“God in dirty places” (GinDP) is an unconventional initiative that seeks to understand God from the experiences of people in drastic/dirty/unpleasant etc. circumstances. GinDP S1 focused on issues while, GinDP S2 focused on spaces that were considered dirty/unconventional for God to exist. GinDP S3 focused on “Women” as agents of liberation. GinDP S4 the concluding series of Theological musings will focus on the first Christmas that was dirty, yet a place chosen for the redeemer of creation to be born. GinDP is an opportunity for theological writers and progressive thinkers to articulate their God-talk and experiences through their musings.
The first Christmas was indeed dirty. This dirtiness was not merely the physical dirt that Mary gave birth in, but rather the dirt of sins that engulfed the world. From the tyrannical rule of the King that atrociously murdered innocents for greed to the little selfishness that closed the doors of the many homes to dessert a pregnant woman on the streets was sheer inhumanness. This historic birth of a baby, who would grow in to a person to challenge the structures of the world made hope possible in a world that was cried in hopelessness.
Today the COVID19 pandemic has struck us and imposed on us to live with the virus for a little longer than expected. Powers of the world fight over vaccines, people stranded on the streets, walls built to divide, military invasions among neighbors, divisive politics to divide people on the one side. On the other, rape cultures, caste atrocities, religious fanaticism/fundamentalism, abduction, killings abuse and violence rapidly increasing shows the utter hopelessness of the world today. Thus, all of creation cries for liberation. If the redeemer child was born today, amidst these blunders of humanity, how would the world respond? What is Christmas during this COVID19? Will it continue to remain the fantabulous, commercially decorated celebration? Let the icons of the nativity tell us their stories.*
That stable in which Jesus was born in was filled with hay, fodder, cattle-dung with cattle tied around. The verse Luke 2:7 “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” clearly states Jesus’ birth into this world in a symbolic manner. What do these icons of the nativity (crib) have, to tell us?
Since this is a continuation of the previous seasons, it carries the same overarching theme, in which, the writers were in a quest to understand and relate ‘dirty’, ‘Christmas,’ ‘God’ and personal experiences, and reflect on them theologically.
*This concept is inspired by the intercessory prayer ("A Christmas to Remember and Re-Member") written for NCCI Christmas in December 2017.
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