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A Two-Minute Christmas Message from Bishop Anna Greenwood-Lee

Transcript:

I wonder what you might draw, if I invited you to draw an image of God. You might perhaps be tempted to draw an old man sitting on a throne far away in the sky somewhere. But at Christmas – at Christmas, we’re confronted with an entirely different picture of God. We’re confronted with a God who was not old, but very, very young, and a God who was not far away, but Emmanuel, God with us, born as a baby infant, a brown infant born to poor parents in an occupied territory, a child who was so vulnerable, whose circumstances are so tenuous, that no sooner is he born than he must flee with his parents to Egypt as a refugee. A child who grows up to be an adult who eschews power and privilege and possessions, but instead spends his life on the margins with the poor, the blind, and the lame, bringing healing and compassion and comfort, preaching an alternate kingdom where all are welcome, all are fed, all are nourished, all are loved.

Our God, we discover at Christmas, is a God who shows up, even when things, and perhaps especially when things are messy and complicated and violent. This Christmas – this Christmas there is much we might be tempted to look away from, whether it be the unhoused, people in our own communities, living in tents and in doorways, whether it be the images of children in Gaza and other war torn countries who are hungry, who are injured, who are dying – but our God is a God who shows up, and our God calls us to show up as well.

And so this Christmas, the world is messy. The world is complicated. And God – God is with us, God dares to show up. God dates to be vulnerable, God dares to bring love and compassion and healing to our broken world. And so as we celebrate Christmas, we too are called to incarnate God’s love. We too are called to show up. We too are called not to look away, but to, as much as we can, incarnate the goodness that God brings in to the world. And that is possible, if we all humble ourselves and live in peace.

Merry Christmas to you all, and may you too incarnate love.

Amen.