Why Advent?

Jeremiah 33:14-16

 

A number of years ago I had a church member come to me and say, “I will see you in January. The Methodist start singing Christmas carols right after Thanksgiving and the minister preaches happy sermons about angels, shepherds, and wise men. You like those dark Advent hymns and scriptures. I need more Ho-Ho-Ho in my Christmas.”

I can understand her frustration. We like Christmas to be that break from the ordinary where we run away from our reality by thinking a baby born in a born is going to make everything perfect. Of course we shop till we drop, indulge in all those foods Dr. Oz said were not healthy, and go out way too often. By January 2^nd, other than having gaining fifteen pounds and misusing our Visa Card, nothing has changed.

So much for Ho-Ho-Ho.

Maybe this is why before opening presents and singing about Mama kissing Santa, I like to spend some time reflecting on the songs and stories of Advent.  Advent is dug from the harsh soil of human struggle and dashed dreams. The stories emerge from a landscape where sin reigns supreme and it seems hope has gone on vacation. And yet, in the midst of the darkness, like that sliver of light seen before the dawn, we receive the promise of the emergence of a new day. To fully understand this promise, one cannot skip to the conclusion. We must have time to slowly chew on what God has promised. We must taste the stories and the songs in order to discover the world of yesterday is not so foreign from our everyday lives.

But this adventure should not begin without a warning. Jeremiah is not the book you pack for your summer vacation. On the surface, Jeremiah is the writings of a soulful, some would even say, delusional man, who correctly predicted the destruction of Jerusalem. But the reason the writings of Jeremiah survived are not because of his ability to gaze into a crystal ball and see the future. Truth is no one, not even the king, felt Jerusalem could endure the onslaught of Babylon. The reason Jeremiah’s writings survived are because in the midst of horrific destruction and death, Jeremiah could visualize the dawn.

“The days are coming when God will fulfill the promise to the house of Israel. A righteous branch shall spring up from the seed of David, and God will execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

What good is a promise when you are living in the valley of death?  A couple of days ago I sat with a woman whose son has been deployed to Syria. He is a helicopter pilot who transports Special Forces Units in and out of the desert. She said, “He loves God and attends church regularly. I know God will take care of him.” I was speechless. No words could give comfort to her fears. Even thanking her son for his service seemed a bit artificial. People who live in the midst of death face a world few of us ever encounter. Such was the situation of Jeremiah. He knew the odds were very good that he would die in the coming days. He also knew there was nothing he could do to avoid this fate. King Zedekiah summoned the prophet to the palace for words of hope. The King asked if he should sign new treaties, refortify the city, or bargain with Babylon. Jeremiah replied there was nothing the King could do. Actions of the past had sealed the fate of the future. Zedekiah responded, “Then what good is God.”

Jeremiah responded, “Give thanks to the Lord for the Lord is good. God’s steadfast love last forever.”

That ishardly what anyone wants to hear. In our moment of darkness don’t we all want to know what God is going to do? We want God to protect us. We want God to rescue us. We want God to deliver us.  The Advent response is, “Yes God will”, but not necessarily on our time table or by the means we might desire.

The promise of Jeremiah was, “There will come a day when people will not live through strength and power but rather with justice and righteousness. There will come a time when people will live in peace, when they will not fear the stranger. On that day people will open their arms to the powerless. It will be a day when trust replaces fear and truth is spoken freely.” 

The skeptics among us might ask, “When has there ever been a day when strength has relinquished its grip allowing the defenseless to be lifted up?” That is when the dreamer, or perhaps the one with the heart of a poet will respond, “When is it ever the perfect time to have a child?”

Madeleine L’Engle wrote,

        This is the irrational season

        When love blooms bright and wild.

        Had Mary been filled with reason,

        There’d have been no room for the child.

 

Mary was a virgin. Now for those of you who want to get into a discussion of Mary’s virginity, feel free to debate the possibilities of having a child without intercourse during the coffee hour. But this isn’t a story about biology. I believe Mary’s virginity was cerebral. The idea of anyone deciding to have a child is overwhelming. Childbirth radically changes life.  In the case of Mary, perhaps she looked at the Galilean landscape with all the political intrigue of Jerusalem and thought, “Who would want to bring a child into this mess?”

But our God has a habit of creating something good out of our chaos. Mary saw birth as impossible. But God’s imagination exceeded the limited vision of a young woman already crushed by her perceived reality. Mary could imagine nothing beyond a society controlled by power, greed and ultimately fear. But God announced a new creation in which justice and righteousness would spring forth and the child would be called the Prince of Peace.

Listen to the poets. Sing the advent carols. They have not been limited by pragmatic eyes. They perceive with hearts released to the likelihood that God can still do a new thing. The miracle of the virgin birth is that Mary opened her closed mind Godly possibilities. Mary accepted God’s vision by giving up the virginity of her limited imagination. The she sang, “My soul rejoices in the Lord for God will bring down the powerful and lift up the lowly. God’s reign will be one of justice and righteousness.”

So why celebrate Advent? Why not just go straight to the tree and the dinner table? Because Advent affords us the opportunity to lose our virginity.  We have convinced ourselves that life is predictable. We believe nothing new can happen and even if it did would it really matter. We are stuck in our reality fearing change, suspicious of anything thing new and most of all accepting death. Then along comes Advent reminding us that God has never been limited by our lack of hope. Out of the ashes of Egypt, and Babylon, and Jerusalem, God created a new day. Do you really think God stopped confronting chaos when the biblical message was complete? Surely you can remember one time when you broke through the rigidity of your own expectations?

THAT WAS GOD AT WORK. Spend this month dreaming. Spend this month visualizing a new creation. Allow yourself to become impregnated by the imagination of God.      Amen.