I love people like Richard Rohr who are so warm and Christlike, and who just say it as it is. I am tired of the way Christians have gone along with the sanitised ‘sweet baby Jesus, no crying he makes’ version of Christmas that we have been fed. The reality is far from that. Let Richard Rohr explain it better than I ever could:

Jesus identified his own message with what he called the coming of the “reign of God” or the “kingdom of God,” whereas we have often settled for the sweet coming of a baby who asked little of us in terms of surrender, encounter, mutuality or any studying of the Scriptures or the actual teaching of Jesus.

This is what you are invited to this Advent. But be forewarned: the Word of God confronts, converts, and consoles us – in that order. The suffering, injustice and devastation on this planet are too great now to settle for any infantile gospel or any infantile Jesus. Actually, that has always been true.

by Nils von Kalm – http://soulthoughts.com