Okay, okay, before anyone mentions it, yes, I know I haven't blogged since the summer. I'm sorry. This little thing called "moving to a foreign country" sorta' had me bogged down for a while! Anyways, I'm back and as this is far more enjoyable than working on my dissertation, expect regular updates forthcoming!
Today was the first Sunday in Advent for 2011. I know all about Advent. It's really my favorite time of the church year. However, I'm always amazed how we make such a hot to-do about "waiting and watching for Christ" during Advent. Then when Christmas rolls around we're like "Oh, well, okay, that was fun, can't wait 'till next year." Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Thus it was that I found myself sitting in the back row of a church today wondering "What the hell is the point of Advent?" I mean, okay, sure I know what the point is supposed to be, but that doesn't mean that there can't be another meaning to it, right? Try and follow with me as I spell this out.
H'okay, so, we've got our four Sundays of hope, peace, joy, and love respectively. On the fifth Sunday, we get Christ. Now call me crazy but I'm starting to think there might be something going on here. I don't think it's an error that it takes us four Sundays with different themes to get to "Christ." In fact, (historic factors of necessity aside) I think that's the point of the gig. I'm starting to think that we're meant to see the four Sundays prior to the Christ Sunday as the fundamental elements which comprise the nature and message of Christ. Hope, peace, joy, and love, these are the central components which make up the ethos of Christ. Somehow, though, it seems we keep looking to the final product without investigating the comprising elements. We can't honestly tell ourselves that we're really "hoping and longing" for Christ to come into the world. Uhm, clue-phone's ringing, and the answer is: that already happened. So what is it that we're longing for and what the devil do these elements have to do with that? Well, in my thoughts, it seems that we might see Advent as a call for renewal and regeneration within the church and within us. Christ may have already came, but has Christ's kingdom been realized or actualized through and inside of we who claim to follow? Uh, not really. If they have, I've totally missed that memo. Thus, these Sundays are meant for us. They are meant for us to long for the elements which comprised the ethos of Christ. They're meant for us to reconnect with the importance and long for those elements to be realized within us throughout the year. Advent isn't meant for baby Jesus in the manger, it's meant for us in the world of today. Advent isn't meant to be some rote ritual, it's meant to be a powerful and energizing experience where we say "May the spirit of the Christ-child and all the elemental components that make up that spirit be displayed in me. Today, tomorrow, and for the entire year."
Thus it is that I'm boycotting "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel" this year. It's not that I don't like the song. In fact, I love it. However, its theme of "Oh Lord please come and make it all better" does not jive with the reality I find in Christianity. Instead, "Christ, Be Our Light" seems to be a much more fitting advent theme. If you don't believe me, google the lyrics. Much more closely aligned with Advent, I think. (Please note, we DID sing both of these at Queen's Cross today. They were closely followed by "Christmas is Coming." Alas, this turned out to not be the Muppets and John Denver version I was hoping it to be.....curses.)
In other news....
I was invited to attend an interfaith service today. I don't do "interfaith." It's not that I'm against the concept. In fact I'm all for it. I believe in a God who's big enough to do whatever that God wants to do. I feel pretty comfortable with the way I think God has revealed God's self to me through Christianity, but if I really hold that God is God, I have to be comfortable with the thought that God can do whatever the heck God wants to do. Thus, I'm pretty slow to dismiss other faiths. Hey, who am I to say that God can't be speaking to them? Last I checked, I'm not God. (Or, at least that's what most of my ex's tell me.) At the same time, though, I've yet to see an interfaith service I liked. It's not that they're not done with the best of intentions; I truly think they are. However, it's sorta' like being at a buffet and having so much to chose from that you never really get to appreciate any one thing for what it is. If you want to celebrate or learn about another or different faith, go to one of their services. See the full thing for what it is. You can't just blow the Hebrew Sho'far and then switch over to a Roman Catholic greeting. It doesn't work. It's sorta' like religious schizophrenia. Well meaning schizophrenia, but still, schizophrenia. Again, if you want to learn about other faiths -or even learn how to be better at your own- go spend time in the worship services of other faiths. You'll never learn how to be contemplative in Christianity until you spend some time with the Buddhists. Trust me, they rock at that sorta' stuff. All that to say, yeah, I politely declined the invitation......
