Christmas Message

We rejoice in our Christmas legacy and the promise of peace to all on earth. We are partakers and participants in this promise today. Jesus the peaceful One companions with us to fulfill the words of the joyous songs we sing.
 
The Manger represents metamorphosis. Even history was reset to account for what happened before (BC) or after (AD) the birth of the Christ child. The transformation of old to new occurred in an incarnate, conscious life, Jesus, and was magnified within Disciples endowed with the Spirit, across geographies, cultures and eras to impact our world even today with a message of peace.
 
Jesus the peaceful One, the babe in the Manger, was a Seeker from his youth, an adolescent in the Temple asking compelling questions that stymied the Elders who were astonished at his wisdom and intent to know truth more than tradition, Jesus, sojourner in the desert seeking spiritual formation to enlighten his mind, to encounter the Holy, and to immerse himself in the contemplative yearnings of one who surrenders all as a Seeker.
 
He emerged on the shores of the Jordan to consecrate his learnings in an act of covenant that affirmed his life journey to consciously discover his own personal relationship with the Divine. Jesus was baptized, a further experience of metamorphosis in his formation to become the Christ. The Spirit came upon him in the form of a peaceful dove, affirming the bridging nature of Jesus' ministry to transition the old into the new as the peaceful One of eternal history.
 
Today, Jesus, the peaceful One continues to transform and to inspire our own entry into cocoons for our own metamorphosis as seekers. Let us emerge from our chrysalid, our Manger, as seekers of the same Spirit that endowed Jesus with a mission of Peace. May we deeply question for truth, sojourn in Advent to encounter enlightenment and arrive at our Christmas borne anew in the realization of the Divine peace that calls us forth. Peace must manifest through each of us as we follow Jesus the peaceful One from the manger to the resurrection, the culmination of our metamorphosis. May the Christ of Christmas be manifest through us and let it begin with me!
 
“Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me
Let There Be Peace on Earth
The peace that was meant to be
With God as our Creator
Companions all are we
Let me walk with my neighbour
In perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With ev'ry step I take
Let this be my solemn vow
To take each moment and live
Each moment in peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me”

With Meaning,
​
Kerry Richards

Canada East Mission President

---