came from God. Well, again that is just one interpretation. You could see him as a wimp who should have shamed her and sent her packing. There is another part of this story that is about being sent packing, but that part involves angels and a trip to Egypt to avoid an insecure king's genocidal rage against any possible competition. Not the story we are telling here. In our telling of the story, Joseph is faithful, not weak.
Then there are some shepherds. Lowly, alone, out in the cold, probably stinky. In this story, they are visited by, yes this is starting to be a theme, angels. Angels are God's messengers, beings of light, and they show up a lot in this story. No Tweets, no Facebook, no talk shows or communications directors in this story. Yes, I know it seems to you to be a bogus way to communicate. Loser shepherds. Spirit somethings, all airy fairy in the sky. Again, we are going by the book. It is flawed in many ways but amazingly clear about life, God, Love; those kinds of things.
So, we mentioned the angels, and just to keep the story going, there are some travelers, Kings or Wise Men, maybe even Magicians, three of them that are guided by a dream to come and bring gifts to Jesus, royal gifts. On their way, they made a stop with the murderous king we mentioned earlier that did not go well. His name is Herod and he blew a gasket and ordered the slaying of all the babies in his kingdom so that one of them did not cost him his power and privilege. We like the part about wise people seeking Jesus. King Herod attacking the innocent ones is sadly something we have had to face with different names and in different times throughout the ages. Our book has a funny take on the powerful. We think God is not on their side. We think the humble, lowly, meek, poor, powerless, etc. are the ones dearest to God's heart and most likely to live by God's purposes. Not really a guide to being a winner in this world unless you are about love, justice, peace, you know that kind of thing.
So, I hope this Christmasy briefing as your assistant called it, was helpful. The next thing is to have you read through the script ahead of our performance.
How would you feel about being a shepherd? Back to our book, being humble, guiding and guarding, hearing God's message, these kinds of things could be good prep for your next job."