“And in despair, I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
the Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men!”
―
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
__________________________________________________
Today I am adventing
On this longest night
I want to be Christmasing, but I am not
I am not immersed in Christmas
Where miracles happen
And love wins
It matters not how many Christmas movies are seen
Or carols sung
We are not to Christmas yet
The days are short, the nights so long
Gray clouds press to the grounds
And the air is heavy with the tears of God
Wars still rage
Malignant powers still oppress,
People with hearts of stone still sacrifice the common
good
For wealth and power
Liars still lie
No, I am not Christmasing
I am adventing
I am walking in that dark impatient time
Where resolution is yet to come
My soul resonates with the poet
Who, beloved wife burned to death,
Beloved son wounded by war,
Country divided,
Bowed his head
In momentary despair.
And I too cry "There is no peace on earth,
For hate is strong, And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Not I am not Christmasing
I am Adventing
I am plodding toward Bethlehem in the darkness
and the cold
And yet
I do believe Christmas will come
I do believe that love will prevail
For Sacred comes, and comes, and comes again
God is always incarnating into this world
We do not have a God who is scarce
But a God who is present
A scarce God demands exclusion
A scarce God stays aloof, judging
And handing out retribution,
And mercy and blessing when they come,
Are portioned out meagerly to the worthy
But a present God, one who incarnates
in all creation
in all people
in all hearts
in us
Ah! that is the
point of Christmas
But incarnation (Christmas) demands that we show up!
“Who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly? Whoever
finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all
arrogance, all individualism beside the manger; whoever remains lowly and lets
God alone be high; whoever looks at the child in the manger and sees the glory
of God precisely in his lowliness” (Bonhoeffer)
If we want Christmas
We will have to show up, not in the halls of power
Not in the Capital or the White House
Posing for pictures with the mighty
But in the streets
With the homeless
At the border, with the caged
in the hospital, with the cancer patient
in the nursing home, with the lonely woman or man
whose children cannot come
If we want Christmas
We will have to fight for it
Not with the weapons of hate
But with the weapons of love
We fight for Christmas
When we feed the poor
When we fight for housing, first
When we welcome the homeless to sleep in our pews
When we wear a mask, and get vaccinated
When we fight systematic racism
When we think of the common good, and not just ourselves
We fight for Christmas when we seek unity and peace
And refuse to demonize, refuse to hate, refuse to exclude
Call me a fool (many do)
Call me naïve
But even while I am adventing
And stumbling my way through the dark
I believe the light will come
And with Longfellow I affirm
God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
the Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”
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