Yet this is not the most important use of imagination during this season. Nor is it the biggest challenge we face when we hear the Christmas story. Many people find it difficult to hear the Christmas story as something that actually happened, at least that way. But that is beside the point. Whether or not we believe that things happened just as the gospels describe, there are some very important lessons to be learned from the story.
The Christmas story does invite us to imagine a world that is very different from the world we know so well - not a world filled with angels and guiding stars, but a world that reflects God's nature and God's values more faithfully than the world we live in day by day.
Imagine a world, the Christmas story proposes, in which those who receive the most important news ever proclaimed are not kings and princes and "important" people, but crusty old shepherds out in the fields tending their flocks. These were not the romanticized shepherds of our Christmas pageants, but the lowest of the low - unclean because they could not perform the required rituals out in the fields and therefore unacceptable to the faithful according to the system that was in place to regulate society by the determination of such things. They were the last people anyone would expect to receive such news or to be permitted to be present at the birth of Jesus.
Imagine a world, the story again suggests, in which the woman chosen to give birth to Jesus is not a princess or even a woman with good standing in religious and social circles, but is a peasant woman, betrothed to a carpenter and pregnant but not married. The story violates every aspect of polite society. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that Mary's song of praise to God should speak about the poor being rewarded and the rich being sent away wanting but not getting - another deeply offending notion for those who were in power or in good standing at that time.
Imagine a world in which those who seek out this special birth conspire against the ruling king because they suspect his intentions are not benevolent. Conspiracy is never considered a positive thing until it is recorded as part of the history written by the insurgents after they have successfully conspired to overthrow the present ruler.
So the Christmas story invites us to consider a world with radically different values from the world in which we live. We are invited to imagine what the world would be like if the poor were valued as much as the rich, if the opinions (votes?) of the weaker members of society were valued as much as those of the powerful, and if the fate of the common people was as important as that of the wealthy. And perhaps most importantly, the story challenges us to consider how we might change our world to make it more like this world which God invites us to imagine throughout the scriptures.
But how can we possibly go about changing the ways and values of our world? The story stirs our imagination around that question also. Imagine a God who does not lord it over the creation, but deigns to become present within that creation - and not in a grandiose domineering way, but as the weakest and most vulnerable presence imaginable - a baby. Imagine further that this baby, again, is not born into a position of power and influence, but is born to a peasant family in a stable because there was not even room for him in the Inn.
The meme is set, not just for the life of Jesus, but for those who will follow him and for those who will live by his name. The pattern will be one of vulnerability, love, simplicity, forgiveness and patience. Jesus will invite, not impose. He will bless, not curse. He will free, not oppress. He will heal, not harm. He will give, not take. And so also will those who identify most closely and most faithfully with him. The Christmas story sets the stage for the kind of life Jesus will live and the kind of life those of us who worth-ship him will live.
How do we change the world to make it more like the world God imagines and invites us to imagine? We generously bless, we graciously invite and we abundantly love. It is a risky path. And the only "guarantee" we have that it is a worthy path is the resurrection of Jesus from death. But that's another story that challenges our imagination. And that story will be told on another day in another season of our faith.
Covenant Participant, Emmanuel/York UCC