Advent 2017 - Christmas Lights Part 2

1. The Light of Justice

2. Justis

3. Justice
“bring real, bodily concrete signs of hope to the present world”
the fair and equal treatment of people

4. Leviticus 25:10
“Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty
throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a
jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family
property and to your own clan’.

5. Micah 6:8
“He has told you, O people, what is good; and what does
the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

6. Luke 2:1-7
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a
census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This
was the first census that took place while Quirinius was
governor of Syria. And everyone went to his own town to
register. So Joseph also went up from the town of
Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of
David, because he belonged to the line of David.

7. Luke 2:1-7
He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to
be married to him and was expecting a child. While they
were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she
gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in
cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no
room for them in the inn.

8. Matthew 2:13-18
“When the magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to
Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his
mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for
Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So he got
up, took the child and his mother during the night and left
for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so
was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet
“Out of Egypt I called my son”.

9. Matthew 2:13-18
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the
Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys
in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and
under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the
Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah
was fulfilled. “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and
great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and
refusing to be comforted, because they are no more”.

12. Justice
something we do

18. A Franciscan Benediction
May God bless us with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that we may live from deep within our hearts.
May God bless us with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of God's creations
So that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

19. A Franciscan Benediction
May God bless us with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.

20. A Franciscan Benediction
And may God bless us with just enough foolishness
To believe that we can make a difference in the world,
So that we can do what others claim cannot be done:
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and all our
neighbors who are poor.
Amen.