Opinion

Grace has increasingly become my lens for reading both scripture and other people. I have come to think grace—the wildly undeserved favour dispensed by God—is the most important feature of the gospel.

New Year’s Day is often a time we reflect on the events and experiences of the past year. It is also the time we look forward to what might lie ahead. 

Since Will Braun’s strong editorial in the December 1, 2023, issue (“What kind of peace church are we?”), the pages of Canadian Mennonite have included some passionate responses. 

This is a good thing. Perhaps I’ll add one more.

I begin with a story.

Becoming an intercultural church does not happen by accident or by wishful thinking. 

It takes a lifetime to create space in which everyone can gather and be welcomed, celebrated, integrated and reconciled to God and one another. 

The question was how churches in North America could directly communicate their support to Palestinian churches. It came during a December 18 call that Mennonite Central Committee convened with four Palestinian pastors and several dozen North Americans.

Pastor Ashraf Tannous unmuted, then muted again; he hesitated and hedged, eventually responding with uncommon candour.

“That’s great!”

That is my usual response when I speak with individuals and churches who name a desire to engage their neighbourhoods more actively, or to be a mission presence in their community.

And yet, at some point in every one of these conversations, I need to ask the question, “Why?”

This most recent December terrified me.

Moving to Toronto in the first year of the pandemic and certain events since mean I haven’t made many social connections in this city.

Last year was a tough one. Global concerns raged around us, including images of climate crisis and state-led violence that continued to swirl.

I watched my church community formally come apart, by vote, in a deeply divisive scenario.

Most of you have heard, and likely agree with, this statement: “You can’t put God in a box.”

Of course, this means you can’t be put in a box either, for you are made in the image of God. If God doesn’t fit in a box, neither do you. Yet we often put ourselves in boxes. We limit ourselves and confine our identities.

Advent in light of current events

We have entered the days of Advent. It’s usually one of my favourite periods in the church calendar, but this year, the waiting is heavy.

The candle is a tiny flicker in a world of darkness, and Christmas music rings false with its promises of joy and celebration.

Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation.

Christmas says that Jesus became a human; a baby who went through the terrible twos, puberty, the teen years and a carpenter’s life.

In the words of what might be my favourite song about incarnation, “What if God was one of us?”