Wondrous … special … magical …

Dark … depressing … difficult …

However you may view the Christmas season this year   Um, no …

The coincidental timing of rereading The Spirituality of Imperfection during the holiday season this year has me thinking   Still no …

Yes, my muse stalled and sputtered in trying to craft a Christmas message this year. I suppose I could chalk it up to the infamous “writer’s block,” but I know it’s actually because when the heart feels hollow, words float up from the imagination at the speed of a snail emerging from its shell.

Thankfully Mr. Jim Wallis apparently didn’t find himself waiting for any snails when penning his latest column, which appeared in the December 2019 issue of Sojourners magazine, where he shared a message that stirred hope in my heart, even as it also challenged me. So I’ll share a bit of his dispatch here:

It’s deeply important that we understand the radical meaning of Jesus’ birth as an event destined … to radically transform the earth with the kingdom of God. From the beginning, the promise of good news for the poor and liberation for the oppressed defined the Incarnation. “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:52-53), said Mary, the mother of Jesus, who seemed to best understand the meaning of his coming. This is the Jesus who began his public ministry by quoting the prophet Isaiah, saying “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). This is nothing less than a manifesto for turning society and the world upside down.…

This [Christmas season], we need to prepare for the Jesus who taught us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves—and remember that our neighbor is the one who is different from us.

And so, this Christmas and always, I pray that we would see ourselves and everyone else in the same way that Jesus spoke of: as being worthy and deserving of love, no matter what. No. Matter. What. The kind of love that will indeed turn society and the world upside down for the peace and good of all …

jdk