Sharing the Joy of Christmas

Christmas is only a few days away and we are looking out on a snow covered Seattle waiting for what could be one of the worst winter storms for over a decade.  In our small community here at the Mustard Seed House we have gathered for morning and evening prayers throughout the Advent season anticipating together the coming of Christ and all that we look forward to at this wonderful season of the year.  Our morning prayers started with

This is a season of watchfulness
We watch and wait for the One who heard our cries and entered the suffering of our world
We expect new light to shine as the season of joy approaches

What I realize is that when Christmas arrives, in the excitement of cooking Christmas dinner, opening gifts and phoning my family in Australia, it is easy to forget what this season is really all about.  And when Christmas day and Boxing day are over our frenzied activity can easily give way to a low grade depression.  But Christmas isn’t really over as those of us who are part of liturgical traditions are well aware.  In the sixth century it was decided that celebrating Christmas just for a day didn’t  provide time to celebrate the joy that Christ’s birth brought into our world.  They made Christmas into a twelve day festival that ended with a feast on the Eve of Epiphany on January 5th to celebrate the coming of the wise men.

This Christmas I am very aware of those for whom there is little celebration.  Dustin who lives in the basement apartment at the Mustard Seed House has been very involved with Nickelsville, one of the homeless communities in Seattle and has kept us posted on their plight.  Many of the inhabitants have opted to remain in their tents in spite of temperatures well below freezing in the last few days.  They are afraid of being mugged or robbed of their few possessions if they move to one of the temporary shelters that have opened up over the Christmas season.  We have emptied our closets of woollen garments and have purchased extra food to help them through this difficult season.

In other parts of the world I am aware that the worsening economic crisis has pushed many into poverty or even over the edge into starvation.  And I find myself wondering what are ways that I can fully enter into the joyous celebration of Christmas and make it a 12 day feast not just for ourselves but for our poorest and most vulnerable neighbours in God’s worldwide community too?

This beautiful story A Christmas Gift for Mohammed by JR Briggs presents one possibility that brings a sense of God’s joy and celebration into this season.  Other possibilities you may like to consider are

1. Do you know people that are alone at this season? Take them out for a meal or invite them out for the day.  Share with them the reasons that you continue to celebrate the joy of Christmas beyond December 25th
2. Do you know people who are disabled? Take them for a drive around your neighbourhood to enjoy the Christmas lights.
3. Do you know people of other faiths? Invite them over for a meal.  Ask them questions about their own faith journey and then ask them if you can share yours and why this season is important to you.
4. Do you have friends, acquaintances or family you rarely speak to?  Phone one person each evening during the Christmas season to share your joy at Christ’s birth with them.
5. Do you know people who are homeless or living on the streets?  If you live in the Northern hemisphere invite them home for a meal and an evening by a warm fire.  If you live in the Southern hemisphere invite them out for a BBQ and an afternoon of games and fun.
6. Do you know people that work amongst the poor in other parts of the world?  Consider cutting your own food budget by half the week after Christmas and send what you save as an extra gift to encourage them during this season.

What are you doing to share your joy of the coming of the Christ child to others at this season?

The Hidden Voices of Advent

This last week I have embarked on an orgy of reading as part of my Advent discipline.  I have dipped into Jean Vanier the founder of the L’Arche communities, Mother Theresa from the Sisters of Charity and Richard Twiss, a leader in the First Nation’s movement in North America.  At the same time I continue to grapple with what it means to live as a Christ follower in God’s global community and how our experience of the coming of Christ at this season impacts our response to the global economic crisis.

What do all these authors have in common you may well ask?  They all express powerfully our need to not just listen to voices from the margins but also to recognize that it is through people who are disabled, destitute and excluded that God often speaks most powerfully.

In this season of Advent how does Christ come to us through the voices of those who are displaced, despised and abused?  In the midst of our busyness and stress are we even open to hearing such voices and recognizing our need to listen and learn from them?

“To love is a way of looking, of touching of listening to all” Jean Vanier reminds us.  If we really long for the coming of Christ and the eternal kingdom of mutual love, abundance and wholeness that his return will bring into being in all its fullness how do we wait at this season and how do we live into this world today?  How do we live by what what NT Wright calls the language of the kingdom and what James calls the royal law – love for God and love of neighbour.

I think that to live in true anticipation of the coming of Christ we must commit ourselves afresh to live according to this language of love.  We must all open our eyes to see and respond to the face of God in every stranger.  We must open our eyes to hear the voice of God in every outcast and must open our lives to be the love of God to every person we encounter who has been cast bu the wayside because of race, class, education, disabilities, illness, gender or any other disfigurement that excludes them from our lives and our society.  It is not an easy task that God challenges us with but it is essential if we really want to see the light of Christ shine in the many dark places of our world.

Maybe as part of your Advent reflections this week you would like to listen to this short video that expresses Mother Theresa’s view of the importance of the poor and the destitute

Awaiting the Christ Child

At the beginning of this Advent season I wanted to share with you a video reflection on Advent

In this Advent season we await the coming of Christ

Child of promise come,

Revealer of God come,

Bringer of life come,

Come to the beaten and the battered,

Come to the despised and rejected

Come to all in whom the divine image is still distorted

We wait in joyful expectation.

Come not as an distant emperor but as a helpless babe

Come not as a prince in a gold palace, but as a displaced and frightened refugee

Come not as a man of power, but in love and compassion

Come to those outcast like shepherds in the field

Come to foreigners like Magi watching from afar

Come to rich and poor, young and old, male and female,

We wait in hopeful anticipation

Come to bless all creation with your love

Come to bring salvation on the earth

Come to rule with justice and in peace

Come Child of promise, open the windows of our hearts

Come Christ of compassion, open the doors of our homes

Come Prince of Peace, open the pathways to our lives

We wait with all the peoples of the earth

Child of hope we welcome your coming

Christ of life we welcome your coming

King of glory we welcome your coming

This was first published on my blog with several other video reflections on Advent