LIVING IN THE DAILY GRIND

Instant Christmas in the Desert of Advent

I am participating this Advent with Christine Sine of Godspace in her Advent Synchroblog.  The theme this year is "Jesus is close... How do we draw near?"  There have been some wonderful inspirations for my Advent journey this week.  Here is the link to first week's reflections. My first reflection comes a week late.  May it be a blessing to you as writing about it has been for me...

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There is a heaviness in the air this Advent… all around us… Heaviness of something missing… The missing part has been there for quite a while but maybe now more than ever we are beginning to realize it is there. We have lived so long in the world of instants including Christmas, it is difficult to admit that something is missing...

Our society has been one of ‘instants’ for a long time. Think about it for a moment! How many things can you name that have instant counterparts?… Instant coffee, instant tea, instant oatmeal, instant soup, instant pudding, instant relief from pain… Instant and quick solutions to everything: instant weight loss, instant beauty, instant knowledge, instant health, instant wealth, instant success, instant maturity. When we have been indoctrinated in instants, we do not have the patience to wait for life happen naturally.

We want rapid delivery. If our mail is late, we get agitated, if the UPS guy does not ring the bell on time, we are angry. We want rapid delivery, not only of our mail, but of our happiness, peace, and love. We want rapid delivery of our faith as well.

Yet, Advent stands in stark contrast in a world of instants... Waiting, quiet, anticipation, repentance, the coming of Christ…” In the early church, Advent was forty days similar to Lent … a time where the Church was invited to fast, and pray, and prepare for the coming of Christ. This tradition is still kept in the Orthodox Church today…

Who wants to be in the desert when we could sing and dance and be merry! … Baking, decorating, rushing around, preparing for company, buying gifts… In an instantaneous Christmas we easily lose focus of the season of Advent which challenges us to slowly grow in the Spirit of the coming God.

We have lost our focus, but it did not happen overnight… Down deep within there is a silence that is choking us… In that silence we know, as people of the Jesus-Way, we are guilty for contributing our share while Christmas has been slowly turned into a quick fix for a short lived happiness, peace, and love. We have allowed Hallmark to remove Jesus and replace him with this fuzzy warm feeling spirit named "Christmas"… Everybody’s talking about the spirit of Christmas nowadays, but nobody dares to say, “you cannot have this spirit without Jesus.”

The coming of Christ into our world was not a fuzzy event… It brought suffering, pain and murder… Mary was ostracized for having an out-of-wedlock child… They were poor and had no place to give birth to the baby, and possibly scores if not more children were murdered for the sake of this baby by Herod!

Somehow it is easier to go along with the status quo for the sake of appearances then acknowledging what must be done to truly honor the Christ Child. Yet, the good news of Advent is that God is faithful.  There is sufficient grace to journey in the desert to discover the real beauty, joy, peace and love of the One who calls us to go beyond our darkness into the light.

Our God is not an instant God. We cannot put God in the microwave… It won’t work…

Advent is a desert… a desert of fasting, repentance, returning to the Lord… and allowing God to restore our broken lives…building back an intimate relationship with Jesus, instead of providing an instant fix… allowing the God of the Covenant, the Lord of hosts, Yahweh the Redeemer back into our hearts? Advent is a desert of fire...

My favorite Advent text comes from Malachi 2:17-3:6… which speaks to the desert of Advent… God comes like a refiner’s fire -- a refiner and purifier of silver and gold. God will refine us but we must allow the process…

Refining is a long and difficult process. The metal from a solid is first melted into a liquid state and then rendered pure by removing the unwanted particles. This process must be repeated many times as the silver or gold may have many impurities in its solid state. When the refining is finally complete, the pure metal finally emerges. We are the precious metals of silver and gold in God's eyes, yet we have many impurities. God works gently and with love within and among us to remove those impurities, so that we may emerge.

Who are we? We are the ones who carry God’s innocence and goodness in our deepest beings. As we emerge, we learn to claim that innocence and goodness within us. They belong to the deepest self. In the book, The Cloud of Unknowing, the author reminds us that "God beholds with God’s merciful eyes, not what we are, nor what we have been, but only what we would be." Isn’t this wonderful? God refines us only thinking by what we would be ... And this requires time, waiting, and repentance. It cannot be done in an instant.

Waiting in the desert of Advent involves an openness to God who has not abandoned us, but as One who speaks the Word in the power of silence, creates out of nothingness, raises the dead from the tomb, and brings new birth from the womb.

Waiting in the desert of Advent calls us to the creative anxiety of not having, not seeing, not knowing.  To touch God who is the ultimate Mystery, we are invited to leave “me” of self and journey in the desert waiting for the Mystery, listening to the Holy Fire who is coming to purify us?

Do we wait for God to speak to us in the Mystery? Or do we already know what God is going to say before it is even uttered! When we journey in the desert with "me" of self in mind, we will end up in a world of our own making filled with only the boredom and despair of our empty self.

I believe in this desert of Advent, in the purification… in what is emerging… I believe we are called to the desert of Advent -- into risk-taking, stepping beyond the "me-centered-ness" into the mystery of the "Unknown"!

God is coming as the Christ child; I am journeying in the desert. Still I am so  preoccupied with the busyness as well as business of a pastor's work, so burdened by the loneliness, isolation and despair of others, that my heart has been overwhelmed by a sadness preventing me to move forward.

In these moments I always remember the last lines of the movie Proof. Catherine is speaking, "How many days have I lost? How can I get back to the place where I started? I'm outside a house. Trying to find my way in. But it is locked and the blinds are down. And I've lost the key. And I can't remember what the rooms look like or where I put anything. And if I dare go in inside. I wonder... will I ever be able to find my way out?"

Then I remember the promise of Christ, "Lo I am always with you to the end of the age."  So I continue the journey in the desert  towards the place of innocence and goodness -- the place where Jesus dwells. In that place I am loved and forgiven... I am not afraid.  I trust.  I am simply where I am, listening, seeing, touching ... always sure that I am not alone but with Jesus who beholds me as his beloved.

 

Akouete... Keep on Listening to Jesus

The Transfiguration account in Mark chapter 9 follows this way:

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Mark 9:2-9(NIV)

There are three times in the Gospels where God speaks with an audible voice: at Jesus’ baptism, at transfiguration, and when certain Greeks during Passion week requested an interview with Jesus (John 12:20-28). In the first and the last, God speaks to Jesus, but in transfiguration, God speaks to the disciples. The voice gives the command: "This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him". “

Listen to him!” Listen --akouete in Greek is a present imperative tense, implying continuing action: "Keep on listening to him" or "Continue to listen to him”.  This is holy listening.  It is an act of deep commitment.

The Greek word for “transfiguration” is the same as the one for “metamorphosis” or “transformation” (metamorphoō). Transfiguration is a moment of complete unveiling. Through transfiguration God acknowledges who Jesus is, reveals his power and directs the disciples to keep listening to him so that they may experience the metamorphosis.

When they returned from the mountain, the scripture says, “they kept silent.” Listening and keeping silent are sometimes the best things we can do, and particularly when it comes to our experiences with God. We may not immediately understand the meaning of what has taken place. So often it takes reflection. It takes time., reflection, quiet.  When we think of listening, however, we so often concentrate on the mind.

There is an Orthodox phrase which I recently learned when we conducted a funeral for an Orthodox friend's husband: We must learn to stand before God and one another with "the mind in the heart." It suggests the profound unity that we are called to express in our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ. With the mind in the heart, we listen!

I have a quote from an article that I have kept now for years. It was uttered by a young mother to her pastor: "Christianity no longer listens. All the church wants to do is talk -- lecture, reprimand, and command -- never really listen." I often wonder about these words.  Maybe we have truly lost the discipline of holy listening as a basic orientation of the Church.

It is difficult to admit but most of us are not oriented to listen. We have a difficult time listening. It’s not just that we are used to a lot of noise,  but we are used to the sound of our own voice. We want to comment on everything and we tend to have an opinion on everything.

Have you ever experienced conversations when you are asked how you are doing, how life is going, and you begin to talk about the recent trouble you are having, the serious matter which is weighing heavily on your heart and you barely begin to explain the essence of the problem when the person whom you are conversing interrupts, exclaiming, "I know exactly what you mean! My ..." And just like that, the conversation shifts as the person continues on for several minutes describing their own situation. When there is finally a pause, you simply want to leave… You feel rejected and not cared at all!

It's easy to be critical of others, but realistically, this kind of thing goes on all the time. I have been the person on both sides of this example—one who felt not cared, rejected and one who kept talking because I needed to hear my own voice, speak my own mind, share my own opinions. Few of us are immune.  We are rarely listening; usually, we are just waiting impatiently for our turn to talk. We nod and agree in all the right places, but really we are pondering the next thing we are about to say.

God’s command was to keep listening… It is in learning to listen, understanding that listening is a spiritual discipline that is cultivated that we discover the reality and the power of transformative life Jesus offers to us. Jesus both spoke with authority and listened with great compassion. Have you noticed how truly Jesus listens? Not only He listens in silence and solitude, but he also listens among the crowds. In the Scripture we find Jesus continuously surrounded by people crying out to him and he hears them! And it is precisely because he hears them there is a relationship which is developed that brings about conversion.

I sincerely believe it is critical for us to discover anew our orientation and understanding how the healing power of listening will bring about the transformation of lives. The ancient model for the Church was that of a nurturing mother. Our 21st century model is one of entertainer, bringer of religious goods and services. We place an enormous value on words. It seems that every minute of our lives in the church is packed with talking, preaching, or teaching. We do not guard our silence and we do not pay much attention for our need for solitude.

Our most desperate need is to be heard, not so much as a patient in a clinical setting, but as a human soul requiring attention.  As we listen to  God and others we are allowing ourselves for attentiveness to become a habit of the heart.  Our need is to  learn to stand before God and one another with "the mind in the heart."

Transfiguration took place in intense personal prayer and reflection—not during a public speech or one of Jesus’ teaching sessions to his disciples.  In that moment, the disciples saw who they were and realized who they could truly become.  Their journey became real. The disciples kept silent pondering the meaning of this  strange life-changing encounter.  They kept listening.

God graces us with the holy every day, and the call is to slow down, listen, reflect. Wherever we are in our personal experience, as we reflect,  learn,  are inspired, these moments do last in us—they invade us so that we feel the presence of God, who is closer to us than the air we breathe.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and it will mark the beginning of another Lenten season. Lent is a season of emptying ... it is a season of permission giving both to ourselves and to others. It is a letting go of those things that keep us from "listening" and open ourselves to the transfiguring grace which is Easter.

In the Lenten Season before us we are called to "listen to Jesus" both as the Word and in the Word. We make a mistake if we try to control the Word; instead, we should simply let it have its way with us. We cannot become holy on our own. We cannot manufacture mountaintop experiences of faith. But we can be open and pay attention, listening to Jesus in all encounters of our lives.

It is no accident that Transfiguration took place during a time of prayer. We can develop habits and ways of living that help us listen to God and to one another. We can cultivate a life of prayer. We can give attention to worship. We can slow down and reflect. We can spend time with nature. We can learn to talk less and appreciate more. And if we are attentive, we may find that there are glimpses of glory all around: in our selves, in others, in our church, in the changes of life. God says to all of us, “Be holy, for I am holy.”