Christmas Message, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
Christmas 2007
Eyes to see
Finding Immanuel as immigrant, wanderer, child
In what form will you find the Christ child this year? The fact of the Incarnation in a weak and helpless babe says something significant about where we focus our search. I am convinced that it is part of our call to exercise a "preferential option" on behalf of the poor, weak, sick, and marginalized. The long arc of biblical thinking and theologizing has to do with seeing God's care for those who have no other helper. Indeed, Jesus is understood as that helper for all who fail, by the world's terms, to save themselves. More accurately, we understand that Jesus is that helper for all.
One of the great gifts of the way in which those in our cultural surroundings celebrate Christmas is the focus on children and on those who have few human helpers. We delight in the wonder of children as Christmas approaches, and many of us make an extra effort to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and care for the needy. The challenge is to let our seasonal "seeing" transform the way we meet our neighbors through the rest of the year, and through all the coming years. How might we begin to see that child in those around us: strangers and aliens (both Immanuel and Immigrants); wanderers (Homeless, like Mary and Joseph, for whom there was no room); widows and orphans (Social Outcasts); babe born in Bethlehem (Palestinian and Israeli alike; or the boy babies whom both Pharaoh and Herod sought to kill); divine feeder of thousands (Soup Kitchen worker); and savior of the world (Peacemaker, Bringer of Justice for All, Reconciler, Just and Gracious Lawgiver...). If God comes among us as a helpless child, then the divine presence is truly all around us. Where will you meet Jesus this Christmas?
1 comments:
I've met Jesus in the fingers of a street chap who played our piano in the Parish Hall for some time. He was so talented! He hadn't played in years and was drinking coffee to warm. I knew him from the neighborhood. He now has one leg from the diabetes gone wrong, so I only see him when he is in the hospital. Then there is the chap who comes everyday to see if we need anything done and to be sure all is well around here. He serves. Today he was a carpenter for a door that was loose on a hinge. He fixed it and laughed when we decided to wait until spring to open the front door to do repairs. He is the neighborhood carpenter.
Perhaps Jesus is faceless and waits for his Spirit to move us. Perhaps he is quiet waiting for us to ask him in....into our hearts, into Church for breakfast or coffee. Perhaps he needs a pillow to appear on the first pew as he sleeps in our Nave in peace. Perhaps he comes in the face of the man who turns fresh deer hit on the highways into meat for pantry's in the northern part of our state and many others. He feeds the flocks. Maybe he is in the form of the kids sorting tons of potatoes that go to those who come to pick them up...free for the giving. Free will? Perhaps he is in the mirror waiting for me to go forth into the world in peace...to love and serve!
Peace be with you.
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