Whether we like it or not, the Christmas season has arrived. The creative advertisements in the media speak to the do-or-die-approach of businesses to get customers into their stores. This is the time when shoppers must be on the guard for products that are 'too good to be true'. The price is cheap but there is no guarantee on the quality.

The coming of Jesus is a threat to the powerful. Jesus came into a world that was led by a great faker, Herod! When he was told that there would be a fulfilment of prophecy in his nation that would lead to the birth of a king who would be the real saviour of the people, Herod was terrified. Scholars from the East arrived in the capital city of Jerusalem asking: 'Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews'. At the heart of their question was a powerful statement that, to Jesus alone, ultimate allegiance is due.

This political faker, who pretended to be as devout as those who sought to find and worship Jesus, responded, "Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I'll join you at once in your worship (Matt.2:8)". Jesus was a threat to empire and Herod knew it. He was kept in power only by the powerful army of Rome and the powerful businessmen within the private sector. Herod was not even a Jew but went around being called King of the Jews.

If ever there was a faker, Herod was one! His tenuous authority was clothed in uncertainty and this was made worse when the thought of a rival king made him even more stressed and nervous. This political faker had other plans that involved getting rid of all babies two years old and under. Hundreds of families suffered because of a power-hungry leader who would do anything to prevent his authority being threatened. His evil actions resulted in the first Christmas being a time of mourning for and burial of many children.

For advent 2007 in Jamaica, we have created a political environment in which the public have become fans of hypocrisy and fakers. What is so telling is that the fakers, whether they are peddling watches that do not work, used cars that are of no use, dispensing corrupt political power or giving people false religious hope, they have no shame.

According to my late mother 'dem shame tree dead'! The prophet Jeremiah (6:15) declares that they 'don't even know how to blush'! The author, Stephen Bing, claims that fakers ride under shifting and refabricated banners and are able to fool people at very high and lucrative levels. Don't we know it! Contractors regularly underbid for certain contracts and then they create huge overruns thus holding government and people to ransom!

Get gullible persons

These fakers are populists; they know how to get the gullible trusting persons who are attracted to outward appearance. They promise 'get rich quick' schemes and guarantee visas for the United States and United Kingdom. People who would otherwise use their common sense, surrender their capacity to think for themselves and become pathetic victims of these specialist deceivers. Common sense is a scarce commodity in our environment. Old Jamaica had bequeathed to us some common sense that has now gone out of fashion: "Don't spend more than what you earn and save something for a rainy day!"

The business of integrity has gone out of business. In Jamaica it is no longer a noble ideal to strive for integrity. Everyone is in the business of 'unjust gain' (Jer.6:13) making a fast dollar any which way they can! In some sections of our media, integrity is optional. In their quest for political power have become experts as fakers of truth, they intentionally market lies camouflaged as truth. When leaders are incapable of walking the talk to bring about genuine transformation in society then they seek to falsify it, to fake it.

To do so, they need a strong section of the media that is in ideological solidarity. It appears that our people have become gullible to the fakers and pretenders of economic and political powers of this land but in the end they are 'only playing fool to catch the so-called wise'.

It is to such an environment, like ours, that Christ's coming is needed to expose and usurp the faking Herods that are depriving our people fullness of life. The coming of Jesus has put all rogue powers whether they are religious, political or economic forces in their place. So let us in this advent season, tell all human authority that the top spot of allegiance has already been taken and the coming of God in Christ is a threat to any earthly power seeking to usurp power that belongs only to God. We must on no account give in to worshipping any rogue power.

I am, etc.,

Rev Dr. RODERICK HEWITT

hopeunited@cwjamaica.com

Via Go-Jamaica