Sunday, December 10, 2006

Advent II

Ok this is going to be quick because I have finals to study for.

I have to confess that I'm behind on all of my readings for lent. I allowed frantic paper writing to dominate my life for the past few days and thus I don't have a lot to reflect on as far as the readings go.

I've been thinking about something concerning advent since I made the last post and then it was reemphasized by a conversation I had with my friend Tony. How do we find the right balance in the tension between focusing on the parts of history where we long for the Messiah to come (cf. my last post) and the fact that we are a people living in the light of the ressurection. Is it appropriate for us to sing "O Come Emmanual" and "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" on a sunday in advent? Each Sunday is indeed a ressurectional day is it not?

Is the tension resolved if we strictly focus on the second coming of our Messiah? I think part of it is resolved but not fully.

Maybe I should just learn to be content with the whole of the church year being paradoxical. In Advent we have the above tension. In lent we think of ourselves in a pre-easter tense while living in the post-Easter light, and in eastertide we remember before Pentecost yet we still practice the charisms bestowed upon us by the Holy Spirit who came in power on Pentecost.

So maybe the whole church year is paradoxical, maybe that's fine, that still doesn't negate the edification that comes with emphasizing the appropriate things for each season.

On a side note: I put all my christmas music on my computer and separated it into two playlists, one for advent and one for Christmas. I currently have 10 songs in my advent list and about 40 in my Christmas one. This includes having "O Come Emmanual" in there about 3 times by different artists. So when I get a chance I'm going to go through my worship songs and see which ones I can add to my advent list - songs like "Sing to the King," and "These are the days of Elijah." Although these aren't advent songs persay at a casual glance they might fit the theological themes and thus can be effectively used for advent. We'll see how it goes.

Blessings,

Ben
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Automator can't write papers for you, but for $10 an hour your friend Chuck can ;-)

2. I love the paradox of Advent. I've been dealing with this as well, especially as I've been doing my best to follow the lectionary; it has always struck me as strange that the first half of the month is dominated by "Jesus come again" readings and the second half by "Jesus come the first time" readings. I did some reading and discovered that early on Advent was a 40-day period (I think it was 40) like Lent anticipating Jesus' return to Earth, but it wasn't until the Middle Ages that Christmas was associated with Advent. That explains why the lectionary readings are so paradoxical, and I think it does a lot for us as God-followers awaiting Jesus; Advent isn't just a rehearsal of ancient events, but also an anticipation of future events. Pretty sweet.

4:49 PM, December 11, 2006
Anonymous said...

Word. The already/not-yet paradox is probably one of the most mind-boggling things...And yet also wonderful, because not everything is future - there IS a now, a reality of the risen Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit - and yet there is still even more to look forward to. If you skipped the Dec. 2 reading in "Watch for the Light", you should really go back and read it! (Or if you did, then re-read it...) Because it speaks exactly to this. After writing pages and pages of questions to God, about how in the world all of this could be, Karl Rahner writes, "I've begun to understand something I've known for a long time: You are still in the process of Your coming." It was truly beautiful. (As are most of the other readings in that book, actually...)

And in the realm of Advent songs, have you ever heard "Of the Father's Love Begotten"? That is officially my 3rd-favourite Advent hymn, after "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" and "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence." When I was doing research on this amazing 5th-century hymn, I literally got chills when I read that the Latin title is "Divinum Mysterium." I can't really explain how amazing it is, you just have to hear it for yourself. And Handel's Messiah is definitely another Advent staple.

My church growing up never really did much for Advent, and neither does my church now, to be honest. But all that is changing! (mwahahahaha...) They had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they handed over the reins on last week's service to me. Their original idea was to have it be a service of "traditional Christmas carols" - since our tree is up now and the church is decorated and our Christmas play is next week. So I stuck with the "traditional carols" part, but all the songs were centered around "coming". The service was built around 2 invitations - one from the church to Christ, inviting Him to come into our midst, and the second from Christ Himself to the church, an invitation to His people to come to Him, in repentance, love, and adoration. Pastor Jon preached an Advent message out of the book of Revelation, about the One who was, and is, and is to come - it was amazing and blew everyone away. Even if we don't have weeks of Advent, at least we had one Sunday, and that's progress. :)

Hey, so what are you doing for New Year's? I'm going down to the Diercks'. Wanna come???? Otherwise, party time can be Tuesday the 19th, Thursday the 21st, or Friday the 22nd...

5:12 PM, December 12, 2006

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