Christmas is Here Again!
~Luke 2:14~
Merry Christmas!
On the first Christmas, a group of angels appeared to a group of shepherds outside a small village, in a country under occupation and oppression by a superpower, and announced the birth of Jesus as “Good News”, proclaiming:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”Luke 2:14
But have you ever wondered whether our world could ever be at peace one day? Be it in families, communities, or nations, the absence of peace bothers us all. Christmas seems to come with that promise every year.
As we celebrate Christmas this year, for most of us, it remains a season of holidays and merry-making with family. Traditionally, that includes visiting our local church or village church on Christmas morning. For some, it’s a timely break to find serenity and rest from the chaos and confusion of this world before the New Year arrives with its demands of us. To a large extent, this is routine. We have been here before. Yet we remain restless and without peace.
The American Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr once argued that peace is not the absence of war or trouble, but the presence of justice, law and order – in short, of government. In other words, a good and righteous government provides the presence of justice, law, and order. If this could happen, a semblance of the Biblical idea of Shalom can be glimpsed. But in our broken and chaotic world, all human institutions are broken and imperfect, leaving such an existence a utopian dream: unimaginable, to say the least. But why so? Is it because we are just randomly roaming around and selfishly bumping into each other like atoms?
” … peace is not the absence of war or trouble, but the presence of justice, law and order – in short, of government. ” ~Martin Luther King Jr~
Is it us, or the World we Live in?
In Uganda, for example, we know that amidst this merry-making, some families will be without their loved ones because their children were badly burned in a firey attack on their school, tourists were murdered whilst on honeymoon, and hundreds perished in road accidents (a friend of mine, Moses, survived one in March); thousands were lost to Malaria and other treatable diseases, again. Sadly, we also lost hundreds of brothers and sisters to hunger in Karamoja, again. Mothers have died in labor, again! Expired drugs and medicines have been destroyed, again! Our potholes have multiplied and grown into canyons, private and public corruption is at an historic high, and rampant moral decadence is the norm. Rape, murder, and domestic violence continues to plague our society. Floods! Scandals, Scandals, Scandals! And many Ugandans go missing, again, some unaccounted for. Where is the peace?
At a global level, in this year, the world has witnessed the devastation of the continuing war in Ukraine. Climate Change has unleashed disasters in Haiti, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia, while displacements have pushed the Congo and Afghanistan deeper into poverty. Hurricanes have flooded America, Morocco, Libya, Greece, and China, while earthquakes have devastated area in Turkey and elsewhere around the globe. No single corner of the world has been spared. And most recently, the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has claimed close to 20,000 humans in just the past few months. Sadly, a lot of these Gazans are helpless, vulnerable kids. Where is peace in this world?
But Will another Christmas make any difference?
Indeed, as night follows day, Christmas is here again! We know that only a fool keeps doing the same thing, expecting a different outcome. One might even wonder if God isn’t being foolish to allow us another routine Christmas Season again. Maybe. But if not, what will be different about how we live as individuals, as a nation, and as a global human community after this Christmas? Will our lives have found peace? Indeed, the story is the same: the same baby Jesus, the same Mary and Joseph, the same wise men from the East, the same King Herod – and in some churches, the same characters for the nativity sketch.
Yet, like every year, we again get another break from our daily schedules and duties because of the story of Christmas. Once again, this story inevitably directs our attention back to the tiny Middle Eastern town of Bethlehem, just a few miles south of Jerusalem. And currently, because of conflict, this region is soaked in the blood of its children. We pray for peace. The “first Christmas” in the year 1 AD was a local story in this same region, and because of the politics of the time, the blood of its infants was shed by the government of an oppressive, deeply flawed King, Herod. Twenty centuries and two decades later, it is a global story repeated. Its purpose then, to the first century AD local community is the same today to all across this broken and bleeding global community.
But is there hope for peace? And does Christmas bring Shalom into our world today? Surely, there is hope. But unfortunately, not in the many possible, popular, or powerful ways of our imaginations. So, when we have exhausted all our imaginative efforts and resources to create a semblance of peace, which at best can only offer us temporary relief, individuals, nations, and all humanity are invited to revisit the Christmas story to find the path to a better and eternal peace. But this year, we must look with more intent because there is more. So much more.
The Tension
It’s another Christmas in a world drowning in terror, violence, disasters, injustices, poverty, disease, bloodshed, and famine, and together as humanity, we are weary and gasping for peace. Regarding our desire and pursuit of peace and justice, we all seem to agree that there should be someone or an authority to establish it. But what we may not agree upon is who that authority should be. Is it governments, or as the angels proclaim to the shepherds, is it the baby Jesus?
When governments sit down to discuss peace and justice in boardrooms and conference halls far detached from the real chaos and pain of the downtrodden, they will sign peace agreements in one room and endorse war and nuclear weapons deals in another. An approach that neither achieves peace for all nor for anyone. Those boardrooms are filled an illusory ambiance of peace, but no real peace comes out of them.
“It’s another Christmas in a world drowning in terror, violence, disasters, injustices, poverty, disease, bloodshed, and famine, ….. and together as humanity, we are weary and gasping for peace.”
But, when Heaven speaks peace unto the earth, God speaks into our world Immanuel, God with us, Christ Jesus, the baby born at Christmas. In Him, God comes to dwell fully with and in the beaten, personally experiencing wounding and brokenness, yet bringing healing and redemption, making reconciliation possible between man and God and between man and fellow man. God Himself is our Peace: peace between Himself and and each person who receives Him, making possible harmony in all of humanity, radiating His peace, true peace, into all creation. Peace for all – Shalom. As Jesus said to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.” John 14:27
We are then faced with a choice on how we respond to the Christmas story this year. We can either get lost in the routine of merry making as always comes with festivities. But shall we continue to look to frail human governments to bring us peace? Or shall we turn to Christ who offers us a different, better, and eternal peace? So that when the Christmas break is done, and we are returning to our labors in family, society, and nations, even though under our governments that cannot guarantee peace, we will come from a place of shalom in Christ that transcends the circumstances and understanding of our world. Hence breaking the cycle.
“Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,”
It was amidst a people whose hopes for shalom were growing dim like ours today, that the prophet Isaiah proclaimed with confidence;
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Isaiah 9:6-7
So, will our world ever know true peace?
Well, that’s the announcement that the angels make about baby Jesus’ birth, whom we stop to celebrate every Christmas. Unlike us, who are gripped by the unfortunate delight in an annual routine that we hardly care what difference it ought to make, Christmas is not God’s yearly way of foolishly doing the same thing repeatedly yet expecting different outcomes. Instead, Christmas is His intentional and gracious reminder to all humanity that He, the creator of the universe, has provided the Way into His presence, His peace, justice, law and order – a Government and Shalom without end. Immanuel – God Himself with us in the baby Jesus, a thrill of hope, in Whom a weary world rejoices.
Merry Christmas and Happy & Blessed New Year 2024
to you and all your beloved.
~ Raymond L. Bukenya ~
Speaker & Director Tru Tangazo Uganda