Seventeen.
Coming to terms.
My awareness of the pain of the world makes it tough for me to celebrate Christmas. This year, amidst Christmas glitter, my feelings clash with the knowledge that Vietnamese pastors are being persecuted, that the people of Bethlehem suffer occupation, that mutilated bodies are being pulled from the Opon in Colombia, that occupation soldiers are raiding Iraqi communities and terrifying children.
But I was blessed with a new insight this year as I walked through our live nativity. This year I'm beginning to grasp that Mary's delivery was not blessedly comfortable, that angels sang to the poorest of the poor without feeding them, and that almost certainly the wise men journeyed away before understanding God's saving message delivered through the Christ child. I'm glimpsing that the coming of Christ doesn't answer all our earthly "whys?" or fix our problems.
The Christmas story illustrates that our work for peace isn't going to have a flashy and fast resolution with no ghastly side effects. Rather, in the midst of our peace work, we're often confused and always without painless answers. Our decision can be to patiently nurture the baby's growth and protect the infant as God suggests in the mystery of dream. At the same time that we cry out for justice in the name of murdered infants, we realize that peacemaking is a choice and some people choose against it. Thus, we will never have an answer that makes the world cozy and rosy and safe for all. We will only have the living presence of the babe grown to manhood and crucified because the powerful chose against his vision. In the dark despair of questions with no simple solutions, we are given shining radiance-surety that death is not the last word. This knowledge is our joy to world.
~Susan Mark Landes
Coming to terms.
My awareness of the pain of the world makes it tough for me to celebrate Christmas. This year, amidst Christmas glitter, my feelings clash with the knowledge that Vietnamese pastors are being persecuted, that the people of Bethlehem suffer occupation, that mutilated bodies are being pulled from the Opon in Colombia, that occupation soldiers are raiding Iraqi communities and terrifying children.
But I was blessed with a new insight this year as I walked through our live nativity. This year I'm beginning to grasp that Mary's delivery was not blessedly comfortable, that angels sang to the poorest of the poor without feeding them, and that almost certainly the wise men journeyed away before understanding God's saving message delivered through the Christ child. I'm glimpsing that the coming of Christ doesn't answer all our earthly "whys?" or fix our problems.
The Christmas story illustrates that our work for peace isn't going to have a flashy and fast resolution with no ghastly side effects. Rather, in the midst of our peace work, we're often confused and always without painless answers. Our decision can be to patiently nurture the baby's growth and protect the infant as God suggests in the mystery of dream. At the same time that we cry out for justice in the name of murdered infants, we realize that peacemaking is a choice and some people choose against it. Thus, we will never have an answer that makes the world cozy and rosy and safe for all. We will only have the living presence of the babe grown to manhood and crucified because the powerful chose against his vision. In the dark despair of questions with no simple solutions, we are given shining radiance-surety that death is not the last word. This knowledge is our joy to world.
~Susan Mark Landes
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