Well, it seems that I actually get to this blog about once a month, which is certainly less than I'd hoped. If only there weren't so many real world needs, distractions and concerns! First, let me say, Happy New Year! Yes, I know it's December 3rd. However, for Christians, the Church calendar just restarted last Sunday with the beginning of Advent. We've also moved into the second year in the three year lectionary cycle. That means that the controlling Gospel for the year is Mark, where everything happens euthus, which is Greek for immediately! Mark is sort of a rapid fire prologue to a powerful passion narrative. There's no Christmas story, no detailed temptation during Jesus' spirit walk in the wilderness, and far fewer parables. Mark is so terse that next summer we'll use a big selection of John texts to fill in the calendar.
If you never lay eyes on the Advent texts, it's easy to assume that a Christian celebration of the season of Christmas is all about a "Silent Night" image. Offering up Perfect peace, quiet, and Mary glowing and reveling in her infant son. We can imagine a silent baby who radiates holiness and a watchful stepfather who guards his family. We can cram a pile of thoughtful shepherds, gift giving wise men from Persia, India and Babylon into the tiny cave. We can even find spots for a fat jolly elf in a red suit with a cold (or maybe he's been tippling? how else do you account for the red nose and rosy cheeks?) and a Syrian boy with a drum who is a conscript into the occupying Roman army. Well, I suppose throwing in Santa and the Drummer Boy are a bit unfair, but sometimes we try so hard to synchronize not only the two Christmas stories (Matthew & Luke) from the Bible, but also pop culture information we've collected along the way.
Yet, if you look at the texts for Advent, we have the prophet Isaiah last Sunday begging God to "tear open the skies and come down", crying out for God to rock this world and shake us to our sinful core. Next week it doesn't get any rosier, we have a prophet in a smelly camel-skin urging people to repent before the mighty messiah arrives. If you've ever taken time to get to know some homeless people, you've probably met John the Baptist. He/She was the one who in his/her total deprivation of self seemed to understand the real mess our world is in and who knew just how desperately we all need saving. Fortunately, there's plenty of language in the readings that speaks to God's ability to redeem and reshape us.
In Isaiah 64, the prophet confesses that "You are the potter and we are the clay", God can remold our lives. And in this Sunday's texts Isaiah again proclaims reconciliation.
40:1 Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
40:2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
For Christians, Christmas is about "Advent" or "arrival". Hence the name of the preparatory season before the Holy Day. It's about the "first advent", the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem during the reign of Tiberius, because his life and ministry flow from that event. It's also about the "second advent", the promised day of Christ's return and the elimination of death. And in between those events, it's about the "little advents", the signs and events that remind us that the Divine is breaking into the world. Those little advents, like the sacraments, the confession of faith of a new believer, the free service to neighbor, the proclamation of God's Word, the rebirth of a person's faith, the anointing with the Holy Spirit, all point in the direction of God's movement. Not away from us, and not stationary waiting for us to claw our way up, but down to meet us, right where we are in order to transform our very selves.
Peace and a Solemn Advent!
