A Christmas Message From Bishop Anne
December 19, 2025
Advent and Christmas greetings from South Africa!
Thank you for your prayers as Dr. Beth Elness-Hanson (Wartburg Seminary), Pastor Peter Mannoja (Tanum Forest), Pastor Erik Roth (Christus, Greenville), and I meet, worship, pray and build relationships with the people of our companion synod, the Western Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA).
Our Christmas video this year comes from our synod’s delegation to South Africa and our ELCSA companions. It is a reading of Luke 1:46b-55: Mary’s song of praise, the Magnificat. The Magnificat is full of radical reversals. Lutherans pay attention to all the radical reversals in scripture because we believe that turning the world upside-down is essential to who Jesus is and what he does in the world. Jesus is God “under the form of the opposite”--God with us in places, times and ways that are different from what we might expect from an all-powerful deity. Through Jesus, God is born far from home in humble and difficult conditions; God becomes a refugee, fleeing violence; God is homeless and eats with outcasts and sinners. Through Jesus, God dies on a cross, a fate reserved for the worst criminals of his time.
In Jesus’ time and in our time, human power operates in ways that are very different from this upside-down, opposite God. Mary’s song is a promise, a reminder that human leaders and governments are not God, and that God’s kingdom will prevail. At a time when so many people are facing hunger, homelessness, uncertainty and fear, this promise is not “pie in the sky when we die.” Mary sings about God being faithful from generation to generation, showing strength by giving tangible help and care to people who are vulnerable and suffering: people who are experiencing all of the things that God chose to experience through Jesus.
When I think about the blessings of this season, I have to admit that my mind goes first to the cozy comforts of home–kind of a “most wonderful time of the year” thing. I think it’s pretty common to have that image of Christmas somewhere in our minds. For us as Christians, though, this season is a reminder of blessings that go deeper, and that sustain us and all creation whether or not we’re cozy, comfortable, or home. Jesus is Immanuel, God-with-us, God who frees creation from sin and death by dying with us and giving us resurrection hope: hope for both this life and the next. Jesus is the one who connects us with all creation and makes us one. Being with Lutherans in South Africa this Advent makes those connections in Christ apparent in particularly profound ways, but it’s always true. We sing Mary’s song of praise every year with people all over the world, with nearby neighbors, and with the whole Body of Christ.
Let’s pray:
God, thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ, and for the blessings of this season that sustain us no matter what we’re experiencing in life. Liberate us anew each day with your grace. Free us to be blessings to our neighbors, near and far, and to receive blessings from our neighbors, too. Challenge our conceptions of power and might, and turn our world upside-down with your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Your sister in Christ,
Bishop Anne Edison-Albright
