Advent, “The Long Unfolding.”
An Advent Series: reflections by Dawn🙋🏻‍♀️ and some wisdom she has harnessed from her favorite wise writers.
"And then—then!—they’ll see the Son of Man welcomed in grand style—a glorious welcome! When all this starts to happen, up on your feet. Stand tall with your heads high. Help is on the way!”
Luke 21:28 (MSG)
Advent is upon us.
Good timing.
With the presidential election behind us, it is time to take a deep breath and remember. It is a robust discipline to reign in our wild thoughts and fix them on the big, bold truth that weaves through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers...and on and on through every single story in Scripture: Light always overcomes darkness.
If you are like me, you feel your dusty beginnings--trust can be difficult to access. Belief can be fleeting. Darkness seems to wave its flag at the lead, rallying its army of ten thousand upon ten thousand. Demolished streets and cities in Ukraine, lives lost to disease and violence, rich getting richer, poor getting poorer, a groaning creation sick with a fever, families in ongoing conflict, technology leaving us in a global trance, a church in crisis, and cancer everywhere.
Darkness. Pitch-black darkness.
You are not alone. For all of human history, we have been in an ongoing conversation with God: "Where are you?" "Have you left us?" "Lord, the wicked are flourishing."
The Psalmist seems hopeless,
"We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be. How long will the enemy mock you, God? Will the foe revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?" (Psalm 74)
The stories of suffering in our lives, as well as the lives of those around us, leave us feeling like there is no evidence of God. No signs. No words. No comfort. Loss and disappointment nearly extinguish any light we have left.
Singer/songwriter Sara Groves has a line in one of her ​songs​ that reflects what all of us have experienced,
"From this one place I can't see very far. In this one moment, I'm square in the dark. These are the things I will trust in my heart, you can see something else, something else..."
This is where Advent interrupts the spiraling and swirling with a New Chapter.
Though darkness seems to slither in and sneak up behind us, wrapping its hands around our eyes and limiting our view, it does not own the narrative. It isn't a truth-teller. God the Father can see the full plan that will unfold before us a day at a time.
Psalm 132: 11
"The Lord has sworn in truth to David; He will not turn from it: 'I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body.'"
A promised Savior would come through the line of David. Sworn in truth. Jesus's birth, ministry, death, and resurrection would be the export of un-thwarted light. The promise of God, announced and kept. Isaiah paints the scene: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light." It starts with Him and finishes with Him. It unfolds over time. It continues to manifest through us. The Holy Spirit sets aflame believers who have surrendered to Jesus.
If you scroll back through the Old Testament, the “promise” seemed questionable, as if God were saying one thing but allowing another. "How long, O' Lord? Have you forgotten your people?" It can feel exactly like this today. Darkness seems to have his hands on the control panel. But God's ongoing plan comes in secret ways, slow and deliberate, on hidden back roads, in small gatherings in homes, in grace given to neighbors, in generosity, in conversations where people talk less and listen more, in the carrying of grief with one another, in the giving up of one's own agenda. It comes in rare, kind words instead of harsh ego-defensiveness; it shines through forgiveness and love. Patience and mercy lead the way--The Light comes by means of the Holy Spirit all the time. The Messiah was promised, and he would come one day, as a baby, in a small little town. In the meantime, God would carry his people through trial, attack, temptation, grief, and fear.
"...so that you would know that I am the Lord your God."
The plan is cosmic, the goal is personal.
Join me this Advent Season. Four reflections with insights from me as I harness the wisdom of some of my favorites! Eugene Peterson, Marilyn McEntyre, Henri Nouwen, NT Wright and more!
Together, as we sit still, hands and hearts open, we will see the light break over the horizon.
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