
Friday Dec 23, 2022
Mediations During Advent: The Christ in Each Other
In her essay “Christ” in the book Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, Kathleen Norris writes about how hard it is to believe in Jesus being both human and divine. Then she visits a convent, and the sisters invite her to join them in their Sunday evening service. This is how the essay ends:
“Our procession was also a reminder of the procession of life itself; the older sisters with their walkers and canes had set a pace that the younger women had to follow. The prioress was my partner; we brought up the rear. “We bow first to the Christ who is at the altar,” she whispered to me, as the procession lurched along, “and then we turn to face our partner, and bow to the Christ in each other” “I see,” I said, and I did.”
If we think that Christmas is merely about presents and candy, we miss the point, but if we think Christmas is merely about an event 2,000 years ago, we also miss the point. Eugene Peterson’s translation of John 1:14 helps us:
“The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”
If Christmas is just a celebration of an historical event, it can’t be about transformation. Instead, it’s about God’s grace moving into our neighborhood so that we “face our partner and bow to the Christ in each other.”
And the neighborhood is deeper and wider than we are comfortable with. Yes, it’s Joe Biden, but it’s also Donald Trump. It’s all races and tribes and denominations. It’s the people whose family tree goes back to the Mayflower and people who do not have papers of citizenship. Most of all, it means God is part of this world. We just need eyes to see. We must “bow to the Christ in each other” regardless of who the other is.
This is not just for our soul’s sake; it’s for the world’s sake. Because the communion business is not a hot commodity these days.
My wish for you and for all God’s children is that the Christmas gift is not clothes or toys or even books. My wish is that all God’s children—which means everyone—experience a new birth; a new way of seeing and being so that when we see the stranger, we will bow to the Christ in him/her/they.
- The Ret. Rev. Porter Taylor
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