Is 52:7-10
Heb 1:1-6
Jn 1:18 or 1:1-5, 9-14.

Advent Tools and Christmas Light
This week I was torn between writing something for the 4th Sunday of Advent and Christmas which was anywhere between eight to twenty-four hours later…depending on when you go to church. On the one hand I think for many people, or at least myself, are so busy, that Advent asks us to do that thing we most need to do – Be. On the other hand, today’s news is often about what is not good about our world and we desperately need to hear “Good News.”

Perhaps the 4th Sunday of Advent and the readings of Christmas so close together invite us to bring together the blessings of both. In the first reading from Isaiah, it talks about the blessed one who brings glad tidings and announces salvation to Zion I ask myself, “What is the glad tiding that I bring to today’s world?” “What does salvation look like?” My quick answer can be Jesus…however, what are my lived answers to these questions?

What do my actions and reactions say to others, especially at times when I am struggling with a grudge or frustrated with a co-worker or spouse? It is here in the in between that I so desperately need the wisdom of Advent waiting and listening. From the various Christmas gospels, I have chosen Christmas morning, John 1: 1-18 the first part of the gospel says:

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

After my listening and waiting, the message of this Christmas gospel talks about the power of the Word becoming flesh. This powerful Word of God who brought light into our darkness invites us to do the same in today’s world. This Word invites me to bring this light daily into my comings and goings. I think that the Christmas message cannot be lived on a daily basis without the Advent disciplines of waiting and listening. Let us move into this season of joy supported by the gifts of Advent and the light of Christmas.