For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs. Mark 13:8

As an Anglican clergy, I know that I should wait…until Advent is over to celebrate the Christmas season. However, I am not going to do it. I am going to shake the dust off my Christmas Carols cds and listen to them next week onwards. This is my favorite time of the year and I am going to take every opportunity to enjoy it. However, the general environment here in Brazil is not festive this year. There is a sense of hopelessness and hateful discourses are heard everywhere. There are rumors of dark times ahead. There are hopeful sentiments but they are not based on anything that deserves our confidence. No one really knows for sure what will unfold. The Christmas decorations are up but there is still an uneasy feeling in the air. Nevertheless, it is the perfect environment for us to celebrate the season.

The conversation from the gospel text above was about the temple. The apostles were impressed by its beauty and magnificence. It was the symbol of the identity and spiritual vocation of the Jewish people. The disciples highlighted its splendor to Jesus hoping that He would say something of its future glory. Instead Jesus spoke of its destruction. It was the last thing anyone wanted to hear. It seemed so contrary to Jesus’ central message. He proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was here. It was obvious in everyone’s mind that the temple would be in the center of this Kingdom. Now, Jesus spoke of its inevitable end. They were not ready for this. Jesus spoke about war and natural disasters and desperate times. It sounds like the local news of any given country. While listening to all these devastating events, I wonder if the apostles ever questioned what happened to the Kingdom of God Jesus promised.

War and rumors of war, famine, desolations, earthquakes..all these are just the beginning. They are not the end. It seems like we have been stagnant in this phase for almost two thousand years. Only someone ignorant of the past would dare to say that this present time is the worst time in the history of humanity. My parents suffered through the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. My father’s older brother was crushed to death by debris from a bombing while mu father was sleeping next to him. Both my parents witnessed people being tortured and killed during the war for stealing a piece of bread. They shared these stories with us daily before we ruined these valuable moments by buying a TV. If they were alive today, they would say that things have gotten better. However, it seems like things get worse and then a little better and then worse again, just like birth pangs. We shouldn’t think that these are the signs of the end. It is just the beginning of the end. We still have a long time to wait.

I am beginning to learn that the essential part of our spirituality is learning to wait. We can wait by bemoaning the bad things happening all around us or we can hopefully wait with joyful expectation. The former creates an attitude of judgment in us. It makes us blame the “others”. Then we begin this downward spiral of finding the scapegoat for all the problems. In the end, our souls get contaminated with hatred and we forget that we are actually waiting for Someone who has no room for hatred in His heart. I have to admit that this is the easy way of waiting because it gives us something to talk about among people who share our convictions. We can be united in our pontificating about the causes of the grave situation in which we find ourselves. Fortunately, the Christmas season can rescue us, at least it is true in my case. It gives me a break from the news of dismay and stirs in our hearts the remembrance for whom we are waiting. The Christmas Carols remind me that it is the Prince of Peace that we await. Therefore, I cannot condone anything that provokes dissension and anger in my heart. Christmas helps me even for a short time to focus not on the rumors of war and famine but in the hope that all these things cannot hinder the Good Shepherd from establishing His reign in the hearts of all people.

The real question is how do we wait for the Kingdom. Maybe a better way to phrase it would be how to wait in hope when everything is falling apart. I ask myself this question all the time, sometimes in prayer and sometimes while I am reading the Bible. I only get a somewhat clear answer when we go to the streets. Everything is clearer when we are in the streets. There is no magic involved here or some deep meaningful insights from an unlikely source. There are just the children and teens. They are there whether there is a war or famine. Their situation doesn’t change. They are always there waiting and most of them don’t realize that they are waiting for something.

Kelly came up to us and asked our help to go to a place to resolve an issue. She was afraid and intimidated to go alone. Suddenly everything seemed clear and simple to me. Wars, famine, earthquake and genocide…all these things will happen despite our ardent protests, however, we have the power to be with Kelly and help her do the thing that intimidates her.

We walked with her to the place and waited an hour in a large empty room that was quite menacing. While we waited, we talked with Kelly and slowly she become a more genuine person to us. She was abandoned in an orphanage because her mother was incapable of taking care of her. She spent her whole life in an insecure environment. She ran away from the orphanage before yurning 18 because she knew that they would have to send her away by then. She has a fear of being rejected. She ran away and they reported her as a missing person. Now she is an adult and we were sitting in a Police station trying to prove that she is not a missing person. Her identity card would not be issued until she resolved this particular problem. She has a fear of being buried in an unknown grave. She doesn’t fear death but she fears being forgotten and abandoned in an unmarked grave. The problem was resolved and she hugged and kissed us before we said goodbye. We went home richer than before because now we have someone new and special in our hearts. Somehow feeling assured that the Kingdom of God does not cease to establish itself despite rumors of…

Jesus foretold all the dire things that will occur not to frighten us333. Jesus never used fear as a didactic tool unlike the rest of the world. He wanted to ensure us that none of these things will change the role of those who await for the Kingdom. We are not to be impressed by the wicked things that unfold around us. Instead, we need to keep our focus on the One who will bring people to help us understand the true nature of the Kingdom of God.

I never grew up in a tradition where presents were exchanged. I never believed that a jolly fat man in red suit came around giving presents to children. As a child, I loved Christmas because it was a time where our homes would be filled with people. It was a time where our Muslim and Hindu and Buddhist friends would come to our house because they wanted to celebrate Jesus with us. Their religions did not make room for this celebration. They came to our household to commemorate the day with us. Our home became the place for people to celebrate Christ even if they did not know Him exactly. Now, I realize that our lives and homes are an opportunity for people to celebrate Christ. It is easy to forget this. I was blinded by the news of wars and famine but thankfully the season of Christmas is here and I reminded once again that the baby Jesus is the reason why I am here. He remains the same despite all the devastating changes that occur around us. Our task is quite simple really. We need to wait for Him while celebrating His life by ensuring that people can see Him in our own lives. Wars, famine, earthquakes and even imprisonment cannot stop us from doing this because this is the Kingdom of God. God comes into this world to live in Us.