First Sunday of Advent - The Waiting

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light:  they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. [...]
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The might God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.  The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."

Isaiah 9:2,6-7

Today marks the first Sunday of Advent, where we remember the hope and promise of a coming Messiah, as well as looking forward to the promise of His return.  We live in a similar hope today, looking forward to the second coming, when will be restored.  We can understand that longing, that hope.  

It’s on this day we focus on the waiting.  The promised, but not yet fulfilled.  The already/not yet.

And it’s on today we experience the absolute truism - the waiting is the hardest part…

In this tension, we look to the past and see the promises fulfilled.  We see all of the promises and prophecies that Jesus’s birth fulfilled.  Depending on your definition of prophecy, there are 200 to 570 prophecies fulfilled just by the brith of Jesus.  That’s an excellent track record and one that should give us great comfort and hope in the 1,845 references to Jesus’s second coming.

And that can provide a great comfort.  It is of great consolation that we can be assured that Jesus will come again.  That He will make all things new.  That there will be a day when there is no more - no more sickness, no more war, no more death, no more suffering.  Oh Glorious Day!

I’m convinced, though, we have a greater hope and comfort than that.

Because we are not just saved to eternal life, but to a life more abundant and full here on earth.  We are not just called to sit on the sidelines and “wait ‘til Jesus comes.”

Our waiting in an expectant waiting.

We are called to prepare the way, which is the focus of the second week of advent.  The preparations made and preparations necessary.  The things we should be found doing when the second coming arrives.  To continue to be about His purpose and His mission here on earth.

For we also should be expectantly waiting for God to show up in our everyday lives.  We should fervently and expectantly waiting for miracles to arrive in our lives and the lives of those around us.  To see healing happen, in bodies and in relationships.  To see lives changed and turned from the depths of despair into the heights of hope.  To see churches, and towns, and cities, and counties, and states, and nations fervently change direction and seek God.  To see those locations feeding the hungry, clothing and sheltering the poor, nurturing the immigrant and stranger among them regardless of status, caring for the sick and dying.

We should be waiting on God on a daily basis.

So it begs the question, where are you waiting on God?

Are you waiting for physical healing?  Are you hurting and in need of comfort?

Are you waiting for mental healing and strength?

Do you need comfort from grief and sorrow?

Do you need housing?  Clothing?  Financial stability?

Where are you waiting for God to show up?  And are you expectantly seeking Him?

Are you asking “Come, Lord Jesus, Come!”

This is where we can aid each other. To comfort each other. To support one another. To come alongside in the waiting. To share burdens where we can. 

And to continue to lift each other up. To continue to pray, come thou long expected Jesus.  Come again as we know you will. And come into this moment now with us. 

An Updated Reminder

 If I’m going to be really starting this up again, it is probably wise to give the periodic reminder about this blog.

First, I want to thank you all for your readership and your kind words.  This is largely a writing exercise and an opportunity for me to get thoughts out of my head.  I remain humbled by positive response and the appreciation.  To everyone who has let me know you are reading, ever liked a post, or commented, thank you.  It is appreciated more than you could know.  To those of you who read in silence, thank you as well.

I would also like to use this time to post a reminder of the blog rules, and to provide advance warning.  There will be blogs that will either make you mad or will upset you or challenge your position on a particular topic.  The blog is my personal space and soap box, so it will reflect my biases and my contrarian streak.  I will also likely question things that many people believe are and should be settled.  

I do remain open to civil discourse on almost any topic.

Finally, I wanted to pass along a reminder that I have an email subscription option on the page.  With that, you'll receive an email link each time a new post is added.  There is also an RSS feed option, in case anyone prefers that method.

Further, an update of the reminders that have been previously posted:

1. This blog represents the thoughts and opinions of its writer, me.  I stand behind what I write, but it does reflect my views and opinions at the time of writing.  I provide myself the opportunity to change my mind and to learn new information.
2. I promise, I will post on topics that are so niche-focused, so utterly nerdy that anyone but me is going to be bored to tears.  I try to keep those to only once or twice a week and to rotate through a variety of topics throughout the week to keep it interesting.  I use the labels so that you can screen out certain topics if you want to.
3. I will post things that you will disagree with and that will potentially make you upset.  I know I am more liberal than the majority of my audience.  Probably regarding doctrine and politics both.  These are both topics I'm going to write on from time to time.  I personally favor moderation and lean center-left, but will post on a variety of viewpoints from center-right to hard left (maybe even hard right in a few instances, though increasingly unlikely).
4. I am going to be harder on Republicans than I am on Democrats.  While I am not a fan of many politicians of many different political parties, I am growing to despise what the Republican party is becoming.  And I reserve the sharpest criticism for them due to one fact above all: the perverse mixture of politics and religion that Republicans promote. Because they purport to hold themselves out as the Christian party, I'm going to hold them to that impossible standard.  
5. I am likewise harder on churches and Christians than I am on non-believers.  Those who profess to believe have identified themselves as recognizing a higher standard.  To put it simply, "we should know and act better."  And do so based on a reading of the entire Bible.  Sadly, we all too often fall far short of this.  While I do want to extend grace to those that slip, when errors occur as abuses of power in the church  or in ways that belittle the faith they claim to hold, I will be discussing it. 
6. I'm generally more interested in questions than concrete answers.  I think we as a collective are less curious than we should be and settle for comfortable answers when we should still be asking harder, more difficult questions.  
7. I am completely open to disagreement and debate. Honest and open dialogue is the only way we can move forward in any civilized society.  However, I have a few ground rules for debate:

• I will not tolerate name calling or muckraking.  When the thread resorts to calling each other racists, "liberal snowflakes," "libtards," or four-letter words, I will shut it down.  Likewise, I'm not going to let stereotypes and sweeping generalities go unchallenged.  All liberals do not want the destruction of our country, all conservatives are not bigots, etc.
• I hope for discussion that will foster conversation, not end it.  So I expect more than "guns don't kill people, people kill people" in a discussion on gun control, for example.  I will not let those conversation-enders stand unchallenged.
• Compromise is not a dirty word.  And likewise, I do hope people change their mind from time to time based on what they learn. Including me.
• I follow this hierarchy for the value of information: facts, then informed opinions, then general opinions.  Saying "that's just my opinion" is going to get nowhere with me if it is not supported by the facts.

As always, thank you for reading!

Veterans Day 2024

“Today, we honor generations of America’s veterans — patriots who have stood on the frontlines of freedom and kept the light of liberty shining bright around the world.  Just as they have kept the ultimate faith in our Nation, we must keep ultimate faith in them.

Each one of our Nation’s veterans is a link in a chain of honor that stretches back to our founding days — bound by a sacred oath to support and defend the United States of America.  Throughout history, whenever and wherever the forces of darkness have sought to extinguish the flame of freedom, America’s veterans have been fighting to keep it burning bright.  I remember so clearly the pride the First Lady and I felt in our son Beau during his service in Iraq.  He — like all our veterans from Belleau Wood, Baghdad, and Gettysburg to Guadalcanal, Korea, and Kandahar and beyond — lived, served, and sacrificed by a creed of duty.  We owe them a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay, not just for fighting for our democracy, but for giving back to our communities and inspiring the next generation to serve, even after they hang up their uniforms.

President Joe Biden, A Proclamation of Veterans Day, 2024

"I’ll have you know that a soldier is the most holy of all humans because he is the most tested — most tested of all."

John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Today is a day that the world remembers and honors those who serve their countries.

Armistice Day. Remembrance Day. Veterans Day.

The world remembers and celebrates the end of what was supposed to be the war to end all wars.  The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  Oh, were that true.

As Americans, we remember and honor those who serve and sacrifice for our country.  Who sacrifice for our freedoms as the wars rage ever on.

Thank you. We owe you more than we can say.  May we never forget.

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

President John F. Kennedy

That is the key, isn’t it.  May we not just continue to repeat these words, may we live by them.  May we enact policies that truly show the value we place on our soldiers.  May our leadership thoroughly weigh the costs every time before engaging them.  May we repair the broken systems we have to ensure they are supported throughout their lives.

And then, may our words on Veterans Day be an everyday remembrance.

Are You Safe?

Three short words, but such a powerful question, with multiple implications.

We recognize the physical nature of the question.   Are you in a good place?  Are you safe from physical harm and danger?  We ask this in situations of crisis or disaster.  Checking on our loved ones and friends, making sure they are okay.  Making sure they survived and weathered the storm.

There is a deeper way this question is asked.  One that reveals more about the character of the listener, than their situation.  And one that gets to the heart of what we seek in those around us.

Are you a safe person?

Can I trust you?

It’s a question of self-preservation.  One that we ask to keep ourselves from being hurt.  We may not ask it out loud, but we definitely evaluate in internally when we are deciding who we can share our hopes, our dreams, our sorrows, and our fears with.  When we determine who we can authentically be ourselves around.

Our church is currently working through a series entitled Leave the 99.  It’s about venturing out and going forth to be about His purpose.  Leaving the 99 in the flock to look for the one lost lamb.  And that passage of scripture, with the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son is well tread scripture.  It is well taught and well read.  

But something jumped out of the passage last night to me for the first time, right at the very beginning.

Luke begins chapter 15 with a verse summarizing the situation.  “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him [Jesus].  And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’”

The New Living Translation describes the crowd as “tax collectors and other notorious sinners.”  To put it mildly, these were the ultimate outsiders of Jewish society.  They were those people.  The ones that “respectable people” did not want to even be seen near.

Jewish society divided everyone between clean and unclean people.  The pious were clean and were the “worthy” in society.  Everyone else was unclean and needed cleansing.  But even within the unclean, there were levels.  These people were the “dirtiest.”

The tax collectors were seen as abusive and traitors, siding with Rome over the Jewish people.  Profiting off their own people through usury and graft.  The other notorious sinners likely referred to prostitutes, to drunkards, to beggars..to the undesirables.

People whose sins real and perceived were harder to hide.

And yet, they were still drawn to Jesus.

The question that hit me last night was why were they drawn to Jesus and not to the Pharisees?  Why would they feel comfortable coming to Jesus, drawing near to Jesus?

Because they felt safe.

Despite their sin, despite the station in life, despite their outsider standing, they knew they were safe to come to Jesus. 

They were safe to present the totality of their life before the feet of Jesus.  To bring everything they were, to bring their pride, to bring their shame, to bring all of it and just be in his presence.

They knew they weren’t safe with the Pharisees.  They knew how that would go.  The Pharisees would come forward with a long list of things that would need to be cleansed – the path to be made clean, which would have to happen before they could even hear the message.  Before they would even be allowed in their presence.

But they were safe at the feet of Jesus.  They were seen at the feet of Jesus.

And similarly, I think that is the highest compliment people could give us as Christians.  That they feel safe in our presence.  That they feel seen by us.

Which raises a question –

Do people feel safe around you?

Are they able to share their frustrations, their hopes, their dreams, their fears, themselves with you?  Or are people guarded around you?  Are things kept at a surface level?  Are interactions short?  Are people uncomfortable in your presence?

Perhaps a better question is, which people feel safe around you?

Do all the people that feel safe around you look like you?

Is a woman able to tell you all the ways she feels threatened, has been threatened, felt objectified and feel you hear her? Would she feel safe in sharing her concerns regarding her health and safety? Or do you try to minimize the concerns?  Explain the experiences?

Does a minority feel safe to tell you of the injustices they have faced in their life and feel seen?  Would they feel safe explaining their fears of what is ahead?  Or do they feel overlooked, minimized by your experiences?

Would a refugee or migrant feel safe in telling you their status?

Would an LGBTQ person feel safe in sharing their fears for the status of their relationships?  The status of their marriages?  Or is that part something that has to be kept hidden?

We have a real problem in the American church where we have lost the ability to make people feel safe.  We’ve lost the idea of church being a sanctuary and hospital for the wretched.  For the sinners that we all are.

And I wonder if the church failing to do its job in this area is what has led to things like the “safety pin” symbol or the blue friendship bracelet.  Tokens designed to be symbols identifying the wearer as an ally to anyone who needs it, regardless of race, gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation, religion, immigrant status, etc.  Designating themselves as safe people.

In engaging in this train of thought, I recognize I have to address two oppositions that will arise.  First, the idea that not all people felt comfortable around Jesus.  And this is correct.  The Pharisees very obviously did not feel safe or comfortable around Jesus.  They found him antagonistic.  Isn’t it curious that the people that designated themselves holy, “clean,” in their own eyes felt uncomfortable?  Maybe as if you had to let go of the front before you felt seen, whole, and safe?  That’s ideally how church should work, we should be able to drop the mask, to drop the front of being perfect or pious, to present ourselves as the broken people that we are all trying to support each other to do and be better.  That makes a safe space.

Second, I can hear the choruses of people that will point out that though Jesus hung around and ate with sinners, he didn’t leave them there.  He would then tell them like the woman caught in adultery “go and sin no more.”   

This is true.

But there are a couple of important points to this story that are also left out.  Especially as the woman caught in adultery provides a beautiful illustration of how Jesus made people feel safe.

In this story, we have the woman caught in adultery (and it’s always interesting that it is just the woman caught in adultery and not the man as well), dragged out by the Pharisees to be stoned, the punishment prescribed by the Mosaic Law.

We all know it is a trap for Jesus.  If he says stone her, they will ask why he breaks other Mosiac laws.  If he says to not stone her, they will ask him why he doesn’t respect Mosaic Law.

Of utmost importance to understand in the story is that the Pharisees care nothing for the woman.

But Jesus does.

Jesus’ response in this story amazes me to this day. 

First, he affords the woman her dignity.  There is no telling what state of dress or undress this woman was presented.  For them to catch her in the act could have several implications in this respect.  The Pharisees looked down on her and dragged her before them.  She was made to face them down.

But Jesus refused to engage.  He turned away.  He bent down, and began writing in the sand.  He afforded her her modesty.

And when the Pharisees demanded a response, he provided her security.

Instead of engaging in the Pharisees trap, he told whomever was without sin themselves to cast the first stone.  Whomever was truly righteous could stone her.  He called out their hypocrisy.  For this he straightened up, looked them in the eyes, and then returned to his writing.

And of course, they left.

Because of all of them there, he was the only one who could judge her.

Finally, when it was just Jesus and the woman, he provided her visibility.  Only when everyone else left did Jesus straighten up and face the woman standing before him.  Here he showed how he saw her, how he viewed her.

He freed her, in all senses of the word.

And yes, there he told her, go your way and go and sin no more.

But he did it in order.  He made her feel safe and protected.  He made her feel seen, and then he told her to sin no more. 

All too often, we want to jump to sin no more, then come to us and we’ll recognize you.  The Pharisee problem all over again.  Go get clean and then we’ll associate.

We have to get better at making the outsider, the downtrodden, the different, and the outcast feel safe and seen.  Only then do we earn the right for the second part of that conversation.

So, I ask again, and hope we take a hard look for the answer.

“Are you safe?”

“God help the outcasts, or nobody will.”