Advent

I have been working on my advent series of the ABC’s of Advent.  Last Sunday we discussed waiting and the difficulties we have of waiting especially in our society.  The idea of delayed gratification is often hard to imagine.  Advent is a season of reminding us about gratitude and blessings that God extended to us.  This is the in-between time in our lives.  We celebrate Jesus’ birth and at the same time anticipate his return.  It is a season of preparation and means more than the abject consumerism that is so prevalent. 

As I have had to time to reflect through our Advent bible study and preparation for my sermons, I continue to come back to the idea of being on a journey.  The above image struck me and I realize that indeed I am on the path to Bethlehem.  This journey is the most important journey that I take.  Along the way I find others who are also on the same journey and together we can praise God who came to us to show us the way.

When we tell the story of Jesus’ birth, we need to remember not just the cute manger scene but the circumstances of the time.  Mary and Joseph forced to leave their homes to be registered by the Imperial Rome so that they could collect taxes. Their traveling in the last months of Mary’s pregnancy.  The hardship that they endured forced onto them by a government that was more concerned about what they were able to collect than in the people that they oppressed.

Upon their arrival, there was no where for them to reside.  Homeless and about ready to deliver the child, our Savior.  Can we even imagine the extent of the poverty to which Jesus was born?  Yet, many in the world experience the same poverty, lack of shelter, lack of food, born in environments filthy, crowded, where diseases are rampant.  Not the sterile environment of a hospital.  No wonder so many children died within the first five years of their life.

It is this very world that God came.  Not the palaces, not the temples, not the merchants homes, but in a stable.  This is where we go to worship our Savior.  This Christmas may be a time to remember the story and to reflect on our journey to Bethlehem.  We can celebrate with family and friends, but I pray that we remember the world where too many people experience the same environment that God choose to come to us.