Loading...As I looked at my weather app yesterday, I noted that sunset was at 4:00pm.
4:00pm.
On the other hand, this means that the Crack of Dawn is at 7:14am
rather than at some eye-popping hour like 4:30am!
The quality of light in the winter is also so very different.
This means that photography is qualitatively different this time of year.
There was a story about a photographer in the paper yesterday
He started his art in the last couple of years and he loves to take pictures of old buildings, barns, bridges, and cars.
But, mostly, he loves to take pictures of old houses,
and he loves to go when the weather isn’t so good
because the color is better.
And mornings, those “dull, cold mornings”.
Other photographers talk about getting up
really, really early for the sunrise because that’s the “Golden Hour” — that brief window of time
just before the sun fully exposes itself to the earth.
It’s a transitional period between the darkness of night and the light of day
when the golden light bathes everything,
just as day is about to break.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This portion of Matthew’s Gospel comes from near the end of the story.
It’s not at all what you might have expected this first Sunday of Advent, less than four weeks before Christmas.
Except that, as the counter-cultural faith community, the church is more interested in the
second, or even third, coming of Jesus
— breaking into our world —
than the first coming known as Christmas
(and WAY over-commercialized in our world!).
Jesus brings up Noah and his family and their escape from the destruction of the flood.
He describes the shock and disruption of
“one being taken up” while working in a field together,
or grinding meal side by side.
He uses the image of a thief coming in the night,
and if the homeowner had known the thief was coming that night,
he would’ve stayed up and on guard!
So, keep awake! For you do not know the hour, nor the day!
Well, the good news is that if Jesus didn’t know it,
and the angels don’t know it,
and we’ve had plenty of examples of how
people clearly don’t know “the hour, nor the day!”,
then a) we haven’t missed it; and
b) we don’t have to worry about when it will happen.
Instead, Jesus invites us to live each day ready and alert
— not with anxiety, but with expectation.
These examples are not describing what will happen to us
— the threat of being left behind —
but reminding us to pay attention to the unexpected ways of God
at work in the world.
Jesus invites us to live, not in fear, but in hope.
Jesus calls his disciples to live as if day were just about to break,
as if the sun were just about to rise —
in the Golden Hour.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What prevents us from living each day alert and ready,
not with anxiety but with expectation?
What keeps us from living as if day were just about to break,
in the Golden Hour of hope and anticipation?
What keeps us from trusting fully in God?
Why do we get caught up in the worry about what’s going to happen next,
or if there will be enough?
or if disaster will overwhelm us?
Isaiah, the prophet, in the early part of his book, was writing to people who were caught up in civil war and insecurity.
The country was fracturing, and weapons of war were not uncommon.
In the midst of this pain,
Isaiah has a vision that the swords will be turned to plowshares
and the spears into pruning hooks.
In other words, the tools of war wouldn’t be needed any longer and
would instead be used to provide food, sustenance,
and hope in the community.
That’s risky, though:
Turning your signs of strength and might into mere garden tools!
Turning from being right
into being in community that cares about feeding one another!
Giving up your sense of security
(or the things that give you an illusion of security)
for the good of everyone.
This takes courage to wait, to ponder, and to be alert but not anxious.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What kind of courage are you asked to show this Advent?
What are you being asked to give up as you follow the Way of Jesus?
What “security blanket” do you need to cast aside?
What are the uncertainties which you want to protect yourself from?
What fears do you have about the future and uncertainty that this year’s Advent, or coming, of the Christ can be the time for you to put aside?
In other words,
how does the reminder that’s inherent in the Advent season
—the reminder to wait, to watch, to be alert,
to pay attention, to be patient —
encourage, and even provoke, you to put aside fear and anxiety?
Remember, we live in the promise of God —
we have been created for more than fear because Jesus is with us and for us (even if we don’t realize or remember that).
This promise is not a kind of spiritual insulation
to keep the bad stuff away from us,
as though we are all bundled up with protection
like the Michelin man,
or my favorite movie character (Baymax from Big Hero 6).
This promise gives us courage, hope, a glimmer of light, possibility, another chance.
This promise is the Spirit “drawing us into new life.”
The promise is the presence of God incarnate in Jesus —
the first coming, the second coming, the every single day coming.
The promise is the light of the world
even in the darkness of winter in the northern hemisphere
or the darkness of fear and anxiety,
and global economic instability,
and climate change that seems irreparable.
The promise is this light which is coming and which is already here -
seemingly fragile yet constant, strong and steady,
filled with love and giving you hope today and always.
Amen
