Advent - We Have Found The KingSýnishorn

One Sunday when my son, Andrew, was about 4 years old, he was leaning his head against my shoulder at church. The minister was narrating the events of Good Friday and pronounced, “Jesus was crucified and died.” Andrew sat up with a jerk, turned to me and said in full voice, “Jesus died?” I said, “Yes, shhhh.” He shook his little head and said, “Uh oh. That is not good.” Andrew thought we were in big trouble. Even a child understood that if Christ is not risen, then we are all doomed.

The apostle Paul said that “If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is futile.” If life is only suffering that “ends in a box,” then our hope is an illusion and our joy a self-deception. Christ humbled himself and entered the world through a manger. But this was only the beginning! Thank heaven, we are not in “big trouble!” There is Good News! We have faith in the very thing the Psalmist trusted—that God would not let the “Holy One see decay.” It was my privilege to tell Andrew that Christ is risen! The viciousness of the cross has been overcome by joy.

Several years ago Shawn Shannon gave me a CD for Christmas called “Keeping the Baby Awake.” One of the songs on that album has become my favorite Christmas hymn. The poet, Richard Wilbur, walks us from the manger to the cross and ends with an empty tomb. The last stanza says: “And every stone shall cry in praises of this child, by whose descent among us the worlds are reconciled.”

Christ has reconciled the world to himself and calls us to join this work of reconciliation. He did not give the order to abandon ship or to shelter in place! Instead, Jesus calls us to brave a dangerous world with a message of good news for the poor, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed. He calls us to silence viciousness with love and to quiet cruelty with hope.

Another of my favorite hymns says it this way: “This is my Father’s world: the battle is not won. Jesus who died shall be satisfied. And Earth and Heav’n be one.” Christmas is only the beginning!

Dr. Carol Crawford Holcomb, Professor of Christian Studies