A Beautiful Interruption
Dr Kate Harrison Brennan launches our Advent series with a reflection on Christ interrupting our world in a beautiful, political and dramatic way.
Gershon Nimbalker finds in the birth of Jesus an unexpected revolution of solidarity, sacrifice and vulnerability, and challenges us to go and do likewise.
Gershon Nimbalker is the Advocacy Manager at Baptist World Aid Australia.
Today's reading is Luke 2:21-24
I had just walked out of a meeting with one of Australia’s largest fashion retailers. We had been sparring about exploitation in their supply chains – my team had been pushing them to do more, they had felt they were doing more than enough. After all, how much effort can a company be expected to put in to ensure that the stuff they sell isn’t made by slaves, children or the otherwise exploited?
I walked back onto the main street to find the Christmas frenzy in full swing. Shoppers were scurrying in and out of stores, their bags bulging with gifts. The street was lavishly adorned; lights, trees, baubles. It was indeed beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and consumerism was thick in the air.
My ‘grinchiness’ was rising rapidly. And then... it spiked off the chart.
There, in the outlet window of the very retailer I had just heard justifying their business’s implicit reliance on exploited workers, was a nativity scene. How had Christ, the saviour of the world, the bringer of good news to the poor and vulnerable, been co-opted so? Here He was not just a sanitised onlooker to this excess of damaging consumerism, but somehow twisted into the very reason for it.
Today’s reading reminds me that my shop window encounter with ‘Jesus’ is far from the first time He had turned up in unexpected places in unexpected ways.
The Israelites were expecting their Lord to arrive in fire and fury. His chariots as terrible as the whirlwind, He would bring judgement to their enemies, and restoration for His people.
But Luke reminds us that the God of the Universe, snuck into the world as a baby, born into a poor Israelite family. As was expected of Hebrew children, Jesus was circumcised on the 8th day and underwent the purification rites on the 40th. Joseph and Mary could only afford the sacrifices allotted to the poor of Israel, not the lambs that that were assumed by custom, but the ‘two doves or pigeons’ that were appropriate for the poor.
It’s perplexing that this is how God chose to become man. Not arriving with power and privilege, but coming to us in vulnerability and poverty. There is indeed profound and unexpected beauty in this moment. It becomes a hallmark of the revolution that Jesus initiates. A revolution, unlike those that had come before and since. It was not one of coercive force and violence, it was a revolution shaped by solidarity, sacrifice and vulnerability. To change the world, it would seem, humanity would need to change, not by forcing their hand, but by changing their heart.
I’ve had time to reflect on my encounter with the ‘storefront Jesus’. While I still think it’s an icon of how much our culture has been able to mangle the Jesus story, on reflection, it’s also become a symbol of unexpected hope.
Culturally, I think we’re most of the way towards getting the zeal for Christmas correct, we’ve just directed it in the wrong way. What if we could change that? What if our Christmas iconography, rather than endorsing our consumer shaped culture, became a reminder that the world is in desperate need of change?
Just as Christ reshaped what it meant to be a Messiah for Israel, what if we could help reshape what Christ means for our culture. What if the Church, and what if we, could show that this whole Christmas thing, is where the revolution began. A revolution of solidarity, sacrifice and vulnerability. A revolution of love.
And for me, this Christmas, there is profound and unexpected beauty in that hope.
Jesus Is Named
21 After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Jesus Is Presented in the Temple
22 When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), 24 and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
Dr Kate Harrison Brennan launches our Advent series with a reflection on Christ interrupting our world in a beautiful, political and dramatic way.
Andy Abey remembers her time in Bethlehem visiting the Church of the Nativity, and reflects on the humility of Jesus' arrival.
Jessica Smith resonates with Isaiah's longing for an answer when God seems so far away, so absent – and finds a beautiful answer in Christ.
Greg Clarke, CEO of Bible Society, is re-learning to anticipate this season from an unexpected teacher – his a four year-old child.
Eliza Spencer rediscovers through Ezekiel the road to a new spirit, a new heart – replacing a heart of stone for one of justice and hope.
Dave Hack leaves behind the city lights of Perth for a week on the rough ocean, where he finds hope and peace in unexpected places.
Rev Philemon Akao from Solomon Islands shares about how fire across Melanesia draws us together, and sends us out.
Leonie Quayle discovers an unexpectedly beautiful deeper meaning behind one of her favourite Christmas carols.
For Brooke Prentis the unexpected beauty of the Grasstree symbolises the versatility, strength, and longevity of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian leaders.
Steve Bevis reflects on what he's learnt from the young Aboriginal people in Alice Springs who gather together at 'The Meeting Place'.
Melinda Dwight remembers her trip to Israel with leaders from many denominations, and invites us to lower our walls and set longer tables to share with many.
Three years ago Louisa Hope survived the Sydney Siege. Today she shares her story of faith, hope, reconciliation to help heal the divides in our country.
Tim Middlemiss reflects on the joy of becoming a new dad, and invites us to set our hearts on the future hope promised in Malachi.
Dr Robyn Wrigley-Carr reimagines Zechariah's silence as an unexpected gift, creating space hold the wonder of what God was doing through their family.
Dr Ross Clifford invites us to open our eyes this season to God's supernatural movements, and to the angelic encounters around us that herald God's goodness.
Wiradjuri man Adam Gowen finds beauty in the unexpected everyday moments where we can be surprised and delighted by God's goodness.
God’s Squad member Steve Barrington invites us to sing with Mary's song of revolution and justice this Advent.
Sister Susan Connelly hears the voice of John the Baptist through a friend, and calls us to the uncomfortable Christianity of the stable and the cross.
Jan Amelink reflects on journeying through a difficult year, yet finding unexpected meaning and hope through it, through the voices of close and faithful friends.
Jon Owen remembers an unexpected Christmas when a pregnant Mary and Joseph showed up at his front door. Literally.
Richard Quadrio went from decades ministering in a church, to serving in the Royal Australian Navy as a Chaplain where he found God in unexpected places.
Gershon Nimbalker finds in the birth of Jesus an unexpected revolution of solidarity, sacrifice and vulnerability, and challenges us to go and do likewise.
Bree Mills finds hope this Advent in the expectation and perseverance of Simeon and Anna as they prophesy over the life of Jesus mending the brokenness of this world.
Nicholas Alexander anticipates the unexpected joy of letting go and letting God being in control.
Scott Sanders closes our Advent series by celebrating the beauty of diversity, and the opportunity for us to draw near to those God's calls us together with in beauty, generosity and justice.