It’s that time of year again. The stores are stocked. The presents are being purchased. Gifts are being laid under the tree. And 8-pound, 6-ounce newborn infant Jesuses are displayed as inflatables in our yards and nativity sets in our homes. 

Of course, for most folks outside of the church, the Christmas season is merely a time of gift exchange, family get-togethers, and other holiday traditions. And, let’s be honest, it is the same for many churchgoers. 

But the season of Advent is a season of preparation for a new form of rebellion against the status quo. “Advent is the subversion of imperial power. As such, Advent will always confront earthly empires, bringing God’s disarmed peace, which arrives like a baby to an ordinary couple in an insignificant town on the edge of the empire,” said Kelley Nikondeha on the CBF Podcast Conversation. 

Nikondeha is the co-director of Communities of Hope, a community development enterprise in Burundi, and a journalist contributing to Red Letter Christians and SheLoves Magazine. She’s also authored “DEFIANT: What the Women of Exodus Teach Us About Freedom.” We visited with her to discuss her new book, “The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope.” 

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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the Associate Executive Coordinator of CBF North Carolina. He’s also served as CBF’s Church Start Specialist, the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton, and the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge. Follow on Twitter @haleandy.