>Kenneth Stevenson in his book Watching and Waiting: A guide to the celebration of Advent refers to a Christmas sermon preached by Austin Farrer. He made the following observations:
We love the exercise of power in ourselves, it is the citadel of our being, our darling sin. We hate it in our neighbours, and in order to escape from it, we take a pathetic refuge in meaninglessness. . .
I don’t think we hate it in others that much – only when it doesn’t serve our purposes. Power plays an important part in the Christmas story. The power of heaven surrenders itself to the earthly powers. A young girl, her husband and a baby are no match for Herod. The powers of heaven come to their aid when they warn Mary and Joseph that they need to fiind asylum in Egypt – but from birth to death Jesus is in the hands of the powers of the world.
Grits and Grains 