Nigeria and the challenge of Christmas

Christmas has come once again, and this time I ask all believing Christians to put themselves in the mood and be determined to celebrate to the full the joy and the peace, the beauty and the glory, and above all, the salvation, which the messengers of hope prophesied – from Jeremiah to Isaiah and from Zephanaiah to John the Baptist, the same joy, peace and salvation, which the angel of good tidings announced on the night of the Nativity to all men and women of good will. I recall some of God’s promises concerning the cosmic equilibrium that would be actualised when the Messiah is born and when he establishes his kingdom of integrity, justice and peace.

The Lord says through Isaiah that “I will make rivers well up on barren heights and fountains in the midst of valleys. I will turn the wilderness into a lake, and dry ground into water spring. In the wilderness I will put cedar trees, acacias, myrtles, olives. In the desert I will plant juniper, plane tree and cypress side by side…” (Isaiah 41:18-19).

Again, Isaiah says of the new dispensation when the Messiah takes the throne: “The wolf lives with the lamb, the panther lies down with the kid, calf and lion cub feed together with a little boy to lead them. The cow and the bear make friends, their young lie down together. The lion eats straw like the ox. The infant plays over the cobra’s hole; into the viper’s lair the young child puts his hand. They do not hurt, no harm, on all my holy mountain, for the country is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:6-9).

And Prophet Zephaniah describes the jubilation that would accompany the Messianic times in the following words: “Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has repealed your sentence; he has driven your enemies away… The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult with joy over you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance with shouts of joy for you as on a day of festival.” (Zephaniah 3:14-18).

Inspired by the above passages which we constantly heard during the preparatory period of Advent, let us be determined to make the most of the holy season of Christmas this year. Let us allow God’s word of power to come alive in us. Let us allow God’s word of promise to take flesh and become effectual in us and in our immediate environment, the prevailing circumstances of our country, including the worsening fortunes of our people, notwithstanding. Let us be determined to celebrate in faith and hope, the joy and peace, the beauty and the glory, which are the endowments of the Infant King, even as the entire framework for economic, political, social, emotional and psychological wellbeing in our society has become degenerate, throwing the multitude of people into desperation, and sending many to their early graves.

Let us be determined to embrace the peace of the Infant King even as terrorist gangs and killer bandits take effective control of swarths of the Nigerian territory, as those in government continue to prove themselves incapable of protecting or defending the helpless population. Yes, I say, let us be determined to embrace the peace of the Infant King even as scores of Nigerians die of stampede at food stamps, while a privileged few among us revel in conspicuous consumption, and shamelessly intimidate the rest of the population with what is often ill-gotten wealth.

Let the Christmas bells ring. Let the Christmas carols be staged with passion, even though many politicians have continued to perfect their game of manipulation and subterfuge and the callous merchants of misery that control and dominate our commonweal have become ever more relentless in the ruthless desecration of all that is good, in the violation of all that is noble, and in the destruction of all that is valuable. Let us be determined nevertheless to celebrate Christmas this year with hope, and make the protracted midnight of our national exigencies a providential milieu for the hatching of new dreams, and for the fostering of fresh visions of a land of justice, unity, peace, security and prosperity.

Let us be determined to celebrate a Christmas of joy and peace, even as we have watched with utter consternation the scandal of Nigerian fathers stealing food off the hands of their children, and the irrationality of Nigerian mothers mortgaging tomorrow for the fleeting pleasures of today. Let us be determined to join the chorus of heaven to sing “Glory to God in the highest” and “Peace to men and women who are God’s friends,” even as those who should take responsibility for the future generation are propagating decadent social values at every level and instituting a legacy of shame in the psyche of the young people.

Through the dark tunnel of primitive feudalism, executive lawlessness, elite impunity, high profile roguery, the politics of greed, acrimony, and gangsterism, as well as the inept and profligate leadership under which we find ourselves, complicated as it is by the apathy and despondency of a largely conquered population, let us light the torch of rejuvenation and liberation, and celebrate, even if only in faith and hope, the wholesome and vibrant youth population which the young Jesus of Nazareth inspires.

All year long, we have witnessed our worsening fortunes as a people, and we have agonised over the plight of the victims of greed and the casualties of debauchery in our land; yet let us jingle the bells and roll out the drums at Christmas. Let us celebrate the joy of the incarnation and savour the abundant life which Jesus of Nazareth brought to the world, if only in faith and hope. Though our countrymen and women are living daily in mortal fear due to heightened insecurity, and though they are devoid of the basic needs required for wholesome existence, this Christmas should not go without major celebrations.

If there is little to rejoice over on the material plane, let us move on to the spiritual level, the level of faith and hope and declare a feast. True, on this level, the level of prophetic imagination, we can celebrate the triumph of good over evil, the supremacy of light over darkness, and the ascendancy of resilient truth over pretentious falsehood; for we must appreciate the fact that all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, the victory of Christ’s civilisation of love over the prevailing logic of power and control, is as sure as daylight follows the night.

As we celebrate a Christmas of faith and hope, therefore, let us make a renewed commitment to live by truth, the truth that sets one free. Let us make a renewed commitment to pursue religiously the Kingdom values of love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, non-violence and peace, for which the Son of God became man, and for which he gave his life. I challenge you all who count yourselves among followers of Jesus Christ, to reject today the cult of the self, the cult of pleasure, the cult of power, as well as the cult of mammon, and strive to live meaningful and purposeful human lives, lives devoted to the service of God and neighbour.

To be continued tomorrow.

Rev. Ehusani is of Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, Abuja