Diocesan
Life Columns
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Bishop Paul's writes a monthly column for the Diocesan Newspaper, Diocesan
Life, edited by Communication
Minister, Bill Lewellis.
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News.
Advent Speaks to Us of Darkness, Longing,
Hope
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Diocesan Life, December 1998
Advent, the time before Christmas, speaks to us in many ways.
I often find it helpful to think of it in terms of darkness, longing,
and hope.
DARKNESS In the northern hemisphere,
Advent comes as the world is darkening, as things appear to be
dying. I am increasingly aware that someday Advent will arrive
and I will not be here to greet it because I will be as dead. On
the road to acceptance of one's mortality there are feelings of
futility, of cynicism, of anger. My light shines so dimly; and
the darkness, the afternoon darkness, the winter darkness, the
last darkness, seem likely to overcome it.
So one old prayer for Advent began, "Stir up, we beseech Thee,
Thy power, O Lord, and come."
Advent is first and foremost about humanity in the darkness, longing
for light to come, longing for God to act. Advent is permission,
invitation, for each of us to enter the heart's fearful dark places
that we try so hard to ignore most of the time, and to cry out, "Stir
up your power, Lord, and come."
LONGING To do that is to know something
of the longing of God's ancient people, who knew bondage, who experienced
exile, and whose prophet sang, "O that Thou wouldst rend the heavens
and come."
This time of the year is holy because we are asked to name in
the very center of our hearts our common hope for humanity's survival
and for its growth into a community of peace and equity.
With its memory of John the Baptizer, Advent reminds us that longing
is fine, that crying out for God is great, but that self-assessment
and change need to be done to make room for Christ. For it is not
God who keeps the fruits of the earth from reaching those who starve,
it is not God who hoards power and wealth, it is not God who abandons
spouse and children to scratch a mid-life itch.
I remember then some more words of the first of those "stirrup" prayers. "Stir
up, we beseech Thee, Thy power, O Lord, and come, that by Thy protection
we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins."
"Threatening perils of our sins." Unless and until we understand
that it is business as usual in the human community that defiles
our life, unless and until we commit ourselves to change, to making
straight in the desert a highway for God, there is very little
that Christmas, that God, can do for us.
The unofficial fifth gospel, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol,
reminds us that for change to happen, detailed memory and ruthless
self-assessment need to come first. That asks us to work, work
hard, for as Mary and Joseph knew, there is no easy road to Bethlehem.
HOPE Advent's preparation, however,
is not sustained penitence. The same ears that hear "make straight
a highway for our God" also hear "Comfort, comfort my people, says
the Lord." Advent is very much about hope.
Hope is the belief and the feeling that, in the long run, life
makes sense. Hope is what separates the believer from the cynic.
The scriptures teach that history - yours, mine, and humanity's
-- is going somewhere, and that history has the destiny of fulfillment
in God.
Our sense of where history is going in God, our sense that in
God our life has meaning, these are the foundation of hope. Hope
is what generates a positive and productive attitude. When everything
around appears to be a shambles, hope is what keeps us going, carrying
on until victory comes.
In the coming of Christ, Christians see God's total commitment
to humanity, the invitation to lift drooping spirits and intensify
resolve to live the longed-for future in word and deed.
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