We’re (more than) Halfway There

I don’t want to rush the Advent season, but I am certainly in a rush!  Now, let’s be honest…  How often do we read Haggai?  Wait for it…  That’s what I thought.  Today is an excellent day to do so:

Haggai 1:5-9, “Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it. This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,’ says the Lord. ^‘You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house…

It sounds like a twisted Advent version of the Big, Bad, Wolf, but then something odd happens.  The people respond, and the Lord says the most beautiful words of all…

“I am with you,” (v.13)

We are these people.  We are these people who run and rush and forget to give careful thought to our ways.  I’m not sure this is particularly horrible in any specific sense, but it is, indeed, distracting.  It distracts us from what really matters, and that never ends well.

I need to confess.  I love this season so much that I try to cram in every possible beautiful tradition, every single year.  In many ways, this is life giving to me, so it’s not all bad.  The other night, when our family sat down to watch one of the Christmas movies we watch every year, my thirteen year old son was suddenly struck by the realization that not all families have this tradition.  His eyes got huge, and he didn’t speak for a moment.  It is truly unthinkable to him that not every mom insists that her children watch every Christmas movie she can get her hands on, from classics to pre-school TV specials (even though they are way too old) to glossy new titles.  He was so sad when this dawned on him.

In addition, I have made this list of things that have to happen from day to day, during Advent.  I have been stressed out about a few of them, this year, because I can’t keep up, and some of them are not happening (or, at least, not happening yet…)

There should be a different Christmas book to read every night… and an Advent calendar (only Lego will do).  The Advent wreath must be lit from week to week, with recitations and prayers.  We also celebrate Hanukkah at our home, so consideration must be given to the menorah and the Hebrew blessings and Hanukkah books and new family games and fried food and chocolate coins (I’m thinking about this in great detail, right now, since it is actually Hanukkah).  We have a Christmas Eve tradition that includes new pajamas and a family movie night, and the truth is that part of the reason for this is a deep desire for the kids to sleep in past 12:01am, because at some point in our lives I told them it was OK to wake us any time after midnight on Christmas Day, and they will never forget it!  This is problematic when the presents aren’t yet wrapped!  This is oh so problematic in years such as this one, when Christmas Eve (or Christmas Day) falls on a Sunday and somebody’s on staff at a church…

As if all of this isn’t enough, we added some Epiphany traditions a couple of years ago, and I am excited to announce that this has expanded to a new twelve days of Christmas thing we’re going to try for the first time, this year. 

I shared my fantastical list of Advent/Hanukkah/Christmas/Epiphany awesomeness with my husband the other day, and when he got to the end of it, he said, “What are we doing for Jesus?”

That sounds overtly spiritual, but what he really meant was that I had forgotten to put Jesus’ birthday dessert on my list!  (Jesus used to get a cake, but for the past decade we have had a kid with a 12/26 birthday, so now Jesus usually gets brownies or cheesecake).

Still, I had a very small meltdown, as I exclaimed, “Oh my gosh!  I forgot Jesus!”

The reading of the nativity story (which happens every year whether it’s on a list or not) and Jesus’ birthday dessert are now on the list.  Don’t worry.  I have it all under control.

And yet I think I feel a little bit like the Jewish people of the book of Haggai.  I expect so much…  It amounts to so little without the right ways…

Psalm 31:24: “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord.”

Oh, that Jesus would come… that Jesus would be with me… that Jesus would be with us…  We are waiting…

L.

The Last Question Jesus Answers

Matthew 22:34-40: “Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments’” (NIV).

The passage goes on to speak of questions Jesus asks the Pharisees, but at the end we read, “from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions”(v.46).

As a lover of good questions, I am finding myself suddenly unable to decide how I feel about this…  Maybe the issue is that the Sadducees and Pharisees didn’t ask good questions.  Questions should, indeed, provoke thought and dialogue.  I have to admit that sometimes I ask questions to which I already know the answers, simply for the sake of great conversation (and this tactic also serves to inform others who might be unwilling or unable to ask the questions, themselves). The Sadducees and Pharisees didn’t have the same intent.  They wanted to test Jesus… to try him… to trip him up.  And from that we received the simplest, and yet the most difficult, commandment to follow.

Love.

Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Love yourself.

Everything else will turn out alright.

There’s not anything we can say to argue against this, although some will try.  And so here I sit thinking about the silences that come from being astonished.  David offers some insight that relates, in Psalm 39:2-5: “So I remained utterly silent, not even saying anything good. But my anguish increased; my heart grew hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: ‘Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure” (NIV).

Let me know how fleeting my life is…

Check.

One of my favorite questions has become, “Now What?”

The straightforward answer to that is easier and easier, every time I ask it.

Love.

There is no time for anything less.

Psalm 36:9: “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light” (NIV).

May we also be light, bringing life…

Maybe it’s the last answer we needed…

L.

Sometimes Scripture is Rough

The daily office, today, seems to be the opposite of hope.  It is lament and death and destruction all around!  I don’t want to write about that at Advent!  But things aren’t always what they seem…  And things can change…

Amos 5:12-15 was really getting to me:

“There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.  Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil. Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy…”

I was having a difficult time wrapping my mind around how it is prudent to be silent in the face of injustice while being charged with bringing justice, and then I thought of Santa Claus… no kidding… either because I’m seriously sleep deprived or because I’m the mother of one kid who still thinks reindeer fly or because I am desperately hoping some magical being might actually fill my list, this year (and don’t go all materialistic on me, because my list is an anomaly… mostly… I promise).  OK, so I was really thinking of St. Nicholas (and I know I’m a couple of days late for this post).

So often, we assume our action must be loud and in the spotlight in order to count for anything, but there are times when subversive disruption actually does more good.  This is not to imply that we should always be silent… or that we should suffer in silence… or that we should watch others suffer in silence.  I want to add my own resounding “enough” to the cries of those who have had more than their share of pain.  But I do want to underscore the thought that talk is cheap.  Action is more useful, regardless of the dynamic in play.  If we really lament, perhaps we should repent.  Perhaps we should even take responsibility for wrongs in the world for which we are not directly culpable.  Lord, have mercy…

Who can we help… who can we free… who can we resurrect… as we wait?

L.

Exhaustion should not Accompany Waiting

Maybe we have it all wrong.  I often feel that… in humility… it is important to remind myself of this possibility.  We wouldn’t be the first…

II Peter 3:13-16:

“in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.  So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (NIV).

I had to read this several times, and the truth is…  I’m still afraid I might not really ‘get it,’ which I guess would just serve to prove the point.  But is it possible that we have misinterpreted Scripture (or at least parts of Scripture) so grossly that we are running ourselves into the ground in order to somehow attain something we were never intended to chase?  Yeah…  maybe…

From the book:  Illuminate, An Advent Experience, this is what I read, this morning: “During the Advent season, friends and family sometimes assign us responsibilities we don’t really want to do…  The responsibility of being faithful followers of Jesus is the responsibility that should set our priorities for Advent…” (Sheneman, 23).

This is both freeing and terrifying.  Expectations are difficult.  In my family, we have so many Advent, Hanukkah, and Christmastide traditions that it can be overwhelming (even if I love them all)!  I ran across this image a couple of weeks ago, and it spoke deeply to my heart during this time that should be subdued:

But what do we cut out?

I think the answer may lie in these questions (oh, the irony):

What responsibilities do you love during the Advent season?  What things bring hope to others and joy to you?

Can we let the rest go? 

L.

This “Lame Duck” Week

Revelation 21:5-6, “…I am making everything new…  It is done…”

It’s been awhile since I have blogged here at “These Ordinary Days.”  How appropriate that they are now coming to an end.  I guess this page will need an Advent facelift for the next several weeks! 

As I went to read the daily office, this morning, I realized that I had left my Sacred Ordinary Days journal at home, so I clicked over to the “backup” site I use to gather the daily office Scriptures when I find myself in this predicament.  Strangely, it had already transitioned to the Year B readings, which apparently start on Thursday.  It’s Monday.  Is there no Scripture for Monday? 

Well, of course there is, but this all got me to thinking about how miserable we (ahem… I) do transitions and also about how this might be something of a “lame duck” week… sandwiched between everything ordinary and extraordinary… a place where we pause to think about how everything is over and everything is beginning again, but nothing is actually happening right now.  And since that is pretty much exactly what these phrases from Revelation (finally found the daily office) seem to indicate; I guess it’s true.

And yet, there is this one thing that remains… 

Psalm 117:2, “For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever” (NIV).

Is love and faithfulness enough to sustain us in times of seemingly nothing-else-ness (humor me, sometimes I have to create new words)?  I think so, but waiting is so hard… 

L.