Refugee, Exile, Alienation – Home Advent and Christmas present positive images of Peace and Love. It’s striking that the Gospels don’t edit the story of Jesus’ birth for sweetness and uplift. The event of Jesus enters the long story of human separation, alienation from God and each other. God strives to bring us back home, to reality, to real life. We’re refugees who enjoy our exile and have set up life in it with our own power structures, pretending all is fine. Exile is all there is. We don’t need a Creator. Alienation hits every level: our hearts, relationships, societal/ political structures, a break of earth from heaven. Can anything really New break in?