So I had a whole post prepped for the first Sunday of Advent but I got distracted and didn’t post it.

The dictionary definition of Advent is ‘the beginning of an event, the invention of something or the arrival of a person.’

Which sums up this time quite well, because we’re waiting for all of that. The beginning of a time of God as human, the arrival of a person and the invention of God’s Kingdom on here.

Christmas marks something extraordinary for Christians, the idea of God coming to us as man, working to experience human life and understand us better and also maybe to hope that we might understand God better. Which is why, I’m kicking off my reflections with this poem from Teresa of Avila (look I’m Catholic at some point Saints were going to be involved)

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Often atheists will argue that if God exists, God is cruel because look at the awful things in the world. Some Christians will tell you that the world is as it as because of the Fall, this is not the world that God planned. I have another view and I don’t think its a particularly revolutionary view but you don’t hear it argued very often.

How much of the horrible things that happen in the world would happen if we lived as God would wish us to?

Hunger, war, homelessness, poverty, most death from illness. Would those things happen if we truly cared for one another, if we saw fellow humans as we see ourselves? The world could look very different. We choose the world the way it is.

I believe that God gave us free will. Free will has issues. So in the lead up to the celebration of God becoming embodied, I’m here thinking about God’s work being my work. There are many ways we can help, one of the ones I have chosen is the Amos Trust.

The state of the world right now is pretty grim, it’s estimated that there are 110 armed conflicts happening in the world. The World Food Programme estimates that 343 million people in the world face acute hunger. What I’m about to say, concentrates on Palestine and the work of the Amos Trust but I do recognise there are other places that also need our help. However, Chris Rose, the director of the Amos Trust, came to Grace in November to talk about their work in Gaza and the West Bank and about their Christmas Appeal.

Amos is working with its with partners in Gaza, to help and they are well placed to help because they were there before the bombing started. This from DSPR, who work with traumatised people in Gaza really drove home to me how inhumane what’s happening in Gaza is:

“We are not providing trauma therapy like we have done for the last 15 years in Gaza. It would be impossible, pointless until there is an end to the fighting. Instead we are helping parents and children cope — addressing their fear and anxiety and helping them get through another day.

If we do not do this now, we believe that when the war ends many of these children, even with the best therapeutic support, will never be able to overcome their trauma.” Nader Abu Amsha DSP

No child deserves this, not a single one.

If you are able to donate, please think about it, the Christmas appeal is open until 10 December and someone will match funding up to £36,000.