Matthew 2 Introduction

The first 2 chapters of Matthew set the scene as to the importance of who Jesus is. In chapter one there is the genealogy, which shows Jesus’ place in Jewish culture; he is from the tribe of Judah, born in David’s line. Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah in naming Jesus Emmanuel.

Matthew also quotes the prophet Micah; Bethlehem is the place the Messiah would be born.

Matthew is writing for a Jewish audience, so the people who first heard this would have connected the dots. Matthew includes lots of quotations from the prophets, lots of connections to the Old Testament.

So far we have that Jesus is from the tribe of Judah, and his birth fits the expectation that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

The wise men, or Magi or astronomers, come from the East. The East is where typically the enemies of Israel had come from: Assyria, Babylon and Persia.

There are some other connections that the first hearers of this gospel would have made.

·    The political leader Herod, orders the death of all the children under two, which sounds like; Pharaoh ordering the male Hebrew babies to be killed. And who survives; Jesus and Moses.

·    Egypt was a place of slavery, but this was not the first time we have heard of someone going to Egypt to stay alive. Joseph was taken to Egypt, after his brothers decided not to kill him; then years later Joseph brings all the family to Egypt during a time of famine.
Now another Joseph, with Mary and Jesus travel to Egypt looking for safety.

·    Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and that is thought to be the birth of the nation; what might this coming out of Egypt bring to birth?

·    Joseph is spoken to in dreams, we have heard of another Joseph who considered a dreamer.

Matthew is saying: look out, something amazing is about to take place. This baby is something special, even more special than Moses. God is doing something new, be prepared to be challenged, to be surprised.

Response to Incarnation

How did you feel when you heard about the birth of a child of a close friend, or a grandchild?

How did you feel when you first heard about the birth of Jesus?

For many of us, we have heard the story so often, we don’t remember the first time we heard it, and we have lost the sense of excitement or shock or emotion of first hearing about the birth of Jesus.

The people who travelled from the east were excited, eagerly travelling for many days, weeks or even months to see who it was who born with such a star. Those in Jerusalem were not overjoyed, they were upset and frightened.  I find both responses amazing.

I can’t imagine following a star, just because it’s a special star. These people, probably astrologers, but maybe priests, didn’t know where the child was to be born. Didn’t realise that his birth was not into a royal family. They had no idea who they were looking for. They thought it was a baby born to be king, but for them that was born into a royal bloodline, in a palace. Not born in a stable. To these people, someone born with such a star to mark their birth was special, special enough for them to pack up and to travel, to pay their respects to such a special child.

I also find the response of Herod and Jerusalem amazing. This was a baby, how much of a threat could a baby be – Herod would be unlikely to still be in charge by the time the baby grew up. But such was the family way of handing on power that even a baby was considered a threat. Not someone to keep an eye on, and see what eventuates, but a threat to be wiped out just in case, and kill a lot of others to make sure the threat was done away with. And as we know from the end of the story, Jesus was a threat to Herod, but not in the way Herod had thought.

There were people who followed a star to see this child who had been marked by the heavens as special. Travelling far, bringing gifts with them. There were people willing to kill many children to do away with the perceived threat posed by this one child. Today around the world, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, by having Christmas, a holiday in many countries, special food and traditions, including giving gifts. But beyond the food and celebration, how do we respond to God’s gift to us, this gift of ultimate love, of God becoming human.

Are we excited like the ones who travelled, following a star?
Are we fearful, wondering in what ways our current life is threatened?

How to respond to God’s gift – that’s up to each one of us to decide. But if we look in the manger, be prepared to be changed.
If we hang around the stable be prepared to see the light.
If we open ourselves up to God, prepared to know we are loved,
maybe we will find ourselves loving people,
and accepting that God loves
even people we disagree with.

Christianity is revolutionary, not because we get together and sing songs and read Scripture, though many would consider this strange. Christianity is revolutionary because God loved and loves to the point of sacrifice. Christianity is revolutionary because we are offered love because God is the giver not because of anything we have done or will do in return. Christianity is revolutionary because God became human.  God is God’s gift to us.

God’s gift to us, wasn’t so that we would feel guilty, precisely the opposite. It wasn’t so that we would have to think up elaborate ways of repaying God. Like with some families where each gift must be bigger and better. God doesn’t expect that, and we could never do it anyway, how do you top a gift like God’s.

Our response to this gift, our response to this awesome love of God, that’s up to you. Regardless of what you decide God will continue to love you, that’s what Christmas is all about.

Remember the cow, the sheep and the hen from our story?
They each gave a gift to the baby, but not one that costs them too dearly. There will be more milk tomorrow, and another egg, and while the wool will take longer to grow back, it will.

Are we like this?

Giving a gift that fulfils our sense of duty,
looks suitably impressive
but doesn’t impinge on our life too much.
A gift that keeps others from visiting the stable,
because they don’t have anything we consider suitable to give.

Or are we like the mouse,
forgetting about taking a gift in our excitement to see the baby.
The gift which the mouse gave was giving of himself.
He hadn’t planned it to be a gift, he just wanted to see the baby.
Sometimes we are in the right place at the right time.
It is a case of recognising those prompts,
following the star that guides us.

As you journey from Christmas this year,
pack up the tree,
put away the wrapping paper,
finish the ham and turkey,
what do you keep with you from the Christmas story?

My prayer for you is:
that you will know and accept that God loves you;
that you will follow the star no matter how crazy it seems;
that you will be transformed by God’s gift of love;

What will you carry from Christmas this year?

How will you respond to the birth of Jesus?

Incarnation

This reading from the beginning of John’s gospel, reads like a lovely piece of poetry. But, like much of John’s Gospel, it can be a little difficult to understand.

John doesn’t start with a birth story like Matthew and Luke,

John begins with the same phrase that begins Genesis, “In the beginning”.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth; John tells us that the Word of God was present in the act of creation.

In the Old Testament, the Word of God signified God in action. [i]

This Word of God, that spoke creation into being, has now come in human form. The technical word is the Incarnation – God coming to share this human life.

Play: The Incarnation Cloth for the Cradle p 86ff [about 700 words]

God trying to communicate with us, talking to us, cajoling and encouraging us, and finally becoming human just like us.

God could have demanded we be obedient, but that isn’t love;
God could have forced his way into our lives, but that isn’t grace;
God could have left us in our despair, but that isn’t compassion.

A friend sent me this story a few years ago: 

There was a man named Henry who was a pastor in charge of a home for disturbed children.

It was Christmas Eve, and preparations were being made for the carols by candlelight service. Everyone was ready to go, but at the last minute a young boy called Tommy crawled under his bed and refused to come out. The staff couldn’t get him to come out. They begged, they pleaded, they threatened - but Tommy refused to budge from under his bed. So the staff sent for Pastor Henry. Henry stood beside the bed and talked to him. He talked about the brightly lit tree, the presents beneath it and all the fun games they would play- but no answer.

Time was slipping by and Henry was getting concerned about being late for the service that he himself was conducting, but he put his own needs aside and got down on his knees and lifted the bedspread and looked straight into Tommy's two enormous blue eyes. He could have pulled him out easily - and it was tempting, but it was not pulling that Tommy needed, it was trust; so Henry launched into the menu for Christmas Eve dinner that was soon to be served, and he told of a special present just waiting with Tommy's name on it. But it was no use, there was just silence from Tommy. No indication that Tommy heard or cared at all about Christmas.

Henry was beginning to feel a bit foolish. After all he was a Pastor – a man of authority and this was an undignified position to be in, especially with his staff watching. Nevertheless he got down even lower, flat on the floor and wriggled in under the bed along side Tommy, and he talked for quite a long time. Eventually, after talking of decorations in the church, the candles, the carols the kids were going to sing, and finally running out of things to say he simply waited. He just lay, in silence, under the bed beside Tommy letting him know he wasn’t alone.

After a while the small child's hand slipped into his, and Henry said, "You know Tommy, its a tight fit under this bed. How about you and me go out where we can stand up straight."

God waits with us, for as long as we need,
so we can slip our hand into God’s hand.

God still comes into our lives today,
finding us wherever we are,
even if it is hiding under the bed.
God seeks us out,
wants us to be able to stand up straight and
be the people God knows us to be. 
Even when that means waiting with us,
lying beside us in silence in the dark,
waiting for us to trust God enough
to move our hand into God’s.

  

This morning we share again around the table,
sharing bread and juice,
remembering the life of Jesus,
acknowledging the death on the cross,

celebrating resurrection and the new relationship with Christ that is offered to each one of us.

Where, is God waiting for you to trust, to put your hand into God’s hand, and to stand with God?

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[i] Gordon Dicker, Faith with Understanding, p 118

So this is Christmas

The song that is in my head the past week or so is:

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun[i]

I look back over the past year and wonder if anything has changed. There are still people in the world who live in fear, who live amongst war and violence. There are still people in our community who struggle to pay the bills and put food on the table.

Next weekend we will celebrate New Year’s Eve, and maybe make some resolutions. If you are anything like me, they don’t last long.

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

Fear, that is something we know about. Fear is easy. We fear change, we fear strangers. Each time an angel appears they say: Don't be afraid! Yet, fear is one of the easiest responses for us.

The song goes on to mention that it is Christmas for old and young, rich and poor, weak and strong, black and white.

I wonder what Christmas is like for those who rely on Mary Mac’s or the Salvos for Christmas.
I wonder what Christmas is like for people seeking asylum.
I wonder what Christmas is like in Aleppo, and Palestine.

Our Bible reading tonight started with ‘At that time’. At that time the Emperor called a census. At that time the people of Israel were under foreign occupation, the Romans ruled over the people of the middle east. Society was divided by income and status.

Into this less than perfect setting a child was born.

In some ways the world has changed a lot since that first Christmas morning – we now have electricity
and transport that gets us places faster than a donkey or on foot. We can send letters and emails, and get almost instant responses.

But in other ways, life hasn’t changed much.
We still live in fear, fear of death, fear of failure, fear of the unknown and the new.
We are still living with divisions, based on wealth and power, status, culture and faith.
and we still need to know that we are precious and that we are loved.

At that time, God came into our life and our world in a new way
Jesus was born a baby, to show us love
Jesus was born in a manger to show all creation mattered
Jesus was born that we might live to the full, being ourselves without shame.

At this time, God comes into our life and world
to show love
to be light and hope
to bring peace.

A Christmas wish:

This Christmas
I wish for you
light
to crumple up the darkness

This Christmas
I wish for you
love
to pull us closer to one another

This Christmas
I wish for you
peace
the same the angels sang

This Christmas
I wish for you
starlight
to follow on your way home

This Christmas
I wish for you
promise
to keep hope alive for you

This Christmas
I wish for you
God
newly born and in the flesh

This Christmas
I wish for you
Jesus Christ
born this night
light of the world

~ written by Roddy Hamilton, and posted on Listening to the Stones.http://newkilpatrickblog.typepad.com/nk-blogging/mucky-paws/

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[i] http://www.metrolyrics.com/so-this-is-christmas-lyrics-john-lennon.html

Love Conquers All

The School motto at my high school was “Labor omnia vincit”; work conquers all.  The birth of Jesus shows that Love conquers all.

Matthew’s gospel starts with the genealogy, the long list of unusual sounding names, mainly men, but a few women are mentioned. The men are a mixed bag, the women are all ‘outsiders’ in some way. While the genealogy shows that Jesus, through Joseph, is a descendent of David; it also shows gentiles and sinners are part of the family history of Jesus.

Before we get too far I want to tell you a little about the marriage customs of the day. While many versions of the Bible have that Mary and Joseph were engaged, this was more serious than engagement is in our culture. Being ‘engaged’ was the legal or contractual part of the marriage process. Then there was a wedding which was celebrating and feasting when the bride and groom started living together. [i]

When Joseph found out Mary was pregnant, they were legally married, but not yet living together. I wonder how Joseph really felt. Matthew doesn’t give a lot away in this reading. The words of the Angel are the only ones recorded by Matthew.   You will remember from our Quiz [ii] earlier that the angel appearing to Mary, and the journey to Bethlehem are in Luke’s gospel, but not in Matthew’s gospel.

In Matthew, any words from Mary and Joseph are not recorded. My hunch is that Joseph would have been angry, upset, humiliated ….

What is a good man to do?

There were rules for situations like this.

“If a man is caught in town having sex with an engaged woman who isn’t screaming for help, they both must be put to death. The man is guilty of having sex with a married woman. And the woman is guilty because she didn’t call for help, …” Deuteronomy 22:23-24 CEV

Joseph decides not to make a fuss and ask for her stoning, he will call off the marriage quietly.  

And just like his Old Testament namesake, Joseph has a dream, a dream that changes history. A dream that showed a different way.

Joseph and the Angle skit [Candles and Conifers, pp 208-10]

Mary has the baby, Joseph accepts that Jesus will be raised as his son, and all ends happily ever after. Well not quite. But when Mary was in a very vulnerable situation; pregnant with a child who is not her husband’s, she could easily have been stoned, or isolated or abandoned.  Joseph responds to the angel’s message, and names the boy Jesus.

A few other comments about this passage:

The Gospel of Matthew begins and ends with Emmanuel, God is with us. We hear it in the story of the birth of Jesus, and then in the final verses of the gospel.   Matthew 28: 18-20 CEV

“Jesus came to them and said:

I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.”

I wonder how do you feel about God being with you always?
God isn’t always easy to be around.
Sometimes the words of God are not what we want to hear. Sometimes the words of God are challenging.
Sometimes the words of God are just plain hard.[iii]

“God with us” is God’s very own sermon. God tells the truth about God’s self -- I am here -- as an expression of love and relationship. How that truth gets heard might change depending on where we are, but its truth never changes because of who God is. ^[iv]

God tells the truth about God’s self -- I am here -- as an expression of love and relationship.

Here we are week four of Advent, the day we think about Love.

During Advent we look forward to the coming of Jesus, preparing to celebrate his birthday. But Advent is more than that, we also look to the time when the kingdom will come in completeness, and we think about how we can be part of that kingdom coming into being. Where can we work with God, where are we guided by the Holy Spirit to be active with God in bringing about a new kingdom. A kingdom based on hope, peace, joy and love.

Yet this Advent I am also aware of that these words seem empty to many. Sometimes life seem to go from bad to worse. Some people are grieving, some are ill and in pain, some are lonely. Looking at the world this week, there has been a lot of coverage of the war in Syria, and particularly the on-off ceasefire in Aleppo. How is God’s love and presence visible in a place like that?

There are many complex issues in our lives and the world. It can be easy to jump to simplistic answers, but the conflict in many parts of the world are more complicated than our simple answers.  

Are we willing to take a risk and follow the guidance of the Spirit, even when that is different to what we have always done?

Maybe, just like for Joseph, there is a solution we haven’t thought of.

“Joseph's faithful response to the angel seems like quite a leap-- instead of trusting the righteousness of faithful tradition as they knew it then, he trusts a brand new, out-of-the blue word from God.” [v]

Maybe Love will conquer all,
when we live as Advent people,
waiting and working with God for the coming kingdom,
where war, misery and hunger are a distant memory
and hope, peace, joy and love overflow.  

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[i] David Lose, Working Preacher December 17, 2013

[ii] Thoughtful Christian, Accounts of Jesus’ Birth

[iii] Karoline Lewis, Working Preacher Sunday, December 11, 2016

[iv] Karoline Lewis, Working Preacher Sunday, December 11, 2016

[v] Charlotte Wilson, RevGalBolgPals facebook

What Are We Looking For?

John is in prison and wondering if Jesus is the One, the Messiah, the one who will turn things around, the one who will usher in the kingdom of God.

We met John the Baptist last week. The locust-eating, camel-hair wearing, man out in the wilderness; baptising people in the Jordan River; preaching hell-fire and brimstone.

And now?
Now he is in prison.

John told people to prepare the way for the one who is coming,
   he thought it was Jesus, but…
   He was expecting more fire and brimstone.
   He was expecting to hear reports of riots and rebellion.
   He was expecting a revolution overthrowing the Roman occupiers.[i]

John is sitting in prison, wondering …
   Did I get it wrong?
   Maybe Jesus was not the one?
   Maybe my whole life has been a mistake…?

I suspect many of you know the feeling. We start a new venture with enthusiasm, then are setbacks, and we wonder,
   what on earth was I thinking;
   how did I get talked into this;
   how do I get out of the mess?

While John is in prison wondering if he got it all wrong, he sends some of his followers to ask Jesus: Are you the One?

Are you the One we have been waiting for, or do we wait for another?

Jesus tells the disciples of John to look around, lives are being transformed.
“John doubted because he expected uproar and instead Jesus brought embrace.”[ii]

Jesus tells them to tell John, lives are being transformed.

Over 2000 years later, it can be easy to join with John in wondering if Jesus is the one ushering the Kingdom of God. Has anything changed. There is still oppression, slavery, idolatry, illness, exploitation, poverty and violence.[iii]

Where is the kingdom of peace?
where is the kingdom where all of creation lives in harmony?
where is this amazing place we keep reading about in Isaiah, no more tears, no more hunger, no more worries?

Matthew writes that
     The blind are now able to see,
     and the lame can walk.
     People with leprosy are being healed,
     and the deaf can hear.
     The dead are raised to life,
     and the poor are hearing the good news.”

Because of Jesus, lives were being transformed.

God didn’t send an army of angels, or a giant meteor to wipe out the earth. God came as a baby, born to a peasant girl.

God comes to us in unexpected ways.
Maybe that is part of the problem.
We need ears to hear and eyes to see

John expected the coming of the kingdom of God to be accompanied by revolution and warfare.
But the transformation in people’s lives wasn’t from violence,
the transformation in people’s lives was from acceptance and grace and forgiveness.

We live in the time between the ushering in of the Kingdom of God and its coming in fullness.

If we believe that Jesus is the One who is ushering in the kingdom of God. If Jesus is the One who “is coming to bring healing, peace, justice and hope”, then as disciples we work with God to bring healing, peace, justice and hope to our communities and the world.[iv]

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10^th December 1948. December 10^th is now International Human Rights Day. This year the theme is “Stand up for someone's rights today!”[v]

As a Christian, I believe that all people are created in the image of God; all people, not just white, middle class, religious people. One of our tasks as disciples of Jesus is to work towards the coming of the kingdom of peace and justice.

That can be challenging work, because now, just as in the time when Jesus was born,
   there are some people who crave power
   there are some people who are greedy
   there are people who are itching for a fight.

What can we do to be part of the movement toward peace and justice? One thing I did yesterday was to participate in Write for Rights, a group of thirty people were at Woy Woy library writing letters to various leaders asking for people to be treated fairly.

People like Máxima Acuña and her family, who are peasants. They have suffered violent attacks and harassment in an attempt to drive them out of their land by mining giants.

People like Eren Kesken in Turkey, who has been before the courts more than 100 times because of her outspoken stand on the plight of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. In 1995, she spent six months in jail simply for using the word “Kurdistan” in an article.[vi]

Sometimes, like John we can wonder if it is all worth it, will anything ever change. But if we believe that Jesus is the one, then the church carries on the mantle of being conduits of love and grace.  Our role isn’t to condemn - remember it was the religious people that Jesus condemned, not those that would be labelled sinners or undesirables. Our role is to love.

John wanted to know if Jesus was the one, and Jesus told his disciples to report back to John that lives were being transformed. Jesus was the one, but his way of transformation through love was not what John was expecting.

In what ways are we seeing lives transformed in the activities of this congregation? Do we expect to see lives being transformed?
Have we been waiting so long that we have given up hope of lives and the world being transformed?

As we approach Christmas, the time of celebration of the coming of Jesus, not into a palace, or wealth, or safety; but as a baby born to villagers in a rural area under Roman occupation;  what are we expecting?

A good meal?
Christmas specials on the television?

Then a day off to recover?

If we believe Jesus is the one, that Jesus is God’s love in human form, what are we expecting to change?

Are we open to God transforming our own lives as well as the lives of those around us?

What can we do to be part of the movement toward peace and justice, in the world and in the local community?

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[i] David Lose In the Meantime

[ii] Simon Hansford https://talbragar.net/2016/12/08/not-quite-what-we-imagine/

[iii] Ron Allen Working Preacher

[iv] David Lose In the Meantime

[v] http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/

[vi] https://www.amnesty.org.au/campaigns/write-for-rights/

Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.

This is the first time we hear from John, and he says to the crowd:
“Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

That is our message for today:
“Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

Advent is making room for God. Each year we are challenged to make more room for God in our lives. That means something has to give.

In the pre-Christmas rush of parties and shopping and cooking and cleaning, we hear from John:
“Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

There are 168 hours in a week, and we could look at what happens in each hour, and how you can squeeze more ‘God hours’ into the week. But that isn’t the point. That isn’t what John is preaching, and it isn’t what Advent is about.

While repentance includes feeling sorry for one’s personal sins, it is much more than that.  

To repent is to recognise the ways in which our life is out-of-step with God’s dream for the world, and to turn towards God and the attitudes and actions of the kingdom of heaven.

“To repent is turn away from the values and practices of the old age (e.g., idolatry, violence, injustice, exploitation, slavery, and scarcity) and to turn towards the values and practices of the Realm of God.” ^[i]

“Repentance, …, is realizing that God is pointing you one way, that you’ve been traveling another way, and changing course.” [ii]

“Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

John offers a choice, turn our lives around, return to God, live with peace and justice and hope and love; or risk the consequences.  We are being invited to co-operate with God; to move into a ‘new’ normal.

For too many people the current normal is one of hunger, fear, isolation and despair.

Friday was the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. In Australia, we might think slavery is only an issue for third world countries; but even in Australia there are cases of people being held as slaves. Often it is new immigrants who are being held as slaves. One example is from 2013, when 3 people were arrested for human trafficking. The people from Australia visited the Philippines and encouraged boxers to come and make their fortune in Australia. When they arrived, their passports were taken from them, they lived in a corrugated iron garage, trained and cleaned houses. They were not allowed to contact anyone. On the rare occasions they won a fight in the boxing ring, most of their winnings was taken from them. [iii]

One way we in Australia benefit from slavery and slave like conditions is in some of the clothes we wear and some of the food we eat.  

What might the kingdom of God look like to people caught in slavery?

In the reading from Isaiah last week we heard of the coming time when weapons of war and violence would be turned into farming implements. This morning we hear another of the promise passages from Isaiah. We hear of a time when predator and prey will be safe in each other’s presence.

“The Isaiah readings have been about the coming kingdom of God. God’s dream about a different world where there is no predator or prey, no fear or hatred. It’s not a goal to be achieved, but a dream by which to set a course.”[iv]

Leopards will lie down with young goats,
and wolves will rest with lambs.
Calves and lions will eat together
and be cared for by little children.
Cows and bears will share the same pasture;
their young will rest side by side.
Lions and oxen will both eat straw. [Isaiah 11 CEV]

Over the years I wondered how predator and prey could safely be together, but then the last line is a hint. Lions and oxen will both eat straw.

The predator, the one with power and strength, will give up their ways. The lamb will be safe with the wolf, not because the lamb is suddenly armour plated, but because the wolf will no longer eat meat.

When we discuss issues like transport, immigration, health, refugees, wages, taxation, and interest rates, I rarely hear anyone speaking about what it means for the poorest in the community. the comments I hear are about what it means to me.  

What would it mean if we gave up our power so that someone else could live without fear?

Repentance is recognising where we are out of step with God.

It isn’t about how many chapters of the Bible we read each week, or how many hours we pray or how many church meetings we go to.

Repentance is recognising where we are out of step with God, and making a change in our lives.

A short exercise:

Take a moment to daydream what God’s vision is for you.
That is, what do you think God wants you to be and to do?

Now, choose one area in your life you would like to change direction, for example:

Is there an unhealthy relationship you want to repair or address? Can you imagine using your time differently and toward better ends?
Is there a practice or habit you might take up that would produce more abundant life for yourself or for those around you?

Final question: Can you identify one community issue and begin praying for it daily, open to how God might direct your time and actions to contributing to change? [v]

Advent is making room for God in our lives. Sometimes it seems that being asked to slow down, to reflect, to take time for God means missing out on Christmas. I know what it is like, if I don’t send cards, and buy presents and bake shortbread .. and .. and … then Christmas won’t be Christmas.

The whole point of Christmas is that God came to be present with us, in the everyday and the extraordinary.  God does not sit up in heaven checking up on us, throwing down thunderbolts or smiling a rainbow for us.

The God we know in Jesus comes down out of heaven to take on our lot and our life and give us hope by being with us and for us, inviting more abundant life and helping us to see in the face of our neighbour not a competitor for scarce resources, but a brother or sister in Christ. If Advent is a time to slow down, it’s so that we can have more authentic life, not less Christmas.[vi]

“Turn back to God! The kingdom of heaven will soon be here.”

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[i] Working Preacher 20161204, Ron Allen

[ii] In the Meantime, David Lose

[iii] http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2013/s3801616.htm

[iv] In the Meantime, David Lose

[v] In the Meantime, David Lose

[vi] In the Meantime, David Lose