The contradictions of Advent
Winter is approaching, and the last of the leaves fell into my gutters at home, meaning that it was time to climb up on the roof and clean them out. And, as long as I was up there, I also put up some Christmas lights. The trees are bare and standing starkly against the cold sky, but in the Gospel reading, Jesus talks about the fig tree putting out new leaves. There has also been the familiar drop in temperatures and shortening days, but Jesus talks about summer approaching, with its warm temperatures and lengthening days. Some of this generation has passed away contrary to what Jesus says, notably my mother last January, and Maxine and Glenn Davis, members of this parish, and family members of St. Paul’s congregants. For some of us, this is our first Christmas season without them. Yet, Jesus’ words persist, and there is joy and anticipation when he talks about being the Son of Man, coming near and bringing the kingdom of God with him. It makes for a bittersweet season where tears mix with laughter, and we’re not quite sure how we should feel or what to do with these contradictory feelings.
Jesus’ words in the Gospel are contradictory to what we are experiencing at this time of the year, and the approach of Jesus’ birth into this world is clouded by war in the Middle East, war in Eastern Europe, and unease here at home. But this contradiction between the world as it is now and what Jesus will bring as God among us follows his contradictory teachings, where the first will be last, the least will be the greatest, and that there is life after death. Those contradictions lead us to confront our assumptions about what life is like now, and open the possibility of what life could be like, which is sometimes the opposite of what we experience. Despite death from disease or from violence, new life has been born and children have been baptized in this sanctuary this year. New possibilities for ministry have opened up for some of St. Paul’s members who are going through Stephen Ministry training. We reached 100,000 items collected for Calvary’s food pantry earlier this year. Despite the coming darkness of winter, the light that Jesus brings is just becoming visible as a glow on the horizon, like a sunrise we are waiting for with anticipation.
We hold the contradictions we encounter close together, allowing them to be without trying to resolve them or ignoring one for the other. We can feel the tension as they push back, like when we push the same poles of two magnets together and then they fly apart. In that moment of holding contradictions together, we find new ways of seeing God and Creation, and we have a clearer understanding of the hows and whys of our lives. Those new ways of seeing how life comes from death, or feeling warmth and having light on a cold night, or finding new possibilities at the end of a relationship or a familiar way of life leads to a deeper understanding of ourselves and our relationship with God. What we learn from new perspectives and the tension of contradictions is what prepares us for Jesus’ birth into the world and into our lives. When he is born into our lives, the contradictions don’t stop. This is not a bad thing, because we discover how to hold on to them so that we grow spiritually and emotionally. There is no one, single way to grow spiritually, there is no single way to understand who God is. There is only what makes the most sense and allows us to find God’s love and live in it.
The life we are called from Jesus to lead is contradictory to living in the world. Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. Take the log out of your own eye before you attempt to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye. Put the needs of the least among you ahead of your wants. In other words, do the little things that appear radical because you have love to show when others are telling you that you should hate, and hate hard, and hate without mercy. In the tension between love and hate that push each other away, look for a way that gives you courage to love in the face of hate. Look for that peace of God and bring it to the world as a sign that we do not need to be afraid, that in the darkness of hate, and fear, and anxiety, the love of Christ is coming to us as that light on the horizon, the celebration of his birth.
Advent is a time of reflection, not unlike Lent, but where we focus on becoming better disciples of Jesus in Lent, we focus during Advent on what he brings to us and to the world. It is a time of preparation where we make a place in our lives, our souls, and our hearts for him. We all grow spiritually, starting as infants as Jesus did, and growing in maturity where we continue his work in the world. We mature as Jesus did when he understood his purpose on Earth as he read from Isaiah in the synagogue, turning that purpose into action by serving the needs of the poor, the outcast, the forgotten, and the sinful. This is our work for Advent, to start something new that will show us our purpose and show us how to turn that purpose into action, something that Jesus would do if he were born at the end of this month, in 2023.
A cold and dark winter is coming, and that is the perfect time to understand the significance of the light and warmth and love that Jesus brought to the world. That light and warmth and love pushes against the cold and dark to bring us to his resurrection in the Spring, and our resurrection into a life free from fear and anxiety. These opposites held together point the way toward a life shaped by Jesus’ teaching, so that we know where we want and don’t want to go. To free ourselves from the darkness of the world, we have to be radical, be contrary, be contradictory and dare to love and express hope when others are consumed by the darkness and the cold of winter. We can instead be the light that people will see, the light that shows them where to go to escape the darkness. We can be the light just over the horizon, rising to shine with hope and love without shame.
I wish you a happy new church year, and a blessed Advent season.
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