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GOD IN THE REAL WORLD - December 28, 2025

"After they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt..."  (Math 2:13)

"The Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to daughter Zion, see your salvation comes, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him..." (Isaiah 62:11)

 We had Christmas Service on Christmas Eve.  We have opened all the gifts we ever need by Christmas day.  We have eaten royally.  We have celebrated with family and friends.  At least some of us have done these "have dones".  There are those who have not.  That is the reality of the world.

Now, four days later, we return to the real world, the everyday world.  Here in the reality of world affairs we are confronted.  The news of the world has not changed in a week.  We have neighbours who are lamenting losses of homes and livestock.  We have neighbours who are sick, broken, relying on health and welfare services for urgent help.  Worldwide there is poverty gripping masses of people.  Families are huddled on foreign soil as refugees from famine and flood, war and violence.  There is little protection for the children in tents and makeshift shelters in the cold and wet winter.  The cold of indifference is just as chilling.

The real world demands that the bills of Christmas get paid.  Rent and mortgage still need to be met.  The real world continues to demand the highest price for the lowest needs.  The world continues to fight wars and face terrorism.  Natural disasters continue day by day...

This is the world of the fourth day of Christmas.  This is the day and days to come in which God is acting.  This is the day that angels call out to us, messengers of the Creator telling us that it is in the reality of the real world that we are to be tools of love and hope and joy and peace.

In a dream a man is warned to take his newborn child, take the mother, and go rapidly to a foreign land.  Fleeing the brutal reality of an evil and powerful king, Jesus, the saving One is saved.

A few years later the ministry of the Nazorean took place.  This ministry takes place in an all too real world.  The teachings of Jesus equip the followers of this Teacher how to live, how to be together, how to share and care for one another.  This Promised One is executed in a harsh and real world.  And we are now the followers of this Son of God.  We are the ones who live today with the Resurrected One, guided by the Spirit, to confront the world we live in.

Paul wrote to the Galatians, and to us, "Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith...(Gal 3:24)

And then these words:

 "Now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian" (Gal 3:25)

Yes we live in a real world.  And yes we have confrontations to overcome. BUT we have hope and peace and joy and love of the Birth of Christ.  This gift is within us and is equipping and forming us that we may confront the realities.

 That gift of God, that gift of beautiful faith born in a manger, confronts the real world.  This faith goes on giving, giving warmth to the cold ones, food for the hungry ones, shelter to the homeless ones, healing to the sick and brokens ones, and courage to the refugees.  God's gift is still with us four days after Christmas.  The world yearns for, cries out every day to hear of, to be touched by the gift of God's Son's blessings.

Our faith, our daily faith, is what the world will hear and see as a measure of God's love for all Creation.

The angel came to Joseph and Joseph's faith protected the baby Jesus.  Yes, hundreds were not protected, the innocent ones that continue to be counted among us today.  The angel came, that messenger of God's Almighty presence, giving us a message every day to loudly proclaim:

"Daughter of Zion, see your salvation comes, his reward is within him, and his recompense before him."

We are the messengers of God in the reality of the world of this day, every day.  May God help us so that we do not fail.

Fr. Art