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.
We use too many words … we fill our spaces with loud sounds, the clanging of cymbals, blaring of MP3s intrude the silence … we have more distractions than we know what to do with & they numb … they numb us to the point that we forget our longings, our prayers, our hopes … Deep down, in those moments when suddenly the glaring of the screen or the ringing of the cell phone halts, can you hear it, can you hear the whisper, can you hear the calling, the beckoning?
Starfields
Too often, as Christians, we get stuck in thinking the work, the social justice, the giving & the doing are to what we are Called. Not that the digging & praying are not important, but Advent is an opportunity to reconnect with something central & core to our being & a recognition that it is by Grace that we are transformed & renewed. Grace, that gift freely offered to each of us without qualification, regardless of what we do …
Do you feel something missing? Does it feel as you walk into each day, through your routine that is perhaps more rote than choice that something is wrong? Do you turn on the news & see images of pain & suffering, sorrow & sadness & have an inkling that this is not right? That something is not quite fitting into what you imagine the ways things should be & the way we – as a culture – have fashioned our reality?
What does this Grace look like? Do we want to seek it? Do we want to be transformed from a person filled with doubts & questions, brokenness & addictions into something whole & new? Are we willing to let go … truly let go?
On that imagined, literal, mythologised Christmas Day whose truth transcends superficial discussions of ‘actuality,’ something happened to those present. This wee babe, surrounded by the poor, the marginalised, foreigners & the lowly, ushered in something radical. The men & women, the discarded gave themselves up & experienced the revelation of the Hope of this child & experienced Grace, which did not judge them according to their race, age, gender, wealth, ability, sexual identity or orientation. They awoke in this child’s presence to the core of their being, which defies words & remains dully defined even in poetry.
Are you ready? Do you really want to meet this child? Do you really want to awaken to a reality outside of reinforced self-focused individuality & confront our interconnectedness? Do you REALLY want to realise that all of Creation is your neighbour – that you are the rocks & leaves, the cats & dogs, the baying donkey & the crooning Mourning Dove? Are you prepared to embrace that what you do to another LITERALLY causes you harm or care depending on the choices you make?
2000 years ago, people – men & women – began to give up their lives for renewal & rebirth into a family that was not segregated or stratified. A family that was egalitarian in nature, open to the gifts that we all possess as the Children of God & as a result they went out into the world, with a star announcing the child’s birth knowing that their very lives had been gained & that losing them no longer mattered.
Should you find yourself in worship during this Holy Season, should an offering plate come your way, should you hold it in your hands with quivering expectation, know that should you be prepared to let go & seek Grace freely offered, a response is no longer an obligation or expectation, but simply one way that you begin to live a life of gratitude & action. The Christ is coming: do you really want to meet him?
Your reflections are most welcome!