Christmas is Un-American

The time of Advent offers us both an invitation and a challenge. As Christians, we're invited to recognize and to celebrate that God wants to make our hearts one of the places in which God will find a welcome. And our faith challenges us to live as though we believe that when Christ comes again - either in our celebration of Christmas or at the end of days - he is not coming to a place from which he has been absent.

Most of us are eager to accept this invitation. Many of us will look for time and opportunities to ready ourselves to greet this welcome Guest. As we do, we might begin to see that if we are invited, the Guest's list can't be too exclusive!

And accepting the invitation means taking up the challenge. The Christian life is marked by love in action. This is a delicate balance between time alone in prayer with God that leads us to act, and action that calls us back to deeper talking and listening to God in prayer.

It's become fashionable to criticize the current culture as one which does not support our growing in faith. But if the truth be told, it was never meant to be that way. The call of Christ was not to create a Christian culture, but to create a counter-culture.

In the culture of the new kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed, it wasn't membership in a particular religion or nation that brought about salvation. Rather, it was a heart transformed and renewed by a right relationship. A gift God extends to everyone.

If anything, our experience of modem culture should serve as a reminder of our true identity. As Christians, we know that one day set aside to offer thanks simply will not do. Ours is to be a heart full of gratitude, marked by a lifetime of sharing and giving

We also know that the signs of Christ's coming are not counted by how many shopping days are left until Christmas. Ours is to be a life which shows forth the welcoming and saving grace of a God who comes among us as a non-threatening and helpless infant.

This sort of God needs our hands to reach those whose paths don't set foot near a manger. This sort of God needs our arms to extend welcome to those who have been hurt by self-righteous church-goers. This sort of God needs our hearts to express loving acceptance to those whom society has rejected or thrown away. This sort of God needs our voices to issue the words of forgiveness to those whose fear and failure has caused them to hate and to harm. This sort of God needs our votes to structure a politics of fairness, justice and equity.

Throughout this Advent season we'll hear the words of the prophets from the Hebrew Bible. Each of these texts declares a special word of hope - not a wish - but a confidence in the righteousness of God's way of being and doing. That faith, that way of being and doing, must mark our own Advent journey.

There is no good news except that which we declare in our loving action - action that flows from prayer and action that leads back to prayer. Our clear and compelling declaration of the good news - Christ is a 'borning - can never be heard or seen or felt, unless we make it flesh as invitation and challenge. Come. Lord Jesus.