In 2018, I went with a delegation from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to visit our partners at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, Egypt. People in Egypt have a different conception of time than we do. There is a strong sense of the imminence of the past in the present. For example, when asked for a brief history of the seminary, people would invariably say something like, “Certainly. Saint Mark came to Egypt in the 1st century…” 2,000 years is as brief as it gets in Egypt!
I returned to Egypt last Christmas with my spouse, mother, and brother. Many of the Christians we met this time around spoke with great pride about how, even before Saint Mark came to Egypt, the holy family found refuge in Egypt shortly after Jesus’ birth. Matthew 2 recounts King Herod’s infuriation at the prophecies he heard from the wise men about the boy Jesus, an infuriation that led to his ordering the murder of all baby boys near Bethlehem. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph waited out this slaughter in Egypt until Joseph had a dream that it was safe to return.
Just as there was a straight line from Saint Mark to the seminary in Cairo, there was a straight line from providing shelter to the holy family in their time of need to extravagant hospitality for Christians traveling far away from home at Christmastime. These ancient stories had an immediacy in their present moment.
We do not have the luxury of monuments millennia old all around us to remind us of our connection to the past. Nevertheless, I hope you feel the immediacy and imminence of the Christmas story in your life this season. I hope you have the chance to see in yourself or someone else those qualities, whatever they are, that led to God becoming incarnate in people just like us. I hope you have the chance to offer hospitality to people in need, like the holy family in Bethlehem. I hope you have the chance to show compassion to those from faraway places seeking refuge, like the holy family in Egypt. I hope you have the chance to outsmart the King Herods of the world, just like the wise men did. I hope the Christmas story is alive in your life this season.
Merry Christmas.
