In the Bible, “tribes” were not just family groupings. They were identity, belonging, and responsibility. The twelve tribes of Israel carried history, promise, and purpose. Each tribe is distinct, yet called together under one covenant.
During Advent, the word tribes invites us to look at the ways we gather today.
In a fractured world, we still form tribes—political tribes, social tribes, church tribes, online tribes. We build walls around “us” and “them” without even noticing. We gravitate toward voices that sound like our own and stories that feel familiar. Comfort becomes our border.
But Advent interrupts that instinct.
Advent announces a Child who would be born outside the safety of any tribe’s comfort. The Christ child was born not into power, but into vulnerability, not into tribal dominance, but into costly love. He did not come to strengthen the walls of one tribe; He came to tear down the hostility between them.
The prophets said the Messiah would gather the scattered.
Not just one tribe — but all the tribes of the earth.
Advent is a season of waiting — but it’s also a season of reimagining belonging.
What if our deepest allegiance was not to the tribe that feels safe, but to the kingdom that makes us brave?
What if we saw strangers not as outsiders, but as future kin?
What if the Church became less about protecting a tribe and more about welcoming the hurting, the ignored, the forgotten?
Jesus was born into a lineage of tribes — and yet he came to form a new family:
not by bloodline,
not by culture,
not by agreement…
…but by love.
This Advent, may we loosen our grip on the tribes that divide us and open our hearts to the Christ who unites us.
Because in his kingdom, the borders fall,
the tribes kneel,
and every tongue finds its true home in him.
Inner Altar 