It is Advent, and, along with nature, we are a people waiting. Far out of the south, the winter light becomes thin and milky. The days grow shorter and colder and the nights long. Try as we may, we cannot fully dismiss the fundamental feelings that lie deep at our roots, a mixture of feelings dark and sweet. Will the sun, the source of our life, ever return? Has the great light abandoned us? . . . We want to be touched this season – moved at a level that lies deep in us and is hungry and dark and groaning with a primal need. Like the receptive fields, we lie fallow and wanting. The dark, feminine, elusive quality of our receptivity is not helpless passivity. We are willing to receive the Spirit. We wait to be impregnated. . .Gertrude Mueller Nelson, " To Dance with God: Family Ritual and Community Celebration."
It's amazing how much we are shaped by the culture in which we swim. In the stream of life we are constantly colliding with soundbites, video clips telling us the date is quickly approaching...hurry, move...what are you standing around for. I was glad to have had the opportunity with Christine and Matthew to have spent times putting together the Advent Service: Venite...a time of Waiting. Advent is a spiritual season that seems to have lost significance.
The" Story of the Ten Bridesmaids ", in the opening verses of Matthew 25 are a reminder of the Advent season. The story brings the reality that advent is about a concsiousness... of waiting. As much as it is a preparation of the celebration of the birth of the Messiah, Advent is also a reminder of His return. Enough sand had gone through the hour glass when Isaiah first prophesied the birth of the Messiah to fill a desert. People had forgotten, they'd given up, it was a hoax...it was never going to happen in this life time. What's the point of preparing for something that is never ever going to happen. Into an unconcsious world comes the Messiah...no awareness, or preparation of his arrival.
We know the story, Isaiah was not a delusional ranting madman, the birth did happen in an obscure little town...He was the the Messiah...and we know he will return. But again, as in the past, time seems to dilute reality. So much time that we've pretty much convinced ourselves, not in this life time. Or that, surely there will be some kind of early warning, perhaps like the mass down load of some internet virus...he'll let us know the return in imminent. Again, life is lived unconcsious of his return. From Matthew 25: 5:13...
5
When the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6
“At midnight they were roused by the shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!’ 7
“All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. 8 Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’ 9
“But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’ 10
“But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. 11 Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’ 12
“But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!’ 13
“So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.
Lord, as communities of faith, help us to live in this season of Advent, this waiting...fill us with the reality of your Kingdom, fill us with expectation, fill us with anticipation. In eager preparation may we have our wicks trimmed, and our lamps overflowing with oil. That our eyes are heaven-bound, as we wait to celebrate your return.
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