1st Advent
Luke 21:25-36
And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars;
and upon the earth, the nations will be constricted with anxiety and doubt with
the advent of these spiritual revelations, as before a roaring sea and waves.
And men will lose their inner strength of soul out of fear and foreboding of
what is coming over the living earth: for the dynamic powers of heaven will be
shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, in the sphere
of life, with dynamic power and great radiant glory.
And when these things begin to
happen, stand upright and lift up [raise] your soul to the spirit, for your
deliverance draws near.
And he gave them a comparison, saying, ‘Observe
[behold] the fig tree and all the trees when they burst into leaf. Seeing this,
you know yourselves that summer is near. So also when you see these things
happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
Amen, the truth I say to you: this present age of
Man’s being shall not pass away until all has happened.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will
never pass away.
Guard yourselves lest the perceptive power of your
hearts be smothered by excess of food and drink and by over-concern with the
cares and worries of life, and the light of these spirit events break upon you
suddenly like a snare…for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the
whole earth. So be awake in the spirit at all times, praying, so that you may
have the strength to live through all these things that are about to take
place, and to stand before the Son of Man.
1st Advent Sunday
Luke 21.25-36
A hurricane is a fierce circular storm.
As we pass through it, we go from intense turbulence into the calm eye in the
center. If we could remain centered in the calm eye, we would be safe.
The Advent season presents us
with a paradox. On the one hand, the gospel speaks of a storm of cosmic
proportions. “The dynamic powers of heaven will be shaken.”[1]
This turbulence unleashes soul storms of fear, anxiety and foreboding. At the
same time the seasonal epistle speaks of world calm, of quiet comfort, of
salvation. It is a calm eye in the storm.
The gospel hints at ways to
remain in the calm center in the eye of the storm. The first hint is finding
the place within us that connects us in inner uprightness to what is above.
“Stand upright and raise your soul to the spirit!” [2]
it says. Rising through this spiritual vertical connects us to the place above
where the storm funnel widens out, to the place where help comes from.
A second hint is to avoid putting
our heart’s eye to sleep through the physical and material excesses that are so
available this time of the year.
A third way of losing the center
is to become distracted with inessentials, through ‘over-concern with the cares
and worries of life’[3]
as it says. The “too-muchness” of western culture provides an overwhelming
abundance of such distractions.
Maintaining
the center, keeping the heart’s eye prayerfully awake, not being pulled
off-center by non-essentials, is our soul’s preparation for the coming of
Christ. Remaining strongly and calmly upright amid the season’s turbulence is
our task for surviving the coming of the living Son in His dynamic power and
great radiant glory.
