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On the 16th of June in 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to go into space. She orbited the earth 48 times and was in space for almost three days. On that voyage, she spent more time in space than all the American astronauts combined up to that date. Just this week, two women were the top candidates in the election for the president of Columbia. With regard to the church, I spoke with a man in the Catholic hierarchy this week who expressed disappointment and regret that Pope Francis has made it known that the ordination of women is not on the table during his papacy. To me, the disappointment of my colleague was a welcome surprise.

In these Advent weeks, we have been thinking about the women in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Learning about these woman shows the extremely confining social circumstances that they faced. While there may have been reasons for the restrictions within the structure of the society as a whole, it still seems that these narrow roles for women were more than based on need, but also simply outright inequality and oppression.

The agency, courage, and resilience of the women in the genealogy of Jesus inspire our discipleship. We are challenged by these women to live our faith with conviction and creativity. And that includes continuing to work for the equality of women in the church and in society in the US and around the world. That job is not yet done.

In Christ there is no Jew or Greek. slave or citizen, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28

Prayer: We are thankful for the wondrous potential that is imbued in the human spirit. We pray for the courage to cultivate that potential in ourselves and in the wider world. Jesus shows us all that life can be when we are free to love and serve. In this season of Advent may we honor the freedom and equality of all people as Jesus did. Amen.

A year ago today, we were stunned by the news of a school shooting in the sleepy town of Newtown, CT. Grief poured from news outlets and social media. President Obama choked up when he spoke.

But then there have been more than 16 mass shootings in the US in the past year and another attack at a school yesterday near Columbine nonetheless. And then there are the multitudes of children killed by gun violence day in and day out not to mention the adults murdered each and every day.

This morning, I heard an interview with a Newtown parent. She spoke of planning a vigil in the aftermath of the tragedy. They struggled over whether to light 26 candles for the children and staff that were murdered or 28 candles including the killer and his mother. They decided to light 28. After all, there were 28 deaths.

I think 28 candles was the right choice. Yes the children and staff were beloved by God, but so were Adam Lanza and his mother. There had to be grief in the heart of God for a precious creature gone so wrong as well as the death of the woman who gave him birth.

Actually, I think that God has still not stopped crying over the continuous murders of precious children by other precious children. Why don’t we get the sacredness, the divinity, at the heart of all of life? If we did, we would end not only gun violence and murder but global climate change, arguably the greatest threat to human life.

And, what must be the worst part of this for God, is that our country, perpetrator of such horrific violence, has so many Christians and people of faith. That’s the crowning irony. We’re supposedly not a “godless” country. And yet we are not allowing ourselves to be transformed by the horror of 20 children murdered at school. “When will they ever learn,” the song “Where have all the flowers gone” asks.

There is a quote attributed to Edmund Burke, statesman of the 1700‘s: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Since the evil of gun violence to continues its rampage in our country, it appears that good people are not doing their part. Violence is not the consequence of having a free society; it is the consequence of having a sick society. We have accepted the pandemic of violence; integrated it into our lives. We have accepted it as being as natural as the air we breathe. For people of God, this acquiescence to violence is delusion, denial, and flat out sin as grave as the apostasies of the Hebrew scriptures rife with the worship of foreign gods. We, too, are worshipping gods foreign to the God of Jesus Christ. We make gods of the Constitution, personal rights, profit, and individualism, at the expense of a peace-loving society.

How many candles will it take to illumine the truth?

They dress my people’s wound carelessly,
saying, “Peace, Peace,” knowing that there is no peace.
Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?
No, they feel no shame; they don’t even know how to blush.
Jeremiah 8:11-12a

Prayer: Help us to see our complicity with the violence in our society and in our world. This Christmas season, may we receive the Prince of Peace and allow him full sway over our lives, our hearts, our values, and our behavior. May we be converted by the birth of Jesus so that we might be agents of transformation of the world around us. Amen.

This holy season is a time for hope. But what is hope? Is it the desire and anticipation of getting a certain gift for Christmas? Is it expecting something different to happen? Is it simply not giving up?

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has said that, “Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” I like that description of hope. To me, hope means that I care about something. The outcome matters to me. I feel deeply about that for which I hope. But hope also means that I don’t have ultimate control over the situation. With hope, there is a dose of the unknown, the mysterious, that which is beyond our direct control.

Here’s a trivial example. I am hoping that we have a safe flight to Boston on Christmas Day. But I am not a mechanic and don’t control the condition of the plane. I am not a pilot and don’t control the operation of the aircraft. And I certainly don’t control the weather. But we want to be together as a family for Christmas so we have bought the tickets, we will pack appropriately, follow the directions, and hope for the best.

What kinds of things do we hope for that are of more significant import? Peace on earth. An end to poverty and hunger. The eradication of prejudice and bigotry. Respect and dignity for each and every human being regardless of life circumstances. A good education for every young person. A stop to global climate change. Access to health care for all people. Getting along with others. A steady job. What kinds of things do you hope for?

If we hope for these things, then it makes sense that we do something about them whether or not we will succeed. Regardless of the outcome. That is the nature of hope. And hope is embedded in the Christmas stories that we have from the gospels. In the story in Luke, God comes to Mary telling her the plan for her to have a baby. God had hope that Mary would cooperate but did not control her response. The child of promise is born to poor people in a setting of extreme political and economic adversity. Who can control the outcome of that plan set in motion? In the gospel of Matthew, Joseph takes Mary and Jesus to Egypt to keep them safe, but that, too, could have turned out badly. We are told that the magi journey for months to find Jesus. Again, many things could have gone wrong. And then there is all the promise invested in the baby. The infant morality rate was high. There was a lot of violence in the culture. That Jesus would live to adulthood was not assured. Yes, the stories were created after the fact but they are imbued with hope.

The Christmas season invites us to live out of hope. To do what makes sense because it is right, because it is something we care about, because we believe in it. What are we doing as we prepare to celebrate Christmas that expresses our deeply felt yearnings, dreams, and hopes? To embody hope is not to be assured of the outcome, but to have conviction about the prospect.

You grew weary from your many wanderings,
but you did not say, “This is hopeless!”
You rekindled your desires
at the expense of your anxieties.
Isaiah 57:10

Prayer: We pray to be people of hope. We pray to care about things that truly matter. We pray to live in a way that brings God’s hopes and dreams to fruition. Amen.