Advent and Christmas are fast approaching. We have just had Christ the King Sunday. All too quickly though we forget Christ as King, not just of us but of all peoples and all that was made, as we jump into Advent services, nativity services and encouraging folk to remember the reason for the season. Christ suddenly is reduced in size again to a baby and we oscillate between the wonder of Christ coming to dwell among us at all and a baby who is smaller than us and so is manageable and pliable to our understanding and liking.
I was struck listening to a podcast this week on reading aloud with your children and a line in it was that this season of advent and Christmas is not simply about making great memories for our families but also about being present in the here and now. For us our here and now is that Christ is King, He is risen indeed and at the same time we celebrate His birth in this season. With the gift of knowing the life of Christ, of knowing that He is reigning on high may that stir us up, to use a phrase from last Sunday at church, to look with fresh eyes and heart on all that we are doing during Advent and Christmas as we celebrate the dwelling among us of Christ. May it enlarge our vision of the nativity story beyond something engaging for children and family services and the expected thing to do.
And to complete that enlarging of our vision may we also sit with John 1 and Genesis, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.’ (NIV) Jesus’ dwelling among us comes with Him having been with God in the beginning and is followed by His resurrection and ruling as King of all Kings to this day.
What richer words to sit with and steady our hearts and minds for this season, that can seem to take on a life of its own, than to read and pray through each day Philippians 2:5-11 (NIV)
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
So let us pray that we do not diminish the One whose birth we celebrate by reducing our worship to one who is smaller than us. Let us expand our worship and expectation of God this Christmas to the One who was and is and is to come. Forever and ever. Amen.
Joshua's Tree Rooted 