So many demands on our time! So many demands for our attention! So many people we want to please! We are torn in so many directions and by so many considerations, it is hard to find a place where we can hear the “still small voice of God” inside.
This Christmas, I urge you to take time from all the demands that seem so important and prioritize the only demand that pulls us together. Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness and all these things will be added onto you.” This seeking is the center from which all else proceeds.
The world was too busy for Jesus. Everyone was caught up in systems that oppressed and excluded many. Government laid heavy and immutable burdens and taxes on the people. That is just the way things were (are).
Into this crowded world, divinity intruded in the most human way, a child was born. In spite of all the chaos and tables stacked against a truly fulfilling existence, God and true humanity have a way of breaking through in the most surprising and least expected of ways. The Magi predicted this, the outcast shepherds had it revealed to them. But those in power, those too busy, had no sense of it and no room for it.
This Christmas, please take some time out to find the real truth about the divine presence emerging in human form. Or to say it another way, the true meaning of Christmas for your lives and those around you. Christmas is a celebration of the true hope of a renewed humanity.
This is what we celebrate in Word and Sacrament in church, where we search for our true identities found in the ancient stories of hope. Please join us in celebrating these sacred mysteries.
+Steve
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