Advent 1
Advent began early for me this year. Like many, I grew up with no awareness of Advent. This season between Thanksgiving and Christmas is mostly controlled by consumer culture and a false image of what a happy family should look like. Expectations abound of beautiful meals, pretty decorations, plenty of gifts, familiar customs and a huge outlay of resources to create an experience of abundance and delight. It can be both exhilarating and exhausting.
In contrast, individuals and congregations who still practice Advent have a different focus. The service becomes quieter, and the music takes on a minor key. There is the trembling light of candles and the deep blues and purples of the seasonal colors. The themes we encounter are ones of active waiting, of staying awake and alert, of expectation as we watch for signs of the inbreaking of God’s presence and God’s ultimate reign of love and justice.
My Advent began October 27 when I arrived at a contemplative Christian retreat center on a small island off the coast of British Columbia. For one week, I would be mostly alone and silent. The cabin I stayed in was next to the retreat lodge but I cooked my own meals and met up with others only during the twice-a-day contemplative prayer sessions in the sanctuary.
For anyone who has been busy, over-stimulated, and exhausted, the change from constant noise and activity to silence and isolation can be dramatic. This too can be the gift of Advent. By removing, rather than adding on, we open ourselves to the ways that God breaks into our lives. There is space for the Spirit to open our eyes, ears and hearts to what She is up to when we aren’t paying attention or are distracted by many things.
There are glorious sunrises over the mountains of British Columbia. The moss and tiny mushrooms bloom as if in a fairy land. In the depths of the sea, whales, seals and otters along with all the various sea creatures pursue their lives and purposes. At dawn and dusk the birds sing in the trees or cry out in the sky. By shutting down some of the many distractions that fill our daily lives, there is space for reflection and room for God’s gifts of beauty and insight.
Our Advent practice, whether it be here on Sunday mornings, in our homes with the daily lighting of the candles and a time for prayer, or the decision to refrain from some of the pressures and activities that complicate our capacity for real joy and peace can bring us into a place of waiting and anticipation. Maybe we don’t have to make it all happen ourselves. God is constantly at work creating and recreating, offering the gifts that we often overlook, speaking if only we might be quiet enough to listen. “Let all mortal flesh keep silence…”
At the same time, Advent engages us in the cosmic purposes of God which are often at odds with the reality we live in. In this season we are faced with the stark difference between God’s dream and vision for creation and the ways of our world. We are to keep awake and pay attention, not to turn aside from or cover up evil and suffering. No amount of early Christmas cheer or Norman Rockwell paintings can paper over war, poverty, destruction and pain. Advent gives us the opportunity to leave behind the habits and addictions that numb us and separate us from our connection with all of creation.
The second part of my early Advent practice woke me up! I travelled halfway across the world to Thailand, my first trip to Asia. From the quiet and beauty of a grey and green island in autumn, I arrived in a foreign land filled with light, color, smells and tastes that were intense and overwhelming. Every sense was on high alert as I worked to interpret foreign tongues, learn my way around cities crowded with cars, buses, tuk tuks, scooters and people and figure out the time change and currency conversion.
I love that Scripture is full of images for God’s Kingdom that use the metaphor of cities. Isaiah promises that God will build a city on a hill that all nations will stream to. Here there will be no more war and conflict. Here people of every tribe, language and nation will dwell together in peace. They will be prosperity and abundance for all. God will heal our divisions and restore the land.
In Thailand I visited Bangkok, a city of 18 million people, the fourteenth largest in the world. I travelled by a deeply muddy dirt track to the village of a mountain tribe and then trekked miles through the jungle to see one of only a couple of thousand Asian elephants still living in the wild. I saw Buddhist temples with Hindu gods, holy monks and Chinese wisdom teachers. My birthday was celebrated at a fabulous resort next to the sea and one of my final meals was sitting on the floor in a traditional wooden house in the mountains eating food cooked over an open fire.
When there is so much going wrong in the world, the temptation is to shut down, to stop listening to the news in order to protect mental health, to focus on what we think we can control and what brings comfort. But Advent breaks open the greater world and the plight and destination of all nations. Advent is not partisan or nationalistic. In Advent we enter God’s deep concern for all nations, all creatures, the planet itself and ultimately the entire universe.
One night in the jungle when I had to crawl out of my mosquito net, leave the hut, and crawl down the mud stairs to the outdoor toilet (phew!), I was awake enough to pay attention on the way back. Above me the clouds had opened and there were the Milky Way and constellations I didn’t recognize. There was no artificial light, no sound of human habitation. There is a vastness to this universe that only God comprehends. There is a far greater purpose than my pea brain can even imagine.
Advent is a reminder that we are to be dissatisfied with the world as it is. God is breaking us out of our boxes and safety to engage with a greater reality. In Romans Paul counsels us to avoid our numbing habits of reveling and drunkenness, along with our petty practices of quarreling and jealousy in order to focus on what matters.
In travel every sense is alive. So much is unfamiliar and strange. Survival depends on paying attention. For instance, I didn’t know that in Thailand they drive on the left side of the road, just as in England. Believe me, after one nearly fatal false step I paid close attention at every road crossing!
I think that is what Jesus is encouraging in the passage from Matthew. Be awake. Be prepared. The world as we know it will be shaken and changed. There is much that is not under our control. But we can wait and watch and work for God’s Kingdom now.
The ultimate message and purpose of Advent is to draw us into hope. Yes, the world can be a scary and overwhelming place. Yes, there is so much going on that we don’t realize, understand or control. Yes, we see what is wrong with the governments, systems, communities, families and our own lives and we feel powerless to change things.
But we are people of relentless hope. Hope that doesn’t come from wishful thinking, blind optimism or reliance on human capacity. Our hope comes from a God who never gives up, who has created us in love and beauty and is working towards the fulfillment of that vision. Our hope comes from Christ who chose to live with us, to remain with us by the power of the Holy Spirit and to join in compassionate suffering with all who are victims of our broken world.
Hope is independent of circumstances. Hope comes to us from the future, from the promises of God and in the knowledge that Jesus will never leave us alone and will return at the appointed time. Hope is the source of the vitality, energy and courage we need to move towards the restoration, peace and flourishing of all people and all creation.
My dear ones, God is here with us, giving us the strength and courage to live into this radical hope and to watch and wait for the movement of God’s Spirit. Amen.