Advent, Week 3: Thursday - Saturday

Recommended readings from the fourth Sunday of Advent (from the Revised Common Lectionary):
Micah 5:2-5a
Luke 1:47-55 or
Psalm 80:1-7
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

God is turning the world right side-up! To me that is what the Magnificat (Mary's song of praise) is all about. God has regarded our helpless state (as sinners all), and has helped us by sending us a Savior. This is what we wait for (symbolically) during Advent. We remember the first waiting for Christ, we recall our own helpless state before we first welcomed the Savior into our lives, and we wait again for the Savior's return.

What I find fascinating is that Mary, a first-century Jew, sang about this coming as present fact. Though only in the beginnings of her pregnancy with the Holy Child, she celebrated what God was doing, as though it were already done. The longer I live, the more confused I tend to get about the yet-not-yet-ness of God's Reign. I suspect that this is because God has already accomplished salvation, even as in our time and space-bound reality, Christ is still reconciling all creation to God. Sometimes I see it as God having "turned loose" salvation in our time and space and it's a glorious, complex, seeing-it-only-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-canvas work in progress. Sometimes I just say "thank you" to God and leave off wordering about it.

Too seldom, however, do I sing for joy because of God's mercy in working salvation in our sinful world--and in sinful me. Dear God, accept today my echo of Mary's Magnificat. You have helped your servant Israel, and specifically you have helped, over and over again, this least of your ingrafted servants: me!

Holy is your name, and holy is the Child about to be born, again, in our midst!

Advent, Week 1: Friday

Recommended readings from the second Sunday of Advent (from the Revised Common Lectionary):

Malachi 3:1-4
Luke 1:68-79
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6


Read Luke 1:68-79, then Luke 3:1-6.

Jesus would later say that there was no greater human being than John the Baptist, yet even the least in God's reign were greater than he. Riddle? Perhaps. Yet in the paradox, we can find a challenge to us today. It is one thing to "prepare the way of the Lord," and another to live in that way. John knew very well that his task was to announce the coming of the Messiah. But Jesus didn't tell people to announce his coming; that had already occured. He told us all to follow him and to do all the things that he taught.

So the question, at least for me today, is this: Will I talk about the Kingdom, or live in the Kingdom? Similarly, it's easy for me to say that I'll live a Kingdom life, yet I must do the actual work of living it.

The other thing to remember is, not everyone who is invited into God's reign will be convinced by our words about it. Yet another reason to live it as well. There is a place for gracious words; the Holy Spirit within us can be trusted to guide us when and how to speak them. That same Spirit will guide our actions as well.

Will the people I meet today, know that they've met a Christian? How will they know? Lord Jesus, help me live "a life that becomes the gospel" today, for your sake.

Advent, Week 1: Thursday

Recommended readings from the first Sunday of Advent (from the Revised Common Lectionary):

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

Luke 21:25-28 "There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (NRSV)

The return of Jesus promises to be the ultimate "big event." It depends on who Jesus is to me, whether I will experience his return with eagerness or with terror. And I don't mean how I understand heaven and hell, sin and punishment. I mean simply, how will it be for me to experience the phenomenon itself. Will I be "afraid, very afraid"? The signs will be awesome (in the old sense of the word). Will I recognize them for what they are? Will I be so familiar with Jesus that I will trust him "even so"?

I suppose none of us can really know the answer to that, but I do expect to swallow the very real human reaction of fear, in order to watch eagerly the coming of my Lord. I expect the signs his return to take me by surprise, because he told us clearly that none of us may know the exact time. But I also expect to recognize those signs. They don't have to be literally the same as the various examples we're given in the apocalyptic passages of Scripture; apocalyptic is not meant to be taken literally. But with the Holy Spirit's help, I will recognize the signs. I will recognize Jesus. I will recognize the long-promised redemption of God in its fullness.

Meanwhile, there is Kingdom work to do. That's why I expect to be surprised when the signs present themselves. Being busy about God's task means I don't have the idle luxury of time to spend on fruitless calculations of days and hours, or literal would-be interpretations of figurative passages. Study, yes, but not for the sake of "cracking the code." I'm called to study for the sake of knowing God better through knowing the words of God found in the Scriptures. By learning with this as my goal, I will be better equipped to work ever more faithfully in my Lord's coming Kingdom.

Come, Lord Jesus, and by your help may I be found faithful upon your return.