Henri Nouwen, a dutch catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian once wrote this about birthdays:
Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: 'Thank you for being you.' Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: 'Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.' No, we say: 'Thank you for being born and being among us.' On birthdays we celebrate the present. We do not complain about what happened or speculate about what will happen, but we lift someone up and let everyone say: 'We love you.'"
This leads me to think about how we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Growing up, every Advent my mother made 4 loaves of special Swedish advent bread filled with marzipan or cinnamon, and covered with icing, almond shavings and sliced red cherries—one loaf for each Sunday of advent. We had many Christmas traditions, but this bread, you could say, was the advent of Christmas.
Naturally, I continued the tradition. Just like my sisters and I, my littles squirm in their seats until the advent candle is lit, the verses read and they can dig into the gooey, sticky bread.
A couple of years back, my bread was failing miserably. Maybe the kitchen wasn’t warm enough, or maybe I forgot to add sugar to the yeast, or maybe I read too many Bernstein Bear books growing up, whatever the reason, on this day, my bread refused to rise.
And, I, I was determined that my 10 cups of organic flour and the 1 hour of prep time were not going to go to waste. So, I kneaded it again. And again. This. Bread. Was. Going. To. Rise. It was late. 1st Sunday of advent was in just a few hours!
While I was kneading, nay perhaps beating the bread, my then 7-year-old boy child witnessed my frustration and said mum, why are so upset? Christmas isn’t about the bread you know...
Eh? I replied. Let me tell you something 7. year. old. And never forget this. Christmas is all. About. The. Bread. Now get up on this counter and beat this thing like it’s the brother you never had!
To which he happily obliged.
At 2 am after re-making the whole lot I was lying on the kitchen floor in front of the oven door, peering through the glass I never clean blubbering quietly to myself it’s all about. the. bread.
Of all our Christmas traditions, Advent is worth keeping and making it something delicious to look forward to.
The word Advent literally means coming—it's the one reminder we have, among all the hustle and bustle of consumer droning and happy holidaying where we stop and remind ourselves what, in fact, we are celebrating (even more so than our advent calendars which more often than not tell a different story). Each candle represents a piece of him and hopefully, us; Hope. Peace. Joy. Love.
In the coming of Jesus, the world was transformed. The command, be holy as your father in heaven is holy was corrected and re-interpreted to mean be compassionate as your father in heaven is compassionate. To be compassionate is to be whole [holy]; fully human. And from this was born a new social order based on equality and a new way of being human. No more division and goodbye domination; now there is no jew or greek; slave or free; male or female. In being faithful to his calling, Jesus set the world on a new axis for the left-out ones.
He lived it. So can we. Those captivated by the way [of Jesus] knew this and were the first to initiate hospitals, orphanages, the welfare state, insurance (which began as a cause for widows), universal healthcare, etc. But most of you know the story well. It's one of the most popular Christmas and Easter sermons that get passed around pulpit to pulpit, year after year.
Yet, somewhere along the way mainline Christianity shifted. I don't know when it happened or exactly how but somehow we started living a new gospel called take the world but give me Jesus. No longer are we captivated by the way. Rather, give us doctrines to comfort us. Doctrines that tell us one day Jesus will do the work for us. Doctrines that insist Yahweh's blessings can come in the form of capitalist consumption without consequences.
Yet the Bible is quite clear that our job is to imitate Jesus.
"They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" -Isaiah 2:4
This passage is referring to us. For today. For now. For as soon as possible.
In my previous post linked below, I talk about Dominic Crossan's collaborative eschatology as being a more accurate interpretation of our great hope.
Maha, how did we get this part so wrong for so long? How did we lose the way?
With our mouths and our good intentions, we sing well-worn comforting hymns of we love you and thank you for being born and for being among us, but with our pocketbooks we create so much damage. At Christmas alone, we chop down an estimated 50,000 trees for wrapping paper.
In Canada, 540,000 tonnes of unrecyclable wrapping paper — the equivalent of the weight of 100,000 elephants or 4.5 CN Towers, ends up in landfills.
In the United States, five million tons of waste is generated over Christmas four million of which is wrapping paper and shopping bags. In 2010, gift-wrapping sales totalled $9.36 billion--more than the combined GDP of Africa’s 9 poorest countries.
In the UK, 227,000 miles of wrapping paper are used each year and will put what equates to 108 million rolls of wrapping paper in the trash. This is enough to wrap the equator 9 times.
In the UK alone, it costs around USD$216 million of taxpayer dollars to dispose of Christmas wrapping waste into landfills.
Christmas is not about the advent bread?
Christmas is all about the advent bread—a bread that reminds us what it means to be the bread of life. All life. Just like our Brother, we are the hands and feet of Yahweh for our groaning creation.
This isn't a season to wait in hope for the Holy Three to do it for us. They are waiting for us to do it with Them!
How long will we make Them wait?
How long will we keep telling a story that is not ours?
How long will we sing hymns that lull us to sleep every silent night?
Must the world be destroyed before we wake up?
As we eat our bread and light our candles, let’s reflect on the impact our spiritual ancestors had on the world as a result of their transformation, and let us all pray in unison:
Yahweh; Mother Sophia; forgive us! Give us the same courage and urgency as those who've gone before us!
Things we can do
Because one cannot read statistics like that and not do anything. I am on a mission to see the Church plant 100,000 trees each Christmas and cut back on unrecyclable wrapping paper. It may not happen this year, but if you would like to be a part of the first few, please donate now to https://teamtrees.org/. Every dollar plants a tree.
And there's more...
· Upcycle Christmas fabric from your own cabinet or from charity stores (that would otherwise end up in the landfill) and use it year after year; festive tablecloths, cushion covers, cloth napkins, scarves or silk saris.
· Furoshiki: try this easy, no-waste Japanese method for wrapping with fabric: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjGxeoBRWE8
· Use brown kraft paper that has been made from recycled waste pulp and can be recycled and reused. Make it look festive with ink stamps, decorations from nature or children’s drawings.
· Use string or twine instead of ribbon.
· Re-use ribbon that has been given to you or buy only from a charity store and reuse it as long as possible.
· Use eco-friendly tape: Sticky tape is not recyclable. It often ends up in the sea where its microplastics infect our food chains, waterways and marine wildlife
· Organize a gift-wrap drive by using upcycled fabric. Give all donations to tree-planting organizations such as teamtrees.org
Rose's Advent Bread
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