God with Us - Defiant Love

And just like that we are at Advent 4. I don’t feel very ready. That peace and hope and joy are trickling away. It is hard to hold all that Advent offers in all that needs to be done. Maybe that’s the point.

This week we have the stories of 2 men. Isaiah tells of Ahaz who was faithless and unwilling to heed the sign of a child born and to trust God to save him. Matthew takes that sign and applies it to Jesus and tells of Joseph who was faithful and did trust the dream – embracing this somewhat difficult situation as an act of the Holy Spirit. He becomes our role model. But I find myself with Ahaz far too often.

When we read Matthew, it is helpful to let go of Luke. This is a very different story. No census, no travelling to Bethlehem, no stable or manger. Luke’s focusses on Mary, while Matthew’s is centred around Joseph. It is short and to the point, establishing Jesus’ credentials as “God with us”, the one who saves us from our sins.

How do you respond to God is with us? Not all will find that comforting. But after these last few years maybe it is something we need to hold on to.  Tish Harrison Warren writes, “Our response to the wrongness of the world (and of ourselves) can often be an unhealthy escapism, and we can turn to the holidays as anesthesia from pain as much as anything else. We need collective space, as a society, to grieve—to look long and hard at what is cracked and fractured in our world and in our lives. Only then can celebration become deep, rich and resonant, not as a saccharine act of delusion but as a defiant act of hope.”[1]

This Christmas we are invited to deeply know that God is with us in all our fear and pain, our loss and grief. God is with you, and God is with me, and God is with us all collectively inviting us into defiant acts of hope and love.

This week our theme is love. During this week I invite you to take time at the end of each day to give thanks for ways God with us has both brought love into your day; and through you brought love into the lives of others. I also invite you to reflect on what has led you away from love.

 


[1] Tish Harrison Warren, “Want the Get into the Christmas Spirit? Face the Darkness,” New York Times, Nov. 30, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/opinion/sunday/christmas-season-advent-celebration.html

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