Advent is a time of waiting and a time of preparation during the Christmas season. Like the Jews, we long for the coming of the Messiah; (Gk: Christos) and we find it in the birth of a tiny baby on Christmas day.
The Christmas story is full of surprises, I am sure when Mary and Joseph started out for Bethlehem they expected that they would find lodging with one of their relatives.
But it turns out there wasn’t even room at the inns in town, so I’m guessing the relatives were filled to the rafters. Finally, they find room in a stable. And that is when things really begin to happen. A baby is born, shepherds stop by to visit, angels start singing and the light from the star floods the whole town.
Luke 4:16-21 (NIV)
16 Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day
he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.
He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set free the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
What Happens after Christmas
There is a lot of conjecture about Jesus’ life as he grew up in Nazareth. We know Joseph was a carpenter and that most likely all his sons trained as carpenters and helped him in the family trade.
We have a few stories in the New Testament; one about his family’s flight to Egypt just before King Herod orders the death of male babies under the age of two in Bethlehem in Matt 2:13-23). After Herod dies, the family returns to their home in Nazareth.
We have a story about Jesus as a boy staying behind in the Temple in Jerusalem after the Passover Festival. (Luke 2:41-52).
But Jesus’ life is a bit of a mystery, until he is baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.
The Christmas story is full of surprises, I am sure when Mary and Joseph started out for Bethlehem they expected that they would find lodging with one of their relatives.
But it turns out there wasn’t even room at the inns in town, so I’m guessing the relatives were filled to the rafters. Finally, they find room in a stable. And that is when things really begin to happen. A baby is born, shepherds stop by to visit, angels start singing and the light from the star floods the whole town.
Luke 4:16-21 (NIV)
16 Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day
he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.
He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set free the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
What Happens after Christmas
There is a lot of conjecture about Jesus’ life as he grew up in Nazareth. We know Joseph was a carpenter and that most likely all his sons trained as carpenters and helped him in the family trade.
We have a few stories in the New Testament; one about his family’s flight to Egypt just before King Herod orders the death of male babies under the age of two in Bethlehem in Matt 2:13-23). After Herod dies, the family returns to their home in Nazareth.
We have a story about Jesus as a boy staying behind in the Temple in Jerusalem after the Passover Festival. (Luke 2:41-52).
But Jesus’ life is a bit of a mystery, until he is baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.
Now Jesus is revealed to us through stories about Jesus and stories that Jesus told, as well as prophecies, prayers and commandments. All we really have about Jesus are in those four gospels in the New Testament; but those four books are so rich in treasures that we have been telling these stories for two thousand years.
When the New Testament was canonized around 390 CE, there were a number of gospels in circulation at that time: some have been lost and we only know of them from references in other literature, but some were found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. One way to think about the texts that were rejected (declared heretical) is that the Church fathers at the time thought that they got in the way of the Jesus story. The New Testament, as we have it today, are texts created by communities that sought to call people to conversion, to a way of life that was defined by Jesus, the disciples and Paul. Those communities who followed Jesus and The Way were later called Christians. We are in the tradition of those people.
Something to Think About
There are so many stories about Jesus, which one (or more) are your favourites? Think about that story, when in your life has it been important.
During Advent we are always waiting, anticipating the birth of Jesus. Then, when Christmas arrives, we celebrate: the birth of a baby, presents, Christmas trees, lights, family and friends, a feast but the birth of this baby really embodies the image that here we have Incarnation of God in human form, Immanuel: God with us. And this Immanuel, this Messiah, is now at the beginning of the journey that moves toward Lent and the crucifixion and Easter. How do you see this connection between Christmas and Easter?
Something to Think About
There are so many stories about Jesus, which one (or more) are your favourites? Think about that story, when in your life has it been important.
During Advent we are always waiting, anticipating the birth of Jesus. Then, when Christmas arrives, we celebrate: the birth of a baby, presents, Christmas trees, lights, family and friends, a feast but the birth of this baby really embodies the image that here we have Incarnation of God in human form, Immanuel: God with us. And this Immanuel, this Messiah, is now at the beginning of the journey that moves toward Lent and the crucifixion and Easter. How do you see this connection between Christmas and Easter?
