But the love of our Lord God remains faithful forever and ever and ever to those who seek God. The Lord God's steadfast, righteous mercy holds good for the children's children of those who keep God's covenanting bond, who keep on remembering God's Words by doing them.
- Psalm 103.17-18
Advent is a time to hear to herald a message of good news for the world - a message of hope, joy, peace, and LOVE. During the Advent and Christmas season, we remember and experience afresh the love of God, come in human flesh in the person of King Jesus the Messiah.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness
and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1.79)
God is the object of love. God is love and love comes from God. True love is defined in God’s terms. Humans do not set the standards. Godly love is unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, and thoughtful. And this God-love is most clearly revealed in Jesus the Messiah - in his life, death, resurrection, and exultation.
“In this the love of God was made known among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4.9-11).
In Jesus, God shows his extravagant love by gathering his rebellious people, by healing the sick and unclean, by accepting the unaccepted, by entering into fellowship with sinners. And God calls us to do the same!
As we dwell in the Holy Spirit of Christ, we are God’s healers. As we live into Jesus’ story, we increasingly love as Christ loves. We follow Jesus in loving God with our whole person. Love for God is the great and basic demand made by Jesus. Jesus calls us to love God first, and our neighbor second. And the demand here is that we submit to Christ’s lordship, basing our life on God, clinging to God with bold faith, and walking in the strength of God’s Spirit. This is our joy!
With this in mind, we return again to our Advent them of darkness and light. As we walk in the Light of God's love, we must always be prepared to face the darkness within us and outside of us. As we follow Jesus, we must be prepared to suffer for the sake of the gospel, to make huge sacrifices in our lives, and even to face persecution.
If we choose to follow Jesus and to love like him, it will cost us our lives (possibly unto death, as it has been for many Christian martyrs down through the ages).
This is not to say we should go looking for trouble. No. It is to say that when we follow Christ faithfully, persecution will come and find us! Spiritual warfare is an assumed fact in the life of the New Testament church, and it should be for us as well. If, that is, we are living a Spirit-filled life. Those with ears, let them hear what the Spirit is saying...
December 17, 2011
Advent Peace: Part II
O yes, shun evil and do what is good; seek shalom - pursue the fullness of peace!
Present with those who do what is just are the watchful eyes of Yahweh, God's ears attend to their cries.
Remembrance of those who do what is unjust: the face of the Lord God is turned to wipe it off from the face of the earth!
- Psalm 34.14-16
Throughout human history the mechanisms of war and human violence have been put forward as a means to an end. And in modern times, media outlets send out daily reminders of humanity’s willingness to fight and kill. We’re told that we must be willing to go to war if we want to see peace. It’s said that armed conflict is inevitable if we want to see true development work happen around the world.
Really? Is it true that we must have military solutions to the problems we face in the world?
The difficulty with this view is that war and violence often play a false role in history. They parade as the true way to liberate people from oppression and to bring a sense of security. But the hard truth to which the history of civilization attests is that violence begets the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, violence multiplies evil.
In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”
In contrast, God’s vision for peace centers on the Way of Jesus, which is marked by humility, compassion, mercy, self-sacrifice, non-violence, and peace.
God is love. And Jesus, God's only begotten Son, is the Prince of Peace. Peace (wholeness, well being, flourishing, the way of non-violence) is the divine gift offered to all people. For those who embrace God's peace, God promises to bless and keep them. God covenants to put wreaths of long-range promises and gentle love around the necks of his righteous people. No matter what our present circumstances, God always vindicates those who love and obey him. God is the protector of the poor, the defender of the defenseless, and the one who justifies those who are faithful to him.
But there will be no mercy for those who choose the way of exploitation, rebellion, and injustice. The mercy that ungodly people neglected to show others will not be shown to them. "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
(Romans 1.18).
God is just. Speaking of the Messiah, the prophet Isaiah says, "He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips she shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins" (Isaiah 11.3-5).
Thankfully, God is the Just Judge, who has dealt with sin in the body of Jesus and has won the victory over the grave through Jesus resurrection from the dead. Thus, God calls his people to follow the way of love, mercy, and peace.
But the implementation of God's love and peace involves much more than the end of armed conflict. God’s shalom centers on the redemptive acts of Jesus Christ and the redeeming work of the Holy Spirit. Shalom is the total restoration of life to what God intended it to be. Thus, true peace involves the human acts of making amends, peacemaking, restoration, and living in harmony. Shalom is a movement toward fullness and completeness and encapsulates a vision of wholeness for the individual, within societal relations, and for the whole of creation.
Consider the prophet Isaiah's words about the renewal of the earth...
God shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2.4)
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11.6-9)
Because our Creator God is the worker of shalom, we, his image bearing people, have peacemaking as our holy obligation. As those who have been recreated into the image and likeness of Jesus, it is our responsibility to “make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy” (Heb 12.14). Jesus says the peacemakers are blessed and they shall be called children of God (Matt 5.9). And Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5.22).
In the power of the Holy Spirit, God summons all believers to follow Jesus as we choose love over power, the cross over control, peace over revolt. The vocation of every Christian is to be a peacemaker.
In the words of Henri Nouwen, “Nobody can be a Christian without being a peacemaker...What we are called to is a life of peacemaking in which all that we do, say, think, or dream is part of our concern to bring peace to our world. Just as Jesus’ command to love one another cannot be seen as a part-time obligation, but requires our total investment and dedication, so too Jesus’ call to peacemaking is unconditional, unlimited, and uncompromising” (Peacework, 16-17).
Present with those who do what is just are the watchful eyes of Yahweh, God's ears attend to their cries.
Remembrance of those who do what is unjust: the face of the Lord God is turned to wipe it off from the face of the earth!
- Psalm 34.14-16
Throughout human history the mechanisms of war and human violence have been put forward as a means to an end. And in modern times, media outlets send out daily reminders of humanity’s willingness to fight and kill. We’re told that we must be willing to go to war if we want to see peace. It’s said that armed conflict is inevitable if we want to see true development work happen around the world.
Really? Is it true that we must have military solutions to the problems we face in the world?
The difficulty with this view is that war and violence often play a false role in history. They parade as the true way to liberate people from oppression and to bring a sense of security. But the hard truth to which the history of civilization attests is that violence begets the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, violence multiplies evil.
In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”
In contrast, God’s vision for peace centers on the Way of Jesus, which is marked by humility, compassion, mercy, self-sacrifice, non-violence, and peace.
God is love. And Jesus, God's only begotten Son, is the Prince of Peace. Peace (wholeness, well being, flourishing, the way of non-violence) is the divine gift offered to all people. For those who embrace God's peace, God promises to bless and keep them. God covenants to put wreaths of long-range promises and gentle love around the necks of his righteous people. No matter what our present circumstances, God always vindicates those who love and obey him. God is the protector of the poor, the defender of the defenseless, and the one who justifies those who are faithful to him.
But there will be no mercy for those who choose the way of exploitation, rebellion, and injustice. The mercy that ungodly people neglected to show others will not be shown to them. "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
(Romans 1.18).
God is just. Speaking of the Messiah, the prophet Isaiah says, "He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips she shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins" (Isaiah 11.3-5).
Thankfully, God is the Just Judge, who has dealt with sin in the body of Jesus and has won the victory over the grave through Jesus resurrection from the dead. Thus, God calls his people to follow the way of love, mercy, and peace.
But the implementation of God's love and peace involves much more than the end of armed conflict. God’s shalom centers on the redemptive acts of Jesus Christ and the redeeming work of the Holy Spirit. Shalom is the total restoration of life to what God intended it to be. Thus, true peace involves the human acts of making amends, peacemaking, restoration, and living in harmony. Shalom is a movement toward fullness and completeness and encapsulates a vision of wholeness for the individual, within societal relations, and for the whole of creation.
Consider the prophet Isaiah's words about the renewal of the earth...
God shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2.4)
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11.6-9)
Because our Creator God is the worker of shalom, we, his image bearing people, have peacemaking as our holy obligation. As those who have been recreated into the image and likeness of Jesus, it is our responsibility to “make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy” (Heb 12.14). Jesus says the peacemakers are blessed and they shall be called children of God (Matt 5.9). And Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5.22).
In the power of the Holy Spirit, God summons all believers to follow Jesus as we choose love over power, the cross over control, peace over revolt. The vocation of every Christian is to be a peacemaker.
In the words of Henri Nouwen, “Nobody can be a Christian without being a peacemaker...What we are called to is a life of peacemaking in which all that we do, say, think, or dream is part of our concern to bring peace to our world. Just as Jesus’ command to love one another cannot be seen as a part-time obligation, but requires our total investment and dedication, so too Jesus’ call to peacemaking is unconditional, unlimited, and uncompromising” (Peacework, 16-17).
December 12, 2011
Advent Peace: Part I
The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overpower it.
- John 1.5
Advent is a dark time. As we journey through it, we have the opportunity to face the darkness within us and outside of us. And we face it in hope. In hope of the glory of God, now revealed in the face of Jesus - the Light of the world. We face the darkness of our present experiences in the light of God's promise of a New Day, a day of justice and peace.
And yet...
The reality is, we live in an age of violence and war. We cannot hide from this reality. We live in a world where powerful policy and monetary relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the industrial sector form a sort-of 'iron triangle' that forcefully oppresses and enslaves people around the world. This "military-industrial complex" (MIC) is an all pervasive reality in modern western civilization. The MIC has been defined as "an informal and changing coalition of groups with vested psychological, moral, and material interests in the continuous development and maintenance of high levels of weaponry, in preservation of colonial markets and in military-strategic conceptions of internal affairs" (Carroll W. Pursell, The military-industrial complex, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1972).
Please note, when I speak of the MIC, I am not simply throwing stones at the glass house of America. The highly profitable business of war-waging has been conducted with impunity by Canadian Liberal and Conservative governments for decades. About three-quarters of Canada’s military exports flow to the U.S. to help arm the iron fist of the American military.
Why do I say all of this? Because the net result of our cultures of violence result in untold devastation within the human and natural world.
Take, for example, the war in Iraq (which has, for a long time now, been conveniently pushed out of the imagination of many people in the western world!). There have been two scientifically rigorous cluster surveys conducted since the US-led invasion in March 2003. "The first, published in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet, estimated that 100,000 excess Iraqi deaths had resulted from the invasion as of September 2004. The second survey, also published in The Lancet, updated that estimate through July 2006. Due to an escalating mortality rate, the researchers estimated that over 650,000 Iraqis had died who would not have died had the death rate remained at pre-invasion levels. Roughly 601,000 of those excess deaths were due to violence...As of January 2008, a poll from the British polling firm Opinion Research Business contributed to our understanding of the Iraqi death toll, confirming the likelihood that over a million have died with an estimate of 1.2 million deaths." (http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/deathcount/explanation)
Almost 9 years of war in Iraq; an estimated $1.2 trillion of American money spent on the war machine; billions of dollars in profits because of Canadian military exports; untold damage done to the natural environment; and an estimated one million Iraqi people (mostly civilians!) are dead. Approximately one million Iraqi human beings are dead because of an unjust war. This death toll most likely eclipses the number of deaths in the Rwandan genocide.
Yet, our so-called North American mainstream media has not cover the story for years. No connections are made in the mainstream media. We hear no substantive discussion or debate about this on the evening news in Canada or the US. Little to no public discourse. This is entirely shameful. Devilish. From the pit of hell. And we are all to blame! That's right, it's the responsibility of the citizenry to gather, discuss, apply pressure on our leaders. It is our responsibility to act and demand action.
Advent.
And so, we continue to journey through the season of Advent. A dark time. Literally, the darkest time of the year. And only when we take the time and effort to face the darkness within us and outside of us, are we graced with a Godly perspective on how the Light shines in the darkness, bringing hope and peace to the world.
Shalom. Peace.
God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Messiah, and through him to reconcile everything to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross - whether things on earth or things in heaven. Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him - if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.
- Colossians 1.19-23
God’s purposes for the world’s redemption are fulfilled in the Messiah Jesus. By his coming in the flesh and the blood he shed on the cross, all of creation has been reconciled to God. Peace has been established in creation.
In Christ, God offers shalom to a world gone mad.
Creation is God and Christ’s good work. Nothing can change that. Not even the evils and idolatry of the military-industrial complex. The world, though spoiled by sin, still belongs to God. God has a good plan for his world and it will be accomplished. Christ’s redemption is the way the Lord of the cosmos has come to claim his rightful possession and to establish peace in it.
When we encounter the story of the Story of Jesus, we discover that in a world where humans try to establish peace by making war, God sends his Son to live a peaceable life, to die by the violence of the cross and under the weight of sin, and to rise in newness of life.
God has triumphed over the power of evil and reconciled his sin-spoiled creation through the violence of the cross. This is the deep paradox of the Christian faith.
Through the blood of Jesus’ cross, God exhausts the force of evil, God shares the suffering of humanity, God gives us life, and God establishes peace in the world.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you,” says Jesus (John 14.27). Peace is the divine gift offered to all people.
That's enough for now. More later...
- John 1.5
Advent is a dark time. As we journey through it, we have the opportunity to face the darkness within us and outside of us. And we face it in hope. In hope of the glory of God, now revealed in the face of Jesus - the Light of the world. We face the darkness of our present experiences in the light of God's promise of a New Day, a day of justice and peace.
And yet...
The reality is, we live in an age of violence and war. We cannot hide from this reality. We live in a world where powerful policy and monetary relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the industrial sector form a sort-of 'iron triangle' that forcefully oppresses and enslaves people around the world. This "military-industrial complex" (MIC) is an all pervasive reality in modern western civilization. The MIC has been defined as "an informal and changing coalition of groups with vested psychological, moral, and material interests in the continuous development and maintenance of high levels of weaponry, in preservation of colonial markets and in military-strategic conceptions of internal affairs" (Carroll W. Pursell, The military-industrial complex, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1972).
Please note, when I speak of the MIC, I am not simply throwing stones at the glass house of America. The highly profitable business of war-waging has been conducted with impunity by Canadian Liberal and Conservative governments for decades. About three-quarters of Canada’s military exports flow to the U.S. to help arm the iron fist of the American military.
Why do I say all of this? Because the net result of our cultures of violence result in untold devastation within the human and natural world.
Take, for example, the war in Iraq (which has, for a long time now, been conveniently pushed out of the imagination of many people in the western world!). There have been two scientifically rigorous cluster surveys conducted since the US-led invasion in March 2003. "The first, published in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet, estimated that 100,000 excess Iraqi deaths had resulted from the invasion as of September 2004. The second survey, also published in The Lancet, updated that estimate through July 2006. Due to an escalating mortality rate, the researchers estimated that over 650,000 Iraqis had died who would not have died had the death rate remained at pre-invasion levels. Roughly 601,000 of those excess deaths were due to violence...As of January 2008, a poll from the British polling firm Opinion Research Business contributed to our understanding of the Iraqi death toll, confirming the likelihood that over a million have died with an estimate of 1.2 million deaths." (http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/deathcount/explanation)
Almost 9 years of war in Iraq; an estimated $1.2 trillion of American money spent on the war machine; billions of dollars in profits because of Canadian military exports; untold damage done to the natural environment; and an estimated one million Iraqi people (mostly civilians!) are dead. Approximately one million Iraqi human beings are dead because of an unjust war. This death toll most likely eclipses the number of deaths in the Rwandan genocide.
Yet, our so-called North American mainstream media has not cover the story for years. No connections are made in the mainstream media. We hear no substantive discussion or debate about this on the evening news in Canada or the US. Little to no public discourse. This is entirely shameful. Devilish. From the pit of hell. And we are all to blame! That's right, it's the responsibility of the citizenry to gather, discuss, apply pressure on our leaders. It is our responsibility to act and demand action.
Advent.
And so, we continue to journey through the season of Advent. A dark time. Literally, the darkest time of the year. And only when we take the time and effort to face the darkness within us and outside of us, are we graced with a Godly perspective on how the Light shines in the darkness, bringing hope and peace to the world.
Shalom. Peace.
God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Messiah, and through him to reconcile everything to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross - whether things on earth or things in heaven. Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him - if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.
- Colossians 1.19-23
God’s purposes for the world’s redemption are fulfilled in the Messiah Jesus. By his coming in the flesh and the blood he shed on the cross, all of creation has been reconciled to God. Peace has been established in creation.
In Christ, God offers shalom to a world gone mad.
Creation is God and Christ’s good work. Nothing can change that. Not even the evils and idolatry of the military-industrial complex. The world, though spoiled by sin, still belongs to God. God has a good plan for his world and it will be accomplished. Christ’s redemption is the way the Lord of the cosmos has come to claim his rightful possession and to establish peace in it.
When we encounter the story of the Story of Jesus, we discover that in a world where humans try to establish peace by making war, God sends his Son to live a peaceable life, to die by the violence of the cross and under the weight of sin, and to rise in newness of life.
God has triumphed over the power of evil and reconciled his sin-spoiled creation through the violence of the cross. This is the deep paradox of the Christian faith.
Through the blood of Jesus’ cross, God exhausts the force of evil, God shares the suffering of humanity, God gives us life, and God establishes peace in the world.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you,” says Jesus (John 14.27). Peace is the divine gift offered to all people.
That's enough for now. More later...
December 5, 2011
Advent 2: Joy
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near.
- Philippians 4.4-5
We live in troubled times. We hear stories in the news about extreme poverty, the aids crisis, and the world’s ecological crisis. We live in a world of growing isolation, frantic activity, desperate violence, and terrible injustice. And yet, we often (and paradoxically) find ourselves longing for intimacy and community, and longing to experience a sense of hope and joy. This type of tension-filled longing is what the season of Advent is all about.
In Advent, God does NOT call us to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that the world is a nice old place. No. This is a time to face the darkness and to pray that God will shine forth the Light of his loving grace. Standing firm, having shod our feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace, we face the darkness and sin within us and outside of us. We embrace our new identity in Christ: "now you are light in the Lord" (Ephesians 5.8). And so, we walk as children of Light, taking no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead exposing them (Ephesians 5.11). Beautiful!
In my reflection last week I talked about Christian hope. This week I’ll talk about joy - another major theme of Advent.
Advent is a time when we joyfully celebrate the coming of the Messiah Jesus. “Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 12.12).
Joyous celebration characterizes the infancy narratives in the Gospels. The angel of the Lord tells Zechariah that he “will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice” at the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1.14). The angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will give birth to God’s Messiah and her response is one of joy, thanksgiving, and worship (Luke 1.46-49). The angel announces “good news of great joy…for all people” to the shepherds (Luke 2.10-11). And when the magi find the house where Mary and Jesus are staying they “rejoice exceedingly with great joy” and “fall to the ground and worship Jesus” (Matthew 2.9-11).
Although the world is full of evil and darkness, they will not win the day. In the face of evil, God reveals his saving grace in the Messiah Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And nothing short of joy and thankfulness characterizes our human experience when we encounter the living God!
Christ, the Light of God, has come into the world to dispel the darkness and to fill us with the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit. Joyful celebration is not distant admiration. Joy is an intense love for God and neighbor, made known through our acts of faithful service. The peaceable rule of God has come in Christ and it’s our responsibility to embody that rule in the strength of the Holy Spirit.
During Advent, and beyond, I pray that we will focus our attention on our call to joyfully embody God’s love in the world. In thousands of small and big ways, let us follow God in practical acts of love. And during these Advent days of waiting, let us joyfully savor every sign of God’s loving presence as we seek God’s peace in the world!
- Philippians 4.4-5
We live in troubled times. We hear stories in the news about extreme poverty, the aids crisis, and the world’s ecological crisis. We live in a world of growing isolation, frantic activity, desperate violence, and terrible injustice. And yet, we often (and paradoxically) find ourselves longing for intimacy and community, and longing to experience a sense of hope and joy. This type of tension-filled longing is what the season of Advent is all about.
In Advent, God does NOT call us to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that the world is a nice old place. No. This is a time to face the darkness and to pray that God will shine forth the Light of his loving grace. Standing firm, having shod our feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace, we face the darkness and sin within us and outside of us. We embrace our new identity in Christ: "now you are light in the Lord" (Ephesians 5.8). And so, we walk as children of Light, taking no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead exposing them (Ephesians 5.11). Beautiful!
In my reflection last week I talked about Christian hope. This week I’ll talk about joy - another major theme of Advent.
Advent is a time when we joyfully celebrate the coming of the Messiah Jesus. “Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 12.12).
Joyous celebration characterizes the infancy narratives in the Gospels. The angel of the Lord tells Zechariah that he “will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice” at the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1.14). The angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will give birth to God’s Messiah and her response is one of joy, thanksgiving, and worship (Luke 1.46-49). The angel announces “good news of great joy…for all people” to the shepherds (Luke 2.10-11). And when the magi find the house where Mary and Jesus are staying they “rejoice exceedingly with great joy” and “fall to the ground and worship Jesus” (Matthew 2.9-11).
Although the world is full of evil and darkness, they will not win the day. In the face of evil, God reveals his saving grace in the Messiah Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And nothing short of joy and thankfulness characterizes our human experience when we encounter the living God!
Christ, the Light of God, has come into the world to dispel the darkness and to fill us with the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit. Joyful celebration is not distant admiration. Joy is an intense love for God and neighbor, made known through our acts of faithful service. The peaceable rule of God has come in Christ and it’s our responsibility to embody that rule in the strength of the Holy Spirit.
During Advent, and beyond, I pray that we will focus our attention on our call to joyfully embody God’s love in the world. In thousands of small and big ways, let us follow God in practical acts of love. And during these Advent days of waiting, let us joyfully savor every sign of God’s loving presence as we seek God’s peace in the world!
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