Christmas
December 15, 2024
Discussion
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Ask questions or share thoughts about the Jiang’s “affordable housing” cause and/or Habitat for Humanity.
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Share your thoughts on how the idea of incarnation in the mess of each of our lives and in our collective groups and families, relate to this cause.
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Does “no room in the Inn” and “the flight to Egypt” bring housing security and refugee causes to the forefront in your individual Christmas observances? Have you seen these causes acknowledged in larger society around Christmas?
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Seeing the Kingdom of Heaven active in the world-at-large is under the surface of many public celebrations with religious roots that are now dominated by commerce. (Ex: Halloween interaction with neighbours, Christmas charity donations, Pre-Easter Lenten “almsgiving”). Has this ever led to meaningful conversation/action with your family, friends, or other groups you’re a part of? Do these holiday social phenomena give you hope for the future?
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Do you find Jesus’s incarnation into not just a physical body, but into human injustices challenging? Do you find it comforting?
Additional Material
Material listed here is intended to enhance discussion. The inclusion of these materials is not an endorsement of their authors or the organizations publishing them. We encourage you to fact check any claims made in these materials.
* There is a disclaimer for the "O Holy Night " video below.
One Way to Change the World
* We include the "O Holy Night" video here because it has some meaningful incarnation themes focusing on unhoused people and includes the ".... all oppression shall cease" abolitionist stanza of this carol that is sometimes excluded from other artist's performances. However, The creators of this music video are reported to be members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. While we believe everyone can have a meaningful experience of the love of Christ in all sorts of religious and non-religious groups, linking to this video is not an endorsement of Mormonism. There are very few racialized people in this video (the Pogues video above it also has this issue). Racialized people make up a significant part of the homeless community in Calgary, and Jesus himself was not white. Until recent decades, the Mormon church has propagated explicitly racist theology. These problems, however, are not a direct commentary on the actual beliefs of the creators and performers in this video which are unknown to us.