The Unholy Family of Christmas (Part 3)

You needn’t be a synagogue or church regular to have heard of Rahab.  She has made her way into cultural lore as a kind of archetype of the whore, the seductress, the escort, the “pretty woman.”  But has she ever been part of the Christmas story as you’ve heard it or told it?

Matthew, for his money, wants Rahab in the Christmas story.  She rescues it from the smooth stone kind of story that fits civilization’s etiquette.  She lures us into a different kind of story.  We stammer a bit when we come to her in this “holy” story as we explain why “Her Unholiness” is there at all.  So why did Matthew clearly relish her being in the story as he told it?

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Accompanying the Palestinian People in Struggle

The suffering and hope of the Palestinian people locked in open-air prisons, surrounded by 30-foot walls of concrete has inspired me in a way that is similar to what I experienced when I traveled to Central America in the 1980’s; which translates into an integration of their message of hoping for justice and peace into my everyday way of being and behaving. I’ve been back a little over two weeks, and I’ve become accustomed to sharing and reflecting on the experience every day with someone(s). I know that I’ve been saturated with both grief and joy in communicating my experiences daily, because I don’t even need to keep track of what I’ve done on any given day.

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