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Advent Posts

Day 15

Revolution 1 – The Beatles

There is no shortage of “Christmas” Music. It’s all we hear on the radio from Halloween through to Dec 25. I have very intentionally not used any of it as part of my reflection on the season of the Incarnation. Partially because much popular Holiday music has little to do with a life of faith but mostly because Christmas isn’t just a day or a season. Christmas, the coming of God into the world and into our lives is something that helps shape every day, that changes our world beyond a season.

Mary is clear that she sees Jesus’ birth as a revolution; the poor are filled and the rich are sent empty away. John (and Jesus after him) proclaims that the Kingdom of God is at hand, a new rule and new way of life is coming and is closer now then it ever has been, in our hearts and on our lips. (Romans 10:8)

Day 14

The Only Difference – Beatchild & The Slakadeliqs feat. Justin Nozuka

Jesus was born over 2000 years ago into a world and conditions very different from what I know here in Canada. The differences are far more numerous than the similarities and yet he calls us siblings, members of his household who carry the same image of God, a certain family resemblance.

When I have had opportunity for people of different backgrounds and experiences to share their stories together in a sacred space, they are always overjoyed to find someone “just like them”. Of course, they are nothing alike but their heart is the same. We all experience trauma and yearn for healing and seek to share love.

Jesus becomes part of creation in a particular time and place and that is significant and important to his life and God’s work but also means we have a God who shares the human condition from the inside. He knows our weaknesses and treats them with grace. (Hebrews 5:2)

Day 13

Day 1 – HONNE

Year one of the Common Era (CE) is understood as the year Jesus was born (though the Gospels and historical accounts don’t pinpoint a year). When Jesus was born, everything changed. The Creator had become part of the Creation in a new way and changed how we know our God and ourselves.

A whole new life begins for us as we encounter Jesus. We are refreshed, renewed and become a new creation, growing in Spirit and grace. May we be renewed in the life of Jesus this Christmas and always.

Day 12

May I Have This Dance – Francis and the Lights feat. Chance the Rapper

Joy and love are the purpose of the incarnation. Jesus was born into the world so that we might know the Joy of God and so that our Joy might be made complete. Joy in the midst of our struggles, the hurt we’ve inherited and the hurt we have created, being slowly and fully healed by Creator as we step into relationship with the love we were made from and made for.

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:1-8

Day 11

Meet Your Maker – Très Bien!

The garage rock sound of this Clearwater Pennsylvania band gives the feeling of the threat often associated with the title “Meet Your Maker” but in the incarnation we know that phrase and in invitation to life. To know the incarnate God is to encounter, now as we live, the one who has made our life and who gives them the purpose of love.

While there is so much mystery in the life and work of God we do not follow a God we don’t know. Jesus is exactly who God is and we know in Scripture and Spirit exactly what Jesus is like.

How does meeting our maker, in Scripture, in Spirit and in one another, effect how we know ourselves and how we are called to live now?

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

John 20:24-29

Day 10

Love Ain’t Just A Word – Rudimental

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth….From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

John 1:14, 16-18

God is love, faith is love in action, Jesus is that Word of Love made flesh, embodied in a life: building grace, teaching love, and opening us to new life.

The fullness of God became flesh and in this we see that love is so much more than a Word and life is so much more than what we have, what we eat and what we drink. We are connected, all, joined both in Spirit and by sinew, together, to the one through whom all things were made. The truth of our lives, of who we are as people and creatures is revealed when our Creator becomes part of the Creation. Who we are is joined in a love that acts.

Day 9

If God’s on Your Side – Danny Michel

Diversity and difference are some of my favourite things about the Christian community I’m part of. People from different places and backgrounds and experiences, with different languages, genders and traditions are continually practicing how to welcome, love and support one another.

Too often in our past our faith has been twisted into an excuse to hate another and take power for ourselves. Too often now that pattern continues.

Jesus warns in a parable that those who feel justified in their hate and divisions, one from another, have separated themselves from the God they claim to know.

The coming of Christ at Christmas is meant to break our ideologies and divisions and show us a uniting love.

Day 8

You Can Make Me Free – Billy Joel

I can only hear the lyrics of this song as a love song to Jesus who came to set the prisoner free and who wipes away every tear.

The freedom in Jesus is to know that our lives are not bound by the failures and mistakes of a decaying world that so often forgets the love it is made from.

The song also captures the “already” and “not yet” of God with us. Jesus shared life with us here, God’s Spirit is with us now, we grow daily in faith and grace and yet we await the fullness of God’s Kingdom; at hand but just out of reach; dawning and just out of sight; we pray “Come Lord Jesus and set us free”.

Day 7

Everywhere – Vampire Weekend

The God of Heaven and Earth wants to be God with us everywhere, on earth and in heaven. In the difficult parts of our lives and selves and in the joys we know and bring to others.

With the birth of Jesus we know God who as come to us, to dwell with us and to make a home of peace in our lives now.

We sometimes feel that it is us who need to seek out God, and at times we do, but it is important to remember that God is also coming to us, reaching out to us and running out to embrace us while we are still yet on the road.

Day 6

Sweetest Devotion – Adele

It is a love that changes everything, not just God’s love for the world but God’s love IN the world. Right along side us, leading us forward, breaking down walls and making all things possible where we are now.

And not just a love we can hope for or wish for, but a love we can trust in and count on always, no matter what.

At Christmas time we sometimes see most clearly what is actually true all year round, that love changes everything.