PostScript

PostScript: Post-truth and Christmas

When we include improbable elements in the Christmas stories, are we embracing ‘post-truth’ (Matthew 1.18-25)?

Introduction

The Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year 2016 is ‘post-truth’. Might the Christmas stories also be examples of ‘post-truth’?

Context

We live in a complex and interconnected world, where news – true or false – travels instantly. The Oxford Dictionaries’ define ‘post-truth’ as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’. It is a chilling term, implying that truth no longer matters. But it seems that in some of our public discourse, on both sides of the Atlantic, it accurately describes what is happening. There is the yawning divide between the facts and what people believe the facts to be. Yet we often tell the Christmas stories in ways which combine elements of two quite different stories (from different Gospels), and in ways which blur the distinction between what is truth and what is myth.

Reflection

The word ‘truth’ appears 29 times in the NRSV text of the Gospels; but only John records Pilate’s famous question ‘What is truth?’ (John 18.38).

Despite school nativity plays, the birth narratives in the Gospels (Matthew and Luke) are not easily reconciled. How much does it matter which parts of the story are historically true? Are the truth claims ‘God is with us’ and ‘the Word became flesh’ more important than the detailed historical accuracy of either story?

When does it matter if our political leaders think that it is acceptable to bend the truth? Is there, as some have argued over the Brexit debate, a difference between an outright factual lie (such as the claim that the UK paid the EU £350M each week) and a promise which is unlikely to be kept (such as the claims that the money saved would be spent on the NHS, or that a vote to leave would be followed by a dramatic early budget)?

The opening verses of Matthew’s Gospel (1.1-17) do not appear in the Sunday lectionary. One can but wonder whether either the writer of Matthew – or the writer of Luke with a different genealogy (Luke 3.23-38) – believed that every last detail in the list was literally correct. One interesting feature of Matthew’s list is the five women who are named: Tamar (1.3), Rahab and Ruth (1.5), the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba) (1.6) and Mary (1.16). Apart from Mary, all of these women had ‘interesting’ histories, so why are these five mentioned – especially since some (notably Ruth, who was from Moab) also dent the racial purity of the history?

Matthew does not mention the census, or even the location of the events in today’s Gospel reading (Bethlehem is first named in Matthew 2.1). But if we follow Luke’s account, Mary and Joseph may have felt trapped by their circumstances. And Matthew has them fleeing from Herod (2.13-18) after the visit of the wise men, forced by circumstances to move far from family, friends and home – and making them refugees.

Note that in Matthew’s version of the story, no angel appears to Mary to warn her of what is to happen; but Joseph receives a heavenly messenger to encourage him to stick by Mary. It is sometimes said that some men can feel trapped when their girlfriend gets pregnant; might Joseph have felt trapped when he first learned of Mary’s pregnancy?

Prayer

Prayers which might be used at the opening of the service or after a sermon.

God, for whom we continue to wait and watch,
help us to tell the Christmas stories with conviction,
and with respect for both truth and myth,
in the name of the one who is God with us.
Amen.

God, who sent an angel to Joseph to tell him what is happening,
and to prepare him for what is to come,
help us to listen to the signs of your presence in the world around us,
and to be prepared for all that may happen to us, expected and unexpected,
in the name of Jesus, born in Bethlehem to be God with us.
Amen.

In your prayers of intercession remember the people of Syria (especially those in Aleppo) and Yemen. Remember also those in less well reported conflicts, such as that in South Sudan.
Closer to home remember those trapped in the discontinuity between the NHS and the social care system, and those trapped in unsafe houses.

Remember people for whom the Christmas season is rarely joyful: those who are lonely, those who find the short winter days distressing and those cannot forget memories of bereavement or other sad times.

As we continue to mark Advent, remember to pray ‘Come, Lord Jesus’.
Pray that he will come to us in both our joys and our sorrows.

Questions

How much does the literal truth of the Christmas stories in Matthew and Luke matter to you?
When does it matter to tell the literal truth, and when is it acceptable to perpetuate a myth?
And where (if at all) does Father Christmas fit in your answer?

Action

Find a way to make at least one other person’s Christmas more joyful than it might have otherwise been.

In this last week before Christmas, find time to reflect on the names Jesus is given in the Gospel passages we read at Christmas time: Jesus (Matthew 1.21; Luke 2.21), God with us / Emmanuel (Matthew 1.23), the Word become flesh (John 1.14). Ask yourself what those names mean for you today, and if possible discuss that question with at least one other person.

Young people

Ask each other questions about which parts of the Christmas stories are in the Bible, and which are not. Check your answers against your Bibles.

Note that the same Greek word (kataluma) translated as ‘inn’ in Luke 2.7 (NRSV) is translated as ‘guest room’ in Luke 22.11 (NRSV). Luke does not say whether animals were present, nor whether the shepherds brought their sheep with them. Matthew does not mention kings, nor does he say how many wise men there were (just that they brought three gifts), let alone name them. What else can you discover?

Dudley Coates is a Local Preacher in the Yeovil and Blackmore Vale Methodist Circuit and a former Vice President of the Methodist Conference.