Advent as Countercultural

Advent as Countercultural

“To pray for your enemies, to worry about the poor when you have worries enough of your own, to start becoming yourself fully by giving of yourself prodigally to whoever needs you, to love your neighbors when an intelligent 4th grader could tell you that the way to get ahead in the world is to beat your neighbors to the draw every chance you get—that was what this God asked, Paul wrote.”—Frederick Buechner, Quote of the Day, first published in The Clown in the Belfry.

Joanna Campbell

Buechner reminds us how countercultural the Christian faith was from the get-go as well as today. There is no better time to experience this than in the season of Advent. Advent is the four weeks before Christmas at the beginning of the church year. Our culture during December is hurrying, overloaded, frantic, and caught up in commercial craziness. Meanwhile, the season of Advent calls us to a quiet preparedness, watching, waiting, and pausing. One year, the staff at our church even made “pause, breathe, wait, watching for the Christ child” our theme for the season. “Pause, Breathe, Wait, Watching for the Christ Child.”

We may have had less activity in Advent during this pandemic, which is now becoming an endemic season. Still, the overriding anxiety and isolation of this long season of illness and death call us away from Advent quietness even more than our own busyness does.

 Advent is still my favorite season. This call to quietness is even more needed in our present time. We put on pause the cacophony of anxiety inside and outside of our heads, sit in a favorite chair, read or write, look or walk outside, light candles, feel something moving inside of our body as we move from our head to our body, and become grounded to the present moment. The air we breathe in and out is full of anticipation of new birth in us and the world. The Christ Child already within us awakens, opens its eyes, and smiles as it sees the light of Christ across the room in someone we want to know better.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Telling our story this Advent

Nouwen: Telling Our Story this Advent

“Waiting patiently in expectation does not necessarily get easier as we become older… As we grow in age we are tempted to settle down in a routine way of living and say: ‘Well, I have seen it all.… There is nothing new under the sun.… I will just take it easy and take the days as they come.’ But in this way, our lives lose their creative tension. We no longer expect something really new to happen. We become cynical or self-satisfied or simply bored.”—Henri Nouwen

I think of the regular routine of so many seniors our age. Many think they deserve to rest because they have worked hard for many years. But I am learning there are many forms of rest. We can sit and talk or watch movies with our grandchildren. Eventually, we will tell our story to them. This is one of our most significant ministries to let those who will live on after us know the story of our family. My experience is they may not be interested in hearing unless we are doing something together, becoming their friend, not just their grandparent.

My husband occasionally tells family stories while he takes our grandchildren to school. But he doesn’t do it every day, or they might become bored! We can be storytellers while fishing, walking, hiking, crafting, fixing dinner, or eating together. Telling our family story gives our children and grandchildren roots that connect them to a loving God. It also helps us recount our own story, the purpose of our lives, and our origins. A good time for stories is at holidays, graduations, or birthdays when we share past times.

Do not be disheartened if family members are not interested. Consider writing or making an oral video of your story. Often after we die, maybe not until our family members are our age do they become interested. My experience is that the older we become, the more we look for our roots. It is a way of grounding ourselves, connecting us to the earth from which we came and will return. At each telling of our story, we find even more awareness.

 As we share our story, we also become increasingly aware of how a loving God works in our lives and our family at every turn, every day. We often only comprehend this when we share our family’s history and recognize the pattern of how God and God’s love were and are with us at every turn.

Family gatherings, such as meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas, are excellent times to hear and tell family stories.

Spend some time this Advent sharing your story, but first, listen as someone else shares her story with you.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Advent Waiting in Community

Sue Monk Kidd: Waiting

“Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.”—Simone Weil

I decided to read Sue Monk Kidd’s book, When the Heart Waits, Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions, as a break from the intensity of the last book I studied, John Sanford’s, Mystical Christianity, A Psychological Commentary on the Gospel of John. But here again, I am fooled. I have underlined most of Kidd’s book.

She reminds us of biblical waiters, Noah, Mary, Moses, Sarah, Jacob, Paul, the father of the prodigal son, all who had to wait for God’s answers for them. She reminds us of G. K. Chesterton’s writing that praising and connecting to God is less like a doxology, a short hymn of praise, as much as a paradoxology. The paradox is that we achieve the most and relate most to God by standing still!  

 When I visit with spiritual friends, I hope to offer Kidd’s prayer of waiting, remembering Jesus’ words to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane from Mark 14:13, “Sit here, while I pray.” We only need to sit while Jesus prays for us, particularly the Jesus within us, who will pray for us while we wait.

If we are having difficulty doing this, Jesus reminds us of the community surrounding us. Jesus tells us to follow his example and ask friends to come and pray with us while we wait. and, if we are that friend, to make the offer. Intercessory prayer groups, Christ-care groups, and Daughters of the King lift us up while we pray, as we know so many others are praying with and beside us. We are also promised “a great cloud of witnesses” around us, constantly praying and waiting with and for us. Jesus reminds us that we will never wait and pray alone.

Joanna   joannaseibert.com. https://www.joannaseibert.com/