Category: Culture
Edgy Advent
Here we are again at the edge of Advent. Like a power point on loop or your favorite song or album on repeat, the story of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth is beginning. Again. Decorations go up and come down. There is a parable or two, a beatitude, a great commandment, a meal. Hope races toward Good Friday and a garden where there is an open tomb when Christ is proclaimed. Rather than epiphany, Jesus’ story can become background noise that is sentimental, but not transformative. Maintenance medication for the symptoms of all kinds of “isms” that will not go away no matter the execution of the cure.
Tense, nervous, irritable, unable to relax all describe what it means to be “on edge.”(1)
On edge. That describes my observation this year of our culture, our body politic, my neighborhood, the world, and my brand of Christian witness, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I don’t think your politics, theological, or ideological perspective matter. Little has felt “normal” and maybe that is not a bad thing.
I am re-reading Borg and Crossan’s, The First Christmas. This quote has captured my attention.
The imperial kingdom of Rome — and this may indeed apply to any other empire as well— had as its program peace through victory. The eschatological kingdom of God has as its program peace through justice. Both intend peace — one by violence, the other by nonviolence. And still those tectonic plates grind against one another.(2)
I’ve been thinking that Advent is a bridge of some kind that spans a chasm from one kind of living to another kind of neighborliness, compassion or grace. You no doubt have better words that describe what the other side of Christmas is or is like. For me, Advent has become a bridge conceptual understanding of the great commandment (or Golden Rule) to a practice equipped for a diverse, pluralistic and simulcast connected/disconnected 21st century.
I know you will, as best you can, actively travel through Advent, winter Solstice, and the shopping season to go and see this thing which God has made known to you. I trust you are surprised by the Messiah that is birthed in your life.
Me? I need a daring, provocative, or trend setting “edgy” Advent experience of hope, peace, joy, and love this year.(3)
That’s the character of Jesus I read about in the gospel narratives and the good news of God that Jesus proclaimed.
Notes
- on edge. (n.d.) Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. (2015). Retrieved November 30 2017 from https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/on+edge
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Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth. HarperOne (New York) 2007. p 69-70.
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edgy. (n.d.) American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. (2011). Retrieved November 30 2017 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/edgy
Money & Racism on a Friday Morning
When I travel for retreats to be with friends, peers, and colleagues I often alter my morning routine. Sleep is needed after late nights discussing the issues of the day, and at this retreat, ideas about outdoor ministry and my denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Luckily, my routine doesn’t include exercise right now, but it does include reading of news and information. I found these three compelling this morning.
From Axios, reporting on some words from the Commander of the Air Force Academy that were first reported by the Colorado Springs Gazette.
“Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, superintendent of the Air Force Academy, yesterday “stood all of his 4,000 cadets at attention … [c]hins in and chests out … to deliver a message on racial slurs found written on message boards at the academy’s preparatory school,” The (Colorado Springs) Gazette reports.”
Click here to read more.
“Mark Felt,” the Movie, and Donald Trump, the President
Jeffrey Toobin, The NewYorker
“Follow the money.” These are the words most closely associated with Deep Throat, Bob Woodward’s famous Watergate source, as memorably portrayed by Hal Holbrook in the movie version of “All the President’s Men.”
What the Rich Won’t Tell You
Rachel Shermon, Sunday Review, The New York Times
“Is the society we want one in which it is acceptable for some people to have tens of millions or billions of dollars as long as they are hardworking, generous, not materialistic and down to earth? Or should there be some other moral rubric, that would strive for a society in which such high levels of inequality were morally unacceptable, regardless of how nice or moderate its beneficiaries are?”