Advent, Christmas and New Years!

“Raise your voice… raise it; don’t be afraid!” - Isaiah 40:9

 

The history of humanity is fraught with pain–especially the pain that comes accompanied by fear and leads to oppression and violence of one people against another. This is the world into which Jesus was born and through which his teachings would challenge and call for transformation. The opening words of an anonymous Jewish poet, “I believe in the sun, even when the sun is not shining,” were scrawled on a wall during the Holocaust. This theme song for our season calls us to examine our penchant for annihilating fear by annihilating each other. The power of narrative and music will call us to a different response–transformation and reconciliation through hope, peace, joy, and love. This Advent and Christmas, let us prepare for the birth of the Christ child with music and light and affirm and act on the reasons why we can still “believe, even when” we are discouraged.