Second Week of Advent 2010

 

Sunday Dec. Ps. 72 contains material from which we draw traditions about the Three Kings of Matthew 2's visit. what I notice is how socially concerned the king should be. This psalm, along with many other passages, regards justice and help for the poor as the great responsibility of the king. We do well to act out Mt. 25's concern for the least of these in the Holiday season, as we still the Salvation Army bell of conscience by dropping in some coins, we are not only called to charity but to promoting social justice, where the structure of society work to lessen the plight and the numbers of the least of these.

 

Monday Here's another quote from O'Donahue's book, Beauty: "to participate in beauty is to come in the presence of the Holy...spirituality  has to do with the transfiguration of distance, to come near ourselves, beauty, and our God." (121-2) the oft-repeated sense of encountering god in a sunset finds some resonance here. Recall thought, God's beauty resides within human beings too. Where can we discern beauty inside of another?

what does it mean to do a beautiful thing? With the movie, what does it mean to catch sight of a beautiful mind? How do all of these bring us 'near to the heart of god?"

 

Tuesday since Advent starts the church year, it is wise to look at quotes from the secular new year's day. Lamb: Advent "starts a day when it is everyone birthday."Tennyson:"the year is going, let it go/ring out the false, ring in the true; Eliot:"next year's words await another voice/to make an end is to make a beginning; Atkinson:"drop last year into some silent limbo of the past/let it go...and thank God we can let it go."

 

Wednesday-Barth burst on the scene in the early 20th Century to remind us that God is more than humanity to a higher degree. god's way is usually in a disjunction with the way things are. With Scripture's spectacles, we can catch a glimpse of the "strange new world of god" moving into our own. Advent has us look again at the radical reversal of the birth in Bethlehem. it also has us look at the inbreaking of god's way in the world in the apocalyptic sense of god's unveiling of a new way in the world, where god has marched non-violently into enemy territory, into the realm of darkness, to bring light. A good sense of this can be found in Christopher Morse's new book, the difference Heaven Makes.

 

Thursday-Christmas Kid's books sometimes capture the spirit of the season without the treacle of popular adult books for the season. they may not be religious in the sense of replaying the stories from Matthew or Luke. Often, they are profoundly religious as they tie us into the the meaning for the season in some fresh, moving ways, when our ears have been dulled by repetition of the Nativity story too many times. Pick some up and read them aloud, and you may well find yourself in the mood for the season all over again.

 

Friday-Since this is a season here we look toward peace. consider these quotes as part of a long stream that link inner peace with peacemaking. Muste:'When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace." Fulghum:"Peace is not something to wish for. It's something you make;something you do, something you are, something you give away."

 

Saturday-Around 490, the bishop of Tours started a tradition of preparing for Christmas. In many churches, but not all. it was a penitential season of fasting and prayer. Advent customs, such as the calendar and the Advent wreath seem to come from Germany. traditions help to coalesce our memories into symbols. Perhaps no season has as many symbols as moving into Christmas. they can push space for us to live into the season as we practice them.