Dear Incarnation,
What a sweet visit from our bishop! I am still marveling at the joy of the Saint Nicholas event, the wisdom shared with our staff and vestry over lunch, and the specific prayers prayed over members of our congregation in confirmation. The Spirit's gentle, healing, and empowering presence was palpable in our midst throughout the weekend. Thanks be to God!
We are now halfway into the Advent season — two Sundays down, two more to go. This coming Sunday is called Gaudete Sunday ("gaudete" is Latin for "rejoice"). The candle is pink, visibly lighter, and the readings express joy at the nearness of God's coming. Where are you longing for God to come in your life, and in our world? Where are you glimpsing small signs of his nearness? Where is God calling you to turn toward joy? Practicing joy can be an act of resistance, even defiance, against the powers of this world that seek to hold us in despair.
This Sunday's gospel reading from Luke 3:7-20 may not seem particularly joyful at first glance — it begins with "You brood of vipers!" and proceeds with John the Baptist's prophetic judgment against oppression and exploitation and religious hypocrisy. Where's the joy in that? But actually, God's judgment is good and joyful news for the world. As we sang on Sunday:
From the halls of power to the fortress tower, not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware, for your justice tears ev'ry tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more for the food they can never earn;
These are tables spread, ev'ry mouth be fed, for the world is about to turn.
Judgment is God's turning of the world, his ultimate righting of all the wrongs. That's joyful news for the poor and downtrodden, and sobering, shake-us-awake, altar-call news for the wealthy, proud, and powerful. It's also news that we need not fear, because the one who judges us loves and died for us, taking the full weight of God's judgment on himself on the cross. This sort of joy has a decidedly Advent flavor — a durable joy that can lament the pain of the world while trusting steadfastly in its being set right. C.S. Lewis wrote that joy "is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still ‘about to be’.”
This Advent, the moral imagination of our nation has been captured by the tragic murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of United Healthcare and fellow image-bearer of God. This is the Adventiest of stories, one that demonstrates our collective longing for something "still about to be." Thompson's murderer, Luigi Mangione, rightly saw the grave injustices wrought by corporate greed against the most vulnerable. He got half of the Advent message, taking what Fleming Rutledge calls "a fearless inventory of the darkness." (This particular darkness hits close to home for me — I have a child with a chronic illness and have cried my fair share of tears over predatory insurance and pharmaceutical practices.)
But Mangione missed the crucial other half of the Advent message: God's invitation to look from that inventory of darkness toward the coming light of Jesus. This Advent message compels us to reject the temptation to become gods and judges ourselves (which is, of course, the same sin as those oppressive leaders we deplore). It strengthens us to resist violent retaliation and instead embrace humility and weakness as God's chosen way of turning the world around. It looks with defiant joy toward the God who will one day perfectly and lovingly judge the world.
I often receive anonymous notes and pictures on Sunday from some of our youngest theologians. This one, from several Sundays ago, has been tucked into my journal as a helpful reminder of the Advent promise: "God's Being King: 1. There would be no hate. 2. There would be no war. 3. You would see."
Amen. May God give us eyes to see the kingdom that is still coming, as we light the pink candle and trust in a joy that is "still about to be."
Defiantly joyful with you,
Amy
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