Heaven shall not wait
Although there were many significant advances at COP26 in the face of inexorable atmospheric heating, the watering down of the final declaration with respect to the phasing out of the use of fossil fuels is seen by many as evidence of our inability as a species to make the sacrifices necessary to safeguard our future. UN chief António Guterres could not hide his frustration, stating that it is time to go into emergency mode before it is too late, ending fossil fuel subsidies, phasing out coal, putting a price on carbon, protecting vulnerable communities, and delivering the $100 billion climate finance commitment.
The words of this hymn remind us that God’s ways are not human ways, and that if we do not repent of our enslavement to worldly goods and our seduction by the weasel words of false prophets, the end-result will not only be the loss of our souls but the untimely demise of our species.
It is easy at Christmas to get caught up in the glitter and excitement – and there is nothing wrong with the simple enjoyment of family and friends and the sharing of gifts – but the true story of the birth of a baby 2,000 years ago into an ordinary human family is about a loving God, who by becoming human, turned the world upside down and released a redemptive and transformative power that could reboot people, free from the accumulated errors in their original programming, and set them once again on the path to a quality of life in God that we call eternal.
The Word became flesh to communicate to us human beings caught in the mud, the pain, the fears and the brokenness of existence, the life, the joy, the communion, the ecstatic gift of love that is the source of all love and life and unity in our universe and that is the very life of God.
Keith Paver
This Christmas we pray that we might catch
just a glimpse of the glory to which we are gently being led
through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
