Signs are all around us.
If you know what you’re looking for, the natural world has a way of showing us what’s going on.
Ants build up their nests before a big downpour.
Plants cup and funnel their leaves to receive the rain.
Wattle trees flower to signal the coming of spring.
Jacarandas flower to signal the end of the school year and the beginning of the holidays.
Christmas is about the coming of Jesus, whom Christians believe to be the Saviour of the world.
The Christmas carols we sing speak about peace to the Earth and calm, silent nights, but the reality was far from it.
The world Jesus was born into was tumultuous.
Jesus was born into a community of subjugated people, most of whom were struggling to eke out an existence under highly oppressive circumstances.
The world Jesus was born into was a world of extreme violence by our standards, a world where rebellions were frequent, where slavery was commonplace, where people who disobeyed the law were flogged or executed in public displays of harsh discipline.
And yet, this in this violent, unjust, uncertain world, the signs were ripe for God’s great plan to save the world.
Hundreds of years earlier, the prophet Isaiah was looking ahead to Jesus’ birth: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned… For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.”
God’s message was “Don’t give up, don’t lose hope, I haven’t forgotten you, I haven’t abandoned you … the signs are all there; I’m at work behind the scenes. The time is coming when my plan to save you will be complete.”
I think God’s message for our community is the same now as it was back then.
Many things have changed, but many of the basic issues have remained the same. We live in very uncertain times, too.
Many people are struggling to make ends meet.
People are living from day to day, unsure of their future.
People look at the wider world and see war and political instability.
What are we to make of this all?
Perhaps we can start by recognising that this is a sign that our world still needs help.
The reality is that our world is still broken and hurting.
Our world still needs helping; our world still needs saving.
The mission Jesus began on the first Christmas is still ongoing.
And yet, even in our world, God’s message remains the same: “Don’t give up, don’t lose hope, I haven’t forgotten you, I haven’t abandoned you, I am still with you!”
Isaiah pointed to this also.
Our Saviour, he says, will be called “God with us”.
To me, this is the essence of Christmas.
God has entered into the broken mess that is our world and is with us fixing it up from the inside. Yes. God is with us!
Pastor Matthias Prenzler
St Paul’s Lutheran Church of Shepparton.
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