by the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick

The holiday season is upon us – a special time for my family and I hope for yours. Thanksgiving is historically rooted in the American experience, while Advent and Christmas focus upon the coming of our Savior into the world. All three point to deeper spiritual values that our world needs desperately in 2002!

Thanksgiving reminds us that God calls us to live not out of a sense of entitlement or absorption with ourselves and our own interests, but with thankful hearts because of the love of God and the abundant life we are given in Jesus Christ. What makes this spirit of thankful living possible for Christians is the coming of Christ into the world, for which we prepare during Advent.

On that first Christmas, Christ came into a troubled world that was seeking a Messiah to subdue enemies and restore the kingdom of Israel. It was a world full of wars and rumors of wars. Sound familiar? The world sought a Messiah who would rule with power and might, but the Messiah who came was Jesus Christ.

The way of Christ was one of peace and a suffering love, not power and might. It took him to the cross so that the world and its people could be transformed. I am always heartened by the angelic promise given to the shepherds in announcing Christ's birth: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace..." (Luke 2:14). That is certainly a message that our world and our church need to heed this holiday season and one that we as disciples of Christ are called to model.

That spirit of thankful living, suffering love, and joyous peacemaking is especially urgent in a time when:

• there seems to be a rush to war with Iraq;

• the world is filled with news of violence, shootings, and nuclear threats;

• the body of Christ, the church, seems at times to model the contention and strife of this troubled world rather than being a "provisional demonstration of what God intends for all humanity"

I give thanks to God that Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas come once again in this kind of world and in this kind of church. May we be renewed as God's thankful, peaceful, and loving community. Happy holidays!

PCUSA News