Looking in Two Directions at the Same Time
Chameleons are best known for their ability to change colour to blend in with their surroundings. Another amazing thing that you may not know about them is that their eyes can look in two directions at once. It’s an ability well suited to the season of Advent when we also need to look in two directions. In this season, we look backwards in time to God’s first entry into the world in human form at the birth of Jesus.
Matt. 1:23 The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means “God with us”).
Then we look forward in time, to his next entry into our world, when Jesus will return.
Mark 13:26 At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
It’s important to look both ways. If we just look backwards at Christmas in isolation, we run the risk of it becoming a celebration of greed, materialism and self-indulgence wrapped up in nice language of peace and joy. In fact, that’s what it is for many. If we just look forwards, particularly if we take too literally the bible’s symbolic language and about the violence and destruction that will accompany the end times, the result can be fear and anxiety mixed with hopelessness and despair.
Mark 13:24 But in those days… the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
It's only as we look both ways and understand each in the light of the other that it all make sense. Christmas is not, and was never meant to be, an end in itself. It’s certainly worth celebrating, but mainly because at Christmas, God entered our world to speak his truth about how we can have the best life now and for eternity. The fact that there will one day be an end to human history tells us why it is so important to listen to his words and act now.
Mark 13:33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.
And when we understand the end of human history in the light of Christmas, we are filled with hope. The end stops being something to be feared. In fact, we begin to long for it, not for cataclysmic and destructive events, but for God’s solution, begun at Christmas, to be fully realised with the return of Jesus to gather his people to himself.
Please look both ways this Advent and Christmas season.
Neil Percival
Young District Anglican Ministry
Matt. 1:23 The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means “God with us”).
Then we look forward in time, to his next entry into our world, when Jesus will return.
Mark 13:26 At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
It’s important to look both ways. If we just look backwards at Christmas in isolation, we run the risk of it becoming a celebration of greed, materialism and self-indulgence wrapped up in nice language of peace and joy. In fact, that’s what it is for many. If we just look forwards, particularly if we take too literally the bible’s symbolic language and about the violence and destruction that will accompany the end times, the result can be fear and anxiety mixed with hopelessness and despair.
Mark 13:24 But in those days… the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
It's only as we look both ways and understand each in the light of the other that it all make sense. Christmas is not, and was never meant to be, an end in itself. It’s certainly worth celebrating, but mainly because at Christmas, God entered our world to speak his truth about how we can have the best life now and for eternity. The fact that there will one day be an end to human history tells us why it is so important to listen to his words and act now.
Mark 13:33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.
And when we understand the end of human history in the light of Christmas, we are filled with hope. The end stops being something to be feared. In fact, we begin to long for it, not for cataclysmic and destructive events, but for God’s solution, begun at Christmas, to be fully realised with the return of Jesus to gather his people to himself.
Please look both ways this Advent and Christmas season.
Neil Percival
Young District Anglican Ministry