“The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” John 1:14 The Message
What does human thirst to experience a drop of unconditional love look like? What does that thirst sound like?
While contemplating this query, a disquieting question provocatively danced into my consciousness. “Santa Claus, do you ever come to the ghetto?” Let’s listen with the ears of the heart to the persistent gut-wrenching, sometimes eerily silenced, lament of the weak, the poor, the victimized, the disregarded in our societies hauntingly articulated by Carlene Davis.
“Santa Claus, do you ever come to the ghetto
Santa Claus, do you ever wonder why we suffer so
Santa Claus, will you come to the ghetto
Santa Claus, we would like to see where your reindeers go.”
On this Blessed day, the prologue of the Gospel according to John moves beyond human pre-occupation with drama and captivating details to succinctly capture the essence of the message of Christmas. So authentic is God’s unending love for humanity that God who is Pure Love, Pure Light risks all. Without fanfare, God acts. Without invitation, God enters the midst of foreboding uncertainties… No fairy tale realm but the real world. The world that comprises the disorientating, prejudiced maze of human affairs. A most definitive event! In the middle of the deep chasm of lostness, rife with snakelike eyes of churning doubts and phobias that deride in their attempt to polarize, to numb, and to maim, Love…unconditional Love enters.
“Love? In this shameful, never-ending tirade of emotional abuse”.
“Love? As I cower in fear for the safety of my children?”
“Love? When it seems like everything is falling apart!!”
“Love? When my bed of bitterness is the cold, slimy gutter where none dare to venture?”
“All year long we’ve been beating down crime
How we hold on through those hard times
We aint gonna fight, we aint gonna fuss
But where are the presents that you brought for us”.
Brothers and Sisters, worldly Santa Claus may never enter the darkened places of our societies. We must. When a dying, fearful HIV Aids patient receives a therapeutic touch treatment from a compassionate nurse, he literally stops shaking. “I have experienced unconditional Love”. He whispers.
When a demoralized mother and her terrified children are embraced in a safe, hospitable home by a family, her drooping gait is gradually transformed. Unconditional Love? Resoundingly yes.
As we recapture the Christmas Message this year may Pure Love gift us the grace, courage and inspiration to be the active visible presents… God’s presence… God’s generous drops of unconditional Love …to all who thirst today and throughout the year.
Contributed by Rev Mary Graham
