12/25/2020
A word from a union of respected elders of the Church of Christ meeting at The Maple House.
In the Spirit of the Lord, they speak:
"The people living in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.... For to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on His shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end..”
We live in a world that is dark, it is filled with both evil and ignorance. It is a world with much violence, injustice, hunger, disease, refugees, corruption and death. In many ways the wealth and stability of our nation, families and even individual lives kept these realities on the back-burner for most of us. But the events of the past year should have shaken us out of any slumber in which have been living. Yet people keep looking in the wrong places for the solutions to what ails us people, communities, as a nation.
We think if our guy/gal wins an election we can MAGA or Build Back Better, and then there will be justice, economic success and peace in the land. We look to “science” and its practitioners and elevate it/them as if here we can find the solutions to the darkness. The western culture lives as those science/scientists are infallible and free from human corruption and manipulation. Things are dark but we believe we can end the darkness with intellect and innovation. We look to ourselves and somehow believe we have the light within us to dispel the darkness of the world.
But yet at Christmas as we gather exchange gifts, feast and celebrate what has become a very cultural holiday we need to remember, to know, to celebrate, to proclaim the One who was born into this world to bring light, beauty, truth and life. Only in Him is there life (not just some sort of ethereal, sometime in future existence) but life now as He created us to live. Only in Him is can we see the world in truth and only in Him do we find true joy no matter the circumstances of our own lives.
Only when people acknowledge Jesus as the true King, the one in which we live and move and have our being, then hearts will be healed, lives transformed, families transformed and then communities transformed. Transformed into what? They become places of healing and justice, where people living the life Christ forms in them die to themselves and seek to brings God’s peace into the lives of all around them. We pray all of our eyes are opened or opened wider to the greatness and glory of the “child who was given unto us”, the child that brings true light into the world and dispels the darkness. And that we all become conformed to His life in a way that we are part of bringing light into our communities. Much grace and peace to all of you,
Greg/Ellen