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.
Leonie Quayle discovers an unexpectedly beautiful deeper meaning behind one of her favourite Christmas carols.
Leonie Quayle is a Community Development professional, passionate about justice and the local Church, currently working for Hillsong Aid and Development Australia.
Today's reading is Isaiah 61:1-2
I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but for many years I pretty much ignored Christmas carols. Each year I would hear the familiar melodies and just tune out.
In recent years though, I'm glad to say that I’ve been paying more attention. I’ve discovered anew how beautiful it is to hear through music the different perspectives on Christ’s arrival; some familiar, some unexpected. And I’ve got a personal favourite that resonates deeply with me as it celebrates the night when a different kind of King entered our world:
Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and His gospel is peace
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His name all oppression shall cease
For years I’d sung O Holy Night, knowing the story of Christmas was the gift of our Saviour. But it took time before I could personally identify with the slave and with God’s agenda of ending oppression.
In today’s reading, Isaiah prophetically announces the mission of the promised and long-awaited King. It is a passage that Jesus later quotes when He declares his mission to “bring good news to the oppressed” (Luke 4). Undoubtedly it was this declaration that a French poet used to guide his penning of O Holy Night in 1847, originally commissioned by a local priest for a Christmas mass. The Catholic church banned the carol because of the author’s political alliance, and the composer’s Jewish heritage, however, people kept singing it. The song was later used in the abolitionist movement and is said to have caused a temporary ceasefire in the midst of World War I (Google it!). This carol speaks of a story far beyond a single event in Bethlehem. It speaks of a kingdom of love and peace that has powerful and tangible social consequences.
King Jesus came into the world as a vulnerable newborn. He told stories that infuriated the religious and made the powerful uncomfortable. He washed His disciple's feet and prioritised outcasts. He humbled himself, even to death on a Roman cross, giving us the ultimate image of non-violent beauty in response to the dominating and forceful way of the empire. Jesus modelled a revolutionary and transforming kind of kingdom and as He was sent, so are we. We are instructed to pray His kingdom into reality on earth and commissioned to follow Him in bringing it about.
In this kingdom, everyone is treated as having been made in the image of God. Through Jesus, relationships between man and woman and all of creation are reconciled, ending oppression and establishing justice. Those who were once slaves become family, and to a weary world Jesus announces profoundly Good News for the oppressed.
Truly it was a divine and holy night that saw the arrival of this King of kings. Singing about this at Christmas fills me with reverence and anticipation that those who mourn will be comforted, ruins will be rebuilt, and the Lord who loves justice will cause righteousness to bloom and praise to rise.
61 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
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.