Christmas 2001


The rough beast slouching
toward Bethlehem,
still waits to come to term.
Christmas comes and goes
as we expect.
Nothing changes.

This year in New York, Jerusalem
and Kabul,
the Innocents are slaughtered
according to Herod's schedule.
His rage, unchecked,
still does its work.

Yet this year
things could be different.
September 11th adds urgency
to the
birth,
making this the time of choosing.

The choice is ours
to miss the point or
see Mary and her child
in every mother and her baby,
and adore, absorbing
the rage and terror
and with a loving heart
rebuild the world,
making peace our gift.

May Christmas come.

Alan Jones is dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California. He can be reached by email at alanj@gracecathedral.org


Related Links:
Read an interview with Alan Jones, "Faith is a Work of Imagination," from the July/August 2001 issue of The Witness, Reimagining Faith and Action.