By the Way: The season of joyful anticipation is upon us

By REV. KRISTY REIMERS-LOADER on November 27, 2021.

Advent.

Just like that, this season of joyful anticipation is upon us once again. It is good in this wonder-filled time to reflect on what the arrival of Jesus to Joseph and Mary in that rough stable in Bethlehem means to us. Who was Jesus then, and who is he to us now, some 2,000 years later?

Ask 12 people on the street who Jesus was and you’ll get a dozen different answers. Of those who believe he actually existed – Spoiler alert: It is a recorded historical fact that Jesus did, in fact, exist – some will say he was a prophet. Some will say he was a man of great faith who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind to challenge the injustice and evil he saw in the world around him. Some would brand Jesus a revolutionary and a rebel while others would hail him as a charismatic leader of the common people.

Of course, there are many who can only relate to Jesus as an innocent baby in a manger. The truth is, to varying degrees, Jesus of Nazareth was all those things in First Century Judea. The question for us is, who is Jesus today? Who is Jesus to you? And what does it mean to observe the season of Advent – to anticipate and celebrate in real-time the birth of the One who is unbound by time? Scripture tells us Jesus once asked his disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” and if we care to look, we’ll see how the answer he received then was as complicated as it would be if he asked us now. Nevertheless, this Advent is a good and blessed time for us all to ponder that question for ourselves.

Rev. Kristy Reimers-Loader, Priest in the Anglican Church of Canada

6
-5