advent >> the resiliency of getting from here to there

in all my years of graduate school...in all the many fall semesters, i am sad to declare that i've never really been able to master the advent season.

now, please do not mistake what i have just said for anything less than what it actually is. every year, without fail, i do what i have done since i was first exposed to athanasuis' on the incarnation during my first year of seminary - i start reading through his work. "start" is the operative word, of course...in fact, i've probably only completed it a few times during this season, but it has its standard place in my advent repertoire and even if it is merely a paragraph, that has been a kind and orienting presence. beyond that, even if only in abbreviated forms, i/we - on my own before Hannah's advent into my life, and then as a couple, or now as a family - have always done some advent celebration in the weeks leading up to Christmas. advent beckons us. but, while these things are true, my initial declaration is truer. advent for the last many years has always felt condensed. or hijacked. or not nearly as important as it should be.

but honestly, i doubt i'm much alone in this feeling.

since this is my last semester (read: my last attempt to achieve an adequate advent in my seminary days), i've decided to write one reflective blog each week (my times is running out!). these won't necessarily intersect with the traditional themes of advent, but they are those things which have come (or are coming) to the fore of my advent experience and hope.

so, here goes. number one.

this past weekend, we were home for thanksgiving and attended church with my mom. honestly, it had not dawned on me that since Christmas is on a sunday this year advent was set to start so "early." needless to say, this was not a good start toward the adequate. i was on my way to drop the daughter off at the nursery when i heard the choir practicing some Christmas songs. advent had sprung on me.

a few days ago, i wrote a tweet about Christ. 

[my first aside: i have no idea why such a statement (i.e. "i wrote a tweet about Christ"...about the messiah of the world) makes me chuckle. but it does.]

my onehundredandfortycharacters: "can we ever 'jump the gun' on the celebration of the advent? doesn't that kinda reverse the reality of what has actually occurred in Christ"

i wrote that pondering how the bride's sinister influence had taken it's toll on me this year. for whatever the reason, she has been relentless, incessant, and persistent with her desire to start decorating for and listening to the songs of Christmas far earlier than any reasonable person should. i'm sure it has nothing to do with having an aware two-year-old running around. so there i was, listening to Christmas music a week and a half before THANKSGIVING. sinister, i say.

but back to this idea of an "early" advent. from that first night, Christ's coming has a penchant to spring up on us. for Mary - although prepared - it comes out of nowhere. then this unexpected One seems to capture or plead for (or demand) our attention.

again, i think that's the way it was with Mary that first noel. surprise.

you know the story in luke 1:26-38. the angel shows up and declares to this young girl, "you're favored and God is with you." this is good news...but. on the surface, this is the news i'd imagine any number of us would love to hear. but if scriptures taught God's s people anything, it's that this surface level is rarely a rest stop when God shows up. so rather than rejoicing or taking some other course of action, Mary is greatly troubled. perplexed. confused.

the divine messenger tries to console her be reaffirming her favored status...and, "oh yea, by the way your virginity is but a technicality and you're going to have a son who is going to sit on a throne and fulfill what you think has been a covenant promise in hibernation." consolation? her initial intuition is validated. i'd be troubled too. not to mention confused and a bit perplexed. so she asks for some clarification on the virginity technicality...but Gabe's response doesn't make things any simpler. the only tangible thing she is given to hold on to is a pregnant Elizabeth. but pregnant by a man. and although she's old and has been barren, this miracle just doesn't have the same feel as the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.

and yet, Mary asserts (confesses?) i'm the Lord's servant - let it be so.

so, the overarching question that emerges in my mind as i read this passage is this: what accounts for the space between "greatly troubled" and "let it be according to your word"? what is it that moves a person from the uneasy intrusion of the divine word spoken to the quintessential portrait of obedience?

first, what it isn't. based on this passage (and so many others) God does not always bring the level of clarity humanity so often requires...or, to put a more pleasant face on it, requests. God is under no obligation to make things make more sense. he's not required to make our obedience easier. of course He does at times, but these moments should only make us thankful rather than entitled. 


so why does Mary respond as she does? what allows a person to move from being greatly troubled to rugged faithfulness? i wish i had an easy and tangible answer. something that we could hold onto through the advent season to enable us and/or help us make this move.

but the reality is, it's not easy. but there are two areas where i think this connects and both zero in on the necessity for God's people to possess and pray for a resilient faith:

1) her faithfulness to God - to conceive a child in her womb by the Holy Spirit's overshadowing - most certainly would have been confronted by accusations of unfaithfulness from an otherwise believing community but who were unaware of the angel's visit. maybe even disgust and derision came Mary's way. a few months ago i had a guy tell me that God never asks us to do irrational things. i got his point and still get it. but try telling that to an engaged Mary? or trying to convince a good deal of the prophets that God never asks for that which is unreasonable.

so, the move through the space between is not easy. but that doesn't get us much of anywhere past the space between either. over the years one of the things that continues to mark me is the resiliency that faith requires. how many times has God asked the impossible of me? how many times has He asked me to insert myself into a hopeless situation where i know that in the midst of the messiness of humanity and interpersonal relationships things are going to be misinterpreted? neglected? or made worse simply because i'm trying to be faithful?

imagine Mary trying to convince her community that what was growing in her belly was the result of the Spirit. sure. sometimes people don't always get faithfulness. if we're going to get to the point of "let it be so," resiliency is required nonetheless.

2) the second area that requires a persistently rebounding faith may be more implicit rather than explicit from this passage. it's the resiliency of facing God's intrusion at every level of our lives, not just the Mary-esque miraculous. such faith is not only needed in trying to comprehend that an angel has just told you: "You will conceive and give birth to a son...He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High." it's also required in the everyday call - the sometimes difficult call - to obedience, which requires that we come to grip with ourselves. coming to grip with one's self requires resiliency.

recently, i was talking with a close friend about the struggles of living within God's radical call on our lives in very practical ways. what do we do as Christians when we realize places that are unlike Christ in our lives? in our relationships? in our attitudes?

how many times has the Spirit intruded on my life with troubling clarity about a specific issue, an attitude, or an anything. these can be harsh realities for some of us to encounter. why is it that all too often our first instinct is to recoil or try to soften that piercing word? why must we try every angle of interpretive genius in order to ease the otherwise unbending instructions in Scripture? why must we incessantly attempt to make ourselves somehow less offensive in God's eyes? in all our endeavors, somewhere deep within the recesses i/we know.

so, we either run away or toward. if we're ever going to move from here to there in the sense that we've been talking about, it must be toward...with all of it's accompanying unease.

i guess what i'm trying to say is this: what it comes down to - and what is crucial - is how we receive God's word. Christ's intrusion. it will take a good measure of faithful resiliency to traverse the space between. two intermingling realities are necessary: first, even though His words can be troubling, we must affirm (confess) that in the coming of Christ there is the capacity to move us forward - be that healing, a remedy for our brokenness, or something else; and second, we must be done with acting like God's call on our lives is somehow untroubling and decide if we're willing for our lives to be inconvenienced.

happy advent. be resilient in your faith.
-scott|e.