Round The Ball: Lent – 2009

Readings:

Isaiah 63:16-17, 64:1, 3-8

Psalm 79

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Mark 13:33-37

 

Just yesterday Lucia, our three-year-old, looked up at me with stern eyes and a down-turned bottom lip.  “Daddy, I keep waiting for Christmas and my birthday to come and it’s not EVER coming!”, she pouted.  “When is it EVER going to COME!”  Ah, the tortured life of a little one waiting in expectancy.

 *

This is the language of longing: wanting desperately for something to happen.  Facing hopelessness in a kind of never-ending staring contest.  Do you ever feel that anymore?  I have to admit it’s rare for me too.  In a world where we are far too quick to satisfy our desires with every quick-fix in the book, have we forgotten what it feels like to truly long for something?  Ask yourself – when is the last time you really hoped for something so much that it hurt?

 *

This is the language of Advent – the scripture reminding us of a time before the wise men, the angelic chorus or the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.  Back to a time when God’s people felt abandoned and alone.  Today’s reading in Isaiah 63 mentions a day when “your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us” and mourns, “you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.”  Dwell on that for a moment.  Let it really sink in – what that must have felt like.

 *

That’s why a verse like Isaiah 64 just jumps off the page at you – a desperate plea from the bottom of the pit:

 *

“Oh, that you would tear the heavens open and come down!

-at your Presence the mountains would melt.”

 *

We forget that it was like that.  We hardly ever feel it anymore: the sense of separateness and desperate thirst that was Israel’s in the dark days before the Incarnation.  But Advent reminds us that it starts here: in the agony of crying out for something more . . . for something more of God.  Are you willing to go there this year?

 *

Try this practice on, then: fight to make Advent a genuine exercise in the language of longing.  Not just like a three year old wishing for Christmas Day (though we could take our cues from that kind of anticipation, couldn’t we?)  I mean remembering back to why Christmas is a big deal to begin with.  Picture a time before there was Christmas to celebrate.  No stable.  No Savior.  Just the dull, dripping ache of being left alone in our own mess.

 *

So pick one thing – one thing in your life you’re most desperate for.  And hold it before you as a reminder this month.  Let it remind you of your neediness, your dependence, your screwed-up and hopeless situation apart from the good news of Christmas Day.

 *

You’ll have to struggle to hang on to that: all of our consumer-culture will wage war against it in this season of tinsel and Fa-la-la.  We’ve managed, in our day, to box up people’s longings and make them available at the click of a button with overnight shipping.  I can guarantee that Christmas day will be a better celebration if you start Advent in a place of quiet desperation.  So where is yours?

1 comment

I just watched a really powerful video put together by some folks at www.adventconspiracy.org  – challenging Christians to spend less on meaningless gifts this Christmas.  In exchange, it offers suggestions like spending time with people, making handmade gifts, and possibly donating the unspent money to charities.   The website notes, for example that Americans can spend up to $450 BILLION on Christmas every year — when it would only take $10 BILLION to help the world get better access to clean water.  Pretty interesting stuff.*Maybe we should pass this one around a bit? 

No comments

Starting on Sunday, November 30 I’ll be doing some daily thoughts/reflections on the season of Advent.  If you’re unfamiliar with the season — either because you’re not a fan of religious stuff or because you grew up in a home where Christmas was celebrated but Advent didn’t mean much — I’ll walk you through some of what it’s all about in the upcoming days.

 *

This might be for me more than anything . . . but since I’ll be doing some reading and reflecting during the season anyway, consider this a public journal where I get to share my thoughts.  Do with it what you will.If you’d like to go a further step, you could consider doing some of the Advent readings that are typically associated with the season leading up to Christmas day.  You can find those on typically Catholic liturgy sites like this one.  Now, in case the Catholic thing freaks you out, be assured: all we’re talking about is reading several Bible passages every day.  They’ve just been nice enough to organize it for us (and faithfully observe the tradition of Advent over the centuries!)

* 

So join in how you will.  I’ll try and share some stories of our family and our context a bit here as well.  Consider it a fusion of Bible reflection, personal prayer, neighborhood context and some family updates. 

No comments