COME, LORD JESUS . . .(unfinished)

The Revd Deacon Polly M. Bowen

 

Tell me, how did it get to be Advent already?  Where does the time go?  Time flies when you’re having fun!  Winter already!  Almost Christmas!  And there’s still so much to do . .

 

So go the comments, as a new Church Year begins and the old secular year winds down.  I have a fascination with Time; we in the Church are caught in the tension between chronos and kairos – our time and God’s time.   Being human, we can’t be unaware of Time as measured by our clocks and calendars, but being made in the image of God, we also can’t ignore the fact that God’s time is not our time. 

 

And so once again it’s Advent, and our Lord approaches.  We look forward (and backward) to his birth into our world, we contemplate (and rejoice) in his birth in our hearts, we reflect on his ultimate coming in glory.  And like the proverbial blind man with the elephant, we emerge from our pondering with only a dim, shadowy sense of the great Uncreated Reality that is God. 

 

Who is this God, this Lord for whom we prepare?  At this time of year when we’re looking ahead to Christmas, we often think of him as a tiny baby: O holy child of Bethlehem; Glory to the newborn King; Come to Bethlehem and see; Dost thou in a manger lie; Little Lord Jesus (no crying he makes); Unto us a child is born; Sleep in heavenly peace.

 

Several years ago I visited a Protestant church on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  I was stunned to see a huge, fully decorated and lighted Christmas Tree, and to hear Christmas Carols being sung.  As a lifelong Episcopalian, this had not been my worship experience during the period of time that we know as Advent.  I had become accustomed to hearing the carols played in all their tinny glory in shops and malls long before we allowed them in church, and I perceived this as somehow wrong. In my church we weren’t singing Christmas carols; we were singing those great Advent hymns: Sleepers, wake!  Savior of the nations, come! O come, O come, Emmanuel! Hark, a thrilling voice is sounding! Prepare the way, O Zion! There’s a voice in the wilderness crying!  Comfort, comfort ye my people. 

 

Given what little I understand about kairos time – and about everything happening in one great cosmic moment, in the fullness of time, I can no longer say that one way is superior or inferior to the other.  People worship best in the way that’s comfortable for them.  I can only say that for me, Advent is an important season.  I desperately need that preparation time, that pause to reflect on the many ways God comes to me. 

 

When I was in seminary, there was a professor who kept telling us to let go of our childhood image of God.  His name for that image was “Gerber God.”  He told us that we all cling to that image until the REAL God confronts us face to face, and then we find out that our Gerber God isn’t nearly big enough or strong enough.  Most of us have another image we carry over from childhood, too.  That’s the image of the M&M Jesus.  Remember Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild?  I grew up in the 50s, and most of what I knew about Jesus I learned from the songs and pictures in Sunday School.  He liked animals and children, he stood at a door knocking, some people liked him and some didn’t, and he finally got himself killed because he was so good.   Poor, sweet M&M Jesus.

 

The wonderful lessons and hymns of Advent supply us with the tools to expand our vision of God.  Try meditating on the lessons before you come to church, then notice how the entire worship experience is put together, integrating the readings with the hymns, the choir anthem, the sermon and even the prayers.  The guide at the end of this article will help you

 

Trust me!  Try it!  See if you don’t find that Gerber God – M&M Jesus image receding as you immerse yourself in the message of Advent, the fullness of God’s time.  And see if the great God of Heaven and Earth doesn’t embrace you in ways that are nearer and dearer  (and greater) than you ever imagined.

 

 

 

 

LESSONS FOR ADVENT 2007

 

Dec. 2     Isaiah 2:1-5                Psalm 122            Romans 13:11-14            Matthew 24:36-44

Dec 9      Isaiah 11:1-10            Psalm 72              Romans 15:4-13              Matthew 3:1-12

Dec 16    Isaiah 35:1-10            Luke 1:47-55       James 5:7-10                    Matthew 11:2-11

Dec 23    Isaiah 7:10-16            Psalm 80              Romans 1:1-7                  Matthew 1:18-25