From pixabay. Click photo for original.
Above all else, know this: Be prepared at all times for the gifts of God and be ready always for new ones. For God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to receive.
~Meister Eckhart
Wilkie Au and Noreen Cannon in their book Urgings of the Heart write, “Living in an achievement-oriented society, many of us are influenced by an achievement-oriented spirituality, in which there is no place for receiving. We resist being indebted and insist on working for whatever we get. This attitude stands in the way of our receiving from God, who continually invites us to draw near to obtain what we need.”[1] [2]
For many of us this achievement-oriented spirituality keeps us from drawing near to receive God’s gifts. What’s so remarkable about the amazing events of the first Christmas is that the participants in God’s story, the birth of Jesus, draw near to receive the gifts of the Child Christ. Mary, after questioning how this can be, responds to the angel Gabriel’s message declaring, “I belong to the Lord, body and soul,” “let it happen as you say.”[3] She ponders God’s unexpected gift, proclaiming, “He has done great things for me”. Joseph sets aside his dreams in order to be open to God’s invitation to a life radically different than his wildest expectations.
The gift of silence taught Zechariah to receive a son destined to prepare the way for the Lord. Elizabeth receives God’s mercy in taking away the stigma of being barren. Zechariah announces God’s kindness in sending a light from heaven to guide us to the path of peace. Simeon and Anna, prepared by God’s Spirit, draw near and literally receive the infant Jesus, God’s promised Messiah. Humble shepherds rejoice with the angels at his birth. The sight of his star fills the wise men with indescribable joy as they bow and worship Christ the newborn king.
Invited to draw near and participate in God’s salvation plan, they say, “yes” and receive the gifts of the Child Christ, God’s unasked for, unlikely gift to the world. Saying “yes,” meant letting go of their hopes and dreams, plans and security, in order to consent to something bigger than what they could see, understand, or even imagine.
We, too, can draw near and wait with a sense of expectation and wonder for God to open us up to new life. Invited by God to let go of our achievement-oriented spirituality, we prepare our hearts to receive God’s gifts at Christmas. “Christmas is a gift of love wrapped in human flesh and tied securely with the strong promises of God. It is more than words can tell, for it is a matter for the heart to receive, believe and understand.”[4] Invited to receive the gift of God’s love, wrapped in the vulnerability of human flesh, we experience God’s tender mercy in sending us light to dispel the darkness of sin and death. “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”[5]
As we receive the gifts of the Child Christ, God gives us a deeper experience of his kindness, love, mercy and grace. We begin to understand, “It is God who is at work within us, giving us the will and the power to achieve his purpose”.[6] Trusting, God is at work, we learn it’s not so much about what we do, instead it’s about what God is doing in and through us. Trust creates in us a receptive openness to God’s Spirit. Focused on Christ, we are invited to participate in his redemptive work in our homes, neighborhoods, city and world. We share the amazing good news, “God decided to let his people know this rich and glorious secret which he has for all people. This secret is Christ himself, who is in you. He is our only hope for glory.” [7] Christ in you God’s amazing gift to the world!
“Go now into the world, carrying Christmas with you into everyday life. Open the inn within you and make room for that Gift of gifts, even our Lord Jesus Christ”.[8]
[1] Wilkie Au and Noreen Cannon, Urgings of the Heart (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1995), p. 5.
[2] Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” RSV
[3] Luke 1:38 J. B Phillips
[4] Unknown
[5] Isaiah 9:6 NLT
[6] Philippians 2:14 J.B. Phillips
[7] Colossians 1:27 NCV
[8] Weems, Ann Barr, Reaching for Rainbows (Westminster, John Knox Press, 1980), p. 90.
This post is part of our 2016 Advent series.
by Joy Lenton
by Joy Lenton. All Rights Reserved.
I watch curiously out the window, wondering when signs of celebration will appear, because our neighbours across the street usually like to get a head-start on their Christmas preparations. They normally decorate well before the end of November, but not this year.
Sadly, all looks barren, winter-bare, a reflection of being dispirited due to family bereavement and their ailing health. They tend to be those who delight in the trimmings and trappings of the festive season, have their hearts set on secular things. Their minds normally unaware of the Divine footprints in their midst, but that’s not the whole picture.
Because our neighbours, local or worldwide—whether we like and understand them or not—share a common humanity, experience tears, fears, sorrow, grief and pain. No matter how people may appear on the outside, we all have an ache for more than ordinary, a longing for joy, peace and rest, hearts hungry for hope, a yearning for love and light in dark times. Jesus came to answer those needs with His gift of loving sacrifice.
My neighbours find their winter cheer by celebrating getting through another hard, challenging, year. They experience joy from being with their family, eating and drinking festive fare, looking optimistically ahead and putting a brave face on things.
And I wonder, am I any different on the surface? I engage in those things too, and get caught in the thrall of an online gift buying frenzy for my family. What begins with enthusiasm soon loses its lustre though, as energy dissipates quicker than a deflated balloon!
Putting up Christmas decorations in our home is usually a frantic, last-minute thing. Just like my neighbours, my thoughts tend to drift. Rather than a having a heart set on fire by God’s love, a mind full of reverence and awe, I often neglect to focus most on what really matters most—the greatest Gift Himself, who continually gives to us.
It’s so easy to get carried away by consumerism in this season, as we feel the drive to buy just one more ‘essential’ thing that will make our celebrations complete. We become distracted, lose out to fatigue, anxiety, stress and an urgent need for rest rather than reverent reflection.
I think we could all use a reminder to make room for Jesus on a daily basis, to live with eyes wide open to wonder, and God’s continual grace, to have a growing awareness of the Incarnation of Christ ever-present with us now, and gratitude for the difference it makes.
Our joy in being Christ-followers rests in knowing we are living with the marvel of the Incarnation as an everyday reality. We already have the wonder of Love come down, the miracle of an exchanged life—God’s love, mercy, grace, forgiveness and royal robe of righteousness for our dark covering of sin, guilt and shame, His strength and wholeness for our weakness and brokenness.
The gift of a renewed and restored life is available to us all. We don’t have to wait for a special day to celebrate. It’s a hope filled answer to all our hearts are longing for, and a reason to see Christmas in a new light, especially if we are struggling.
It’s never too soon to become Christ’s Light bearers and Truth sharers. It’s always timely to share the Good News. And it’s never premature to rejoice in Jesus’ wonderful presence with us, to find meaningful ways to share His love with our family, friends and neighbours.
God delights to answer the cries of hurting hearts, to reveal The Way for the lost, give us a renewed zest and sense of what Advent is all about—eager anticipation as we await His coming again, while celebrating the way He originally came to be among us as Friend, Neighbour, Saviour.
This post is part of our 2016 Advent series.
I’m ticked! Seriously upset. I planned to write a cheery feel-good story about how my family celebrated St. Nicholas’ Day on Dec. 6th to honor the faith of this ancient Bishop of Myra. I planned to tell how we loved to come together to put a variety of tasty homemade cookies into bags and secretly deliver them to our neighbors, hanging the bags on doorknobs, ringing the doorbell, and running away. But right now I’m too upset.
From its founding six years ago, I’ve been the Volunteer Coordinator and one of the leaders of our local winter warming shelter. I have been unbelievably blessed to get to know so many amazing folks struggling with homelessness. Their stories are often heart-breaking, yet their desire to thrive in the middle of chaos inspiring. I’ve also had the joy of getting to know hundreds of volunteers eager to help their neighbors living outside. I’ve seen some of the best my little town has to offer.
So why am I so upset? I just received an email telling me that another property owner has “criminally trespassed” two more of our neighbors. I know for a fact that one of them was innocent of the accusations and likely the other was as well. But “those people” are bad for business. They make us feel uncomfortable. They remind us that even in this lead up to Christmas, everything is not OK.
I received this unsettling news right after reading Christine Sine’s Monday Meditation, Jesus is Your Neighbour. Christine’s Monday Meditation reminded us to look for Jesus in those who are already in our neighborhoods. This is such an important reminder. Yes, we are to bring Jesus into every encounter. It’s also true that Jesus is already present, just waiting to be revealed.
My town, while not tiny, is small enough to also be my neighborhood. It is one of the most thoughtful and giving communities I’ve lived in. But something is oozing to the surface this season, something we’ve seen here and there in the past but now seems emboldened to sit on the surface for all to see. What’s going on?
What lies behind our fear and anxiety? In the Western world the pot has been stirred by ongoing war in the Middle East. Refugees, fleeing for their lives, have flooded into country after country, resulting in fear and suspicion. As our emotions simmer, news outlets eager for headlines have stirred our hearts until fear of the other has risen to the surface.
In many ways we’ve taken the easy way. Instead of examining our changing emotions, we’ve mostly embraced them. Instead of questioning the headlines and how we react to them, we’ve entered a cycle of anxiety, headlines, fear, more headlines “confirming our fear”, deeper anxiety, and on and on the cycle goes.
I have a feeling this is not unlike the political and social atmosphere Jesus pierced when he emerged from the womb. The Romans ruled, the religious elite collaborated with the government, and the people waited eagerly for a savior. We see this expressed in Mary’s song:
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.The Message Luke 1:51-53
Here is the promise of the Prince of Peace come to set right current injustices and restore wholeness to the world. And yet, in times like these it’s difficult to trust God. We become so overwhelmed and caught up in the politics of fear that we forget the one who calms the storm. And when we begin the cycle of forgetting God we also forget to look for the image of God in our neighbors.
So today, in the middle of my anger and righteous indignation, I’m stopping to remember. I do have a Savior who rises above all the rhetoric of hate.
- I have a Savior who was born in less than ideal conditions because the community had no appropriate home for him.
- I have a Savior whose birth was celebrated by those excluded by the “righteous” and embraced by foreign dignitaries seeking peace.
- I have a Savior whose birth stirred up such anxiety among the ruling class that innocent babies were slaughtered in an attempt exterminate his rule of justice and mercy.
- I have a Savior who himself became a refugee, fleeing to a foreign land, escaping violence at the hand of the powerful.
- And I have a Savior who showed us the way of love: love of God, of neighbor, of outcast, of persecutors and enemies. A perfect love which casts out fear.
As I’ve been writing and remembering, my anger has decreased. There is still action to take, but now I can take it recognizing that not only do those who were wronged bear the image of God, so do those who perpetrated the harm. In order to welcome Jesus into the neighborhood I must begin by first welcoming him into my mind and heart. Once I’ve done this I’m ready to see those whom God created and declared good in the light of love.
God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.1 John 4:17-21 The Message
This post is part of our 2016 Advent series.
![Charles Le Brun [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, Click picture for source.](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_Brun,_Charles_-_Adoration_of_the_Shepherds_-_1689.jpg)
Charles Le Brun [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, Click picture for source.
How do we make ready for you?
At the time of your coming
in unexpected places?What if you were born in our neighbourhood –
no room made for you
but here?Among the people walking and living
on our streets,
we hear your crying on a night when
noise is carried.Crying that is comforted by the appearance
of the faces of people gathered to comfort you –
with gifts of surrender, humility, repentance.Make way, make room, prepare the way for his coming!
Let every man, woman and child discover
you, born into the neighbourhood of
every community in the world.And we would come under the light of a star,
we would hold hands around the beautiful Son.
Our walls would fall down, our gates would be openwhen we come to Jesus as we are.
This post is part of our 2016 Advent series.
It all began with a cup of hot chocolate. In December 2013, the church I belong to sang carols in a parade of shops we circulated in. We also gave out free hot chocolate. No-one could quite believe it. “Free? Why?”
The church since then has sought wherever possible to give things away. Chocolate and a card to each of the 30 shops both at Christmas and Easter: a quality Easter-egg giveaway to shoppers before Easter, and, this year, a free summer fun day including yet more free chocolates (See www.sharethemiracle.org ). They are the highlights of my year, with some surprising and sometimes poignant conversations.
I remember the lady who, receiving an Easter egg, said “I don’t deserve it”. We were able to say briefly that God’s love was simply there, for all of us, whatever we feel about ourselves. Then there was the elderly lady who brought tears to the eyes of those giving away boxes of chocolates at the summer fun day, by telling them she had never been given anything in her entire life. She walked away still shaking her head in disbelief at the kindness.
From that hot chocolate giveaway though something fascinating grew. A local councillor wondered out loud if something more could emerge: something that could bring the local community together in a time of increasing isolation and fracture. A group gathered, formed of that same councillor, the two church ministers, local shopkeepers and residents: an incredible group who it is a great privilege to know and to work with. The church and parade of shops are on a busy main road and bus route so we were told a closure would never be allowed: it was. There were no Christmas lights in the parade: these were put up.
And so for each of the past three years the Yulefest has been held, and is now firmly established as a local tradition. Generations love walking together across a normally hazardous road, local community groups and schools perform. Children enjoy competitions, face painting and craft: this year the church car park became a food court with the third year of free roast chestnuts and free hot drinks in the church café. Money is raised for local charities, but this is secondary to simply being together and celebrating together.
Jesus in the neighbourhood. It seems to me He is simply there. There amid the fun and laughter. There is the wonder of a child as lights are lit. There as families gather. There as things are given away, as His love is freely given. We don’t need to take Him into our neighbourhoods. He is there already, waiting to greet us in a myriad of ways if we can have the eyes to see.
“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.” John 1:14
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. (John 1:14 The Message)
I love how The Message translates this verse and to be honest it has often made me feel so self righteous too. I live here, we have a Christian community in the neighborhood, therefore Jesus is here.
At least that is how I tended to look at this verse until the last couple of years. Then Tom and I started walking the neighborhood more. We introduced ourselves to neighbors some of whom have lived around us for years. We invited them to our open houses. We listened to their stories and heard about the wonderful things they are doing.
Jesus was already resident in our neighborhood long before we moved in, we just did not have eyes to see him.
How often is that the case I wonder? Jesus is all around us but we don’t see his glory “with our own eyes” because we are not looking for him.
Who are the Jesus bearers in your neighborhood?
Visualize your neighborhood. Make a list of the names of the people whose houses abut the property in which you live. If you live in an apartment block make a list of all the other tenants. Next to each name write down the Jesus like attributes of each person – love, caring, generosity, kindness. It is amazing what starts to come to mind. How did you come to know them as Jesus bearers?
If you come to a name where you cannot think of any Christ like attributes take some time to pray for that person and to consider ways you could get to know them and their Christ like characteristics more deeply. How could you come to know them as Jesus bearers?
Now consider your own household. In what ways have you been Jesus bearers to the neighbourhood? What else could you do to make the presence of Jesus shine more brightly so that others can see him clearly?
Advent comes at the time of year when our planet turns unstoppably toward winter’s darkness. In this strangest of years, it seems that our awareness of truth or falsehoods and how they shape us has also moved intractably into a dark dissolvingness. We are in a post-foundational world, where we no longer have a fixed point of truth to orient ourselves around.
Lakota Annunciation by Father John Giuliani – Giuliani Foundation
At the time when Jesus was born into the world, the mind and reason were likened to the divine. Matter, body and earth were all seen as lesser, base, and even evil. Today, the mind is elevated in a different way where opinion and propaganda carry as much weight as any set of facts or proofs. Critical thinking seems to be a rare commodity. In this post-foundational era, everyone discerns their own truth. Christianity has over 40,000 denominations itself. So how do we know what is true?
Moreover, during the last few weeks since what must be the strangest election in our history, I’ve spent many hours listening to and supporting those who feel frightened by what has come to pass in our nation. They fear that their black, brown, disabled, or gay bodies will be even less respected and less safe than ever, and that they will face more persecution. Power is a way of putting a clear narrative back in place again, but the rise of this dominant narrative leaves many people out. I feel powerless and sad in the face of it all.
In Jesus’ time there was also a sense of powerlessness and fear for his people, the Jews, who suffered oppression under the Romans. But it seems that in the midst of their powerlessness and fear, God had a pretty strange way of sending help and clarity. He sent a body, a vulnerable human infant.
Christianity was originally very much a body religion. In the coming of Jesus we see an embodied God, born of woman, wrapped in flesh. His body later endured suffering and death, like any other body. His resurrection was of the body. He offers his body and blood to be taken into our own bodies, to nourish and to heal. God entered into the flesh and blood world, came to be a body with us, in embodied community. God expressed God’s heart, true empathy, by entering into our world of matter.
So it seems that the truth that God longs to tell is told best through bodies that move into the lives and reality of others.
I had long been feeling compelled to go up to North Dakota to the Standing Rock reservation, where the Lakota Sioux face the loss of more of the land given to them by Treaty and a serious risk to their water source due to the construction of a new oil pipeline. As I prepared to go, I was inundated with articles sent by well-meaning friends that detailed how the tribe was lying, uncooperative, and violent. I immediately felt the pull of an old familiar assumption that the corporations and the government were right, and the Native peoples were wrong. This was the assumption of my mind from white world.
So how do you find the truth? The advent of God into this world shows us that you go, you dislocate from your place of certainty in order to listen. So my friends and I brought our bodies there, to see and experience what the Lakota Sioux were seeing and experiencing. And I saw for myself the truth of the story there. I saw the land in question. I heard the prayers that bathed every action and movement. I saw the firm commitment to no weapons, alcohol or drugs in the camp. There was only prayer and bodies, holding a line.
In a world that grows more fragmented by the day, I saw people of many ethnicities and colors and religions who were willing to put their bodies on the line for others, to sleep on the cold ground, and share firewood, food, tobacco, and stories. I saw that there are people who are willing to stand with those who are oppressed and forgotten. I saw love. I saw it for myself: This is what is real. This is what is true. There is and always has been a subversive counter movement of love in a world that seems to belong to the mighty, that quietly chips away at the superstructures of power that bulldoze whoever is in their way. It looks weak and fragile by comparison, but it is real.
I can imagine how foolish it looks to use only vulnerable flesh and bone to hold a line, to “fight” in a sense, with only a cloak of invisible prayer as a shield. Yet that is how God came into this world, as a vulnerable infant, without protection or power. He came through a female body and was then adored by others whose bodies were also considered unclean and unorthodox, like shepherds and astrologers and Native Americans.
This paradoxical advent of God into this world shows us the truth of how we can once again find our way. It’s a secret held out in the open. Go to the disenfranchised, the left out, the lonely, the forgotten, the reviled. It is in the very movement of love towards the other that we will see God. The Light that illuminates our darkness does not come by way of weapons or power. It always and only comes by way of mercy.
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:78-79
In Advent we wait, trusting the promise that light will come into our darkness and illuminate us from on high. Today, the Lakota Sioux continue to pray and wait and hold the line. And now in this second week of Advent, they have been joined by hundreds of veterans willing to hold the line with them, using only prayer and bodies. Please continue to pray for them all.
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