Advent 1 | Year B | Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37 | Christopher Miner
As we enter the first Sunday of Advent (happy new church year, by the way), the readings speak to the activity of God and his people in the past, present and future. In Isaiah the author reminds God of how he acted in Israel's history, and the unfortunate response of his people that led to their present suffering and pain. In the Psalm the author pleads with God to hear his people's prayers and laments now, to move, act, and restore. He also swears that this time they will be faithful in response. In 1 Corinthians and Mark, Paul and Jesus point to the future, the 'day of our Lord Jesus Christ' and when they will behold 'the Son of Man coming in clouds'. Readers of both are encouraged to be ready for this coming, to be blameless and to stay awake, and to be aware of things that may point to this future event in their current time.
Advent, at least traditionally, has served as a season of expectation and anticipation, both for the coming Christmas celebration and for the return of Jesus as Lord. The focus during Advent is on both what happened before (Jesus' birth in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago) and what will happen in the future (Jesus return in power and glory). And if you are in the US, you know that the whole of society seems focused on what's coming in a month or so - the presents under the tree and (if you're kids are still young) a VERY early Christmas morning. But maybe your church is doing a Christmas presentation with shepherd costumes and pipe-cleaner halos, or perhaps springing for a live sheep or goat for the manger scene! (To quote VeggieTales, "Thank you stainmaster!") At least you'll be looking to the past a bit while anticipating the future.
We have distinct, impermeable constructs of time in our modern lives - the past, present, and future are utterly different realms that have only a linear relationship. Past flows to present which flows to future, and while intimately related they remain fundamentally separate.
The Biblical authors, however, did not ascribe to these rigid boundaries. Their worldview allowed for more flexible borders in terms of time and spirit. To them, God was active in this realm of reality but was more fully active in his own realm (called a variety of things, including Heaven and the Mountain of the Lord) that was this close to our realm. It was so close that things could cross back and forth (including God himself). Time worked similarly - visions of the future and the past were part of what the prophets contributed. Past, present and future were separated but they crossed back and forth on occasion.
Ultimately this leads to Jesus, and his claim of beginning the reign of the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Except that you only need to take one look at this place to realize we are not operating under the ideas and spirit of that kingdom most of the time. The kingdoms of violence, fear, scarcity, and selfishness seem to be flourishing as if Jesus death and resurrection made no impact whatsoever. But then Paul and other New Testament authors remind us that the Kingdom of God doesn't work like the kingdoms we see - it's from a different reality, a truly different place than the realm we see day to day, and it exists there in a way it doesn't here, at least not yet. It's beyond the linear constraints of time, so past, present, and future mix together into one present reality. And we get to experience tastes of this oneness of time and spirit here, often in unexpected ways and places. A conversation with someone/s where time seems to stand still, or a sunset that reaches a depth of your soul you didn't know existed, or a joy that wells up when you hear your beloved call your name - experiences that blur the lines between God's realm and ours, between now and then, point to something more than just themselves.
Advent can be a time where we allow God to blur our boundaries of time and spirit, because it's claims are such that they don't really work within our linear constructs. Jesus coming in Bethlehem, his resurrection that destroys death, and his return as rightful King of the World, are to him all as good as finished. He has come in the past, he is coming now, and will come in the future, because he is already here and has already done all he said he would do. If that sounds confusing or nonsensical, well, it some ways it is. It's also truly counter-cultural at a fundamental level, and its implications are profound for how we live.
"Behold, you come. And your coming is neither past nor future, but the present, which
has only to reach its fulfillment. Now it is still the one single hour of your Advent, at the
end of which we too shall have found out that you have really come."
-Karl Rahner, "The Divine Dawning", in Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas
May we live with eyes to see and ears to hear our Lord Jesus, the one who is eternally present and will come again.
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