When I’m with my wife’s family I get a kick out of watching the pecking order at work. Whether you are from a healthy family or a broken family we all have our social position (or birth order) in the family that defines who we are.

For example, my wife is number 5 of 9 kids. She is often seen as the fulcrum that balances the family dynamic. If you are a middle child, then I image you have some things in common with her and our middle daughter.

I cannot speak to that, because I am the last of 4, the baby of the family. If you are like me, or Rev. Dawn, your siblings probably see you as the spoiled one who gets away with everything. That might not be totally accurate portrait. But I do think the last-born are our parent’s favorite because we’re their last chance of getting it right.

Hierarchical patterns are found throughout our society. They always have been. Most corporations, governments and religious communities are set up in a way where each person has their own particular place of power and prestige. Despite the fact our constitution states, “All men are created equal,” our country’s story would suggest otherwise. 

The good news is no matter where you are born, in whatever order, or to whom your birthright belongs,…we really are all created equal in the eyes of God. Through Christ, God has blessed each one of us the same, even if our lives are radically different. 

Read Galatians 4:4-7 below

On Christmas Eve, I asked how many nativity stories were in the gospels? If you were watching, you might recall I got many different answers. Rev. Dawn was correct to say there was only  one birth story, which we read from Luke.

But I would argue there are two when we count the Magi visiting baby Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. John also gives us an esoteric account of Jesus’ birth. And if you want to know more about that you can read my Christmas Eve blog post, Between Light and Dark, from 2022.

Given our reading today, you can see that Paul also includes his own, albeit brief, story of Jesus’ birth, in his letter to the churches in Galatia. It is part of a larger argument that he’s making, comparing people who follow Jesus with orphans who are under the care of a conservatorship until they reach a particular age to inherit their father’s property. Paul isn’t talking about material wealth, but spiritual wealth that comes with sharing faith with Jesus.

He wrote, “God sent his Son, born of a woman, to redeem us and adopt us as his own children. As a child of God, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.”

Some children inherit great financial wealth; others receive great debt. One might get their mother’s eyes, while the other inherits his grandfather’ high forehead. This is not the inheritance that Paul is talking about. He knows we’re all different and yet all the same. So, he points our attention towards our divine DNA.

Scripture is pretty clear that we are all created in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27). I take this to mean we are all born blessed by God. That blessing, which ties us all together is Christ, who didn’t just come to redeem the world, or to save us from something we did. Christ is not God’s clean-up plan, but God’s original plan for us. Christ is the way God created the world, including us.


Paul says it like this, “In Christ all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16-17).

No matter who our earthly ties are, we all belong to God because we all have Christ within us. The same DNA that is in the baby born in Bethlehem, is the same that has been given to you and me. Through this little baby, wrapped in swaddling cloth, every person in the world receives an equal portion of the same gifts and grace; the same love and forgiveness; the same salvation and redemption.

Through him we share not only a name, but a heart; one love, and one forgiveness of all we’ve done wrong. This DNA makes us part of a process much greater than our parents creating a biological exchange. No wonder the church calls this the Good News.

It might be hard to believe that little old you could be that special or important to God, let alone be made in the image of God. But you are. To think that Jesus chose to leave all his heavenly glory, emptying himself and taking on human flesh just to return us to our original state, our Divine goodness. His entire mission was to awaken us to our truth and reconnect humanity back to God.

As John the evangelist professed in the prologue of his birth story, “And the Word of God became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”

Jesus took on our flesh and all the scars and awkwardness and pain that comes with it, to live among us so we would know the way. He showed us God’s glory so we could see who we are in God’s family.

More than that, Jesus didn’t just become human for a minute or an hour or a day and then go right back to heaven. He lived among us for thirty-three years, enduring the messiness, the heartbreak, the inconvenience, the joy, and the pain of human life. Jesus entered our pain willingly because he needed to go to the darkest depths of human suffering to make sure everyone sees themselves in God’s incarnate glory, full of grace and truth. In that glory we experience God’s love for us whether we deserve it or not.

Jesus continues to come to us into Anamesa, to meet us in those places we all find our self, some of us more than once. Rich or poor, black, brown, or white, male or female...the darkness of life does not discriminate. And neither does God’s Love that shines brightly through Christ, and through us. 

Because God made the choice to share God’s self with us in human form, we have not only seen God in Jesus Christ. Through him we have received new status and become a new family. A family built upon the foundation of God’s eternal love.

As members of this family, we can claim the truth that we are loved unconditionally. “Nothing,” says Paul, “can separate us from the love that God gives through Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:38-39). Nothing - not death, divorce, or differences of opinions that cause us to turn on one another.

God’s love is for anyone who wants it. So too is God’s family ready to welcome any and all who want to be adopted.

As we linger in the Christmas spirit, and begin our journey unlocking the space between us, may we never lose sight of the truth that Jesus not only came to love on us but to teach us and send us out into Anamesa to love one another.

DNA testing might tell you of some impending health issue, or help you better understand why you have brown eyes while everyone in your clan has blue eyes.

But we don’t need to mail in our saliva to know who we belong to and from where we came. A true test, then, of our DNA is seen in the way we seek out God in the heart of every human being.

As children in this divine family, we are all created equal, and we are all loved equally. We need not only to recognize this in our own life (with its faults and failures) but also in the follies and foibles of others. 

As Jesus showed us with his own life, the love God pours into us is the same love that must flow out of us into every wonderful or difficult space we find ourselves in. When we can see the Divine DNA in others, we can give freely and fearlessly of ourselves to others.

When we recognize and realize that the blood of Christ is mixed with the blood of everyone around us, then we can share the gift by loving God, loving others, and serving both.

As we move forward into a new year, let us not look back from which we came, but look ahead, to see the person right there in front of us for who they really are - brothers and sisters in God’s divine family tree.



Work Cited:
adapted fromOur Divine DNA from December 31, 2017.
Rice, Whitney.  In the Beginning. www.episcopaldigitalnetwork.com (12-30-17).

Tonight, at Anamesa, we continue the long-standing Christmas tradition of the lighting the Advent candles. The first candle is hope. The second is peace. The third is joy. And the forth is love. The last and final we candle is the Christ candle.
 
As we light it, we do so marking the of our season of watching and waiting.  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. This is the light of the world, and the darkness cannot extinguish it.
 
Light the Christ candle: As twilight veils the land, we gather in the ancient rhythm of Advent to ignite the light of Christ within us. Bound in this Advent wreath, hope’s ember, love’s warmth, joy’s melody, and peace’s stillness intertwine in flesh and spirit.
 
In this light we are drawn closer to God through Christ Jesus who said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” As we gaze upon this light, his light, we are reminded that our Lord came to us as a lowly baby, that the world through him might be saved, and will join with him one day in glory.
 
Our reading tonight comes from Luke 2:1-20

Like I mentioned early, we all have certain Christmas traditions that we embrace. For the first time in years, we broke tradition and went to see my parents before Christmas instead of after.

Likewise, my mom, who decorates her house as if she’s trying to woo Santa for a date, also broke from tradition. This year, she only has a dozen or so Christmas trees up. And roughly 40 nativity sets on display. That says a lot…because my mother has way too many of both.
 
But I love her collection of nativities. They are from all over the world. They’re made from different materials and feature different styles and designs - from classic porcelain to abstract metal. Each one is completely different. Yet, the tell the same story about the same mother, the same father, and the same baby.
 
In comparison to my mom, we’re not as prolific in our home. We only have seven nativity sets. One given to us for a wedding present. One that came from Peru. And another from Costa Rica. We also have two wooden ones my mom got the kids when they were little. In fact, the only one we bought is the one Kathleen picked up while waiting in line at CVS. Each one is different, but each tell the same story.
 
If we look at any one of our nativity sets, you can see there are a lot of assumptions we added into the Christmas story that aren’t a part of the gospel story.

​For example, we assume there were three wise men, even though we’re not told how many actually came. Judging by the animals that came with our sets, one could assume the camels and donkeys are there because a very pregnant Mary rode one to Bethlehem, despite the fact neither are mentioned.
 
In fact, one of our nativity sets included a lion which tells me someone assumed it would be good for the story to include a dangerous predator. We can assume there were sheep hanging around because Luke tells us some shepherds stop by to pay their respects. And where did the sheep go since there’s no mention of a barn or stable; only that there was no room in the inn for this holy family.
 
This is not to say all assumptions are wrong. We can assume Joseph wasn’t happy being forced by a foreign king to take his unwed, pregnant girlfriend home to meet the family. We can assume Mary wasn’t too happy about leaving her family this far along in her pregnancy. We can assume that when it was time to have the baby, God was merciful to her, caring for her pain and making sure she didn’t lose a lot of blood in the process. After all, she was carrying God into the world.
 
If we didn’t assume anything and only had the facts Luke gives us, then what would we have? A mother, a father, and their newborn baby wrapped in strips of cloth, sleeping in a manger. Many people have assumed a lot about this baby. But in that moment, in that space and time, the only thing the world knew about Jesus was what the angels of heaven proclaimed. In this child, God surprised the world - bring good news of great joy for all the people. And what a surprise it was.
 
But then again, God is full of surprises. Bringing life into barren places. Using ordinary nobodies to fulfill divine plans. Coming to be with us, as one of us. More surprising than the incarnation is the fact that God trusted us, ordinary human beings, to care for him in his most vulnerable state.

 
I think most of us here assume humans are not capable of caring for God. Yet someone had nurse him, wash him after he soiled himself, and soothed his aches and pains as he teethed. Just as God did for Mary, God still surprises us today in all the ways the divine enters into our lives to reveal God’s self to us; and to empower us to accomplish what we’ve been tasked to do.
 
You see the incarnation was not a one-time event. It’s something that happens every day. To borrow from Meister Eckhart, we are all called to give birth to God every day, “for God is always needing to be born.” These advent lights are our reminder of our calling – with our hope, peace, joy, love all mingled together with Christ – to shine the light of God’s glory upon all the earth.
 
As Saint Teresa of Avila so famously stated, “Christ has no body but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.”
 
One does not have to look far to assume the world needs the light of Christ now more than ever. Throughout advent we have looked to answer the question “How does a weary world rejoice?”
 
For me, the answer is simple. We can rejoice because Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. We can rejoice because God is for us, bring us hope where there is only hopelessness. We can rejoice because God is in us, and wherever God is so too is God’s perfect peace. We can rejoice because God is with us, constantly replenishing the joy that the world robs from us.
 
No matter how weary or run down we feel, we can rejoice because God is meeting us as one of us, loving us unconditionally in the messiness of life. God doesn’t assume we won’t stumble or mess up. Instead, God constantly surprises us with grace upon grace, illuminating the way for us to walk in the divine light of Christ.
 
The problem with making assumptions is we assume other people are doing the work of the church, that you’re not needed to bring good news to the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. God needs you. Christ calls you. And the Holy Spirit empowers you to bring good news of great joy to the world.
 
Tomorrow most of us will wake and be surprised with gifts and presents. And as you look at all the boxes wrapped in colorful paper and bows, think about how you are called by God to be a surprise for someone after the tree and decorations are put away?  
 
It doesn’t take a heavenly host of angels to deliver the good news of God’s love and mercy to the world.

A smile or a kind word can bring hope to someone feeling hopeless.  A willing ear can bring peace to a restless soul. Just the same, a gentle touch can kindle joy. A forgiving heart can spark love.

​As one little baby showed us, as those humble shepherds would discover, the smallest of gifts can have the greatest impact in God’s kingdom. 
 
And so I would encourage you to follow God’s lead and surprise the world bringing the gift of God’s light and love to all the world...the faithful and faithless alike. Your presence is the only present God needs to make heaven and earth one. May God bless you. May the Holy Spirit lead you. And may Christ shine through you, everywhere you go.


Work Cited
Bartlett, David L. and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Feasting on the Word, Year B. Vol 1. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008).
There might be others, but it was a very busy period and I forgot to write out my citations. Thank you to anyone who inspired me or whom I may have borrowed from for this message. Please accept my gratitude and forgive me of my ignorance and lack of professionalism.

Of course, as we see from this psalm, this isn’t the Hebrew’s first trip to the rodeo either. While I can’t speak to what they witnessed firsthand, scripture is filled with stories of their ancestors constantly being blown away by God’s glory. The most famous happening as they wandered in the wilderness, for 40 years after their exodus from Egypt.

And now, once again, a large group of God’s people have found themselves wondering in a state of flux. After being exiled for 70 long years, they're finally allowed to go home only to find there is no home to go too. Their city and beloved temple were in ruins. The shops, houses, and infrastructure had been completely demolished. Everything was gone. Everything but God.

Despite all that they had endured and the challenges they face to rebuild Jerusalem, these refugees were able to rejoice, if for no other reason but by their faith in God’s faithfulness. They knew what God had done for them in the past. And they knew God would do the same for them in the present…and all they could do was laugh.

Their hearts were so in awe of God’s faithful love that the psalmist said their sorrow literally poured out of them as pure delight. Yes, they cried as they looked at their city in ruins. But they laughed because they knew this was not the end of the story.

God is always up to something. Always moving heaven to earth and earth towards heaven.

What this tells me is that we are never without an excuse to rejoice and be filled with laughter because whatever mountainous pile of rubble we find ourselves stuck on, we know God is there with us… moving, transforming, restoring. Just as God is busy in our lives, we too are needed to be here in this present space because there’s still work to be done.

Now, the second half is this psalm makes it really clear that this isn’t a trip down memory lane. It’s not a call to return to the good old days… but a reminder that better days are about to come.

Although their faith is in the past, the exiles stand in the present with their eye on the future. With tears mixed with sadness and joy, they shout, “Do it again, God. Bring rains to our dried-up lives so as we plant our crops in despair, we will be able to rejoice at the harvest.”

Like Talithia Arnold notes, “Their seeds of joy were planted in sadness and watered with tears.” And this is where God meets them, taking their deepest and darkest despair and bringing new life. Their city and the Temple would rise like a phoenix from the ashes. And God’s glory shined so bright upon them that the world is taken by surprise. And God’s people became the talk of all the nations.

In that space between our suffering and joy, God is hard at work; loving us and making all things new again.

​While this psalm might seem more fitting for spring or autumn, it is given to us in the darkest part of advent to remind us that in Christ, God is with us. God has not abandon us or left us to suffer alone in our pain.

Instead, God hears our cries and comes to us in the flesh, to make us whole and new again. We can rejoice in our weariness because we know that when the world kicks the joy out of us God will kick it back in. God’s love can never be defeated. It always wins.

Next week is a special Advent in that it falls on Christmas eve. And so we will not only light the candle of love, but we also light the Christ candle as a reminder of what God’s love can ultimately do. Bring hope when life seems hopeless. Bring peace when life is chaotic and restless. Bring joy into those spaces of our lives that have been joyless.

In Christ, God’s steadfast love has redeemed our past and secured our future. But what we do with that love now, is up to us. As we spend the season of advent waiting for Christ, we are called to wait actively in all the ways we love God, love others, and serve both.

We do this by being fully present in Anamesa, living our faith in God’s faithfulness; shining Christ’s light in all the ways we can bring hope, peace, joy, and love to someone who has none.

As we wait, we participate in heaven here on earth, knowing what God has done, is doing and will do. God is up to something and has invited us to be a part of the surprise.

Let us go out into the world, preparing our hearts and home for his wondrous birth, knowing whatever seeds we sow in Christ’s name will reap a harvest of God’s joy.



WORK CITED
Bartlett, David L. and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Feasting On The Word, Year B Vol. 1 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008).

As we wait for Advent to ends so Christmas can begin…we wait with hopeful expectation and peace knowing and believing God became incarnate in the baby Jesus, whose name in Hebrew means “Salvation.” 
​
Although we are weary and worn down, we can rejoice because God’s salvation is with us and in us. We can rejoice because God has heard our cries and has come to us. We can rejoice because God gets us, and still loves us in spite of ourselves.

​And so, it is here in God’s house, true peace does not allude us. But instead embraces us, heals us, and fills us. No matter who you are or where you are, God is there for you. So come as you are and let us worship our loving God together.

For most of the week, I had this earworm stuck in my head. Perhaps this has happened to you; a particular line in a song just keeps looping over and over again. I recently learned you can trick your mind to forget the loop by counting backwards from 100. I’ve also learned that earworms are not always accidental. Sometimes God’s uses them to get our attention.

Advent is a time we wait for the birth of Prince of Peace, in a world that worn down by war and violence. Families and communities are divided over ridiculous things. The lack of unity and harmony in government has stalled progress. The stress of all this is not very good for our physical, mental, or spiritual well-being.

We wait for Christ to come because we need peace more than ever. But we need more than just a veneer of calm and tranquility, or the absence of war and strife. We need the kind of peace portrayed in this psalm. A peace that comes not from humans but from heaven.

This passage uses the Hebrew word, shalom, which it’s often translated as peace. But in actuality the word is better understood as “wholeness” and “completion.” It often signifies connectedness, righteousness, and justice to name a few. Which is why when we see the word Shalom in scripture, it’s always connected to God. Therefore, to possess God’s shalom or be in the presence of it, is to be made whole or complete with the very essence of God.

Over time, shalom has become a way of blessing someone you meet or send off. But according to this psalm, it’s more than a blessing or a balm to soothe our spirit. In fact, God’s shalom is our salvation. It is the very thing that redeems and restores back to God’s steadfast love.

If you were brought up like me, you might have been taught a different version of salvation. One that requires payment to God because of our sinful nature. And in some Christian circles the only way we can receive it is by believing the right things. If your belief is wrong, well then be very afraid.

While there passages in the bible that describe Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, this psalm tells us that God’s forgiveness predates Jesus’ work on the cross by a few hundred years. It begins with the declaration that God has already forgiven our past transgressions.

​Moreover, it describes salvation, not as a blood sacrifice, but as God’s glory taking up residency in the world. The vision we’re given is not hellfire-and-brimstone, but the glorious indwelling of God’s love, faithfulness, peace, and righteousness upon the earth.

This tells me God came not to “save us” from our sin but to bring salvation to “make us” whole and complete; to give us shalom so we have no need to ever sin again.

Better still, we don’t get this kind of peace as a reward for reciting the right doctrine or creed, God gives this as a loving gift to anyone and everyone who turn their heart back to God.

Like I’ve said before, when our hearts are focused on God then our actions can’t help but do what God wants us to do. And what is that? According to scripture, it’s “to seek justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).

​So, this raises a thorny the question. If salvation isn’t about our brokenness and sin, then where does Christ fall into this picture? After all, tis the season to make him front and center, right?

Well, the way I read scripture it seems somewhere along the way, we humans forgot where our hearts and focus need to be. So John’s gospel tells us, God sends the Son, the perfect and complete embodiment of God’s shalom that is fully realized in Jesus, the manifestation of God’s perfect love.

While comforting his disciples before his betrayal, Jesus tells them “I am in the Father and the Father is in me. You have seen God, because you have seen me.” (John 14:7).This is more than clue for us to correctly identify Jesus as the Messiah. It’s an invitation to become one with God as Jesus is one with God. God is always inviting us.

Through Christ, God took on human form so we could see God, know God, and follow God back to God’s heart. The way I see it, Christ Jesus leads us to our salvation because with him, and through him, and by his holy light, we are made whole and complete and one with God again.

While the world offers chaos, warfare, division, and death – the very things that steal our peace and make us weary and incomplete – Jesus shows us the way of true peace and harmony which comes from our connectedness to God and each other.

You see, our God isn’t distant or removed from us but has come to us to dwells with us. God wants a relationship with everything God creates. Not just humans but with all of creation.

The psalms are filled with verses where nature offers praise and glory to God. Where trees tremble before the Lord; mountains and rivers bow down in reverence. Paul even writes, “we know God, through the things God made” (Romans 1:20). Our job is to always be on the lookout, finding ways to connect our hearts to God.

One way we often connect is through our daily prayer. When we are in our most intimate and vulnerable space, or at the end of our rope, we know we can faithfully cry out and God will hear us and come to us.

Of course, Jesus - who taught us how to pray - shows us how to connect with God in all the ways we welcome a stranger or forgive a debt or trespass.

Each time we offer mercy or show compassion to another our hearts are drawn closer to God through them.

When we strive for justice, seek unity where there is division, our hearts become one with God where we find our peace, our salvation, our completeness.“No one has ever seen God,” wrote John, “but if we love one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 john 4:12).

Shalom. Salvation. This is what Christ Jesus gives to us. He is the road, the truth and the life we are to follow because of where it leads.

Advent is a time of active waiting, a time we get our hands in the messiness of life as little incarnations of God’s glory.

It is a time to go out into Anamesa, that space between heaven and earth, to illuminate peace in all the ways we love God, love others, and serve both. To shine so brightly that others will be able to find their way back to God’s heart.

If we want to see hope and peace and love and joy prevail in this weary world, then we need to be a part of the solution and not the problem.

If we believe Jesus is the solution then we must imitate him, we must shine his light and love as he loved. We have to allow him to flow through us freely and liberally until “steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss.”

When God’s steadfast love and faithfulness meet in our everyday, ordinary lives; when God’s righteousness and peace embrace in all our relationships, our business practices and nations policies; when we work for God’s justice, care for the widows and orphans; when we strive for equality and free the oppressed; when we are tender to ourselves and show kindness to one another we make way for God in our world.

And wherever God is so too is God’s shalom, our wholeness, our completeness, and our salvation.

Work Cited
Bartlett, David L. and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Feasting on the Word Year B, Vol 1. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008).

Like I said, it's not unique, or flashy, or fast. But it can go forwards. And it can reverse. ​If you have ever driven a car, or been in one, you know that really isn't a groundbreaking mechanical feat. Every car, be it gas or electric or a hybrid in-between, can do that. Most of us drivers only focus our attention on those two gears, neglecting or overlooking or ignoring the gear between those two - Neutral. 

Neutral is a good place, I image, because it is the most present gear in my humble opinion. It is literally in the moment. It's like park, but you still have the freedom to move both forward and backwards; sometimes without having to do anything depending on the grade of the pavement underneath. Neutral isn't being stuck, it's being present, completely mindful of everything around us.  It's in this space where we meet God, and are awaken with the awe that comes with such a gathering. 

This is not to say that going forward or backward is a bad thing. We need to know where we're going and where we've been. This is especially true when we set out on a spiritual journey. Henri Nouwen wrote this about it as a message of hope for Advent. 

That’s what we’re celebrating at Christmas, right? God, enfleshed in our humanity, comes to us in our weariness, to redeem us - to change the way we think, which in turn changes the way we act. We can acknowledge and embrace the weariness of our world rejoicing with hope knowing and believing that God in Christ Jesus has come to us.

We can rejoice with hope knowing and believing God knows the shape and form of our weariness. We can rejoice because God doesn’t just expect us to just survive and exist. God wants us to have joy and delight. And will turn the world upside down to ensure that happens.
And so it is here in God’s house, we can be joyful. We can be grateful. We can be hopeful. We can be weary. We can be anxious. We can be grieving.

In God’s house, we can be honest—inspired or tired; delighted or doubtful; connected or curious, and everything in between. This is God’s house. You are welcome exactly as you are. So come as you are and let us worship our loving God together.

I find it a bit weird and troubling that the church calendar begins and ends with a similar theme. Not with a baby being born in Bethlehem, but with apocalyptic pronouncements like this chaotic stuff that could easily be found scrolling across our new feeds today.

But by paying careful attention, we can see how Jesus offers words of hope and encouragement in this passage.
 
It may seem like Jesus is speaking of what many like to call “The End Times.” Personally, I don’t read it as the end but beginning of something new.

You might see the conflict in Israel and Palestine as biblical proof that the end is near. Many thought that about the pandemic. And Y2K. And World War I. And the crusades. And the fall of Jerusalem by the Roman Empire.
 
But again, scripture tells a different story. It tells us that Jesus did not come to destroy us but to build us up - redeem us and save us. And so, he tells us to “keep awake,” not with worry but with readiness.

Remain active in your faith and “Not a single hair on your head will parish. By your endurance you will gain your soul.” Despite how horrific the world seems, despite however tired and worn out you feel, Jesus gives us hope in this promise.
 
Of course, Jesus is not saying these things won’t cause you to suffer or grieve or feel a sense of dread. In fact, he said some of us will be killed for our faith. What he promises isn’t a good life, but life everlasting. 

If we live out our faith, testifying in his name, then we will not parish but gain our souls. If you ask me, this is where our focus ought to be preparing for his arrival by living out his gospel.
 
How do we do this? If you’ve ever taken the opportunity to watch Rev. Bob’s Bible Study, you’d know that he sends us off each week with the same charge: Go and be a light in a dark world.
 
This seems juxtaposed to those Christians hoping and praying for the Israel-Palestine war to ignite God into action. As if we can control God’s will to trigger the second coming of Christ. Even Jesus himself confessed he doesn’t know when that will happen.
 
In this passage he seems to be saying, whatever you see happening out there is not to bring about the end of time. They are simply opportunities for us to proclaim the good news. In fact, he goes so far to warns us not listen to the false prophets crying for war. Instead, go be a light shining in the darkness. Go proclaim the glory of God by being God’s glory. 
 
After all, Christ did not come to inaugurate an apocalyptic cleansing. He did not come to make more suffering, but to eliminate it for good, by revealing the power of the powerless in his self-giving sacrifice on the cross.
 
The birth in Bethlehem is just the beginning of the story. The way I see it, Christmas is just a gift God gives us. A gift we have to wait until Easter morning to unwrap.
 
Melissa Bills reminds us that even the most apocalyptic scripture teaches us that “God’s final word will be one of resurrection, not of destruction. Beyond all other endings that we experience in history, God promises us a stunning bonus scene, a celestial final chord. We persevere through this world’s beginnings and endings because we have faith that God’s final ending will be a decisive victory for all that is good, beautiful, and true.” ​

 
Christmas is merely the preface for what’s to come. When the world looks bleak, we find hope knowing restoration is coming because we have already seen what God has done - not just in the manger but in the grave.
 
So, what does all this mean for us today? It means we can rejoice in a weary world because we are Easter people. But it also means we will have to wait.

Advent is a season of waiting. This is not passive waiting, like waiting for a bus that is late, but active waiting like Jesus who saw the messiness of life as fertile soil to testify to God’s glory.
 
Henri Nouwen wrote, “We are always waiting, but it is a waiting in the conviction that we have already seen God’s footsteps.”

What we are waiting for has already been planted. Like a seed buried in the ground at winter… we can get through these tough times knowing that seed will produce fruit in the spring.
 
Jesus tells us to keep awake. And he taught us how to do that. By being fully present in this moment, in good times and bad. If we truly believe God is up to something good, then we must be ready if we want to be a part of it.
 
We must keep awake. And the best way to do that is by remaining present and active - proclaiming and participating in God’s divine glory. We can do this through the many ways we welcome God’s love in us. And allow that love to move through us.
 
We only get one chance to live this life of love. Therefore, we must take every moment of our precious and short life as an opportunity for God’s love to become incarnate in us. To quote St. Teresa of Avila, “We are the only hands and feet, the only eyes and ears that Jesus has.” 
 
Jesus did not call us to sit around, crippled with fear. He sent us out into Anamesa, that space between now and then, to love God, love others, and serve both. Love is the antidote to the things that are destroying this world.
 
So, “How does a weary world rejoice with hope?” By being the light that illuminates God’s love in the darkness. A light that brings hope to those who are tired, worn down and bedraggled.
 
In the same way, if we want to rejoice in peace, we must be the light of peace. If we want joy to fill the world, then we must find ways to rejoice when others cannot. If we want Christ to come again, then we must let Christ come alive through us.
 
To quote Meister Eckhart, “We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.” The moment you step outside yourself and love a neighbor, feed the hungry, or welcome a stranger, Christ is born again.
 
We are God’s hope for a weary world, because we are Christ’s body.
 
Easter people crafted from the promises of God’s eternal love.
 
Like the Apostles witnessed and Paul professed, “Not even death can keep us from God’s love which is Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:38-39).

Tired as we might be, that alone is reason enough to rejoice.
 
Work Cited:
David L. Bartlett, and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. Feasting on the Word: Advent Companion. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2014).
Bills, Melissa. The Christian Century newsletter November 28, 2023 (accessed on December 1, 2023).
Nouwen, Henri. Bread for the Journey. New York:HarperOne, 2006).