God must be ending something we did wrong to begin what he intends to be right and well for us.
Christmas is not about wishing on a star, whether it be rising or falling…. That should not be the way to celebrate or anticipate Christmas at Advent. We go instead through a liturgical routine of Advent-Christmas preparations, reading the scriptures about God’s promise to restore his people in the saving work of Christ and to expect renewal or change in lives and life situations.
The popular verses like Isaiah 9.1-6 tells of God’s gracious providence of a savior-child and the Almighty’s actions to change reigning darkness with his light. This part tells of uplifting the land of Zebulon and Naphtali or the so-called Galilee of the Gentiles–the northern portion of Palestine/Canaan, restoring them with God’s child of promise for his people.
This morning I contrasted this with a prophetic verse about the southern territory where the prophet Jeremiah (22.11-30) depicts Judah’s defeat and its kings and their courts carried off to a foreign country. The popular verse in Isaiah above is about a promised royal child and restoration from a past devastation that left the nation under foreign rule. The other is about judgment call on abusive kings who misled the nation to go against God:
“For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum son of King Josiah of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah, and who went away from this place: He shall return here no more, but in the place where they have carried him captive he shall die, and he shall never see this land again.
“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,
and his upper rooms by injustice;
who makes his neighbors work for nothing,
and does not give them their wages….” (Jer.22.11-13)
We also live in economic conditions where political corruption over public funds are widespread; and wages if there is work are controlled more exactly among the poor laborers, and it can barely buy needs in life while the high and mighty enjoy to operate businesses with growing profits. Business brags even with the nation’s growing GDP indices. Yet they propagate low-wage levels to keep an economy that is skewed against grassroots people.
Imagine the prophets speak for the benefit of ordinary folks over powerful kings. And even Mary sings:
“His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.” (Lk.1.50-53)
Is sinfulness of the leadership demonstrated by indifference to the lives and well being of ordinary folks suffering a long standing economic dilemma that render them vulnerable to deprivation, bodily hazards, and death, among other things? Is this not a crucial point for social reform in our country. Rulers of Judah were guilty of building grand homes while the people lived in grinding poverty. War and its ravaging conditions and its catastrophic consequences in defeat is just one picture of devastation in the Bible. Famine, disease, lack of food, destroyed homes, and deaths among family members are pictures that follow disaster and war.
The Prophet Joel (2.1-3) tells one story of the calamity wrought by the pestering dark sky of locusts. Imagine the devastation that hunger for lack of food with greens consumed by a devouring millions of locusts, grinding agricultural production to a halt, and placing the nation’s future in distress.
So we had hunger, we had earthquakes, typhoons, and even freaking violence in Zamboanga destroy communities and their means of livelihood. We recall the storm that destroyed telecom and power lines in Nueva Ecija, Aurora, and its nearby localities. We recall destroyed buildings and homes in the Visayas due to the earthquake and the super typhoon that came one after the other.
And many asks the Lord, “Why?” “What next?” “When will we have a respite from calamities and disasters?” There are those who freak you out with words about an impending ultimate end, like there will be no tomorrow.
Yes, even God’s people live through calamities. There were catastrophes that struck Christians in Macedonia and Jerusalem on separate occasions in the New Testament. And Paul once said, “…Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom.14.8 ). But we are NOT told to worry about the end but to WORK in God’s continuing grace in all conditions of life in the world.
Restoration is the story of Advent and Christmas messages in the scriptures we cherish. It tells about rising again despite tragic circumstances. It is about being lifted up by the Lord, above even the mighty and the powerful, above the privileged and affluent, a reversal of status that comes with God’s justice and mercy.
The Christ-child is to be born not on December 25, but in hearts and minds that nurture the faith in God who gives and promises life and salvation with justice and compassion. It’s not about a wish but faith in God’s plan. If you see a star, let its brightness symbolize God’s light breaking through the darkness. And remember the Christ-child Jesus breaks into our lives. (a message at Advent watch ~ S. J. Earl Canlas)
easylynksfilesearl1901 