Believe in Believe (Ted Lasso Advent - Part 5 - Christmas Edition)

A number of years ago I was telling the Christmas story to a group of youth in the drop-in center I worked. When I got to the part of the story where it said that Mary was pregnant but was a virgin one of the girls sitting up front said, "This story isn't even legit." My young friend's skepticism was not unfounded. The Christmas story with its virgin birth, Joseph's abstinence, angelic appearances of all kinds, and babies sleeping in livestock feeders, just to name a few things, is a strange story and can make one wonder if it's legit.

There are a number of leaps of faith that take place in the accounts of Jesus' birth. In Matthew we follow Joseph and see him decide to step out in faith and take Mary to be his wife, even though it would have been easier to just dismiss her. Later in the story Joseph has to again make a bold step by fleeing to Egypt based on a dream. In Luke, we first witness Zechariah and Elizabeth's faith in believing that they were finally having a baby in their old age and then we see Mary's leap into the unknown of having a baby via the Holy Spirit. As we read we see person after person put in the position of choosing to believe what they see, or responding "This isn't even legit." 

Something has occurred to me this Advent/Christmas. Did Matthew and Luke write their accounts of Jesus birth in such a way that we, like Mary and Joseph, must to step out in faith and choose to believe the story or not? Is the way the story is told inviting us to follow in the steps of Joseph and Mary and believe something that seems too strange to be real?

In the very first episode of Ted Lasso coach Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) hangs a sign above the office door that simply says "Believe." The sign stays in that place till the last episode of season two when it is torn down by Nate (Nick Mohammed). The sign itself becomes something of a character on the show as much as the message Ted is trying to get across to his team. As Lasso addresses his team in the locker room (season 1 episode 10 - The Hope That Kills You) the coach talks about belief,

"See, I believe in hope.
I believe in belief.
Now, where I'm from, we got a saying too, yeah?
A question, actually. "Do you believe in miracles?"
Now, I don't need y'all to answer that question for me... but I do want you to answer that question for yourselves. Right now. Do you believe in miracles?"

Is it possible that Matthew and Luke are asking the same question to us that Coach Lasso is asking his team? As we read the Christmas story are we being asked to believe? Do the accounts we have of the Messiah's birth confront us with our belief in belief itself? For me the answer is yes to all those questions.

Matthew and Luke tell a story that in someways doesn't even sound legit and as they do they invite you to make the same leap of faith Mary and Joseph did. On this Christmas Day, as you read and reflect on that first Christmas, do you believe?

The Great (Ted Lasso Advent - Part 4)

In the very first episode of Ted Lasso viewers meet locker room attendant Nathan Shelley (Nick Mohammed) who quickly develops the nick name "Nate the Great." Soon Nate is made a member of the coaching staff and even wins the team a game because of a bold strategy call. The viewer follows along as Nate's ego, fueled by social media, grows. In the final episode of season 2 (Inverting the Pyramid of Success) a conversation between Ted (Jason Sudeikis) and Nate reveals how Nate sees himself. Nate tells Lasso,

"Everybody loves you. The Great Ted Lasso. Well, I... I think you're a f***ing joke. Without me, you wouldn't have won a single match. They would've shipped your a** back to Kansas, where you belong. With your... With your son. 'Cause you... you sure as hell don't belong here. But I do. I belong here. This didn't just fall into my lap, all right? I... I earned this."

If the speech doesn't seal the deal on Nates inflated ego the final shot of the season does. Nate has become the head coach of West Ham United F.C. who has been recently purchased by ACF Richmond owner Rebecca Welton's (Hannah Waddingham) ex-husband, and show baddy, Rupert Mannion (Anthony Head). Nate's journey to the dark side is complete. One of the main plot points that runs through the first two seasons is that as Nate's ego grows exponentially he becomes a more treacherous, self-absorbed jerk who believes his nick name "Nate the Great."

There is a character in the Advent/Christmas story that also carried the moniker "The Great." In that story the specter hanging over the birth of Jesus is the King of the Judeans, Herod the Great. Like Nate, Herod sees himself as great and isn't a very nice guy. Herod, to defend his power and honor has his brother-in-law drowned in the family pool. The historian Josephus records that he has two of his sons brought in front of him on charges of treason. One son begs for his life from his father. In the the end he kills them both. Augustus Caesar was quoted as saying “it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son.” Herod wants so much to impress Rome and the Caesar that he builds a lot of things, including a city he names Caesarea.

Herod enters the Advent/Christmas story a bit late. Somewhere around two years after Jesus is born a group of "wise men" from the East arrive to pay homage to the new king. It makes sense that if they were looking for the King of the Judeans they would go to Jerusalem. In that city they find Herod, who is not too thrilled to discover a new challenger to the throne is out there. He tries to get Magi to come back to him to disclose the whereabouts of the new king, but they are warned by a dream to go another way home. As a response Herod has all the boy children two years old and younger in Bethlehem killed. Herod's message to those babies, and any would be new kings, is "you sure as hell don't belong here. But I do."

I suspect that your nativity scene has the Magi, but not the dead babies or Herod the Great. Over this Advent season I have been contemplating what it would look like to have a more complete or layered nativity. It seems to me that the backdrop against which the the birth of Jesus takes place is the reign of King Herod the Great. 

Looming over the manger is a maniacal ruler bent on power at all costs. King Herod wanted power so much he was willing to slaughter babies. Into this world a helpless baby was born. That baby had more power than Herod could ever muster or imagine. That baby ruled not just one tiny area of the Roman world, but the entire world itself. That baby gave up his throne to become less than great - a helpless infant. Herod was willing to do whatever it took to maintain power, but Jesus, he gave up power to do what ever it takes to bring peace. 

This advent we are invited to consider if we are part of the kingdom of the great - Nate and Herod doing whatever it takes to gain and hold power - or the kingdom that comes in the form of a baby that brings the promise of peace on earth. Which will you choose?

It's The Hope That (doesn't) Kill You. (Ted Lasso Advent - Part 3)

I watched it happen for years. Being in community with high risk and street-involved youth for nearly two decades gave me a front row seat to the annual cycle of holiday disappointment. Each December I'd watch as some of my young friends pinned all the hope they could muster on Christmas. Some, after suffering years of disappointment, hoped against hope that Christmas would be perfect. Others had good holiday memories, but recent years had gone wrong, and they carried a hope for returning to those better days from years ago. From Thanksgiving till Christmas Eve you could see the hope they carried.

After Christmas the story was different. For far too many of the youth I knew Christmas was one more tinsel coated gut punch. The hope they had carried all through the holiday season was rewarded with one more blast of disappointment wearing down any ability to hope at all.

In Season 1 episode 10 (The Hope That Kills You) of Ted Lasso the main character, coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) is in the pub when a few fans come up to thank him for doing his best, even if it's not that good. They wish him a very low-key good luck on the upcoming match. Ted responds, "You're acting like we lost the game already, yeah? Why don't you have a little hope?." The owner of the pub, Mae (Annette Badland) has been listening in and says, "Aw, Ted. Haven't you lived here long enough to realize? It's the hope that kills you." This statement is something my young friends, disappointed one more time by Christmas, would identify with.

Hope is a word we throw around a lot this time of year. We have ornaments and other decorations that say hope. There are Christmas cards with hope printed on them. The first candle lit in the advent wreath is hope. That candle is sometimes called the prophecy candle. This seems fitting since the prophets were the voice speaking the hope that the Messiah, Jesus, was coming. But it took a long time for the Messiah to arrive. For how many people did it feel like "It's the hope that kills you" when year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation the Messiah didn't arrive.

Another aspect of Advent is that those of us who follow Jesus are encouraged to look for where Jesus is arriving in our lives. It's a wonderful encouragement, but I wonder for how many of us "It's the hope that kills you." If we have been waiting for Jesus to arrive in our lives in a certain way, maybe for a long time,  and he seemingly hasn't it can become harder to hope.

The third aspect of Advent may also lead to a hope that is killing us. In advent we look backward to see Jesus' arrival as a baby in the world; we look around the present for how Jesus is arriving in our world today; and we look forward to Jesus coming back to this world. That third aspect is something that we've been waiting a long time for. The early Jesus-followers thought he was coming back in their lifetime and he didn't. Now over 2000 years later we are still looking for the return of Jesus and perhaps the passing time has sucked our hope away.

In that episode of Ted Lasso, ACF Richmond loses the game. In a very disappointed locker room Coach Lasso speaks:

"So I've been hearing this phrase y'all got over here that I ain't too crazy about. 'It's the hope that kills you'. Y'all know that? I disagree, you know? I think it's the lack of hope that comes and gets you. See, I believe in hope. I believe in belief."

In this statement Ted buoys his team, but I think he offers us something as well. As we have seen it might be hard to find hope at Christmas. Jesus' arrival as a baby was a long time ago. We might struggle to see where the Messiah is breaking into our lives and world now. The prospect of Jesus coming again has maybe waned over time. However I think Ted is right, "I think it's the lack of hope that comes and gets you."

Yet, what do we do if we cannot seem to muster much hope? I think one answer comes to us from St. Ignatius who would often ask, “Do you have the desire for this desire?” Do you desire hope this season? Do you have the desire to desire hope this season? It all starts with wanting to have hope, or wanting the desire to want hope.

Paul tells us in Romans 5 that,

"we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces    character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." 

Hope does not disappoint us when it is hope in the fact that God has poured his love on us in the past, is pouring his love on us in the present, and will pour his love on us in the future. Love is always arriving. It is always Advent. That hope doesn't kill us.

"I Love Meeting People's Moms" or Why Jesus is Nuts (Ted Lasso Advent - Part 2)

In season 2 episode 6 (The Signal) of Ted Lasso team owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) yells down from her office to the practice field to see if Ted (Jason Sudeikis) has lunch plans. Rebecca is soon joined in the window by her mother Deborah (Harriet Walter). Deborah informs Lasso, the coaches and the team that she is "a work in progress, a voracious book on tape listener and a staunch believer that if you get dealt lemons in life, then you should make lemon lavender mojitos." After the exchange, Lasso turns to the other coaches and says, "I love meeting people’s moms. It’s like reading an instruction manual as to why they’re nuts." I love this little truth bomb, and so does Matthew.

The advent story recorded in the Gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy. Let's be honest genealogies are among the most skipped sections of scripture. We've all fast forwarded over these lists of names looking for the next narrative. However, the genealogy that starts the New Testament is a little different. In the midst of all the men listed, five women are also name dropped. The mothers making the cut are: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah (aka Bathsheba), and Mary.

These mothers of advent are each famous, or rather infamous, in their own ways:

Tamar (Genesis 38) is the wife of Er, the oldest son of Judah. Tamar's first husband dies. As does her second husband Onan, Er's brother. As was the custom she asked her father-in-law for another brother for a husband, and Judah told her to wait, because he didn't want to lose another son. Judah was clearly under the impression that Tamar was a black widow of some type. After Judah's wife dies he goes on a trip and Tamar dresses as a prostitute and tricks Judah into getting her pregnant (finally). Judah doesn't have cash to pay for the prostitute's services so he gives her his ring, cord and staff. When It is discovered that Tamar is pregnant, and accused of being immoral, she reveals that Judah is the father by showing the items he left with her as payment.

Rahab (Joshua 2 & 6) is a resident of the city of Jericho and also a business owner. The business was a brothel. Once it is discovered that Israel has sent spies into the city, Rahab hides the men (who were customers?) and they escape before the King of Jericho could find them and kill them. In return the men promised to save Rahab when they took the city. The spies keep their promise and save Rahab and she becomes part of the Israelite nation.

Ruth (Book of Ruth), a non-Israelite from Moab, chooses to return to Israel with her mother-in-law after both of their husbands die. Living in poverty, the only hope for Ruth and her mother-in-law is for a family member (known as a kinsman redeemer) to marry Ruth. Naomi has just the person in mind, the wealthy Boaz. Naomi sends Ruth to glean in the field of Boaz hoping that she would catch the man's eye and the plan works! Then Naomi instructs Ruth to get herself dolled up and to go to Boaz in the night and "uncover his feet." Chapter 3 of the Book of Ruth uses a lot of coded language, but it appears to me that Ruth seduces Boaz and in the end he takes her to be his wife.

The next grandmother of Advent is part of the most famous scandal in the Old Testament. Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11) is the wife of Uriah a Hittite who is serving in the Israelite Army under King David. The King had chosen not to go off to war. One night David is taking a stroll on his roof when he sees Bathsheba taking a bath and is attracted to her. David has his servants bring Bathsheba to him and he sleeps with her. In an effort to cover up the scandal and to keep Bathsheba for his own David rigs a battle so that Uriah is killed.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the fifth woman mentioned. Mary is an unwed mother (at least initially) claiming that she has been made pregnant by God himself. Aside from the claim of who the father is, an unwed teenage girl may not be as scandalous as Tamar, Ruth, Rahab, or Bathsheba's stories, but having a baby outside of wedlock in Mary's era meant that the baby would be considered a mamzer. A mamzer was the child of a forbidden relationship and it was believed that these children defiled a bloodline for 400 years. Interestingly, if that was the belief perhaps Jesus' bloodline was continually contaminated throughout the history that Matthew records.

Imagine if we, instead of the standard crèche, created nativities filled with these grandmothers and their partners. Suddenly Advent and Christmas would be marked by the remembrance of deception, incest, prostitution, seduction, a King using his power like Harvey Weinstein to get the woman he's lusting after, murder, and an unwed mother pregnant by mysterious circumstances. It might seem a bit odd to us to think of adding Tamar and Judah, Rahab and the spies, Ruth and Boaz, King David, Bathsheba and Uriah to our collection of Christmas figurines, but this is exactly what Matthew is doing. But, why? I believe it is because knowing Jesus' grandmothers and mother give us an instruction manual as to why Jesus is nuts, or perhaps why he does what he does.

In a culture where women had very low status, Matthew is making sure the grandmothers and mother of Advent are highlighted. In a world where a female could not give testimony in court, Matthew is assuring that these five women are able to give a witness. This fact alone declares that what Jesus is going to do will be different. This alone was a transformational shift, but this list of Advent mother's also offers a key to how Jesus lived and explains the things he did that were seen as nuts in his day.

When Jesus ate at the table of sinners, perhaps he had in the back of his mind these five women and how his family looked a lot like those gathered at the meal.

Perhaps when he was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well, an outcast woman on her sixth husband/partner, grandmother Tamar and her multiple partners was on his mind.

Can you imagine that as Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you." (Matt. 21:31) that he was thinking of Grandmother Rahab?

What if the low status, unclean woman that boldly pushes her way to Jesus in the crowd and touches his clothes (Mark 5:21) reminded him of his grandmother Ruth who was also an outcast and boldly did what needed to be done.

Was the punchy exchange with the Canaanite Woman (Matt. 15:21-28) a time when Mary's son was thinking about all the strong, unflinching non-Isaelite women in his family tree that wove their way into the story?

Is it possible that when Jesus is hanging in on the cross and says to the man hanging next to him, a criminal with a repentant heart, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43), that he had in mind his criminal grandfather David?

I do not think that it is beyond belief that when the woman caught in adultery is thrown down in front of Jesus (John 8:1-11) that through his mind flashes the faces of the five mothers of advent. It is worthy of our speculation that perhaps what Jesus writes in the dirt are the names of these women, each with their own sexual scandal. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary may very well be on the Lord's mind when he says, "Then neither do I condemn you."

Each of these actions, all seen as nuts in Jesus' day can be understood through the lens of Matthew chapter 1. So I invite you this advent to meet the grandmothers of Jesus and in meeting them come to understand why Jesus is nuts.

Joel K