Book Review: "God is in the Manger" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"God is in the Manger" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, compiled and edited by Jana Riess, published 2010 by Westminster John Knox Press.

Just to be clear right from the get-go, this isn't a book written for this purpose by Dietrich Bonhoeffer during his lifetime.  It's a compilation of various reflections, sermons, and thoughts about Advent and Christmas that have been gathered from his papers and letters.  However, that shouldn't dissuade you from checking this out.  It's a wonderful compilation, and I think the great man himself would be very happy with the way it turned out.  The book lets Bonhoeffer speak for himself on the subject with little, if any, extra interpretation added.  Much of it is from the period when Bonhoeffer was in prison in Berlin, and that context gives many of the letters and reflections quite a powerful setting.

The first part of the book is dedicated to the Advent season.  As are most Advent devotionals, the book is geared around four themes, one for each candle around the Advent wreath.  These four themes are: Waiting, Mystery, Redemption, and Incarnation.  This book actually jived pretty well with the study we were doing for Advent at church, and I thought it was really on point.

The first week's theme, "waiting," centers around the action that is most familiar to us at Advent, which is of course waiting, waiting in expectancy and hope.  Not only do the readings reflect on our waiting, but God's waiting as well, his waiting to send his son, and his waiting to see the fruits of Christ's mission brought forward.  The second week, "mystery" focuses on the great mystery of why all of this was done for us, and what it all means.  Bonhoeffer describes this mystery not as an unknown, but as something we know to a certain extent and strive to learn more and more about. Some of the most powerful reflections were from this second week.

The third week tackles the topic of redemption: just what is it that Christ has done for us?  In this theme, the manger certainly foreshadows the cross as the life of Christ is looked at as a whole.  Some folks who haven't spent any time reading in Bonhoeffer's original writings might get a little bogged down here, as some of it is pretty heavy, theologically speaking, but the overall thrust is that the baby in the manger becomes Christ on the Cross, which is good news for us in the final analysis.

The final week of Advent focuses on the Incarnation itself: what a powerful thing it is for creator of the stars, the sky, the land, the sea, and all within it to become one of his own frail creatures just to save us from ourselves. For me this has always been the most powerful aspect of Christmas, and I was not disappointed in what Bonhoeffer had to say about it.

The last part of the book contains devotions for the 12 days of Christmas and one for Epiphany itself. These devotions focus largely on how we should respond to the gift of Christmas and dealing with what we have in front of us.  Contained in this section are some of Bonhoeffer's final letters, and they really help to put things in perspective.

This book was a top notch Advent study, and as I mentioned earlier, I really like the way they put it together.  The same group has another Bonhoeffer compilation for Lent that is out, and I'm seriously considering it getting it as well.  I wouldn't even say that you have to know a lot about Bonhoeffer to really get something out of this book.  There's something for everyone and it can really help folks to have a meaningful Advent and Christmas season.  I know it certainly helped me.

The Magnificat and the Manger: The Subversiveness of Christmas

"He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty." Luke 1 51-53 (NRSV)

I've thought long and hard about what I wanted to say today, on Christmas Eve.  I thought about just putting some kind of innocuous fluff post out there about everybody being happy and joyful as we gather with friends and family.

But it didn't seem right to do that.

In fact, it would misrepresent what the Christmas story has come to mean for me.

Think back to a time before Christmas shopping was even a thing.  Think back to a time before conquerors bearing the standard of Christianity colonized the western world and destroyed many native cultures and populations.  Think back to a time before Constantine converted to Christianity and forever linked the faith of Christ on the cross to a global empire.

Think back to a time when a young Jewish girl, having recently found out that she was expecting a baby in scandalous circumstances, took a trip into the country to stay with her cousin.  During this time the Jewish people, like many others, were under the thumb of the Roman empire.  They were looking for a messiah, a deliverer, a Christ.  They were looking for someone who would help them throw off Roman rule.  

It's also quite possible that Mary and her family didn't have much.  Certainly they didn't when compared to the Romans.  Her future husband was a carpenter, and while maybe that's not glorious, it was a skilled trade that should provide for her and her child.

Upon her arrival she finds that her cousin, an older woman thought barren, is expecting a baby as well.  As her cousin comes out to meet her she greets her with "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?"  The cousin proceeds to tell the young woman that the baby in her womb leaped for joy at her presence.  This is probably confusing to this young girl, Mary.  How did her cousin Elizabeth know about all this?  One can imagine that they talked quite a bit about all of these things in the days after that!

With all this now done and understood, Mary, this young, Jewish peasant girl sings a song of praise that to my mind is unrivaled in Christian scripture.  I quote it in it's entirety: 

And Mary said:

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and to his seed forever.”

--Luke 1: 46-55 (NKJV)

I wonder, can you get more anti-establishment than this?  Here is this young girl talking about scattering the proud, throwing down mighty kings from their thrones, exalting the lowly of society, feeding the hungry, and turning the rich away empty handed.  When you think about it, it's quite startling.

Now think about this in context of today's well to do, pro-establishment, pro-money and extreme wealth version of Christianity.  How would this message really play today in age where poor people are frowned upon simply as lazy welfare takers and laws are passed in some locales that prevent feeding the homeless in public?  How would this message of raising the lowly and sending the rich away empty play to the crowds, the masses of people who still now, at 3 PM on Christmas Eve, are flocking to stores in search of those gadgets or those toys that we think we all really need?

My guess is that the message of Mary's song would be, and is, brushed aside like a pesky fly as we go our way in our empire-like religious establishment and participate in our corporate Christmas.

The First Christmas gets even more subversive, even more wild that that however.

Some months later, Mary is near giving birth and is in the town of Bethlehem with her husband, Joseph.  Joseph frantically seeks a room for them, someplace for them to stay, but is turned away.  It is an image that often pops up in the Bible, people unwittingly turning God, turning Christ away. Eventually they end up in a stable,  It may not have been a barn or stable in the sense that we see in our modern Nativity scenes.  Many houses in that time had a lower room where animals and livestock were kept.  Perhaps it was in a room like this.  Oral tradition in Bethlehem holds that it was in a cave like stable with animals around.

It is in these surroundings that Mary gives birth to her firstborn son.  She gives him the name Jesus, wraps him in a blanket, and lays him in a manger. I wonder if Mary and Joseph really grasped the moment, really realized what had just happened?

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it....And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
--John 1: 1-5, 14.

God had become a human being.  No really, God, you know, Creator of the Universe, the beginning and the end of all things, had left his throne and came to Earth, not as King born in the finest palace, but as a baby born to a young peasant couple and placed in a manger.  It wasn't the kings and princes of the empire that came to greet him, but a bunch of sheep herders who had been hanging out with their charges.  Is THAT any way for the King of the Universe to enter his creation?

Do we lose sight of that at Christmas?  Sure we do.  Despite the fact that there are multiple manger scenes in many neighborhoods, we often forget about the wonder, the mystery, of the Incarnation of the Creator of the stars of night in lowly human form.

What does that say to me, say to us as we celebrate Christmas?  We look around at our establishment and we're comfortable.  The plight of the poor and the oppressed doesn't seem to bother us most of the time as we go about our business.  But it was to these people, the poor couple living under imperial occupation, that Christ came into the world.  What does the story, what does Mary's song tell us about the way that we should look at our own world?

I leave you with some words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

"For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away.  These are the manger and the cross of Jesus Christ.  No powerful person dares to approach the manger, and this even includes King Herod.  For this is where thrones shake, the mighty fall, the prominent parish, because God is with the lowly.  Here the rich come to nothing, because God is with the poor and hungry, but the rich and satisfied he sends away empty.  Before Mary, the maid, before the manger of Christ, before God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught; they have no right, no hope, they are judged."

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "God is in the Manger," pg 26.