“But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid…”\u00a0 -Luke 2:10<\/p>\n
\u00a0 In the West signs of Christmas are undoubtedly everywhere: Christmas lights, Christmas decorations, Christmas sales, Christmas displays, Christmas music…you would have to lock yourself in a basement for the month of December or live in Montana to miss it.\u00a0\u00a0 Here in Southern China we don’t have\u00a0that many\u00a0reminders.\u00a0 But, as the season of Advent came upon FueledByRice we happened to be surrounded by ancient Christian tradition at the Maryknoll House in Hong Kong.\u00a0 We were able to participate in some Christmas decorating by dressing a real tree\u00a0and helping Fr. Sean set up the hundreds of nativity scenes from all over the world that make up Maryknoll’s fascinating collection.\u00a0\u00a0 For me it was a comforting bath of familiar culture as well as a good reminder that even though there’s no snow, we are in the Christmas season.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 Back on the road I had some time to reflect over my humming tires about the Christmas story.\u00a0 One of the first messages the angel brought to the characters in the nativity was, “Don’t be afraid.”\u00a0 The shepherds got it first thing, and I can imagine why after camping in a rice patti in the black of night.\u00a0 Come to think of it, seeing “the glory of the Lord” shining around you at any time might be startling, but there’s a special terror to being out in the fields at night.\u00a0 Either way, the message from God starts, “Don’t be afraid.”\u00a0 Mary and Joseph also get this same message from the angel that appears to them.\u00a0 It might be dismissed as a greeting or small encouragement, but I tend to think this simple admonition is at the heart of God’s message: “Don’t be afraid.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0 One of FueledByRice’s main messages is along similar lines:<\/p>\n
\u00a0 What’s wrong with fear?\u00a0 It makes us do things we wouldn’t do if we weren’t afraid.\u00a0 Our defenses are up in fear; we are prepared to protect ourselves using whatever means necessary or possible.\u00a0 Fear clouds our judgement.\u00a0\u00a0Fear\u00a0makes us dangerous.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jesus’s close\u00a0friend John writes that fear is not a part of love.\u00a0 He says there is no fear in love because perfect love drives out all fear (1Jn4:18).\u00a0 Earlier in the gospel he tells us Christ came because God loved the world so much…\u00a0 So connecting the dots we see Christ’s advent was because of God’s love, love and fear don’t mix, God says Don’t be afraid.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 It’s a good message for us today.\u00a0 Love more, fear less.\u00a0 In a world where fear is being used as a tool for manipulation, both by terrorist groups and democratic governments, we do well to prepare ourselves to face others in love and not in fear, so we can act in ways that honor our fellow humanity rather than in ways that bind freedom and demean life’s value.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 The celebration of Christmas is a celebration of God’s love toward humanity and our love for friends and family and even strangers, sometimes.\u00a0 Whether or not you may be in the practice of celebrating Christmas, allow this message from the angel in the story to be spoken to you this Advent season: Don’t be afraid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid…”\u00a0 -Luke 2:10 \u00a0 In the West signs of Christmas are undoubtedly everywhere: Christmas lights, Christmas decorations, Christmas sales, Christmas displays, Christmas music…you would have to lock yourself in a basement for the month of December or live in Montana to miss it.\u00a0\u00a0 Here in Southern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drews-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}