An Advent and Christmas message
The Christian New Year begins with the first Sunday in Advent which this year fell on Nov. 29. Many of us are deeply involved in this Advent for Christmas which is now fast upon us. The Gospel reading for the first Sunday in Advent is something we might still want to contemplate, however. "Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life..." (from the Gospel of Luke).
The part of not being weighed down by the worries of life in these times seems especially good advice. But how do we live into this advice? Advent is a time when we look to the past promises of God to be with us in difficult times but remembering that these promises of help are also about the here and now. The birth of Jesus is of course the fulfillment of those promises. This rescue we call
salvation.
It can happen in small and big ways in life as we experience the life changing power of God and the love that being in God's presence produces. We are, after all, encouraged to change our lives and to give up unhealthy patterns, fearful ways of acting and live in the hope that God's promise creates.
The present economic and social situation may indeed seem daunting. But things are not what they seem. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus to Mary, a teenage mother. But the pregnancy of one more teenager is no longer an ordinary matter; indeed the pregnancy of this particular teenager provides the overture to a cosmic event.
In the birth of a helpless baby, all the powers of the universe that seek to oppress, to enslave, to manipulate or to engender fear, find that the days of their power are numbered. With God becoming one of us in the Christ, nothing will ever be the same. This is really something to celebrate! you all!
