AIDS & Advent

Today is World AIDS Day. A time to focus on suffering around the globe. And here we find ourselves in the first week of Advent - a time of waiting for Christ to come - a time of wondering what God is calling us to in this season. I have Good News! We need not wonder any longer! We are called to Love! I know this photo of a man dying of AIDS on a street in Bangladesh is disturbing but I need to be roused from my complacency. After a wonderful Thanksgiving, and time spent Christmas shopping with my daughter. After whining about having to cut back on my spending this year, I look at this photo and it stops me...

As he waits for someone to help him.
As we worry about our dwindling 401K's.
As he calls out to God.
As we trample one another to get into stores to purchase bigger TV's.
As he despairs.
As we wait for what?
What is God calling us to?
LOVE...

"World AIDS Day, which we acknowledge on December 1st, is not another insertion into our liturgies of a cause we might make a contribution to. Rather, it is the invitation from millions of suffering people around the world to wade into the messiness of their annihilation, waters where Grace pulls us under our competency, breaks the surface of our sufficiency, and bites us on the ass of our assurance. Most all that remains after Grace has her way with us is one another, which is more than we have going for us on the shore."
The Rev. William Blaine-Wallace, rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Boston, Mass.