Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, grace and peace to you in this blessed season of Advent!
As we reflect on the profound mystery of Christmas, our hearts are filled with both the beauty of the season and the painful realities of our world wounded by ongoing conflicts and despair. The land where Jesus Christ, the prince of peace, was born remains engulfed in turmoil. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East and several regions across the world are marked by extreme levels of violence, destruction, and loss of countless lives. These conflicts not only devastated human lives but deepened the scars on the planet, which is already groaning under the weight of exploitation.
Today, the fragility of our world is a stark reminder of our shared vulnerability. Families are displaced, homes are reduced to rubble, and lives are cut short. Democracies are becoming dysfunctional, nations are turning towards authoritarianism, and the very fabric of our existence is increasingly becoming fragile and vulnerable.
In such a time as this, what does it mean to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, a vulnerable child in a humble manger? How does this fragile incarnation speak hope into our wounded world? Human fragility and the earth’s vulnerability are not failures to be overcome but sacred truths to be embraced.
Christmas invites us to the radical mystery of Kenosis—God emptying Himself, taking on human fragility, and entering into the brokenness of our world. In the vulnerability of a newborn, Jesus revealed the power of God’s solidarity with the suffering humanity. His birth under the shadow of socio-political and religious oppression was a divine proclamation that love, compassion and care are the true solutions to the cycles of violence and despair.
By taking human fragility and being born into this world, Jesus became Immanuel, God who chose to be “with us” and became vulnerable in sharing our sufferings. By becoming Immanuel, Jesus also expressed the strongest form of love. God in Jesus is a God who is “weak in power but strong in love”. This love is not passive; it is active and transformative.
As Professor C. S. Song affirms, God did not come to sit on a throne but to live with the people. A compassionate person does not hide or flee from those suffering but chooses solidarity with them and share in their suffering. It is because of such compassion that Jesus chose to be with us.
Jesus’ birth teaches us that compassion is the pathway to healing and justice. It also teaches us that true strength is not found in domination but in the willingness to love and show compassion. The story of Christmas challenges us to see the suffering of others not as distant tragedies but as shared burdens that call us all to respond. This is the kenotic message of the incarnation that we need to embrace.
In this season, when the shadow of conflict darkens our societies, we are reminded that Jesus’ birth is actually to confront the world’s brokenness with courage, love, and compassion and to bring peace. This is how we can spread the transforming hope in this broken world. This hope takes root in the community. It grows when we stand in solidarity with those who suffer.
As a global community of churches in mission, let us recommit ourselves to the work of reconciliation and care. Let us embrace our shared fragility as the foundation for a more compassionate and just world.
May the Prince of Peace be born freshly in our hearts and through our actions, inspiring us to create a world where every person and the planet itself can flourish.
I wish you all a peace-filled Christmas!
Rev. Dr Jooseop Keum
General Secretary, Council for World Mission