It is Christmas Day 2022. We celebrate the anniversary of our Lord’s birth and incarnation. The Son of God has come into the world and, in his own human body, lived an entirely faithful human life. He was faithful even in the face of death; therefore, he has defeated sin, death, and the fallen powers that had disordered and misshapen human life before. And now he is risen and reigning and providing his Spirit to bring his faithful life, death, and resurrection into our lives as well; to deliver us also from all of the fallen powers that continue to try to get their grips into us and the world at large.

Week by week through Advent we have tried to remember some of the essential parts of our lives where his coming has made, and is making, a huge difference in how and why we live as we do in him. For he is still in the process of restoring these and other parts of our lives as we make our way with him toward the day of our own resurrection, the day of judgment, the wedding banquet of the Lamb, and the fulfillment of the New Creation already begun in him and in us.  And so we can sing with Charles Wesley’s refrain, “Come thou long expected Jesus . . . born thy people to deliver”:

Deliver us from our “normal” fears and anxieties, as your grace and promise delivered Mary on the eve of your own human birth.

Deliver us from our worries about our status and career, our future security and prestige, as your servant Paul taught us with regard to our gifts, and as your own example showed us with regard to being a servant like you.

Deliver us from the temptation to use ethnic groups or other divisive factions to gain social or political power and to grasp at security and control of others as you and Paul refused to do.

Deliver us from the idolatry of self-absorbed eros and other fanatical appetites or passions, so we may live in the freedom of agape, kindness, gentleness, and self-control in human families and in the kind of community that you are restoring.

“For freedom, you have set us free,” your servant Paul tells us (Galatians 5:1), and this means the freedom of life in your Spirit, the freedom to grow up in all of the fruits of your Spirit, to grow up in you:

To Love (agape) – because we are not focused only on our own needs or desires.

To know Joy – because we are no longer bound by the forces to which we once yielded power and control.  

To experience Peace – because we are no longer pulled apart by rival “lords” and double-minded agendas.   

To learn Patience – because we need to master smaller things before we are put in charge of larger.

To show Kindness and Gentleness – because we have moved beyond the doubts and defenses that once held us in check. 

To practice Self-control – because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Yes, in you, we are free.

And so, our fellow Advent pilgrims, Deb and I find ourselves with you at the close of another Advent and Christmas season, at the turning of the year toward a new year with our Lord’s Spirit and help, in the midst of His ongoing recovery and healing of the created order, on this road of New Creation. He has begun what is yet to be fulfilled. We have the first fruits of a great approaching harvest (Romans 8:23), and we must encourage each other not to grow weary “for our work is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free