Waiting for the (un)King: Advent Week Four

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While we wait, we prepare.

This last Sunday's Advent readings have a lot to say about houses. There is an over-arching sense of preparation; getting our "house" prepared for what is to come.

We love having people over at our house. My wife is an incredible cook and we really enjoy getting to know others over meals in our home. But with three kids and a busy schedule, whenever we do host people we usually spend a couple hours cleaning up the messes we've spent all week making around the house! While we wait for our guests, we prepare for them. But sometimes when we rush and fuss over things we find it difficult to unwind, decompress and really present to our guests once they arrive. Have we then prepared appropriately?

The scripture readings seem to allude to something like this as well. We are to be making things ready for the arrival of the King. Yet, in our anticipation do we prepare the right things in the right way? All throughout these reflections, I've pointed out that the (un)King comes in unexpected ways, in unexpected places. This naturally means that Christ comes with hopes different than what we may have anticipated. Does he come looking for splendor and magnanimous reception. Nope. Read the story as told in Luke 2.8-18. His Father brings those things to the party. Not us. Rather, he comes to those that have prepared through the practice of humility and availability. Maybe not intentionally or desired. Certainly, shepherds probably would've preferred less humble and mind-numbing work. But these are who had prepared, who were ready.

What does preparing our "house" mean, then? Maybe it means we cease comparing ourselves, our house, to everyone else's and be the house of our own that we are. Throughout these Advent readings from Sunday, scripture does not concern or compare itself with other houses. Rather, it is concerned with preparing the home through which God will commune with his people. In a rushed and hurried culture, in an even more frenzied season, maybe it means we slow down, make space and practice availability. Maybe it is then that we will truly be able to notice, to appreciate, the coming of the King we await.

In your anticipation this week, practice availability and see how God arrives.

Waiting for the (un)King: Advent Week Three

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NOTE: Sorry for being 24 hours late this week. Yesterday was... full.

Like most of the passages read during Advent, there is something about them that says, "Something good is coming!" Indeed, that is certainly the case. But He who is to come, comes in the most unexpected of ways. And He comes with expectations upon us that often are unexpected as well.

One of the readings this week is from Psalm 126. It cries out for restoration. Restoration of what, though? The psalm longs for the restoration of fortunes. Uh oh. Is this some kind of "health and wealth gospel" nonsense? Are the people of Israel, in this prayer, asking God to secure a certain lifestyle for themselves?

I don't think so.

In verses five and six it reads, "Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them." This psalm is prayed by a people longing for basic sustenance. They walk with seeds out to the fields prepared for famine. But they long to feed their people.

This isn't an individual thing. This is a communal thing. Those who prayer this long for the sustenance of their people, not just themselves. But while the need is for the whole, it is neither the whole nor the individual that provides what it is needed. This prayer (for that is what this psalm is) is prayed next to the reading of Isaiah 64 in which God brings justice to the weak and broken. (Jesus would later read this same passage from Isaiah in a synagogue to commence his ministry.)

The people of God, here, realize that they cannot bring the restoration needed on their own. Only God can. Certainly, they are to participate in his justice, his mercy, his restoration. But they know that it cannot be done without God.

Thus, in the end, Advent is about a kind of waiting that is reflected in how we live. We Christians do not seek our own benefit, we consider--and prayer for--the whole. And this is reflected in how we live. Our fortune are not for the benefit of one but for the sustenance of the whole. In so doing, we reflect our hope. A hope in a Savior that will restore all things and not just the little we can do in our life time.

So, this Advent may your waiting be reflected in your living... in your lifestyle.

Waiting for the (un)King: Advent Week Two

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Advent is all about remembering. Remembering a story. Phrases that start with, "Remember that..." and "Don't forget..." are found throughout Scripture. What is it that we are to remember? In short, the story of the cosmos as told through the lens of Scripture. The Bible provides a particular way of looking at the world. It provides a particular narrative. Like all stories, this story begins in a particular place with a particular people. But it moves out from there, spreading across the globe. It is a story that begins in the particular yet moves towards the universal. That is to say, it is a story meant for all of us.

In the West, we are each taught that we can craft our own stories. And to a certain extent, this is true. We are each individuals, choosing how we will live and responsible for the outcome of those decisions. But we are, as well, always participating in grander stories together. Stories of consumerism, democracy, nationalism, globalization, etc. Some of these narratives are more subtle than others. But they each say something about how we imagine the world to work and how it ought to be and how we believe it will turn out in the end.

During Advent, Christians remember the story of a Creator. A Creator that intends to work with that which he has created to renew, revive and re-imagine all that he has created. And he has gone to the greatest lengths to make this agenda possible. Yet it seems that greatness is defined differently in this story than in many others. Greatness in this story does not come to us loud or dominant. Rather, it comes gentle and quiet. We have to listen and look carefully to find. The lectionary readings during Advent reflect this.

So, this Advent season we choose our story. The story that will define us and shape us. And we attempt to remember that story rightly.

Waiting for the (un)King: Advent Week One

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Warhol was right. There is something about the celebration of Advent that makes Christmas.. more exciting! The acknowledgement of this season in our home has made Christmas more special and certainly more centered on Jesus.
Otherwise, in this season many of us simply fall into the fray of the rabid consumerism.

As usual, I'm going to post a few of my reflections each week during Advent this year. It is one of my favorite times of year. As I have before, I use the term "(un)King." Two years ago, I wrote this about the term:
"Why do I call Jesus the (un)King? Because in all but title, he is unlike any human king. As you read the story of his arrival in the Gospels, you will find a very unkingly story; his first cradle a feeding trough, poor farm hands to announce his arrival and so on. "

Isaiah 64:1-9 is one of today's lectionary readings. It speaks of God's silence and the impatience of God's people for him to show up. It seems a short attention span and a lack of patience is more timeless than we might think. But the Isaiah passage, along with the remainder of today's readings, say something about the kind of King we await as Advent begins today. He is a God capable of the incredible but who loves to work in the quiet, in the shadows and in the mundane.The incredible and sensational is certainly what we would desire, as the writer of this passage does, "Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and descend, make the mountains shudder at your presence." Yet it seems that God chooses not go about his redeeming work in the world in such a way most of the time. Why would the maker of the universe work in such humble tones? Because that is where most of us hide. It's where we hide our brokenness, our woundedness, our inability to make the world what we wish it to be. Isaiah writes, "We're all sin-infected, sin-contaminated. Our best efforts are grease-stained rags." Still, it is us he chooses to work with.

In the Isaiah passage, it says, "You meet those who happily do what is right, who keep a good memory of the way you work." As we enter into the Advent season, remember the Story of redemption, of restoration. Let this story drive us to the quiet places and shadows of our own hearts and in the world around us. May we wait there faithfully. God will meet us there. Maybe not in the ways we expect. He has an affection for the humble and broken, for barns, feeding troughs and day laborers. But he does arrive. And the good news is that his arrival is not based on our patience. The happiness of she who Isaiah writes about in the quote above does not find joy in the fact that she does what is good and remembers well but in the confidence that God will arrive no matter what. That, in and of itself, is good news indeed.

advent: fourth sunday reflection

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Better late than never, right?

Anticipating the arrival of the (un)King
This is my third (I skipped a week) in a series of Advent reflections this year. You can read the first one, along with some notes, here and the second here.

Fourth Sunday of Advent • Luke 1:39-55
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."

And Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear himfrom generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

For Reflection
Mary knows how this story is to play out. Her people have long waited for a liberator–like Moses–to come and save them. Yet, they remain people of an occupied territory; a foreign oppressor, always present. This doesn't even account for the fact she herself is simply a peasant girl, unwed and pregnant. She doesn't know that when she arrives in her fiance's hometown, no family or friend will be able to put them up–they'll end up sleeping in a barn, her new born in a feeding trough. She doesn't know that her young family will end like fugitives on the run, immigrants in another land. She does know the stories of her people, of other women who would bare children in Bethlehem; this could go good, it could go bad.

In the midst of all of this, Mary prays a prayer; sings a song. It is a song that declares who God is to her. But she doesn't stop there. She declares who God is to the people. She probably does not understand everything that is happening. It is probably very unclear how–or even when–liberation will come to herself or her people. It may even seem naive in such circumstances but she hopes.

This idea of hope, better yet "faith" stands out here. But Mary's faith seems so much more real than so many today. For many, faith is something defined in either very personal or very social terms. These two ways of approaching faith grow further and further apart from each other, increasingly seeking to be the antithesis of the other. But Mary seems to first embrace God and through this finds herself squarely placed between an understanding of a good news that is coming, that is intended for the community and the individual.

Why is it that Mary lands in such a place? I think it's because she is resolved to the fact that she is not God. Some like the idea of a hyper-individualized faith because it offers us some control ("I may not know what is going to come of the world, but I know where I stand"). Some feel more comfortable with a liberal, social view of faith because it offers some connection to those things they would still otherwise be passionate about. We want to be in control. We want to be God. I don't think Mary did.

That said, Mary has little evidence that God would save her personally. She has even less evidence that God would save her people. But she trusts that God sees more than she does. She takes stalk in the age-old tale of her people that, "her offspring will attack [the Enemy's] head, and [the Enemy] will attack her offspring’s heel.” The promise isn't that it will be easy and without pain. The promise is that victory will come in the end.

And she believes it.

For herself and her people.

Do we?


NOTE: All of these have been refined from Sunday conversations with the beautiful people that make up the Hawthorn House. This is as much theirs as it is mine.

advent: second sunday reflection

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Anticipating the arrival of the (un)King
This is my second in a series of Advent reflections this year. You can read the first one, along with some notes, here.

Second Sunday of Advent • Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

"The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
'Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

For Reflection
In first century Palestine, I’m pretty sure that hearing or reading this passage would bring Rome’s highway system to mind. The Roman empire is credited for it’s roads. It’s system of highways spanned across the empire. These road systems impacted everyone. It made goods and services more easily accessible. It exposed different cultures to each other. It gave Rome’s military force quick access to it’s many territories.

Could it be that God’s liberation was coming in the form of empire?

But those hearing or reading this passage in first century Palestine would also have remembered the prayers of their ancestors as well: that God would provide a clear and quick path for those dispersed among other nations to come home.

Was God going to free Israel from occupation; establish a self-governing Israel?

Still, others may have seen John’s (referenced above) ministry–calling people to change their thinking and living, to initiation into another way of life (personal repentance and baptism). For those people, maybe they heard this passage in a much more personal way.

If I don't ‘clean up my act’ will I be excluded from God’s plan?

Jesus’ entire life would be a confrontation with empire. Even as an infant, authorities tried to hunt him down. And his closest friends grew perturbed when it became clear that Jesus wasn’t going to establish a free Israel. So, it seems unlikely that the first two questions were what John the Baptist intended. Yet, I doubt the third is wholly accurate either. Jesus frequently associated with people that neither lived the right way or believed the right things.

The passage makes clear that liberation is coming. But do we know how to look for it? Am I the type of person that is so concerned with myself that I miss the kind of crowd Jesus’ is inviting into this liberation? Or am I the type of person that gets so swept up in the agenda of 'my people' that I miss the bigger picture? Or can I be so enamored with the advances of empires (whether commercial, political or digital) that I just don’t notice that something grander might be happening?

advent: first sunday reflection

Advent4

As a way of reflecting on a passage, I often re-write it in my own terms and then ask myself some questions in order to see how it connects to my own life and community. As today is the first Sunday in Advent, I decided to type it out to share with the Hawthorn House folks tonight–with some additional thoughts. Here it is for you as well. Please share your thoughts.

Anticipating the arrival of the (un)King - Introduction
For Christians, the Christmas season is meant to be more than the consumer frenzy it is for most in Western culture. In fact, traditionally the season leading up to Christmas is called “Advent” which means to wait or anticipate. And what do Christians wait for? The arrival of our (un)King, Jesus Christ. The four weeks of Advent are about preparation. While waiting for our (un)King, we consider what it means to follow such a leader, to allow our lives to be directed by such a God.

Why do I call Jesus the (un)King? Because in all but title, he is unlike any human king. As you read the story of his arrival in the Gospels, you will find a very unkingly story; his first cradle a feeding trough, poor farm hands to announce his arrival and so on. As you read the Scripture passages over the next few weeks, I challenge you to reflect on what it means to follow this (un)King and in what ways that might transform you life during Advent in preparation for the coming year.

A Note
For some, the idea of Jesus as God feels like a stretch. People have often debated whether Jesus intended to say this–or if he even did. I’d ask you to set this worry aside. One thing that is clear in the Gospels is that Jesus said, “Follow me.” And he was called “Lord,” a name reserved for Caesar (or the king). Can you follow the way of Jesus? Can you consider him your leader? If you can, do that and let the rest take care of itself.

First Sunday of Advent • Luke 21:25-36
Jesus said:

“When you see great changes in the sky and land,
When governments grow anxious over these changes
When the people make shocking claims of what is to come
When the leaders of nations seem to lose their influence
Then know that a great Liberator, of both the people and and of God, is coming
And when this happens stand up and raise your heads
Your day is coming too

Just as when the leaves of trees turn color at the change of seasons, take these signs as a changing of seasons as well. Know that the dreams of God are coming near you; are closer to becoming reality. Your generation will take part in this dream-come-true.

So don’t get bogged down in the worries of life and don’t drown your worries with excess of any kind. Stay alert and ready to participate in the new way coming. Pray for strength to resist the challenges and capacity to stand with the coming Liberator.”

For Reflection
The passage of Luke is my own “remix.” I encourage you to read it in your Bible and consider putting it in your own terms as well. Don't worry about getting it right. Just write it how you would say it if explaining it to someone who had never read/heard it before. Feel free to read the passages before and after this one to help make sense of it.

When I read this passage, I feel I can relate–climate change, a shift in global power (from the west to the east)–it’s all right there. Sometimes these things can seem quite dismal. But I also see signs of hope; people around the globe doing wonderful things that imagine a different kind of world.  Do you feel you can relate to the “time” Jesus is talking about in these ways?

I love doing things with tangible results. But I'm realizing if I don't do the work of preparing myself, I don't often get the results I want. If I'm not physically fit, I can't reach the goals I desire. If I'm not emotionally and spiritually centered, I'll burn out early during the hard work of activism or mission. If you choose to follow the (un)King, what do you need to do to prepare yourself?

what are we waiting for?

The season of Advent is upon us. A season of waiting, anticipation, patience and preparation. We watch for the coming of our King.

What are we waiting for? Are we waiting for the annoyances of the holiday season to be over with? Are we waiting for an end of the year bonus? Are anxious to see family we rarely do? Are we anxious to see our credit card bills from this month?

Last night, our community wrestled with anticipation in our own lives. Changes, new things that seem to be upon us or just on the horizon. New seasons are hard for so many of us. Not all of us like change. I do. But I've had to realize not everyone is like that.

I remember looking for work after being 'let go' one year. I spoke about it during one of our Advent gatherings with Matthew's House. The anxiety of not knowing when a new job would be found was overwhelming at times.

There's so many things we seem to only learn by waiting. I read an article in Geez that talked about boredom. Americans hate being bored. The classic, whining phrase that has come from every childs mouth, "I'm borrrrrred," is something we all can remember. But boredom is not unlike waiting. We learn patience and we discover creativity. We prepare for what's next.

Why is Advent important? We prepare in Advent. For those of us that have lived without the rhythms, prayers and celebration of Advent it is so easy to find ourselves swept into the consumer fervor of this season. Advent reminds us that this time is not about shopping at break-neck speed. It isn't about rushing from one eggnog filled event to the next. It is about preparing ourselves for the Kingdom come.