 A lot has happened in the world over the last week. Last Thursday, the schedule said, “Give thanks.” So, with tables piled high with food and football on the TV, we gave thanks for all the stuff we possess, and the loved ones who benefit. Seems we also took note of what we did not have in the process, because “Black Friday” called us to rush into every available retail outlet to push, shove, and harangue to get whatever we lacked to make life full.  A lot has happened in the world over the last week. Last Thursday, the schedule said, “Give thanks.” So, with tables piled high with food and football on the TV, we gave thanks for all the stuff we possess, and the loved ones who benefit. Seems we also took note of what we did not have in the process, because “Black Friday” called us to rush into every available retail outlet to push, shove, and harangue to get whatever we lacked to make life full.
Recognizing that small businesses and mom & pop operations often miss out on the bonanza of our Friday buying frenzy, we were sent to get more stuff from our local retailers on Saturday. Football and a breather gave us a day of rest, and then… “Cyber Monday!” We are gathered up in the cultural impulse to let our keyboards and mice click us into a consumptive coma. Recognizing perhaps that we might have acted a little selfishly, “Giving Tuesday” comes along to remind us to share – for a day – and be absolved of any guilt. We wouldn’t want non-profits and religious organizations to miss the market-driven opportunities of the holidays. Now we stand ready for the frenzied pace of preparations for the holidays which will end with an exhausted toot, silly hat, and perhaps a little bit drunken sigh as the clock drags into the new year. This is the post-modern, consumer-driven advent which prepares us for… um, ah… what? All brought to you by the “Market” – the economic and cultural system that receives our wages and lifeblood in exchange for stuff we will break, use, or throw away in the coming year so we can do it all again next. The way we mark and measure time shapes us. The click of the clock and passage of days have always provided a means of directing and ordering our lives. Seasons tell us when to plant and harvest. We work when the clock commands. It should be no surprise that the “Market” uses time to train us to buy, sell, eat, consume, and prepare for a holiday that has been recreated to serve its ends. The Church observes time too. The calendar of the Church is rooted in the life of Christ. Borrowing from Henri Nouwen[i] – Christ is coming (Advent); Christ is being born (Christmas); Christ is revealed (Epiphany); Christ is suffering (Lent); Christ is dying (Holy Week); Christ is risen (Easter); Christ begins to reign (Ascension); Christ shares his Spirit (Pentecost). Following this unfolding of time subjects us to being shaped and formed not by culture, not by the Market or any unholy thing. We are shaped by Christ for Christ. Advent is indeed a time for preparation, but I think our culture prepares for the wrong things. With the Market in charge of my days not only is my back account emptied, but along with the money goes my soul, me heart, my hope and my joy. What we prepare for in Advent in the Church is something that lasts eternally. The way we prepare makes us helpless and dependent on grace. Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the season this way from his prison cell: “Life in a prison cell may well be compared to Advent; one waits, hopes, and does this, that, or the other- things that are of no real consequence- the door is shut, and can be opened only from the outside." [ii] You see, that is what we wait upon in Advent – the incarnation of Grace that opens the door to the prison made by our own captivity to the world – yes, even the Market. We wait for the world to be made right, knowing deeply how broken it is. We wait for the joy that can’t be bought, the feast we cannot host, the cheer that comes as a gift. I leave you with this Advent Prayer by Walter Brueggemann, which is my daily prayer this season as I prepare my heart, my days, my living for the incarnation of Christ in my life. “In our secret yearnings we wait for your coming, and in our grinding despair we doubt that you will. And in this privileged place we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we and by those who despair more deeply than do we. Look upon your church and its pastors in this season of hope which runs so quickly to fatigue and in this season of yearning which becomes so easily quarrelsome. Give us the grace and the impatience to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes, to the edges of our fingertips. We do not want our several worlds to end. Come in your power and come in your weakness in any case and make all things new. Amen.” [iii] Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann Pax Christi, Pastor Tim Olson Copyright 2019 © Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. All Rights Reserved. [i] Henri Nouwen, Spiritual Direction: Wisdom from the Long Walk of Faith, (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2006) xix [ii] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, (New York: Collier Books, 1971) 416 [iii] Walter Brueggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2003) 148
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