it may be a bit late (due to laptop dying on Christmas Day but here is the message from Christmas day 2016).
Sometimes it seems like things never change.
Super powers trying to impose their will on the world, I
mean that’s why Mary and joseph were going to Bethlehem, right, It was a
census, an upheaval imposed from afar, Caesar Augustus called it to gather information to count heads so he could
get more taxes and revenue for the Roman empire.
A housing crisis leading to a pregnant mother desperately
seeking a place to have her child… finally being offered a stable. I’m sorry
there is no room. IT’s not ideal but you can live in the garage, it better than
being in your car!
Paranoid dictators
concerned about the rise of alternatives, sending death squads to make sure any
resistance is stopped, and stamped out.
The weeping of mothers as government forces move in with brutal violence
and little thought of mercy. Desperate refugees
clinging to, holding and shielding their little ones, making the long
wearying trek, fleeing carnage, seeking refuge and asylum.
Maybe these things only register on the periphery of history
and our consciousness. They go almost unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of our
lives, family celebrations, holiday plans and simply keeping things going. In
the face of dealing with our own news and our own pain our own grief our own suffering and
sorrows.
Sometimes it seems like things never change. The nightly news sounds so much like the
Gospel narrative of Jesus birth.
But Christmas tells us that they can and that they do
change.
It tells us that in the midst of all the human activity and
even inhumane horror, that God is concerned and God cares and chooses to do
something to bring change. That in Jesus God stepped into our world, the word
became flesh and dwell in our neighbourhood.
Not with power and might, or shock and awe as we’ve heard the US
military talk of, not by coming to a place of influence and privilege, where he
would be listened to by right, able to demand obedience. But by stepping into
the everydayness of life:
Born to a young women of faith but not of status, the
circumstances of her pregnancy somewhat suspicious, her fiancé caught between loving her and wanting to do
the righteous thing and send her away, his dilemma only resolved by an angel
appearing in a dream.
Born amidst the upheaval of a census, where displaced
peoples mean there is only room in a local stable.
When his special birth is acknowledged by people from far
off countries it just about ruins everything, by alerting Herod, that there is one
born ‘King of the Jews’, a rival to his only families dynastic claims, and he
sends in death squads to kill every male child under two.
Born in to a refugee family, fleeing for his life.
But this child when a man would speak out about a different
kind of Kingdom, a different way to live, where all were welcomed in to know
God as father, to have a clean start and new life, and be enabled and empowered
to love one another, to care for the poor and lost and the least, to overcome
evil with good,. He talked of a world order flipped on its head where the least
was important to God and the powerful seen as blind to their own need for
change and transformation.
Then he would die on a cross, a criminals death, an innocent
man killed for political expediency. But a death that the Gospel narratives
display as a coronation, a victory over the powers of this world, over sin and
death.
But that is not the end of this story. God raised him to
life again. Things can change because we can have new life, a fresh start, be
invigorated to love and serve and be peacemakers and live generously because of
Jesus Christ.
There is great sorrow in the Christmas story it finishes
with a lament, the weeping of mothers for their dead children. But it is a
source of great Joy. It is Joy that God has kept his promise to step in and
bring change.
It is a cause for great Joy, because in this baby born in
Bethlehem, there is a light that points us to a way to bring change and
transformation, in our own lives as we meet and give ourselves to Him, no
longer a baby, but the Lord.
It is cause for great Joy, because in following Jesus
example of loving one another, even our enemies and facing down evil and
oppression with sacrificial love, and poverty with loving generosity… that it
can change.
You see there is great joy because the Kingdom of God, the
reign of God, has broken into the realm of man.
If we will but embrace it and allow Jesus to bring his light and new
life into our lives we can be agents of change.
So rejoice and find great joy this Christmas, In Christ’s
presence and grace.
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