Face of the Magi

I was packing up the nativity set at my church earlier today and I noticed that the figures I was placing in their styrofoam containers look NOTHING like the real thing. There are two white magi: One with a crown. One with a turban. The third magi is very dark and looks like he came from deepest Africa which is a bit closer to the truth. The Holy Family and shepherd look like they came from Northern Europe. Nice little, white Protestants with not a single Middle Eastern face in sight.

Imagine what this scene would look like if the wise men had faces like those we see on our T.V.'s from Afghanistan or Iraq. Imagine what this scene would look like if the Holy Family had faces like those that come from Jerusalem or Palestine. This nice little white nativity would challenge us to the core because it would contain people from the places we seem to fear most in the world right now. They would not be our enemies or terrorists or godless heathens. They would be our brothers and sisters who are also searching for God and for things that are lasting and eternal.

Let us think about that for a minute and, hopefully, we will allow this story to confront us in ways it has never confronted us before! And, if we expand the circle a little bit more, we will discover that there is also room for our LGBT brothers and sisters to worship the Christ Child as well. The stories of Jesus’ birth speak of inclusion rather than exclusion if only we have ears to hear and eyes to see it. Let’s not settle for a “white-washed” version of this story but join the “heathen, low class” shepherds and “godless” foreigners in worshipping the Christ Child.