One of the articles I read with my Spanish conversation teacher this week was about angels. It was a pretty strange article; I think it was trying to be balanced and provide a variety of perspectives, but the final effect (to me) was sort of incoherent and unresolved. The author talked with four of five people about angels. At least two of the interviewees (if my Spanish reading comprehension skills did not let me down) were "angelologists" (both ladies) They also interviewed a Catholic priest and an evangelical pastor (both men). So there were a variety of perspectives on what angels are like and to what extent people interact with them. At least one of the angelologists offers courses to help people connect with their own personal angels, and had opinions about the colors, odors, and types of music that can be used to help attract angels. It all sounded a bit loopy to me-- both the priest and the pastor seemed to be laughing at the ideas that the angelologists espoused.
My instructor did point out, when we were discussing the topic, that angels don't really show up in the New Testament, except around the birth of Jesus and the book of Revelation (and she did not seem to think too highly of the book of Revelation).
But I was thinking about the basic meaning of angel, a "messenger" (often, of God). And yes, some shiny, possibly winged, airborne, singing angels show up in the Christmas story. (And they sure do look pretty in the Christmas pageant.) But I finally got around to reading the lectionary readings for this coming Sunday. And it occurs to me that John the Baptist, with his message of repentance, like all the prophets, is also an angel. It's harder to hear the message "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (especially when John gets to shouting about the "brood of vipers") than "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy." But that is a message of God, as well. I like to talk about how repentance has as its root the idea of turning, changing direction. "Turn around, the kingdom of God has come near." Shift your attention. Look at what's important. See how God's kingdom has come near.
In my conversation class, we also talked about the very popular cartoon image of a miniature "good angel" and "bad angel" sitting on someone's shoulders and encouraging good or bad behavior. This is what we mean (I think) when we talk about "listening to our better angels." The world is so full of messages and messengers -- and it is up to us to discern which ones to listen to, to pay attention to.
So, here's a bit of confession. While I was "trying to think of something to write about" this evening, I spent a lot of time doing online window-shopping, thinking about Stuff for myself and my friends and family. I did say in my first Advent post that one of the reasons I wanted to blog through Advent was because I felt myself getting pulled in by the commercial, materialistic bits of Christmas. So, perhaps the buying-things websites are playing the role of the little red guy with horns in this moment. So I give thanks for my personal "better angels" on the internet: Fidelia's Sisters, the Vanderbilt Divinity Lectionary, and, lately, the Advent Blog Tour. And especially, a song I heard for the first time today from the people behind the SALT project.
And now I will take the advice of my interior "better angels" and get myself to bed.
Showing posts with label lectionary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lectionary. Show all posts
Friday, December 3, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
What is Advent?
If you want to do a serious research project on this question, you would start with the Wikipedia article on Advent, which is actually a pretty good introduction.
Advent is a season in the church year, a time to spiritually prepare for Christ coming into the world. It varies in length, because there are always four Sundays in Advent, and Christmas, being a fixed date, can be any day of the week. (By my calculations, this year, because December 25th falls on a Saturday, the Advent season is one day less than the longest it could possibly be -- if Christmas fell on a Sunday.)
Advent also marks the beginning of the church year and the lectionary cycle.
The gospel text for Sunday (yesterday) is about the second coming of Christ. The key verses are Matthew 24:42 and 24:44: "Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." and "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." Every year, the beginning of the church year is marked by looking forward to the end (yes, The End), which, in the Biblical story, is the return of Christ. It's always interesting to me the way a very long timeline lines up with a yearly cycle -- in order to prepare our hearts (once again, this year) for the coming of Christ (in the manger), we are encouraged to PREPARE for the Second Coming of Christ. We look forward to the coming of Christ in a unique way at the same time as we prepare to welcome the child in the manger according to the cyclical remembrance.
Perhaps the most important part of this text and the larger Advent focus is the repetition of admonitions -- Keep Awake, Be Ready, Prepare. Because Light, Love, Redemption and Salvation both came in a unique way, on a long timeline, and reappear in our lives in a cyclical way. So we need to be awake, ready, prepared for Christ to appear -- in the face of a stranger, the love of a friend, a transformational glimpse of beauty, a new challenge that brings us life, or an ordinary miracle, like the birth of a new baby.
I hope that I am ready, and can prepare my heart this Advent and beyond, to receive the Light wherever it appears.
In La Misión Cristiana, the church we are working with here, as far as I know, Advent is not an important season in their church year. They don't follow the traditional Western liturgical calendar (and I hope to learn more about the theological, historical, and cultural reasons behind that). I do, however, see them as open, awake, prepared, ready to see and respond to the ways that God enters the world. Some of those ways are familiar to me, and others less so. I expect that this will be just one of many ways that we will learn more from these brothers and sisters than we could ever hope to teach.
Advent is a season in the church year, a time to spiritually prepare for Christ coming into the world. It varies in length, because there are always four Sundays in Advent, and Christmas, being a fixed date, can be any day of the week. (By my calculations, this year, because December 25th falls on a Saturday, the Advent season is one day less than the longest it could possibly be -- if Christmas fell on a Sunday.)
Advent also marks the beginning of the church year and the lectionary cycle.
The gospel text for Sunday (yesterday) is about the second coming of Christ. The key verses are Matthew 24:42 and 24:44: "Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." and "Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." Every year, the beginning of the church year is marked by looking forward to the end (yes, The End), which, in the Biblical story, is the return of Christ. It's always interesting to me the way a very long timeline lines up with a yearly cycle -- in order to prepare our hearts (once again, this year) for the coming of Christ (in the manger), we are encouraged to PREPARE for the Second Coming of Christ. We look forward to the coming of Christ in a unique way at the same time as we prepare to welcome the child in the manger according to the cyclical remembrance.
Perhaps the most important part of this text and the larger Advent focus is the repetition of admonitions -- Keep Awake, Be Ready, Prepare. Because Light, Love, Redemption and Salvation both came in a unique way, on a long timeline, and reappear in our lives in a cyclical way. So we need to be awake, ready, prepared for Christ to appear -- in the face of a stranger, the love of a friend, a transformational glimpse of beauty, a new challenge that brings us life, or an ordinary miracle, like the birth of a new baby.
I hope that I am ready, and can prepare my heart this Advent and beyond, to receive the Light wherever it appears.
In La Misión Cristiana, the church we are working with here, as far as I know, Advent is not an important season in their church year. They don't follow the traditional Western liturgical calendar (and I hope to learn more about the theological, historical, and cultural reasons behind that). I do, however, see them as open, awake, prepared, ready to see and respond to the ways that God enters the world. Some of those ways are familiar to me, and others less so. I expect that this will be just one of many ways that we will learn more from these brothers and sisters than we could ever hope to teach.
Just Do It
I think I am resolving to try to blog every day this Advent. The idea came to me when I couldn't sleep last night, and in the clear light of day, it still seems like it could be a good idea. Let me see if I can try to explain why I feel moved to do this.
1) We are having an amazing experience here in Nicaragua. But the way I see our role as missionaries, our experience becomes much more worthwhile when we are able to share it with all our friends and family back home, especially those in our "families of faith," the Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ. People in the pews of those denominations have been supporting the work of Global Ministries in building relationships with this church and other partners around the world for a very long time. Just as important as getting to know the people of La Misión Cristiana (Christian Mission Church of Nicaragua) is allowing church members in the United States to get to know them, too. By this logic, the more we blog, the better, so any reason is a good one. :)
2) I've been inspired my two really impressive women bloggers, both mothers. One is my cousin (okay, technically cousin-in-law, but I claim her), who despite having not only one child the same age as mine, and at least as rowdy, but also a baby whose age is still counted in months, and having spent a lot of time caring for both these children all by herself when her husband is on deployment, still manages to blog every day. The other person is someone I've never met, but I found her blog, Momastery, through a link posted by a friend on Facebook, and found her writing and the comments very inspiring. Both of these blogs have seemed to me like "places" where a real sense of community exists online.
3) It doesn't feel like Advent to me! Yes, there are Christmas lights and decorations up everywhere here in Managua, but the temperature is still liable to hit 90 on any given day, most schools just let out for summer vacation, and although our partner church here has many wonderful characteristics, they do not celebrate the liturgical calendar to which I am accustomed, and definitely don't light the candles on the Advent wreath each week to count up to Christmas. So, I want to try in my blogging to pay attention to the lectionary texts (the Bible passages that many churches read in worship each week) to get myself ready for Christmas, spiritually, together with many churches and Christians all over the world and through history.
4) I'm finding myself really pulled into the materialistic aspect of Christmas preparations, i.e. presents! -- that is, making lists of things I want and think Quinn might want and doing online shopping... so I'm seeking a little balance.
5) I love the lectionary, and I miss preaching. So, I want to write more. Don't worry, folks -- it won't be all Bible, all the time, but I would like to devote some attention to the Bible texts that lead us into Christmas.
6) Tim said last night, as we lit the first candle on the Advent wreath "I know it's the first Sunday of Advent, but I don't really know what that means." And I realize that I have more to learn about it as well. So, I would like to address that a bit as well.
I'm also posting this on my personal blog, and I may end up posting over there some days, if I run out of ideas that are directly connected to our life and ministry here in Nicaragua. My ideas I wrote down last night while not sleeping include: Quinn's theological inquiries (aka "doozies"), a slightly overdue report on our trip to a church-owned farm near Waslala, the history of Advent, stuff I want for Christmas and the Nicaraguan cultural celebrations that lead up to La Purisima on December 8th. So, stay tuned!
1) We are having an amazing experience here in Nicaragua. But the way I see our role as missionaries, our experience becomes much more worthwhile when we are able to share it with all our friends and family back home, especially those in our "families of faith," the Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ. People in the pews of those denominations have been supporting the work of Global Ministries in building relationships with this church and other partners around the world for a very long time. Just as important as getting to know the people of La Misión Cristiana (Christian Mission Church of Nicaragua) is allowing church members in the United States to get to know them, too. By this logic, the more we blog, the better, so any reason is a good one. :)
2) I've been inspired my two really impressive women bloggers, both mothers. One is my cousin (okay, technically cousin-in-law, but I claim her), who despite having not only one child the same age as mine, and at least as rowdy, but also a baby whose age is still counted in months, and having spent a lot of time caring for both these children all by herself when her husband is on deployment, still manages to blog every day. The other person is someone I've never met, but I found her blog, Momastery, through a link posted by a friend on Facebook, and found her writing and the comments very inspiring. Both of these blogs have seemed to me like "places" where a real sense of community exists online.
3) It doesn't feel like Advent to me! Yes, there are Christmas lights and decorations up everywhere here in Managua, but the temperature is still liable to hit 90 on any given day, most schools just let out for summer vacation, and although our partner church here has many wonderful characteristics, they do not celebrate the liturgical calendar to which I am accustomed, and definitely don't light the candles on the Advent wreath each week to count up to Christmas. So, I want to try in my blogging to pay attention to the lectionary texts (the Bible passages that many churches read in worship each week) to get myself ready for Christmas, spiritually, together with many churches and Christians all over the world and through history.
4) I'm finding myself really pulled into the materialistic aspect of Christmas preparations, i.e. presents! -- that is, making lists of things I want and think Quinn might want and doing online shopping... so I'm seeking a little balance.
5) I love the lectionary, and I miss preaching. So, I want to write more. Don't worry, folks -- it won't be all Bible, all the time, but I would like to devote some attention to the Bible texts that lead us into Christmas.
6) Tim said last night, as we lit the first candle on the Advent wreath "I know it's the first Sunday of Advent, but I don't really know what that means." And I realize that I have more to learn about it as well. So, I would like to address that a bit as well.
I'm also posting this on my personal blog, and I may end up posting over there some days, if I run out of ideas that are directly connected to our life and ministry here in Nicaragua. My ideas I wrote down last night while not sleeping include: Quinn's theological inquiries (aka "doozies"), a slightly overdue report on our trip to a church-owned farm near Waslala, the history of Advent, stuff I want for Christmas and the Nicaraguan cultural celebrations that lead up to La Purisima on December 8th. So, stay tuned!
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