Memorial United Methodist Church

This year Living Nativity included these “modern” speeches. We include them here for your consideration.

ZIRDANA: Hello, my name is Zirdana. I live in Afghanistan. I often hear bombs and gunfire in my village. My best friend was killed just because he was where fighters thought the Taliban was hiding. I hear about people who weren’t fighting – children and women and people who want the best for my country – who are killed because they are caught in the crossfire of war. First it was the Russians who roamed our countryside. Now it is Americans. I talked with a U.S. soldier who told me her children don’t hear gunfire or bombs but they do worry everyday about whether she will come home to them and if she does, will she be healthy and whole?

TARA: Hi, I’m Tara. When I hear Mary’s story, I think about my life as a single mother. I learned I was pregnant with my daughter just weeks after I left my husband because he was abusive. I didn’t have family nearby so I was living in a shelter, searching for affordable housing and a job that would pay enough for me to get by. Now I would have another mouth to feed. I wasn’t prepared to be a mother. I wonder if Mary felt the same way when she learned she would have a child.

People looked down on me because my marriage had failed and because I needed financial help from the government to get on my feet, to prepare a safe home for my child. Once my child was born, life was difficult. Each time I used food stamps, I could see people judging if I’d bought healthy food. I heard whispers criticizing me for being an unwed mother. Did Mary hear such whispers?

MARY: My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for God has looked with favor on the lowliness of God’s

servant.

God has shown strength with God’s arm;

God has scattered the proud

in the thoughts of their hearts.

God has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

God has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

God has helped God’s servant Israel,

in remembrance of God’s mercy,

according to the promise God made to our ancestors,

to Sarah and Abraham

and to their descendants forever.

ROBERT: I’m Robert. When my girlfriend told me she was pregnant, I was scared. I hadn’t planned to be a father, not yet. So I decided I would break up with her. But I couldn’t get the image of her raising our child alone out of my mind. And I couldn’t imagine never knowing my child. A friend reminded me that Joseph stuck around when Mary was expecting. So I decided to stick with my girlfriend and our child.

It hasn’t been easy but it’s been okay. When I’m really tired, my son makes me laugh. I know life will continue to happen – some of it good, some of it not so good but all of it real. God called Joseph to hang in even when he didn’t understand all that was happening.

MARIA Hello. I am Maria.When I hear there was no room at the inn for Mary and Joseph and Jesus, I understand. I came to the United States from Mexico soon after the North American Free Trade Act let the United States send lots of cheap corn to my village. We could no longer compete as farmers. We had to find another way to support our family. So we crossed into the United States under cover of night in the desert.

My husband, our four children and I now live in a small apartment that we share with two other families. I clean people’s houses and my husband finds day labor when he can. He gathers with other immigrant workers on Post Road each day hoping they will get work. We wonder how there can be no room in this large, prosperous nation for us. We work hard. We miss our home country and wonder if we are really building a better life for our children.

BEN Hi guys. I’m Ben. I work part time at a restaurant down the street. Maybe you’ve been there to eat. I’m the one who cleans up your table and the floor. Then again, you probably haven’t noticed me. I’m what some folks call the working poor.

Some folks avoid me because I not well educated and don’t wear nice clothes. Someone told me the shepherds who were

working near Bethlehem were a lot like me. Others in society looked down at them because they worked with their hands and sometimes smelled dirty because they lived outdoors with the sheep.

So it’s pretty surprising that God picked shepherds to be the first to learn that Jesus had been born. God didn’t send angels to rich people. God sent them to shepherds. I like that. When the angels said they had good news for all people, they really meant it.

Is there room in today’s world for a child who brings good news to all people, even the working poor?

COMMENTATORS:

ZIRDANA: What is the good news for those who live amidst war? What is the good news for those displaced from their homes and separated from their families?

TARA: What is the good news for those who are alone with no support systems or safety nets? What is the good news for people who are hungry, homeless, sick and imprisoned?

ROBERT: What is the good news for children who come into the world unplanned and unwanted? What is the good news for children whose parents are too busy to spend time with them?

MARIA: What is the good news for immigrants who risk their lives to make a better way for their families? What is the good news for strangers who are not welcomed in a new land?

BEN: Will our world welcome the good news? Will our world welcome the Prince of Peace? Will our world listen to a mighty counselor? Will we welcome a poor baby born in a stable?

STORYTELLER #4: Let us pray:

CONGREGATION AT PRAYER: Dear God, as we celebrate this Christmas season, help us open our hearts to Jesus’ message of peace. Lead us to carry that message into our world to all God’s children. Let us shout the good news from mountaintops and from the valleys below. Thank you for your gift of love. Thank you for your gift of Jesus. Amen.

EPILOGUE: Mary and Joseph Flee to Africa (Matthew 2:13-18)

JOSEPH: Our Christmas pageants often end at this joy-filled point but this is a Living Nativity and the story goes on. Even as Mary and I were settling into life with a new child, I had a second dream in which an angel spoke to me.

ANGEL: Get up, take the child and Mary, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.

JOSEPH: Mary and I fled to Africa with Jesus and remained there until Herod died. Though our child was saved, other children were not. When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Wise Ones, he was infuriated. He sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under.

STORYTELLER #1: Jesus spent his earliest years as a refugee, displaced from his home nation, living in a land from which his descendants had fled – a land with a religion, a language and a culture different from his own.

STORYTELLER #2: Is there room in today’s world – in our nation, our community, our church and our hearts – for all who must flee their homes? Jesus said whatever we do to the least of these our sisters and brothers, we do to him. Is there room for Jesus in today’s world – in our nation, our community, our church and our hearts?

STORYTELLER #3: Let us make room for the good news. Let us make room for Jesus, the baby who rocks our world. Let us sing with gusto “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” – God with us – throughout this holy season.