For my personal Advent devotions this year I’m reading through a resource called Finding Bethlehem in the Midst of Bedlam. Seems like an apt description for the season. Everything’s just a tad more chaotic. Kids in chapel today were a bit more wiggly. Friends at lunch were lamenting busy calendars that were keeping them from recreation with their families. Staff in the office were trying to stay non-anxious as parents came to pick up kids from preschool while construction crews tore up the sidewalks and visitors came for a mid-day organ concert. Even at Starbucks this afternoon, the line was longer and the baristas frenzied.
And that’s not even looking at the newspaper. Bedlam. We struggle with how to not get overwhelmed by Bedlam—throughout the year generally, but at Christmas specifically.
The classic Advent scripture texts point to a time of hope and promise. From Isaiah: Comfort, o comfort my people! A child will be born to you…Prince of peace, King of kings, everlasting father. “The days are coming when I will make a new covenant with my people,” from Jeremiah. “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you,”–Zephaniah.
Comfort? A king is born? Prince of Peace? A new covenant? He will take great delight in you? That sounds downright heavenly.
But what does it all mean in the context of the very real bedlam that surrounds us now? What does it mean for those on Ferguson, Missouri, and the masses of people around the world caught in conflicts they didn’t ask for? What does it mean when political leaders are losing credibility and integrity? What it mean for those so wounded by broken promises and a history of rejection? What good is God’s delight in me when I am lonely, feel out of place and unlovable, and have a hard time believing I’m good for anything?
And yet—these words matter. So many of these prophecies of comfort and hope come to the people of Israel DURING their exile. Many of these words we find so encouraging were originally delivered while Israelites were experiencing their own bedlam—domination from foreign powers, exile, destruction…Kinda puts a few extra minutes at Starbucks into perspective.
THAT is what God breaks through with the promise of God’s son. God breaks through the chaos of youth and young adulthood and appears to Mary. God breaks through Zechariah’s waning faith with the promise of John the Baptist. God breaks through the unplanned travel of a young couple expecting a child as a tiny baby.
I like how James Moore, author of Finding Bethlehem in the Midst of Bedlam puts it: Christmas always happens right in the midst of our confusion. We don’t have to choose between Bethlehem and Bedlam. They go together. They always have. That’s the good news, isn’t it? God breaks into our confusion, our bedlam, and becomes known through Jesus Christ.
“Stories of Faith in Action” is a collection of testimonies of what individuals and congregations throughout the ELCA are doing with mission support funds. It strikes me that these stories of renewal and transformation are often surrounded by devastation and despair. A congregation in Detroit offers great opportunities for youth and young adults while the reputation of the city around them is less than positive. Chinese pastors in CA are building fellowship with Chinese foreign exchange students in the midst of the real pressures of being a student in a foreign country. A food truck in St. Paul, MN offers meals to individuals facing the chaos of poverty and homelessness. These stories are not specifically about Christmas. And yet—they are. For is not the message of Christmas that God came down in the form of a man and dwelt among us? God with us—Emmanuel—looks like renewing hope in Detroit. The Prince of Peace looks like young adults advocating for equality for women at the UN headquarters in New York City. Everlasting Father looks like a pastor opening his home to students continents away from friends and family. These stories are Bethlehem in the midst of Bedlam.
A prayer:
Great and gracious God, sometimes we let Christmas drive us crazy instead of remembering and rejoicing that in Jesus’ birth, you meet us in the middle of our loud and chaotic lives…in the middle of our turmoil and darkness. By your Spirit, center us on you, that we would make a joyful noise about the good news of your arrival among us, and for us, in our Savior, Christ the Lord. Amen.