Solid Ground - The somewhat different Advent Calender XIV ...

Friday, Dec 14, 2012. We are in a time of preparation for Christmas - it is the advent season. But what is all this leading to? Are we building on solid ground? Where is solid ground to be found?

Building on what? …

What is it we are building our activities on? What is the starting point for our arguments? What is the basis of our life?

As a scientist, I have been thinking about the basis of arguments a lot. Mathematicians base their proofs on axioms - they need a solid ground to start arguing and proving. Physicists take the experiment as their basis - but to interpret the experiment, you need theory, and to set up theory, you need an understanding, you need a description of what you think reality is. You need a model … usually in mathematical terms.

But life is much richer than physical theories. What is it that we use as the basis of our decisions, of our thinking, of our words and feelings? I realized that the ground we build on and the target we build towards is strongly connected. It might even be the same. Humans tend to set up their arguments (and their feelings as well) towards some goal or target.

The offer of Christmas …

Christmas offers us a basis for our life, and a goal for life as well. The basis of life is God, coming into his creation in Jesus. He is there, he is God, he is the beginning and the end. The ground of life can only be the grace and love of God. In Jesus, this grace comes to us. He invites us to come to him and be with him, forever. Christmas is the offer to build your life on the child Jesus, on the young man Jesus, on the crucified Jesus, on the risen Jesus.

In him, beginning and end come into coincidence. In him, we experience a phenomenon which perfectly fits our human ways. We need the task, to focus our life on. And we need the basis of life. Both is given to us in Jesus, and Christmas celebrates his birth and his life.

We might ask: how do we participate in the solid ground? How do we participate in the task. It is by faith and through faith. It is by life and through life. Tell him, that you want him. Ask him, to fill your spirit with his spirit. Go steps of discipleship. Search for Christian community. And trust in his grace, a grace full of wonder and possibilities, in all difficulties of life and death! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts