Blogging Towards Sunday
Sunday, December 16, 2007
The Third Sunday of Advent
Sunday, December 16, 2007
The Third Sunday of Advent
The Root of our Problem::
This third Sunday of Advent is known as the "JOY" Sunday. We light the 3rd candle, a pink one. It symbolizes joy, a tradition dating back to Roman times. At our church community this year we've mixed it up a bit so we're worshipping from the scriptures suggested for the 2nd Sunday of Advent which seem distant from the theme of Joy.
Isaiah 11 is a word of hope offered to a hopeless people. Not hopeless because they're losers, but without hope for they are prisoners, exiled in a foreign land, conquered, oppressed and experiencing cultural genocide at the hands of the might Bablyonian Empire. They have forgotten their roots, their background, their traditions, and the faith in the God of Abraham (Sarah), Isaac (Rebekah), and Jacob (Leah & Rachel). They haven't forgotten because they're careless, rather they have had their faith bred out of them through the imperialstic cultural hegemony of Babylon, through the ease that it seems to give up the old in order to go along with the new, to fit in with the changing structures, systems, and contexts. Isaiah utters a prophecy pointing to the future, a different one than seems possible or present. Hope will come. A new leader will arise, a shoot from a stump of a tree, new life from where there seemed to only be death, impasse and decay. But this new branch will be the mightest on a new tree, providing life for everyone and everything. Challening the way of the world. Creating a new way. Inviting to a new paradigm.
Resurrecting the dead to new, whole, complete, fulfilled life - for all the peoples and nations.
Matthew 3 tells the story of the preaching of John the Baptizer. A great speaker, he drew large crowds not with politically correct speeches, or pat-on-the-back encouragements, but rather with hellfire and brimstone. "Repent" he bellows. Turn your life around. You have chosen death through your sin, mistrust of each other, injustice to the poor, and disrespect for how God calls us to live with each other, alongside each other, and to create life through justice, compassion, and sacred living. Rather than shying away from his point, John goes for it - with gusto. And the people come. They realize that something is amiss. They realize that the way that they all live is not what God intended for them. They realize that they are actors, and also participants in a life-system gone wrong.
Where's the joy in that?
At a church dinner last night I found myself laughing with some church memebers about some events that happened at the Dimond Winter Festival on Saturday. We laughed at some funny comments and circumstances, one in particular was a person going on and on about what churches they've been to, and then asking if our church was in trouble. I responded, quite pastorally saying "Are you looking for a church?" The immediate response was "Oh God no!" Funny as most people tip-toe around me, wanting to sound interested in a polite but distant and non-commital way. This person's honesty was refreshing. As we talked and told stories I said that I think we're all freaks. We all know that how we are isn't what we want to be. That there is something wrong in our world. That we oftentimes give more lipservice than actual commitment to what we believe and base our life on. We're all looking for meaning, purpose and passion in life: but only if it's easy, if it's cheap, if it's on our terms. We see the shortcomings in others, and repeatedly miss the logs in our own eyes. So we're all freaks! There's got so be some sort of joy in recognizing that I (and you) aren't the only messed up ones around.
I've been sharing music these past Sunday reflections in Advent that speak to the point of what the scriptures tell us these weeks. I hear the scriptures this week inviting, challening us to fearfully and fearlessly recognize that we're all sinners - I prefer that we're all freaks - in need of deliverance, healing, wholeness, wider perspective, and holistic purpose. In essence we're all alive yet we need to live.
I love the group Telepopmusik. They have an overdone song "Breathe" that I think speaks to the challenge we all face in living life, in daring to get up every morning to go about life. Here's the video.
They also have a another great song on the Angel Milk album entitled "Stop Running Away" I think it's a post-modern uber-urban take on what John the Bapsizer was preaching. An invitation for us to stop running, to embrace our freak-dom and to look to the root, to the branch blossoming anew for new life. Here are the lyrics:
We’re all searching
Time’s unfolding
Trying to fill
Our lives with meaning
Still we’re learning
How to breathe amongst
The pain and suffering
When all we need
Is peace of mind
Stop running away
Beliefs are changing
Still we’re paying
Power holding back the people
All we need is peace of mind
What do you think?
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