All of you know that New Year's Day is January 1st. Many of you know that the Christian calendar begins with the first Sunday of Advent, which this year was November 28. So from November 28 until January 1st we are in-between new years. It makes me think that while we know Jesus wasn't actually born on December 25 that there is not a more appropriate time of the year to celebrate the birth of the Messiah.
The Apostle Paul teaches us that the coming of Jesus marks the birth of a new age. We live between the now and the not-yet. We live in the midst of the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God. We see glimpses of a new age, a new community, a new kingdom, while we cope with the realities of the hardship and disappointment that come in this world. It makes sense that the Christian calendar and the standard Gregorian calendar don't line up. Jesus' birth gives us hope that, in Augustine's words, the City of Man will give way to the City of God.
May these final days of 2010 bring us closer to the end of the "now" while the first days of the new Christian year bring us closer to the "not yet." May we live as though a new year, a new age, has already begun!
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