The snow began falling Saturday evening and didn’t stop until late Sunday morning. As dawn broke, a Christ Church winter wonderland emerged. While snowflakes drifted down in the soft light, the trees, grounds and church looked otherworldly in their snowy mantles. I stepped out and took a deep breath. In the quiet of an early Sunday morning, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace.

All the regular church services took place as normal. I made my way to the 8:00 am Rite I Eucharist. Snow had not deterred the hardy ones - ten congregants, all sitting in their usual seats, as the Rector noted. That day we were the “little flock” that Jesus describes. Additional attendance at the 9:00 am and 10:30 am was also much reduced. Did this mean that our Saturday 5:00 pm Eucharist service was the most popular of the weekend? Almost - it missed by two.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, news was coming in of a terrible atrocity. At the start of Hanukkah, fifteen Jews were murdered by Muslim gunmen at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia. This was one of the worst attacks against Jews in recent times. Throughout the western world, anti-semitism - one of the world’s oldest hatreds - is flourishing once again. It is always a symptom of a country in moral decline, a wake-up call to a society that has failed to learn the lessons of history.

“Keep awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (Matthew 25:13). Jesus reminds us to keep awake: our wakefulness must be both courageous and watchful. I try to take Jesus’ advice to heart, and live as though his return were imminent. In practice that means faithful attendance at church and praying for others and myself. 

In Advent we are waiting for the second coming of Jesus. The day of judgement may be just around the corner, and therefore each person should take time to put their house in order. Why do we keep going wrong? The drift into indifference and hatred occurs when we are no longer vigilant, but hope instead that things will get better by themselves. One of the perennial human failings is to allow casual hatred, like anti-semitism, to grow unchallenged. The doors of God’s kingdom will be closed to us if we do nothing about it. 

Because we are lost, God gives us a shining star to guide our way. We lift our eyes heavenwards to follow it to the place of our new beginning, to the stable in Bethlehem. This is the paradox of Advent, which prepares us for the end by bringing us to the beginning. This beginning is the birth of the vulnerable and defenseless baby who needs human love to sustain it. This is Jesus Christ, the revelation of God, who died on the cross, still vulnerable and defenseless. Beside the creche and at the foot of the cross a lesson for humanity has been given. The heart of this message is love. No one can understand the full meaning of love without visiting both creche and cross. 

As Christmas approaches, there is once more an opportunity to enter the story of salvation and receive the light of Christ into your life. God offers you a way to the kingdom of heaven. Are you willing to follow Jesus and enter into this new life of love?

Father David