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Philippians 2:5-11
During this season of Advent, for some reason my mind has frequently drifted back to Advent 2020, at the height of the pandemic. Maybe it’s my daughter about to graduate from high school, or maybe it’s the logistics of planning Christmas services for thousands of people. Whatever it is, I keep thinking back to that time five years ago, when we couldn’t even gather at all.
I was at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Norfolk at the time, and we had hoped that we might recreate portions of our Christmas pageant outside—but not even the weather cooperated. After weeks of exhaustive planning, consecutive days of heavy rain and wind swamped our plans. We still sent out a bunch of videos with homemade music and readings and all the rest, but on the grounds of the church the most we could muster was a damp, Charlie Brown-looking tree.
We put it out front and asked parishioners to hang ornaments on it. And boy, did they. That scraggly tree was dripping in ornaments, and lots of them had messages written on them. Thinking back, I realize what a symbol that tree was of our human desire for hope and for relationship. That December, the absence of in-person connection reminded us how much we really need it. Now we can gather fully, of course, which is a great blessing. But I hope we always carry with us that same desire for hope and for relationship. As Sam Wells reminded us during his recent visit, relationship is what God’s story is all about. From before time itself, God longed to be in relationship with us. The wide arc of creation all led to this night, this bending down from heaven to earth—an act of utter humility and solidarity and love, described in today’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippians.
On this night, God’s longing and love for us is so strong that the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. God’s desire to be in relationship with us overcomes all manner of barriers and impossibilities. This night, once more, God chooses us.
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