Advent Re-Lit

Wednesday for me is the longest day, and Thursday starts with a Bible Study group at 7am.  This means I leave the house in darkness this time of year, before my kids leave for the bus stop, all of us before 7am. 

This time of year, it seems like a long of long nights and dark days—literally. 

This week of Advent, the first week, is always the one that seems most poignant.  One flickering candle shining against all the darkness.  One candle.  That’s all. 

13 months ago, as my family and I were relocating to South Arkansas we received the gift of “extra time” when our movers were delayed past our original delivery date.  We spent some of that time in some caverns in western Virginia.  Underground, we were again reminded of the power of one-match-power in an otherwise entirely dark cavern.  In a large underground room, one match lit up everyone’s faces, even in some cases, as much as 30 or 50 feet away from the matchlight! 

I imagine each of us with at least as much power, as we individually seek to follow Jesus.  And as all of us set forth to travel to Bethlehem, to proverbially worship the newborn King, our lights coalesce into one large mass of pilgrimage. 

Advent, re-lit. 

On these dark mornings, I think of that kind of following coming together to change the world. 

What images and ideas are helping you to change the world, these dark days? 

© Rev. David Stipp-Bethune; Teaching Elder and Pastor, The First Presbyterian Church of El Dorado, Arkansas

A New Snack and a Slow Turn

Christmas crunch. 

It could be any manner of Christmas snack treat—in my opinion.  But my wife was talking.  And not about snacking. 

“I hate the Christmas crunch—and I can’t even believe those words are coming out of my mouth!” she said in the car as we were driving to my office. 

It might be because this year, Advent is cut to its cheapest number of days.  4 weeks of promised hope smashed down into a few hours more than three.  The “pressure” of the season was getting to her. 

Christmas cards. 

Present wrapping. 

House decorations. 

Scheduling the last of the family activities that “we do every year.” 

She was up against figuring out “how are we going to do all this with one less weekend,” though she didn’t really want to admit it. 

Today, in my advent devotional, Christmas crunch was also redefined. 

“[Christmas] is about change of heart and change of life that are rooted in trust in the promises of God that are as sure as they are slow.” 

And while usually in Advent Christmas’s arrival does seem slow… apparently this year, it’s been sped up. 

Christmas will be here before we know it! 

And oddly, though time is short, I’ve already made plans for services and sermons for the last two weeks of Advent and Christmas Eve.  Plans are coming together.  Items are falling into place.  It feels right, and nice and I’m anxious for the celebrations. 

And though these days seem filled with terrors and perils and bad news cycles; more stories of sexual assaults, or presidential lies and threats, and the promise of finally-passed legislation that holds bad news for the poor and gifts for the rich—there is also this sense that the promised world of Jesus will yet come to be. 

Or as one of my new favorite Advent hymns proclaims:

“My soul cries out with a joyful shout that the God of my heart is great, and my spirit sings of the wondrous thing that you bring to the ones who wait.  You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight, and my weakness you did not spurn, so from east to west shall my name be blest.  Could the world be about to turn?  My heart shall sing of the day you bring.  Let the fires of your justice burn.  Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn.” 

Come quickly, Jesus—we are busy! 

So, come quickly, Jesus—lest you run out of time! 

Come quickly, Jesus—because the world is changing! 

 © Rev. David Stipp-Bethune; Teaching Elder and Pastor, The First Presbyterian Church of El Dorado, Arkansas

Our World the Dark Place

“Choose for this day to be precious—for there aren’t many of them”—is where I left it yesterday. 

And this morning, news came that someone close to our congregation had attempted suicide.  Again.  Someone who had battled this demon before and seemingly won, even. 

I’m reading a new resource by Walter Brueggemann for Advent.  In fact, I had just been reading this passage when word came: 

“Our world is ‘a dark place’ of fear, anxiety, greed, and violence.  The prophetic light exposes such destructive practices and requires us to consider both the ideological rootage of our practices and their concrete outcomes from which we often benefit.  Advent is a time for being addressed from ‘elsewhere’ and being unsettled.  It is time to ponder exposés that we do not welcome.” 

This week, only one lone candle lights the wreath, and beats back the darkness.  In a world that seems to grow ever-more-dark by the hour, or the minute—one candle hardly seems to hold promise or sway. 

Which may be why Brueggemann’s observations and comments begin with addressing prophetic speech.  Today’s daily lectionary has Jesus in the temple, running out the money-changers. 

I have a few illnesses I’d like to run out today in likewise manner! 

In his prayer, Brueggemann offers, “God of the prophets, who interrupts and makes new beginnings….” 

Maybe, in addition to lighting one lonely candle, we must also offer a word—a prophetic, interruptive word.  A persistent word. 

Come. 

© Rev. David Stipp-Bethune; Teaching Elder and Pastor, The First Presbyterian Church of El Dorado, Arkansas

Advent Monday Birthday

It’s the shortest ADVENT we’ll ever have.  Three weeks and a few hours (if you believe that bit my pastor-father always cited on Christmas Eve that “Christmas” begins at 4pm on Christmas Eve because 4pm was the rule by which the vigil could be observed and “count” if you were Catholic).  And by that count, with this year’s Advent starting so late, its almost already been crushed by the world around us whose Christmas-intensity has already burned bright and hot.  Christmas was already 50% off before Thanksgiving!  Black Friday has come and gone and—have you noticed!—even the sales got better post-Black-Friday.  They’re making shelf-space for Valentines Candy.  It’s almost like Christmas is being skipped! 

So, more than usual, I think, every single one of these Advent days this year will be precious! 

Still, I keep reading my newsfeed. 

2 apocalyptic moments: The University of Arkansas is hiring a new football coach (those in power are disappointed when we fail to win the most games; apparently a solid academic program for athletes, a record of good behavior, and being untarnished of NCAA violations is worthless in the face of not having won enough games.  Thus clamors the worldly wisdom that winning at life is not enough winning.)  And of course, we’re finally waiting to hear if the slow legislative season in Washington can be bested by charges of presidential impeachment, for something, sometime, somewhere, somehow—that will quickly spin the world into chaos and turn the 24-hour news cycle into a “breaking news story” that can interrupt network television programming reruns (Hint, there are so many Advent holiday parties that no one is watching anyway!). 

In fact, we all have better things to do. 

Fears about what the new, recently-passed tax proposals might do to some of the poorest people in our nation should not subdue or subvert the reality that RIGHT NOW, so many people are suffering. 

That the football coach is often the highest-paid state employee cannot be allowed to alter our focus from the ministry of the one who comes to challenge lifestyle choices with Kingdom promises (The ones with the most toys do not win!). 

And whatever happens in Washington, D.C. today won’t diminish the news that in our community, a nice, older couple’s home, neighbors to our building superintendent at FPC El Dorado, burned to the ground in the early morning hours this morning. 

THIS Advent Day is also my birthday. 

A gift of a little more transformation, please! 

Let the light and love of Jesus shine on you, in you, through you. 

Light YOUR candle of light and hope (there will be more than enough already on my birthday cake). 

Choose for this day to be precious—for there aren’t many of them. 

3-2-1 Advent

Quiet. 

Silence. 

Waiting. 

Soon there will be bustle and hustle—children arriving, parts-in-hand—for the first worship service of the new season that they are leading. 

Sunshine in my window.  No stirring in the building.  Everything set and ready. 

All those early-Sunday-tasks I thought I would get accomplished with extra time not needed to prepare for today’s service. 

Watching out the window. 

Quietly reading my newsfeed. 

Wondering not “if” I will see Jesus, but “where?” 

The hour will soon arrive. 

The chimes will be struck. 

The Chrismon tree will be lighted. 

The Advent wreath will put forth it’s first candle-glow of the season.  And we will be off. 

A new season. 

A new Sunday. 

A new—“just what is THIS advent bringing?” 

Oh, here they come! 

© Rev. David Stipp-Bethune; Teaching Elder and Pastor, The First Presbyterian Church of El Dorado, Arkansas