Christmas 2007

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
And the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain;
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11:8-9

Dear Friends,

It’s been many years since I have spent the months leading up to Christmas here in the United States. The barrage of commercial messages is overwhelming. One advertisement in particular seems to sum up the prevailing attitude toward the holidays. A car pulls up to a snow-covered house. The children roll down the window and wave “Merry Christmas” to their grandmother standing on the porch. The woman in the car then turns to her husband and says, “I think we are done here.” And they drive off, we are told, to open those presents they can’t wait to open. Material goods trump the family celebration.

But the advertisers haven’t gotten it all wrong. Christmas is all about longing. Companies will spend millions, probably billions of dollars, this year telling us what we should be longing for. If only we have the latest gadget, the most stylish clothes, the biggest diamond or even the newest model car, then our desires will be satisfied.

The texts which we read during Advent, the weeks leading up to Christmas, like the verses from Isaiah above, point to a different kind of longing, a deep yearning for a world made new. Advent allows us to sense the gap that exists between the world as we experience it every day and the way the world should be. The vision of a world transformed so that neither wild animals nor human beings will hurt children reminds us of the many places where the lives of children and others are in danger.

Will Marta, Marina, Demesia and Alicia, who receive scholarships from the Presbyterial of Occidente, grow up safe?

In the years I have been in Guatemala, the number of women murdered each year has steadily climbed. Since 2001, more than 3,000 women have been killed. Most of those murdered have been between the ages of 13 and 30. Most have been poor. Few of the murders are ever solved, as the conviction rate in Guatemala is only 2 percent. A recent documentary produced by the BBC labeled Guatemala a “killer’s paradise.” As my daughter, Tamara, walks by herself back and forth to high school every day here in Princeton, I think of the young women in Guatemala who live in fear as they go about their daily activities.

The Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America (CEDEPCA), the organization with which I serve in Guatemala, offers training for women in overcoming violence. Using materials and group processes developed by Quakers in the United States as part of the Alternatives to Violence Project, CEDEPCA seeks to provide women with tools to allow them to resolve conflicts nonviolently. Women learn to use their own anger in constructive ways. They identify how prejudice affects the way they see and react to other people. They work to dismantle stereotypes. They practice strategies for defusing potentially violent situations in their homes and in their neighborhoods. Small steps in the face of a climbing murder rate. Brief glimpses of a world transformed.

We Christians claim that our longings have been answered by God’s giving of God’s self in the person of Jesus. In this baby born so long ago, God’s own longings for the world took human form. It’s easy to get caught up in the celebration of Christmas, either the glitter of new gadgets or the intensity of family interactions. Often we don’t get beyond the manger where shepherds and magi knelt. Yet the stable is not the end of the story. The One sleeping in the manger is the One whose actions and words will announce the coming Reign of God, when the earth will be full of the knowledge of God and violence will be no more.

What will happen this year when Christmas is over? Once we have celebrated the arrival of the Prince of Peace, will the young women of Guatemala be any safer? How do we keep the longing for a new world alive, after the presents have been unwrapped and the decorations have been stored away?

One way to keep the longing alive, to connect our hopes with God’s desires for the world, is to link our lives with those in different places that are striving for a world that’s new. Mission relationships through our churches can help us do this. Sometimes churches rush in, wanting to rescue children and others from danger. We want to pull the toddler away from the snake’s den, but we leave the snake unchanged. The Babe of Bethlehem points to another way. God’s didn’t rescue us, but chose to enter fully into human existence. So we, too, are invited into the lives of sisters and brothers in other places, from Guatemala to the Middle East to downtown Trenton, to discover how together we might resist those who would hurt, stand against the forces destroying human lives, and proclaim the coming of God’s reign.

May the hope of Christmas accompany you into the New Year.

Blessings,

Karla

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 63