“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
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