My son Steve’s family recently owned Callie, a very smart dog. Among her tricks was the one where Steve would set a treat on her nose and say, “Wait…wait for it”. When the dog heard “now”, she’d snap it up. Well, OK, lots of dogs do this. But when Christmas is so close that we see it cross-eyed, it’s a real trick to wait! The Church adopts a counter-cultural stand as we insist on a four-Sunday period of anticipation. The assigned lessons for this First Week of Advent may help the worshiper to focus on the actuality of the ChristChild, even as we wrap him in lights & tissue paper.
What, exactly, are we looking for? Isaiah of Jerusalem begins us with some promises (2:1-5). He speaks of the centrality of the New Zion, where the pilgrim may hear God “teach us his ways and that we may walk in [God’s] paths.” This Supreme Judge will re-balance world affairs; and as a result, the nations will be able to “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks”. There will be no reason to learn war anymore! Implements for taking life are transformed into implements for SUSTAINING life….individuals, too.
Wake up! says Paul to the Christians in Rome (13:11-14). Not necessarily a prediction of an immanent apocalypse, the message is one of alertness. If the believer lives in a constant state of expectation, a Holy Presence may be seen all around. Why look for the Future, since the Advent is already here? Get on with it, says the Apostle. Put on some serious ethics: we’re already citizens of the new age.
The Gospel of Matthew is introduced for this Christian Year: Jesus reminds his group that no one really “knows” the Day of the Lord–so keep awake! (24:36-44) Lives and relationships will be changed…and are they not already? The Disciples have asked the foil-question: “So where IS God; and why don’t we notice more?” The answer is one of developing faith; and in the process, becoming faithful. Jesus turns the conversation away from the temporal to the eternal, once again transcending human measurements and boundaries.
The Advent Season does us a major favor by insisting that Good Things get even Better after we process them in a waiting period. This concept is quite foreign to our current desire for instant gratification. But Advent is more than a parlor trick for doting relatives; we’re plunged into a period of changing our minds, again and again, about where to put the ChristChild.
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown King
My thoughts about scripture lessons for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com
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