For What?!

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves; people will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world”.

Well that reading was unexpected for the first Sunday of Advent, but there’s nothing like a little apocalyptic scripture to get the heart going right?

As we heard last week from Kirsten, Advent is meant to be a season of preparation, and yet we are listening to scripture describing the end of the world. Interesting, maybe if we put this into a more current context we might hear something different.

So let’s try this again;

There will be twinkle lights in the windows, specials on television, and extended hours in department stores. There will be distress amongst shoppers unable to think straight due to the deafening holiday music. People will shed blood while fighting over the latest gadget, and faint from standing hours in checkout lines. All the while foreboding the debt they will put on their credit cards, as well as avidly avoid the red kettles placed conveniently outside every store. Now when these things begin to take place, it is clear that Christmas is coming.

This breaks my heart.

The madness during this holiday season can feel like the apocalypse is actually upon us. And there’s really no way to avoid it, I am swept up into the craziness every year. The preparation we fall into looks like striving to impress others by purchasing the latest technology. Buying more gizmos because the sales are too good to pass up. Stores staying open later, pushing employees to work excessive hours and passed their breaking point.



We begin to feel weighed down by the pressure to over consume. We devote more time to worrying, and the tension grows as we try to live up to these insane expectations we have made.  Ultimately, creating a culture of stress and anxiety where we want to stay away from one another.

This is preparing, but for what? To “win” Christmas? Is that what we’re meant to prepare for?

I don’t think so, but there is good news here.

In the midst of this apocalyptic like culture, there’s a hidden beauty. A beauty only revealed out of the destruction of the old, allowing for the new to blossom. But it’s when we prepare differently, when we catch a glimpse of it.

In the gospel, Jesus alludes to this idea when he talks about the fig tree. He says, “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near”. It’s a little cryptic, but let’s put the parable into Jesus’ context. He knows his death is near. So he is trying to express to his disciples that he won’t be with them much longer, and that the world will feel desolate and dreary when he’s gone. He is also trying to convey that he will be coming again, and it will be joyous! And that there will be signs indicating this. But only if the disciples are LOOKING for them will they know the joy in the midst of this hopelessness.

Therein lies the beauty of the fig tree parable, in the LOOKING. This isn’t just looking to merely see, but actively noticing. It’s a different form of preparation.

Ellen Langer, a social psychologist, defines this idea brilliantly. She says “the simple act of actively noticing things” is mindfulness. Jesus wants his disciples to do more than just LOOK at the fig tree, but to be mindful. To be actively noticing the little green buds of his return around them.

Because it can be discouraging to stare at a brittle, bare fig tree day after day, and see nothing new. But if we know we are actively looking for that little green bud to appear; then when it reveals itself, it evokes the glory of the fig tree to come. A strong, sturdy tree with branches full of lush green leaves, providing delicious fruit. It’s the glimpse of beauty of a new world to come.

So amidst the apocalyptic dreariness this season holds, if we are mindful, we will notice the beautiful bright buds revealing the beauty of Jesus’ return. We notice families coming together to spend more time with each other. We notice people donating hats and gloves to shelters so others can stay warm. We notice increased efforts to prepare food to sustain those without.

We give gifts, but not merely toys, but the gift of ourselves to others. Each of these moments are the little buds, reflecting the unconditional love Christ. It’s in these moments we are preparing for his coming again.

Although the world around us may look like it is coming to an end, when we prepare by being mindful to those little buds of unconditional love in our midst; we witness a glimpse of that beautiful glory of that life to come.

Where are those White Gloves?

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Where are those white gloves? I know I hid them last week so the altar guild wouldn’t get a hold of them. I can’t go on without them, what if I don’t find them before the service? There’s no point in acolyting without those white gloves.

Thankfully those are not the current thoughts of your seminarian, but as embarrassed as I am to admit it, those were my thoughts as 12 year old acolyte.  I loved acolyting, and still do, but I was fixated on ensuring everything was perfect.  I was so obsessed with using those white gloves that I ignored everything else around me, so much so that I treated the altar guild like second class citizens.

A little scary right, but that was how I served the church that was my focus.  And this sort of behavior is totally natural. Whenever we have an interest in something, we want to read, experience, and learn everything about it. We become so consumed by it that we begin to lose sight of the bigger picture.

Unfortunately this isn’t a new phenomenon, we witness the same sort of behavior in our gospel story today.  There’s Jesus surrounded by a huge crowd; some disciples and others simply interested in figuring out who this Jesus fellow is. Regardless, everyone is straining to catch a glimpse and to hear his words.

And then there’s Bartimaeus; the blind beggar calling out to Jesus, “son of David, have mercy on me”, which made the crowd angry. So angry that they sternly ordered him to stop making such noise.  Essentially conveying the message that he is ruining their experience, and that they don’t care what Bartimaeus has to say.

And we can’t blame them, right? They are fixated, obsessed with trying to listen and learn about Jesus.  The catch is Bartimaeus already knows Jesus is the Messiah, and because the crowd has become so focused on themselves they write off the individual who truly reflects the faith in Christ.

Just like focusing on those white gloves, I missed the bigger picture of acolyting, which is to lead worship; not whether I use white gloves or not.

But the story’s not over.  We continue on and hear of the miracle of restoring Bartimaeus’ sight, but right before that moment another miracle occurs.

Jesus yells out to the crowd to call Bartimaeus forward, and suddenly the hearts of the crowd were turned. From cold and discouraging; treating Bartimaeus like dirt to encouraging and lifting him towards Jesus.

Right there, that’s the hidden miracle.

The crowds’ hearts were shaken and reoriented to thinking outside of themselves. They are no longer fixating on them alone, but how Jesus truly calls us to act towards one another with compassion.  And this isn’t simply a miracle because Jesus snaps his fingers, but because the crowd is listening, looking, and yearning to learn how to follow Jesus.  Their hearts are open and they want to change. So when they were given the opportunity to follow Jesus they took it.

In the depths of the details it’s easy to get lost, but white gloves or no white gloves the service went on. Christ will offer the opportunity to see the bigger picture.

The question is are we looking for it?

To Continue to the Space Shuttle or Stay?

I’m walking across the moon’s landscape, and suddenly there’s a large quake. The first mate and I have been separated from the rest of the crew. The first mate’s legs are broken, and our air supply is running extremely low.

Stop.

Choose to either: leave the first mate behind and continue walking to the space shuttle, or choose to stay and attempt a reconstruction of the air tanks to be more efficient.  Um . . . continue to the shuttle, now turn to page 52. What, I died! Do over, stay and reconstruct the air tanks, now turn to page 42, and the story continues.

This was a common occurrence in my childhood, no I wasn’t physically walking on the moon. In elementary school, I was constantly reading the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books.  Each story was structured the same way, a few pages into the adventure the plot made you choose a particular direction or made you complete a task in order to travel a different path.  Many times I wasn’t able to complete the task, thus a path was chosen for me. Other times, I would start down one path and the story would abruptly be considered “over”, but I only read a quarter of the book. So I would go back, chose the other direction, and continue on a totally different path.

What if this were the reality for us? For instance, deciding to order a gigantic stuffed crust supreme pizza consuming the whole thing alone and then suffering from indigestion, but instead we could turn back a few pages take the other option and order the salad instead.  We could start down a path, suddenly foresee the issues ahead, turn back and choose the other direction.

Sometimes we can do that, the trouble is some choices, no matter how much we want to take them back, we can’t.

We witness that unfortunate sort of choice in the gospel reading today. Let’s look at the details of making that sort of decision.  King Herod was throwing huge banquet for his birthday and of course he only invited the most prestigious political and socially influential figures to attend. These weren’t like Kardashian sort of popular figures, but major influential elite that King Herod desperately wanted to impress.

To complicate the situation, King Herod was becoming more and more interested in the preaching and teachings of John the Baptist. John was a usual guy compared to the rest of society, especially compared to King Herod’s dinner guests.  He was living in the wilderness using camel’s hair for clothing, eating locusts for protein, and preaching a message that all should repent because the Messiah, the savior of the world, was coming. His message was totally different from the popular elite figures.  King Herod saw that and respected that John was a holy and righteous individual, so he wanted to keep him around.

On the other hand King Herod’s wife/mistress hated John the Baptist, so she was plotting to kill him any way she could. And finally a top priority for King Herod was always the conquest for more power.  Now after a few hours into this wild party, all these influences converged. When given the decision to either save John the Baptist or behead him, it was mostly influenced by the pressure of wanting to impress fellow guests, a vindictive wife, the quest for more power, the interesting teachings of John the Baptist, and of course booze. With all these influences weighing on him, no wonder he made a bad choice.

But what if this story was a “Choose Your Own Adventure” story? Let’s imagine turning back the pages of this story, and deciding to go the other path King Herod could have traveled. What would that have looked like?  What if King Herod listened more to John the Baptist, and less to the elite?

Perhaps in this day and age, we aren’t presented with the extreme decision to behead anyone, but we are still influenced by those same distractions money, power, society, and more.  But we have the choice to see beyond those things, we can choose the other path, when we choose to listen.  God was working through John the Baptist to spread the news that the Messiah was coming, but King Herod wasn’t choosing to listen to that message.

In our own lives, we have people or opportunities where God’s voice is clearly influencing us. God is always working within us and around us to walk the other path.  Where I come up short is in having to shut out the other distractions and allowing myself the time to listen for it.  But the brilliance in all of this is even when we’re not listening hard or I am ignoring God’s works around me, within all of us, God’s grace is working harder than ever.

It’s terrifying to turn the page after making a decision. Not knowing what’s going to happen next in our own “Choose Your Own Adventure” story is tough. The exciting part is knowing God is there through every step of the way, no matter which adventure we choose.