It’s that time of year again. We have set the clocks back an hour and it’s dark now by 4:30. It seems like I get up before the sun and come home from work in the dark. And I wonder where is the light? When I watch or read the news it seems like there is a different kind of darkness there. We are almost two years into a global pandemic that has changed how we live. It has increased our anxiety. It has taken many from us and continues to threaten us.
And I wonder where is the light, where is the hope? It seems like this increase in anxiety has caused people to behave badly. I hear about more shootings, more acts of violence, more self-centeredness. And I wonder where is the light, where is the hope, where is the love we are supposed to have for one another? I hear about global and local shortages of food and goods, and I watch prices go up. I see people wondering how they will pay to heat their homes, put fuel in their cars and pay for the food they need. I see people become more and more discouraged every day. And I wonder where is the light, where is the hope, where is the love, where is the joy in life? I hear people question where is God in all of this? How could God let this happen? Why is God letting this happen? And I wonder where is the light, where is the hope, where is the love, where is the joy, where is our faith?
A very long time ago there were people asking these same questions. They were longing for God to step into a situation of poverty and occupation by a foreign power. Those who sided with the occupying force got richer while those who had barely enough to survive had to work harder, pay higher taxes and got poorer. They too longed for light, tried to find hope, struggled to love each other, wondered if there would ever be joy in life again, and questioned their faith and all they were taught to believe. They too wondered where is God in all of this? How could God let this happen? Why is God letting this happen? They longed for a savior to free them from oppression and restore them to peace and prosperity. They wanted God to act in some big way, to be present among them. And they waited.
In the midst of their darkness God did come. Not with a flash of light and roar of thunder. Not as a mighty military leader who would drive out the Romans and then rule the nation. Not as a prince, born in a palace to wealthy parents. Rather, God showed up in a stable, born as a baby dependent on his mother and father for warmth and survival. Dependent on the kindness for strangers for a place to spend the first days or weeks of his human life. God showed up and as the baby grew up, he saw the plight of the people and responded with love. He healed and fed them. He taught them to love each other, telling them that this would bring about God’s kingdom.
We remember this miracle of God among us every year. We begin with the four weeks before Christmas – Advent. Each week we light a candle against the darkness. Each week we hear words of hope, joy, love and faith. On Christmas day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the baby born so long ago in a stable. A child who grew up to teach us how to live in hope, with joy and love in our hearts and a faith that will sustain us. Each year we marvel at how God chose to be a tiny, vulnerable baby so as to experience all that we do beginning with birth. The wonder of this is that God cares enough about us to have wanted to experience life as we do so as to better understand us.
Advent and Christmas can be so much more than simply a season of the church year. We can learn lessons from them and incorporate those lessons into our lives as we move forward. Yes, these are dark and uncertain times. Times filled with anxiety and sometimes fear.
One of the lessons that we learn from the Advent / Christmas season is that God is present with us through all of life. God is the light in the darkness that we need to focus on. We can have hope because we know that God will not abandon us. We can approach life with joy because we know God is with us. We can recommit to loving God, our neighbor and ourselves. We can pray and meditate and develop our faith and our relationship with God. We can look back at the miracle of life and birth knowing that through Jesus, God experienced it and in doing so came to know and understand us.
My wish for all of you is that you have a blessed and peaceful holiday season. My hope for all of you all of you is that this holiday season moves beyond the giving of gifts and being with family and friends and leads to a deeper relationship with God. My prayer for all of you is that your faith will be strengthened, you will experience love and joy throughout the coming year and that you will see the light. The light of Christ that shines in the darkest of times. The light of Christ our beacon in the night, lighting our way home.
May you have a blessed holiday season
Pastor Rhonda
