An Advent Collection

An Advent Collection

Advent: It’s time to wait.
For whom are we waiting?

As Christians, we say that is Jesus! This is a Holy Time in our Christian calendar when we might make space for reflection, silence and – hopefully – confront some of the import of the choices that lay before us.

An Advent Collection

If Gratitude is fractured happiness made whole,
then Joy is the outward expression of your Being

̶ UCiM-isms (Dec 12/2012)

Words are funny things – they get misused, overused, weaponised and trivialised. The words of Advent – Hope, Peace, Joy & Love are no different. In fact, recently I have heard such challenges raised in respect to each of these words. And – truth be told – that’s rather hard to hear since they have an explicit connexion with our journey as Christians and, in particular, during the Advent Season!

So what, they’re nice words … right?
They’ve got some fluff to them
and sure they might remind us of some intangible feel-good emotions,
but what’s the big deal about words?

Well … words have power … they literally define reality and the when we wake up to this reality, we realise we have choices. It’d be easy to acquiesce the ‘watering down’ of the Advent words and sort of move on … but then here’s a parallel of what happens.

Let’s take the word pretty … it’s innocuous enough. It’s got that flowery softish-ness to it, right? Well according to Katie Makkai, in this poetry-slam in which language sharpens her challenge, we better take notice because without (re)claiming words and knowing their imbued power, we are basically allowing others to create it for us!

 So what, Joy’s a nice word … right?
It’s got some fluff and sure it might remind us of some intangible feel-good emotion,
but what’s the big deal?

Well here’s the point friends, Brothers & Sisters, doubters & questioners: Joy possesses the power to change not only your world, but those with whom you interact. Joy possesses the potential to face life’s struggles, horrors, celebrations and ultimately its transient nature with embodying in action an internal sense of gratitude. It may be simple to write these words, but it’s not easy to do … and that’s what Advent waiting forces us to confront.

We may like the quaintness of some story about a wee babe en route to change the world, heck transform it! But … yep there’s that nefarious conjunction … the reality is that transformation is not passive! It’s not simply bound to some historical moment in a narrative that some doubt – perhaps even appropriately so. It’s active, it occurs now. It does not occur in isolation, it takes work, it takes you to wrestle with these words, not just intellectually but in your life … what do they mean?

In this case, what does Joy mean to you?
What does it mean to Be Joy?

What does it mean to aspire to discipleship when the world seems,
at times,
bent on tearing itself apart,
objectifying women,
debasing anyone whose sexual orientation does not fit
into a binary of ‘boy’ and ‘girl?’

What does it mean to aspire to discipleship when
people are judged based on the melatonin level of their skin,
the God(s) to whom they owe allegiance,
and which part of the city in which you were born?

Question … that’s what we are called to do in Advent and the answer(s), in this case what it means to Be Joy, determines the trajectory of our discipleship. The answer determines the degree to which we live into the Kingdom to Come now. The answer determines the extent to which the pending arrival of a child is simply some disembodied story or a myth that lives in us to such an extent that it leads us into action …

In this case, what does Joy mean to you?
What does it mean to Be Joy?

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This blog was originally published December 14, 2012
by The United Church in Meadowood