A December Meditation

On this second Sunday in Advent, here's the meditation I intend to use at the office prayer meeting tomorrow:

December again, all reddy
Oh yes it is, the year’s behind
And winter brings a pantomime
To the season of myths and mellow tackiness.
Red indeed is colour of the month
-from Aids Day ribbon to party bow, the year ends up
in heaving pillar box and cheery cup
While one ruddy fellow brings festive goodies
one silent night, to tots with teddies.

So why, so often, do I feel blue
Like Oxford Street lights, while waiting for you?
Is it because, I ask myself,
The message is lost
In the indulgence and wealth
Or is it because, while wishing good cheer
Nothing changes, from year to year.
As African children are forced to fight
For some twisted cause their elders think right

And workaday journeys end up in death
For innocent souls in their carriages beneath
And family upon family, every day, faces grief

So can we have Christmas, with minds so often green,
While news cameras show, an ever more evil scene
Can we believe, like kids seeking Santa
That you’re the real thing- not Coke, nor Fanta

Oh yes we can, we know, it’s true
That still there is hope- but only through you.
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord” said John
announcing your Advent, the boy-king now grown
Brings life in its fullness to those who would hear
A gospel of love- not message of fear

We celebrate Christmas, and life lived more fully
Since you o’erpowered Satan, the beast and the bully
For Christmas is red, as remembrance’s poppy
Since life comes from blood, from your crucified body.

A helpless baby came into our world
And Heaven’s banner for all unfurled
Promising new life through a name we can trust
Though ashes breed ashes, and dust turns to dust
So your birth is the reason, your rising our dawn
For white-lit ovation, of Jesus that morn
The Word was made flesh, beheld for a time
That we might find reason, find purpose, find rhyme
This Advent, Lord Jesus, please set us apart
To find in your coming, true place in our hearts.

Amen