...As we prepare to celebrate Jesus' birth, let us not overlook the extraordinary features of this 'kingly' birth - an unmarried virgin mother, who is forced to travel because those in power wanted to know how many people were under their control; the announcement to lowly shepherds in the fields and a trio of wise men from afar, of the birth they are privileged to witness, in animals' stable because Mary and Joseph could not find a decent shelter.
It is from outside the proud corridors of power that John [the Baptist] prepares for the Advent of Jesus with a clear Jubilee message - a message echoed throughout the gospel. The valleys are filled, the mountains are flattened out, and that which is crooked is made straight. This is not environmental restructuring, but a social restructuring, restoration and levelling, to bring God's plan into action. It makes clear that the powerful and rich of society derive benefit from the systems of power, but also that these are maintained at the expense of the poor: "thy kingdom come, thy will be done".
The profit motif of these systems is at odds with the community of restoration and common life that the early followers of Jesus established in their endeavours to "make the paths straight". We read of this community in the Acts of the Apostles:
Acts Ch 2, v42 - 47:
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.... All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
...Surveying our own Advent landscape in KwaZulu-Natal in 2009 for prophetic signs, we are compelled to call for repentance, for the paths to be made straight. The contours and content of the sins of our times are mapped out in the struggles of ordinary people against the forces of oppression or even death: