Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Dec. 7, 2010


“Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution”

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010
                This week’s readings are the stuff of revolution, and Mary the mother of Jesus is the most radical of them all. We are making our way through Advent and sinking deeply into the visions of change that are found in both the Hebrew prophets and the gospels. It is all about change.             

Background on this weeks readings:
Isaiah 35:1-10
                Here is another of Isaiah’s great visions of the restoration of Israel after the Babylonian Exile. Isaiah is in three sections and although this is part of the second section, scholars suggest that it was probably originally within the last section, which is filled with hopeful visions of the restoration of the nation.
                But this vision does not begin in the nation. Rather it begins in the wilderness. The desert sands are the first to feel the relief of God’s blessing. Water in the wilderness was such a strong image of relief for a desert dwelling people. But then the prophet moves to the personal: those with weak hands, feeble knees, fearful hearts. There will be relief for the returning exiles. And finally after another poetic description of relief for the land, he turns to the nation. A highway, the Holy Way will be built, and it will be a safe way for everyone to stream to Zion.

James 5:7-10
                In Advent, the readings often flip from waiting for the ancient vision of restoration to be fulfilled, to the early Christians waiting for the return of Jesus. Here, in James we have the latter, in a message of patience. Unlike some of the more wild apocalyptic approaches, James takes a much more evolutionary approach to waiting. As a farmer waits for the crop to be ready to harvest, so it is as we wait for Christ. There is a slow, evolving process going on- one of maturing, growing, ripening. And then, according to James, the time will come when Christ shall return. But in the meantime, use the farmer’s kind of patience.

Luke 1:47-55
                And in our gospel reading, I have chosen the optional reading from Luke which includes Mary’s Song, the Magnificat. As the story is told, Mary has received an angelic visitation during which she was told that she is pregnant, and that this child would be especially blessed by God. Her cousin Elizabeth has also become pregnant in a miraculous way, and Mary goes to visit her sister. When she arrives, the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps and Elizabeth, in a moment of ecstasy, pronounces Mary blessed among women. The reading for today is a revolutionary poem Mary is said to have spoken.
                It may feel odd that these people seem to speak in poetry and ecstatic pronouncements, but remember, this is epic story telling, and this particular reading is very reminiscent, if not quoting from Hannah’s song (1 Samuel 2:1-10) when she has discovered she is miraculously pregnant.
                But hear also the content of the song. This is political stuff, and the stuff of revolution. The poor are lifted the powerful dethroned and (my favourite line) the proud are scattered in the imaginations of their hearts. The hungry are given good things and the rich are sent away empty handed.
                 

Some thoughts
These readings have always been come of the most inspirational texts in the Bible for me. I am a big picture person and I like change, so I am inspired by these visions of change. Frankly I struggle to imagine Mary waxing so poetically when she greets her sister, but as the gospel writers told the story, the visions inspired by the coming of Jesus harkened back to the ancient visions both of returning exiles and of ancient mothers of the faith like Hannah. Clearly Jesus, his teaching, his presence, and the way his life bore witness to God’s liberation and life for us all touched a deep chord  of longing for change in everyone, and continues to touch that chord in us. Imagine how things could be different.
I am particularly drawn to the way Isaiah grounds the vision for change in the earth. The very creation will be different. Imagine if you were a returning exile coming home from the north, and you see the desert blooming. What would that do to your heart and mind? What kind of hope and joy would that evoke in you? What kind of hope and joy does it evoke in you today?
               
Starter questions:
1.       All these readings speak to our longing for things to be different. What changes do you long for? In your life? In your community? In the world?
2.       Mary’s vision is one of revolution in which the hungry, poor, broken find restoration, and the rich, well fed and whole are taken down a few pegs. How does this vision strike you? Do you believe in revolution?
3.       James talks about change in a more gentle way, using the image of farming. The evolutionary way. How has God worked in your life so far? Through revolution or evolution?

Further Exploration
Just for kicks, here is the latest link for the Advent Conspiracy.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Nov. 30, 2010

“An Antidote for Nostalgia”
Tuesday,  November 30, 2010
                We move into the readings for the second Sunday of Advent. We light the candle of peace. Then we hear another reading from the prophet Isaiah, and catch our first glimpse of the prophet John the Baptist. If the hope is to gentle us towards the warm and fuzzy Christmas feeling, we are heading in the wrong direction. These readings have sharp edges. Handle them with care or they will bite you. We want to get to the place of peace and serenity, but to get there this week we need to pass through some harsh biblical territory.

Background on this weeks readings:
Isaiah 11:1-10
                Here we have the biblical basis for what the Quakers called “the peaceable kingdom”- a vision of a world in which natural enemies would be friends, wolves and lambs, lions and fatlings, children and snakes. The prophet envisions a day when we are not in the grip of our least redeemable instincts, but rather can rise above our impulses and live in harmony, peace, compassion. And for Christians it has been easy to imagine the child in this passage as a reference to the child of Bethlehem. Read Jesus into this passage and it is a short jump from Isaiah’s peaceable kingdom to Jesus’ Kingdom of God, and the motley community that gathers around the table of grace.

Romans 15:4-13
                This harmonious community is hard to achieve and the early church was no closer to the it than we are today. Wherever there are differences in ability, gift, power, intellect, interest, political convictions, religious beliefs and inclination, there will be differences of opinion and conflict. Paul, in an attempt to call people to draw on their deeper character, and rise above these differences between the Jews and gentiles of the church in Rome, sees Christ as the image of this beloved community way of being.

Matthew 3:1-12
                And then there is John the Baptizer- the wild man of the wild land, living on locusts and wild honey, preaching that you can’t get to beloved community, to a peaceable kingdom unless you let go of a few things. “Repent!” Change your ways. And those who expect that whatever beloved community God is creating has a place for them in it by heredity and not by heart have another thing coming.
                Matthew believes that the one to usher in the new realm of peace had someone ahead of him “preparing the way.” The seeds of this new way needed fertile ground, and John was the tiller of the ground. There is great debate about the relationship between John and Jesus, and whether or not they actually had the same vision, but clearly, as Matthew and others looked back on it, John’s stirring call for “metanoia” (turning around),  repentance, having a thorough change of heart and mind tilled the ground for Jesus’ arrival.

Some thoughts
                John’s was not a gentle approach. He was not a diplomat. He was the disruptive presence at the dinner party, the one nobody wants to sit beside because he is likely to say things that are embarrassingly true, and say them in a way that makes everyone uncomfortable. He comes across like a sour tonic, good for you but hard to swallow. As I think about what the peaceable kingdom requires in the real world, I am beginning to question the value of my gentle approach and my good liberal upbringing. Some churches are dying of this very way of being. I think they call it terminal niceness. Maybe there is a time when the only way to the peaceable kingdom is through a rough and tumble turning around.
                I am also thinking about metanoia, the greek word used here for repentance, turning around. In what ways do we as individuals, as churches, as communities, and as a global community, need to turn around, do an about face, change our ways?
               
Starter questions:
1.       What is your response to the vision of Isaiah? Do you believe that we can rise above our more predatory impulses and find the way of peace? Where have you seen it happen? What does it take?
2.       What do you think of John’s approach? Have you known any disruptive people who have brought a prophetic word of truth that was uncomfortable? How do you respond? Have you ever done that yourself?
3.       What needs to “turn around” in your life in order to make the peaceable kingdom a reality?