“Show us the light of your countenance, O Lord, and we shall be saved.”
This refrain sounds throughout the psalm appointed for the First Sunday
in Advent (Psalm 80) and it is a perfect beginning to our season of holy
waiting.
We yearn for just a glimpse of a shimmer of the promise of the reality
that is God.Could it be that we need to
have some sign of God’s presence in order to live?In another reading appointed for this day,
the prophet Isaiah says, “because you hid yourself, we transgressed.”That’s a new twist on an old story.Usually, because the people sinned, God
became absent.Here, the reverse is
true: because God was hidden, the people sinned.
In the absence of a sense of the presence of God, we fall and fail and
do harm.Not because God watches over us
like a stern taskmaster keeping us on the straight and narrow, but because
awareness of the presence of God inspires us to our best selves, leads us into
greater wholeness, saves us.In this Advent season, when we watch and wait
for the day of the Lord’s coming, we can be particularly mindful of the ways in
which we yearn for God and the ways in which God’s presence is made known to
us.
Show us the light of your countenance, O Lord, and we shall be saved.
We ask for what we need.
God gives us what we seek.
It is found in the waiting and in the anticipating.
It is found in the doing and in the alert watchfulness
It is found in Jesus, born in a barn and it is to be found in the Risen
Lord, who comes again and again and again into our lives, showing us a glimpse
of the promise of the shimmer of God lighting the way, lighting up our lives,
bringing us into greater health and wholeness, life and salvation.
Show us the light of your countenance, O Lord, and we shall be
saved.Thanks be to God.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Reflections on Matthew
25:31-46…
“Lord,
when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or
in prison and did not take care of you?”Then he answered them, “Truly, I tell you, just as you did not do it to
one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”
At the end of Pentecost,
poised on the brink of Advent, it is good that we remember that Jesus the
itinerant teacher, Jesus the healer, Jesus the outrageously courageous
challenger of the status quo, is also Christ the King, the Word of God, the One
who sits upon the Judgment Seat.
He separates those who fed
the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the imprisoned – these are they who did
justice, loved mercy, stepped outside the “way things are done” to live
unafraid with abundant care for all whom they met.Then there are the others.The ones who did not.When Jesus reveals their life-long neglect of
others and their selfishness, they ask, “When did we fail to clothe and feed you?”
Every one of us has said,
“But I didn’t realize it was you!”As in, “If I had known it was you, I would have done things
differently!”Are there things in your
life that would be different if only you’d known who it was?Do you treat people differently, depending on
whether they are family or stranger?Do
you treat people differently if you think others will notice?Do your good works and healthy relationships
depend upon awareness that “someone” might notice?
Advent is the season that
marks the beginning of the Christian year: for Christians, New Year’s Day falls
on Sunday, November 27th this year.What will your New Year’s Resolution be?How will you prepare for the coming of God Incarnate born in a barn, and
for Christ the King coming again to judge the world and the peoples with his
truth?What habits are you
building?A habit of care and
attentiveness to all, or a habit of preferential treatment of your friends? A
habit of justice or a habit of being seen to do good works? A way of life that
does good as unselfconsciously as breathing or a way of life that is different
when the spotlights are on and the curtain is up?
