Weeks before the assault on Paris in 2015, I had managed to secure an apartment for my family. My own experience of terror has powerfully taught me that truth firsthand. As Fleming Rutledge describes, the Scripture of Advent is “infused with the language of darkness, tribulation, and apocalypse.” We wait in the dark for the coming of the light.
To grapple with the terror that surrounds the nativity story is to take seriously the season of Advent, that period before Christmas when Christians long for the intervention of God in the midst of suffering. The advent of Christ’s peace was not a peaceable affair from cradle to cross. 2:16, NRSV) reminds us of the mass terror that was unleashed upon the innocents in response to the birth of Jesus. Herod’s horrifying call to genocide against “all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under” (Matt. Joseph fled to Egypt in the middle of the night with wife and child, newly made refugees, at his side. Instead of a military guard, God sent angelic warnings to a carpenter in his dreams. Rather than seeking refuge in the dignity of a palace fit for royalty, Christ joined the company of the stable. The womb of a humble, young virgin girl was joyfully adopted as suitable for his coming. What can we say and do in the face of terrorism as Christians? How do we find the words at such unspeakable moments?Īs the sounds of Christmas carols ring in our ears, delicious smells waft through our kitchens, and the bright decor of Christmas fills our homes, it’s easy to forget that terror also punctuates the story of the nativity.Īt the heart of that first Christmas story is God incarnate breaking into the terror-filled catastrophe of the human condition. The Taliban’s abusive treatment of Afghan women, as well as the violence against children, may leave us at a loss as we consider the magnitude of these problems.
Most recently, we have been watching the Taliban’s rapid takeover in Afghanistan, as it brings the country to the brink of economic collapse and certain widespread starvation.īillions of funds have been frozen by the international community in order to force the Taliban to improve human rights and particularly women’s rights. Sadly, these devastating milestones of senseless violence have far from passed us by. Ten years later, I was in Paris on a research trip when the 2015 terrorist attack took hold of the city. I was out of college and in my second year at Princeton Theological Seminary when the World Trade Center was attacked just an hour’s train ride away.Īs a St Andrews doctoral student living and working in Cambridge, England, I experienced the trauma and heartache from the environs of London during the 7/7 bombings of 2005. It might seem like a strange thing to say, but my adult life has been consistently marked by the terrorist attacks of our era.