As my mind began to turn toward Advent this year, a surprising thought occurred to me: that first Christmas set off the greatest systemic change ever when God became one with us – in a stable no less. What a scandal! God became one with us.
A hallmark of successful systemic change is that it involves people from the bottom up. Never did such a change start at a more basic level than when God became one with us so that we might recognize our dignity. I started to think about the “scandal of Christmas”, both in the sense of that first Christmas and in the way I celebrate now.
Something has turned up on the Web that has given me some ideas. It’s called the Advent Conspiracy, an international movement dedicated to restoring the scandal of Christmas by worshipping Jesus through compassion, not consumption:
- worship more
- spend less
- give more
- love all
Simple, but revolutionary. And I can do something now to help bring about this change. Already, I’ve contacted folks to start a conversation about how we can make our celebration more life-giving and life-affirming. I think we’ll be making some changes – even systemic changes. Visit the Advent Conspiracy Web site.
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I sent this to a local parish where I celebrate Eucharist on weekends and they adopted it for Advent and have asked the priests of the parish to speak about the concept of the Advent Conspiracy the first Sunday of Advent. They have already set up an Advent Conspiracy Fund and are talking about splitting the proceeds with their Parish Outreach Fund and a Diocesan Mission in the Dom inican Republic.
At the University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minneapolis), we are planning to use the Advent Conspiracy theme for our monthly St. Thomas More Society lunch next week, with the hope of stimulating dialogue on ways to restore “the scandal of Christmas.” The students with whom I raised the idea today were very excited about the concept.