Encounters and mis-encounters

Oneide Bobsin, SAO LEOPOLDO, Brasil, December 21, 2004

Encounters and mis-encounters are experiences that mark our lives. We constantly remember the agreeable ones Taxi Heathrow Airport and always try to repeat them. The mis-encounters, on the other hand, insist on persecuting us no matter how much we try to escape from them.

The birth of Jesus was also marked by encounters and mis-encounters, according to the Gospels. The Angel’s announcement to Mary about the pregnancy leaves Joseph in a very embarrassing situation, given that they were not yet married.

In the silence of his heart, Joseph harbors strange suspicions. Whose child is it, as he has not had sexual intercourse with Mary?  However, as he was a just person Joseph did not go out to denounce Mary to the four winds, as was apparently common at that time and continues to be so today. In his dreams, an angel warned Joseph to not repudiate Maria, assuming an attitude that went beyond responsible paternity.

As a result, Mary was not considered an immoral woman, who could be condemned to death by stoning, according to the law of that time. As a result, the Lord’s Angel saved Mary from death.

For another group of men, the birth of Jesus also constituted a major event. Pastors were considered the bottom of society. They did work that was little appreciated. In the search of grazing land and water for flocks they surely crossed property lines.

However, they were the first to receive the announcement of the birth of Jesus.  In this way, this divine predilection reveals a highly significant encounter, which the world still recalls.

It is important to note that this great joy was also announced to famous people. The event had an international dimension. The Wise Men of the East, accustomed to reading the signs of the times, observes something different in the heavens. They followed a star and arrived “by deception” at Herod’s Palace. Herod was taken by surprise. In secret, Herod called on the Wise Men to come back and tell him about the new king.

As we can see, the birth of Jesus sparked encounters and mis-encounters- What transformed the mis-encounters into important events did not come from people’s hearts.

Mary, Joseph and the pastors received the news from Angels. Without divine mediation, what could have been an encounter, became a major mis-encounter: Herod was not informed by the Wise Men.

Perhaps the king was very submitted to the logic of maintaining power, which impeded him from looking beyond himself. Or, perhaps because he did not see anything above him. However, he did not read the signs that something new was happening and his kingdom passed like so many others.

Our Christmas feelings in the XXI Century can lead us to major mis-encounters. As a famous philosopher warned we live in a “network of tools” that are transformed into the image and likeness of the merchandize we want. In this way, without our encounters conditioned by the merchandise/gifts, so anxiously sought, we feel frustrated with what we have.

Our Christmas encounters, filled with desires that spring from our hearts, repeat the story of Herod, who his great opportunity to see the signs of a new time.

To the contrary, the Wise Men, who left their presents beside the manager knew that their gifts had no useful or bartering value. They were presents without value as the person who received them did not need them.

They were offerings of recognition, external signs of adoration, meaningless gestures for Herod who did not obtain the results of his request. Divine providence lead the Wide Men by another route.

Therefore, there are mis-encounters that serve for good, the good of all, just as there are encounters that are propitious for adoration and compassion. These are not oriented by desires as, as one famous psychoanalyst said: to live from desire does not produce happiness, but from ideas and ideals yes.

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Oneide Bobsin, Pastor of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession of Brazil and Professor of Religious Sciences from the Theological School in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil.