As the celebration of Christmas becomes more and more captive to consumerism and secularism, the origin and significance of it as a Christian observance becomes more and more clouded. It now seems that at this time of year the politically correct thing to do is to greet persons with “Happy Holidays”. This is being driven by a desire on the part of some persons to reject the assertion of the Christian faith community that God became incarnate. In so doing, however, we deprive ourselves of the possibility of seeing the connection between our contemporary experience and the world in which the first Christmas was played out.

The Cuban-born Church historian Justo Gonsalez makes the following observation about the first Christmas in a work entitled, The Cradle of Christianity:

According to the tradition reflected in the Gospel of Luke, Christianity was born in a manger, a scene we often like to paint in quiet hues. Yet that manger scene was actually not an example of tranquil aloofness from the menacing world, but quite the contrary, was the result of active involvement. Joseph and Mary were led to the city of David because of economic conditions at home and a decree from afar when Caesar Augustus ordered “that all the world should be enrolled” (Luke 2:1 RSV). The purpose of the census was taxation, and the world about the manger was rife with bitter pain.

This characterisation of the life and times of first-century Palestine reads like the stories of the daily newspapers of Jamaica since the Government announced its latest tax package prior to the signing of a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund. Since the announcement of the tax measures, it seems that every group of persons I have encountered is talking about the pain which this holds in store for citizens. The conversation seems to be punctuated with more than the usual measure of protest which comes with the announcement of any new tax measures.

While many persons understand that the country needs to take drastic steps if the national debt is to be reined in, even in the present context of a global financial crisis, there is a sense that citizens feel that the tax measures will affect mostly the poor — those least able to bear the burden of additional taxes. For many years, the country had a “basic needs basket”, which in some ways is the most basic diet of the poor and which should be protected from the vagaries of price fluctuations and taxes. Now, in one stroke, this has disappeared and previously GCT-exempted commodities have now been added to the tax net.

Citizens are not only bewildered at but highly concerned about the feasibility of some of these new taxes.

Citizens are also concerned that there seems to have been no serious consideration given to the implementation of tax measures that would target those institutions and persons who have made it good financially in recent years and who have the ability to bear more of the tax burden. While Prime Minister Golding’s decision to re-examine some of the tax measures in light of the resounding level of protests was commendable, it may also serve to highlight the very point which critics have been advancing, that the tax package did not receive sufficient thought as to its impact and feasibility before being announced to the nation. Not to be forgotten also is the attempt which the Government made to downplay the projected impact of the global financial crisis on the Jamaican economy, which now haunts it.

Without doubt, the Opposition will use this opportunity to gain whatever mileage it can with the electorate, and this has been evident in its releases and the protests that have been organised. Nevertheless, the hue and cry which has been forthcoming is more than a partisan response. Indeed, there would be no need to conduct a poll to demonstrate that the Government has lost a significant element of its popular support over this issue. Arguably, any government in power at this time would have to take stringent measures, which would not go down well with the society, but whether the package of new taxes would have to take this form is another matter. We can therefore expect to see some form of protest in the days immediately following Christmas Day or when the taxes take effect. I doubt that warnings against protests by the Government or security forces will extinguish the energised responses which we are currently seeing.

Ultimately, whether at the bidding or demand of the IMF, the national debt will have to be reined in. The pain is now being felt in the tax measures that have been announced. So, it is Christmas once again, two millennia later, and new taxes are being imposed and many are rife with bitter pain. This suggests that the world of the first Christmas and that of our contemporary experience are not that far removed from each other in certain respects.

St Luke 2 recorded the Evangelist’s account of the birth of Jesus, and we are introduced to simple peasant people: a carpenter, a peasant young woman engaged to the carpenter, and some shepherds, who were about the simple routine of life, taking care of their sheep out in the fields at night. They had no pretensions about being special, as those who are special would be sleeping in the warmth of their home along with their family.

Perhaps weary from work and half asleep, they have the strangest experience. They have an experience which they are convinced is of God. According to the narrative, an angel, a messenger of God, appears before them and delivers the message from God.

I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people; to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

For centuries the nation had longed for this promised Messiah and now these people were being told that it had come to pass. The angel then offers the proof of the truth of the message he has proclaimed:

This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

As a final seal to the testimony of the angel, there appears a great company or host, which are clearly heavenly beings associated with the presence of God, and they join in singing a great hymn of praise to God:

Glory to God in the highest heaven,

And on earth peace among those whom he favours.

The shepherds, we are told, went with haste to Bethlehem and found things exactly as they had been told.

The birth of the Christ-child represented for these shepherds, Mary and Joseph, and those of the community of faith, the fulfilment of their deepest moral, social, cultural, and religious hope for the transformation of human existence. In this event, referred to in Christian theology as the Incarnation, God was taking the initiative to subject Himself to the conditions of mortal life. In the Incarnation the history of the world has been decided as a victorious history of salvation which no power of evil, war, conflict or earthly authority or force can undo or negate. This is in fact a Christian defiance of all earthly authorities whose actions may create a situation in which the people of God are “rife with pain”, even as it is an assertion that they are transitory in the economy of God.

One of the most outstanding biblical scholars of recent times, Walter Brueggemann, sees in the birth of Jesus, the Incarnation, the triumph of God over the oppressive despair of the Roman Empire and the powerful messianic hope of the people of faith which the shepherds represent. The poor, like the shepherds, were the hardest hit by the policies of the empire. The shepherds are symbolic of the marginalised and the disinherited who have nothing and hope nothing. But alas, what is supposed to be the scripted ending to their situation is disrupted by a daring, unexpected new beginning, because in this vulnerable baby, Jesus, whose name means “save”, the power of despair and nullification is utterly broken. Not even Herod with all his plotting and scheming could stop this liberating work of God. From this sordid scene comes the clear voice of the angels who sing of the verdict and the victory of the new baby.

The poor and marginalised, who are most likely to feel the burden of this new tax package and are “rife with pain”, are not forgotten by God. This God of salvation will use various channels to create a new beginning, a new possibility where the scripted ending seems to speak only of despair and hopelessness.

At the centre of the Christmas story stands the paradigm of the Incarnation, which is a paradigm of humility that gives a new definition to power. This calls for a renunciation of all attachments to what the world holds dear: goods, social advancement, the satisfaction of appetites at the expense of others, the right to dominate others in any personal relationship. Part of the power of humility comes from letting go of the standards of those around us and their definition of life. The shepherds heard a song which proclaimed peace for God’s people. This peace or shalom is not just an inward disposition or feeling, but a sense of well-being which involves every dimension of life, including the material. If the world is to see change, the promise of the Prince of Peace is that it will be the adoption of a whole new set of values that stand in opposition to those of the world, and which begins with a change in the hearts and lives of human beings in their relationship with each other and with God. In our context this change in values and relationship must be reflected in the way taxes are imposed and shared among all classes of society.

As we celebrate Christmas this year, let us be mindful of the essence of this festival, its deep grounding in the realities of the life of poor people , and the prospect of an unscripted new beginning for the life of these persons and all humanity. Let us somehow allow ourselves the opportunity for the Incarnation to touch us in a personal way and so become a part of this experience of salvation and commit ourselves to become instruments of God’s peace and favour toward humankind in what is a troubled world.

Editor’s Note: Howard Gregory’s article was written before Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s address to the nation Thursday night.