I need an
Advent devotional, I said to myself one year while still in the choir at Salem UMC. My BFF Dot collects, edits and publishes an Advent Booklet each year and asked me for an entry. Something/someone––Muse and/or Holy Spirit––hit me
between the eyes and said, Duh! You have
a folder full of Advent anthems on your lap. Surely …
“Advent Processional” (words from scripture, music by
Anna Laura Page) begins with Isaiah’s proclamation to prepare the way of the Lord. And––anthem-like, prophet-like,
parent-like–– the phrase is repeated, drummed, as it were, into our feeble and
flighty brains.
But
how to prepare lo these many eons from Isaiah’s tongue lashings? Rejoice … sing … give praise to God!
Does that mean feed the hungry, clothe the cold, build houses for the homeless?
Who, me?
“Creation will
be at peace,” our director’s favorite Advent anthem, uses scenes from Isaiah
11. In the holy mountain of the Lord,
creation will be at peace … all war and strife will cease.
It’ll
have to be in the future, because it’ll never happen on this planet! At least
literally. Not the way we act today.
In that blessed
day, wolves, lambs, cows and bears will be friendly to each other and they will
be led by a child. The child Jesus? The child God? The sick children among
us? The beauty pageant child? It defies belief.
“Come
like the snow,” words by Herb Frombach, is a plea from our point-of-view, always
about Jesus:
Like the snow … he will wash us clean … he
will drift into our hearts (set on earthly concerns) and bring us peace…
There’s
that wish for peace again. Surely … that’s to be found only “in the mountain of
the Lord,” in the days after Jesus comes again. Surely not here and now!
Unless
… Perhaps another level of Isaiah’s
meaning is that today, we are to be
instruments of peace––among ourselves, our churches, our neighbors, those we
meet in the office, in school, in the market, on the highway, at Fred’s, the
bank, the cafe …
You
think? … That should be doable.
c 2017 PL
2 comments:
A Blessed Advent message.
How I wish it was doable. I have my doubts though.
Post a Comment