Endings and Beginnings

Read John 1:1-5

Advent and Christmas represent the start of a new year in the church, but no matter how often I remind myself of our liturgical calendar, I can't help thinking of Christmas as coming at the end of the year. After all, the whole culture around us is built upon an annual calendar that ends on December 31 and begins on January 1. Somewhere along the line, the church decided the year should begin with the first Sunday of Advent, which this year is December 3. Because of the confusion, I always end up thinking about beginnings and endings around this time of the year.

Christmas is such an important celebration of our heritage as Christians that we pull out all the stops, have special worship services, go all out in decorating the church and our homes, spend extra time in prayer and meditation, and, each in our own ways, mark the time as significant. But is Christmas an ending or a beginning?

The Christ child is born at Christmas. Is he the culmination of God's plan, the fulfillment of prophecies from of old, the new Adam, the new Moses, the new David? Or is he the beginning of something new and different, a radically different way of understanding God and what God wants for us and from us? Or is he both? Or is he neither? When is an ending a beginning, and when is a beginning an ending? Is God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or the God of "Behold, I make all things new?" Remember the Word was at the beginning...with God...was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And the Word is still among us, and within us. And everything that is, and everything that was, and everything that ever will be, springs from the Word. Is the Word beginning or ending? Is it past, present, or future?

Do you remember making mobius strips in school? To make a mobius strip, you cut a long strip of paper, twist it a half turn, and fasten the ends together to form a loop. Now trace one side of the strip of paper...you will discover that the mobius strip is a geometric anomaly...a one-sided object. It is a continuous object with no beginning and no ending. Start anywhere, go any direction along the strip, you return eventually to where you began, yet you have traversed the entire length of the object.

Somehow, I think the mobius strip would make a great symbol of the Christian life. Every beginning is an ending, and every ending is a beginning. The calendar marches relentlessly onward, but each Christmas dawns as gloriously new, filled with possibilities and potential. God calls to us anew every day. And though our Christmases are many, each time it comes around, we meet the Christ again. I think this year I will find some colorful paper and make from it some mobius strips to hang on my tree...as a reminder that in God's wondrous scheme of things, beginnings and endings are blended, past, present and future are merged together, and there is no such thing as sides.

--Peter Perry