By Jack Alvey
Alvey is the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Selma.

During the season of Advent at St. Paul’s we pray, “that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.”  For the uninitiated in liturgical traditions, the season of Advent is typically known as the time when Christians prepare for the birth of our Savior.

Drawing from the traditions of early Christians, this season is also a time when the faithful prepare for the Second Coming. While I am not predicting the imminent return of our Lord, I do find that a focus on the eschaton is a reminder that God’s story of salvation is still ongoing in the flesh of all people.

The season of Advent and Christmas is a reminder that the same God who was born in a manger 2,000 years ago is being born in our hearts today. The story of salvation that God has made known fully in Christ is a story that is still being worked out in our lives and in the life of the world.  In other words, the story of salvation is ours for the taking.  Even in the darkness, we have a story of hope to cling to. However, our world looks more like it is clinging to a story of despair and hopelessness.

This observation has been crystallized over the last few weeks in light of terrorist attacks in Paris, Beruit and California. While it is not too surprising that these shame and fear based responses have come from the mouths of politicians, I find it very troubling that many who claim to be Christians have engaged in the same kind of fear and shame based rhetoric. Fear and shame have caused Christians from both ends of the spectrum to engage in hate speech, prayer shaming, fear mongering, name calling, hysteria, the politicization of the gospel, and even the manipulation of scripture for their own agenda.

As Christians, we of all people should know there is only one agenda that God cares about and that is peace on earth. We are not a people shaped by a story of fear and shame. We are a people shaped by God’s story of hope.  Of all people, we should know that even when evil does its worst, God gives life on the other side (not only in heaven, but on earth).

Ultimately, we should know that love has and will prevail over evil because Jesus, the one with perfect love, is risen from the dead.  God has given us a story that has the power to release not only ourselves but the whole world from the grip of fear and shame.

As we prepare for the coming of the Savior, I pray that our divisions may cease. I pray that we stand together and live as a people fueled by God’s story of hope given in the One who endured even death. I pray that our hearts are filled with the knowledge of salvation so that we may respond to a broken and suffering world with the hope that God’s salvation is being made available to all flesh in the face of Jesus Christ.