Day 6, half way through the season of Christmas. Yes, the 12 days of Christmas are real, just not what is in the popular song. It’s Christmas 2020, so it’s been a weird one…subdued, smaller, a mixture of beginnings and endings. And in both good and bad ways, more of the same. Over the course of a couple of weeks during Advent, Franciscan Father Richard Rohr devoted one week of daily meditations to the birthing of Christ and another week to the incarnation. The links to the weekly summaries will provide links to the daily entries, here for the first set, and here for the second set, if you are so interested.
Those 2 weeks of daily readings has left me pondering pregnancy, labor, birth, pain, joy, not knowing, wondering, the messiness of life. Recent years, this one about to end in particular, really has me wondering what creation (us included) is about to bring forth. I have 2 children. Neither of my labors were long or exceedingly difficult, in fact, the second one was pretty quick I’d say. A seed birthing a vegetable or flower is also quick on the grand scale of things. Societal and cultural birthing on the other hand takes a long time. We’re talking years and decades…or even centuries.
There’s already plenty written about what the apocalyptic year 2020 has revealed and highlighted in the most glaring way…inequalities of all kind (racial, sexual, income, healthcare, job security, food security, housing, quality education), divisions of all kind (race, faith, political, freedoms, the individual vs. the common good), and our brokenness and inability to think and act in anything other than in dualistic ways. This is our American society as a whole and it is not to say that there aren’t individuals or groups out there working against the grain. There have been signs of hope…prolonged protests this summer over the death of George Floyd, a high turnout for elections despite all the obstacles put in place in some jurisdictions, and all the small and persistent ways so many people have helped their neighbors during this pandemic.
At this time of year, in this season of Christmas, I can’t help but wonder…in all this tension, stress, hardship, and tumultuous era of our society, to what new thing are we giving birth? A seed cannot bring forth new life without first cracking open. So much feels broken right now, yet a broken seed casing is how water and nutrients from the soil enter in, resulting in the sprouting of new life.
So will we see growth in racial equality? A re-growing of the middle class? An increase in living wages that helps reduce poverty? A new society that truly embraces that we belong to each other and NO ONE really “succeeds” all on their own? A culture that cares for the least among us, no questions asked?
What are we giving birth to? I don’t know. But I’m wondering, because it’s Christmas, and it feels as if, as a society, we’re laboring to bring something to life.
May the growing brokenness of recent years be the labor pains that bring forth new life to all areas of hurt and frustration, personal and communal. May we all participate in the hard work needed to bring about the new and nurtures it. Blessings for strength, courage, and hope in your labors today and all your tomorrows.
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