December 7, 2011

GENEVA – In his 2011 Christmas message, The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) President Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan urges Christians to celebrate the hope of justice for those living through troubled times that is heralded by Jesus' birth.

Younan reflects on Luke 2: 25-38, the account of Joseph and Mary bringing the infant Jesus to the temple for the first time and meeting Anna and Simeon, who had hoped faithfully for the Messiah.

Through patient waiting, God's justice will prevail, no matter how desperate the situation is for vulnerable people throughout the world, states Younan, who is bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.

"God's justice, incarnated in the manger and revealed on the cross, is stronger than any human promises. This is the meaning of Christ himself having been a refugee in Egypt. And Christ finds his manger today in every refugee, in all displaced, rejected, oppressed and migrant people," says Younan.

The LWF Christmas card illustrates this vulnerable displacement through a contemporary Canadian lens, portraying the holy family as southern Ontario Old Order Mennonites fleeing through a snowstorm in a horse-drawn buggy into the unknown.

Christ finding his manger today in those in precarious situations also is visible in the LWF Christmas message's photograph of refugees in the Dadaab camp in Kenya. Younan, who has been a refugee himself, emphasizes that the church must continue to provide safe haven for those seeking refuge and to advocate for human rights.

"I greet you from Jerusalem and Bethlehem and I say: do not be afraid! Justice is coming! The fulfillment in Christ at that time has become our source of hope for all time. And it will continue to be our hope even today in a time of political upheavals," he affirms. (314 words)

Read the full text of the 2011 LWF Christmas message and download in PDF format in English, French, German and Spanish at: http://www.lwf-assembly2003.org/lwf-interspire/link.php?M=2227&N=567&L=128&F=T.

Lutheran World Information