Christmas, Advent....Keeping Watch - Finding a purpose in the wait...

Here it is the middle of December and I’ve put nothing about Advent or Christmas on this blog yet!  It’s been a strange season so far.  A large part of me longs for the days when my kids were little and the biggest question of the season was, “When can we open our presents?” Although I hated that question when they were younger because I never wanted Christmas to be about that.  So much feels in flux this year, and holds ambiguous waiting within it. I guess that’s exactly what ADVENT is all about. - Waiting, unsure of the how, if or when?

To appease our kids while they waited for Christmas we used things like an advent calendar which held little surprises – usually a sweet chocolate - for each day, or maybe a routine, like reading a Christmas book every night before bed.  Whatever it was, it kept the fire of anticipation stoked, refocused their gaze and reminded them that although Christmas is not here yet, it will be soon!  They were too young to really know why it was such a big deal that God showed up on the scene as a baby.  They just knew Christmas was special - goodness and love showed up for the day, and who doesn’t anticipate that?

To be honest, I don’t have much anticipation this year.  I feel caught somewhere between “Come thou long expected Jesus” and “Deck these stupid Halls with stinking Boughs of Holly” ….fa-la-la-la-la-la is about all I can come up with. 

Perhaps in the chaotic suspense I've become numb and cynical.  Its wearisome waiting for life to somehow make its grand appearance and certain things to be made right…Waiting for direction, waiting for relationships to be healed - ones that despite my best efforts remain as is. Waiting to know if my dad’s stem cell transplant will work.  Many of you, like me are waiting for things too sacred to share.  Humorously, even our car is in flux as we wait to find out if we can drive it come January, and if Volkswagen will correct their rather blatant “oops” in their diesel vehicles. 

In some form or another we all wait.  It is the human condition.   We “second-advent” wait for God to bring our stories to completion in His.  Stories that when we look too far ahead lack direction…stories that are rendered incomplete and less than perfect for the time-being, with chapters we would like changed.  These are the stories Jesus entered in first Advent when he took his first breath in a mucky trough.  They were "waiting stories" that long searched for deliverance.  Yet God purposed the wait.  He was preparing a people for himself - a people who did not know the when, if or how.  As Jesus came ‘in the fullness of time’, many could not discern his arrival.  Only a few recognized the events as sacred….they were the ones who kept watch and stayed patient in the long pause.  They were the ones whose eyes may have been weary yet they found a way to steady their gaze, open the windows of advent and taste for a moment the sweet goodness to come.   How do you and I, in the midst of sacred anticipation and chaotic distractions, wait well?

Isaiah 40:3-4 says to prepare a way for the Lord, make a straight path, every valley be raised up and every mountain made low.  There is a purpose in our waiting.  This 'already - but not yet' life is preparing a way for Jesus if we let it.  Mountains, valleys, crooked paths…these are the things that inhibit our ability to receive the arrival of God.  Pride shows up (as it did for the Pharisee) in the high places causing us to look down upon fragile flesh.  Shame finds secret refuge in the valley, mocking our sacred self of all that needs redeeming and tells us we could never be worthy.  In our waiting, we become bored and distractions turn up to divert our path. We shift our gaze and try rewriting a chapters we don't like.  But what if we stay…what if we stay long enough through the boredom and the muck to let God enter our shame and love-level our pride?  What if we let Holiness companion with us through the crooked wait and discover the long awaited gift, the present, is actually his presence…. sight comes.  A star high above appears and journeys us further up and further in to the heart of God.  Our story, swallowed up into His, is redeemed. 

So let us wait…let's crack open the door of our shame and let love in. It won't be pretty but through it God will birth beauty.  Let's listen to our heart and own its arrogance that says, "I am better", and let;s fast from entitlement…lets look for windows of goodness and love happening in the mucky ordinary…and let us ask the Lifter of our head to set our eyes to the sky to keep watch for the star... and we will journey – one step at a time – to Him.

"Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along the way.  If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter.  He does our praying got us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.  He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God.  That's why we can be so sure that every detail of our lives of love for God is worked into something good."  Rom 8:26-28

Labeling

Have you ever mislabeled something?  Boy I have!  Once, I was leaving to take a few things to the thrift store when I noticed that one of the bags did not feel quite right.  Upon looking inside I found a bag of leaves meant for the green –garbage that was picked up the day before. I had mixed up the bags!  If only I had checked before I labeled them!  Now a bag of clothes meant for the thrift store sits wasted in a refuse pile across town.   I am struck by the power of labeling.  I made an assumption about the contents of the bag based on the label I had given it.  The problem is that the label was wrong and it caused me to hold on to the wrong thing and throw out what was good.   So what am I getting at, you ask?

“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, 'Raca,' is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." Matt 5:22

            Jesus warns the religious people not to call their brother a fool or say to them “raca” because it labels them.  When someone is labeled a fool it gives others permission to dismiss him as such, without regard to his intrinsic worth.  The term “raca” literally implies spitting with disgust.  To say “raca” is to show deep contempt.  Neither scenario is acceptable before God because of the attitude within the heart.  But here’s the kicker!  In Matt 12 (see link at bottom) Jesus goes on to say that all sin shall be forgiven, except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  When I was younger I used to worry that someday I would somehow “blaspheme the Holy Spirit” ending up in hell when I died.  The verse always bothered me and I made a few attempts to explain it to myself but nothing seemed quite right until I considered the whole context of Jesus' message. I had not considered the context of Jesus’ words until recently.  Jesus was not saying that for the most part God will forgive you, but if you happen to commit this one “unforgivable sin”, then it stinks to be you - there’s no grace for that one – bummer!  Honestly, it sounds ridiculous when put that way, but it’s what I believed and I imagine some of you have too. So let’s look at the context. 

Jesus is dealing with religious opposition coming His way.  He was saying that as soon as you label something that is intrinsically right, true and good, as “bad”, you prevent yourself from ever receiving the benefit of its truth, righteousness and goodness.  It was a warning to the Pharisees and religious leaders about labeling the movement of God among them.  

If they labeled Jesus as bad they could not receive His good because anything He said or did would become suspect to them due to the label they had placed upon Him - much like the way I mislabeled the bags in our garage.  Only in this case it was a label of dismissal and contempt that called Christ and what He did as "of the devil".   It caused them to reject His message altogether.   Then, of course it would stand to reason that they would be in danger of “eternal damnation”; but not because God, in offence, decided to hoist them off into a fiery pit.  It was because they postured themselves against the good news of Jesus.  Included in that good news was the promise of the Holy Spirit to all who chose to follow and embrace Christ as Messiah.  John 14:25-26 says, “All this I have spoken while still with you, but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.”  How can the Holy Spirit teach one who is unwilling to trust His instruction?  But then again, the Holy Spirit would not be theirs in the first place because they had rejected the vessel through which it came – Christ. 

            Something happens when we label.  Assumptions get made and opinions and meaning get rooted.  Sometimes something is labeled poorly or without regard.   I threw out what was good and accidentally saved what was bad because I mislabeled it. The pharisees did the same; only with much higher consequences.

            How do we mislabel things?  I see it happen in the church all the time.  We hear a term and make an assumption around its meaning then throw out the good that can be received from the teaching because we misunderstand it.  We see someone associated with another and uncharitably label either of them and miss out on the potential of shared community in Christ (and we wonder why we feel isolated at times.)  Sometimes we label something as "bad" because it makes us feel uncomfortable even though we're not sure why.  I wonder what I would have done, given all the same ingredients that the Pharisees had.  Would I have labeled Jesus in the same manner as they?  His words were so disruptive and often broke the cultural and religious rules.  How would I have responded to the movement of God they were encountering?  What are the disruptions that I label as “bad” now? Is it possible that the cultural and religious rules that have become sacred to me are actually blinding me to the gift of Jesus himself?

These are my thoughts and I’d love to hear yours J  

Here's the link to the passage mentioned

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+12%3A22-37&version=NIV

Lord, open my eyes to your kingdom work in and around me - I want to follow you.  May I hold nothing sacred that would prevent me from fully acknowledging and following you. - Amen.