Dancing in the Streets

Second Week of Advent – Friday

Is. 48:17-19 / Ps. 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 / Mt. 11:16-19

Dancing in the Streets

The 60’s hit “Dancin’ in the Streets” by Martha and the Vadellas is the antithesis of this reading. The song sings of a seemingly irresistible trend: hear the music, dance the steps. Music can soothe the savage beast. It can also whip a crowd into a frenzied mosh pit. Whether it is the artful choreography of ballroom dancing or the free-styling gyrations of the club scene, dancing might be the perfect metaphor for the soul stirring the body into expression. For some cultures, as in Nigeria, special occasions always include dance as an expression of emotion; dance is not only used for entertainment but also as a means of storytelling – commemorating births, harvest, success, war, suffering, thanksgiving and entertainment.  

The audiences of Jesus and John prefer to be wall flowers rather than give expression to their inner life. They refuse to be moved to tears by the prophet of woe or to smiles and laughter by the life of the party. Jesus compares them to children, perhaps on a summer’s afternoon who have so many choices of what to do — swimming, cycling, skateboarding, useful yard work, hanging out with friends, going to the beach, fishing, playing cards — and they can’t get themselves out of bed or away from the television.

People have been reduced to tears by John’s words of doom, so much has fear overcome them. Others have joined the crowd on the dance floor doing the Chicken Dance or the Cha Cha Slide, waving their arms to Y-M-C-A with the Bridegroom and his bride. But this generation will not dance. Why? Are they afraid they’ll look funny? At wedding receptions some of the people who enjoy themselves the most are the ones – young and old and in between – who have no idea that they are clapping on the down beat or stepping on their partner with their second left foot. Christians – despite some traditions of restraint and some off-key notes and wrong steps – are people of tunes and dancing and weeping.

• Are you willing to weep for your sins? Are you ready to rejoice in reconciliation? Today take some time to turn on some music and listen. Perhaps you’ll want a sad song to make you weep. Perhaps you’ll want a joyful noise. Perhaps you’ll want to choose an Advent hymn. Whatever it is, respond to the music with your body by singing a few lines or dancing to the tune. 

Violence

Second Week of Advent - Thursday

Isaiah 41:13-20 / Psalm 145:1 and 9, 10-11, 12-13ab / Matthew 11:11-15

Violence

What is the violence the Kingdom of heaven suffers? 

Violence connects John the Baptist and Jesus. John had been arrested and would soon be beheaded for his opposition to Herod and as the consequence of a tragically whimsical birthday wish. The violence the kingdom of heaven suffers might not differ much from the violence suffered by all the prophets, by the Baptist and by the Messiah himself. 

The violence against the Kingdom might be expressed in the opposition of the Pharisees and Sadducees who argue with, ridicule and plot against Jesus and his gospel. The violence might be seen in the clubs, swords and spears brought by the Temple Guard to Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, and in the torturous whipping, mock crowning and exhausting crucifixion he underwent.

Matthew might have been writing about the violence suffered by members of his own community as they were thrown out of the synagogue, and risked martyrdom for the name of Jesus.

More germane to you and me, does the Kingdom of heaven still suffer violence today? I answer, yes: in the mocking of the proclamation of the dignity of all persons across class, culture, race, age, gender, orientation, disability, diagnosis, etc. the kingdom suffers violence, for the Kingdom of God is synonymous with human dignity.

• In what way have you witnessed violence against the Kingdom of heaven?
• What have you suffered for the kingdom? 
• What are you willing to suffer for? 
• What does it mean to say you are willing to suffer?

Where are You?

December 8 – The Immaculate Conception

Genesis 3:9-15, 20 /  Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4 / Galatians 1:3-6, 11-12 /Luke 1:26-38

Where Are You?

“Where are you?” is such a basic question. When God asks Adam that question, he answers, “I hid myself.” The fact that God raises the question with the first man should make us realize it is far more than a matter of geography. This “Where are you?” is more like “What happened?” Adam is not so much lost as hiding: “I heard you… so I hid myself.” Adam could not face God. 

Somewhere in the depth of his soul Adam knew he could not hide from God, but that did not stop him from trying. Sound familiar? Does this pattern play out in your life? There are times when we know we’ve been caught, we are aware of our guilt, but we still try to hide it. At times like that it’s hard to look someone in the eye. 

Yet it is by revealing our sin to God – not by hiding it from him – that we find ourselves. It is by coming to see ourselves as God sees us that we understand who we truly are.  We are in hiding – from ourselves – until we come to see ourselves the way God sees us. 

When Gabriel “finds” Mary, the angel says, “Hail full of grace.” Some translations read, “Greetings, highly favored daughter.” This is how God sees us, highly favored, full of grace, as his own children made in his image and likeness. Thus he sent his Son, born of Mary, to find us, to restore us to our original destiny. Adam and Eve once knew that highly favored status: of all the creatures God had made, he had made human beings in his own image and likeness, and over them alone he pronounced the special benediction, “very good.” (Gen. 1:27ff) 

Today’s feast is about seeing where we are, and coming to see ourselves as we truly are. It is about gaining the courage to come out of hiding, because God has been made manifest as our Savior, as God who still walks among us, to seek, find and save sinners, that we might fulfill our original purpose: to exist for the praise of his glory, to be truly blessed.

• Imagine yourself walking in the garden and hearing the sound of God approaching you.  What is that sound like? What do you feel? 
• Let God ask you, “Where are you?” What is your answer?
• Stand before a mirror. Describe what you see. Then stand before God in prayer and let God describe what he sees.
• According to Ephesians 1:12 God’s purpose for you is for you to exist to praise God’s glory. How do you see yourself as fulfilling God’s purpose for you? In what ways do you praise God’s glory?

The Greatest Ever!

Second Week of Advent – Wednesday

Isaiah 40:25-31 / Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8 and 10 / Matthew 11:28-30

The Greatest Ever!

As the New England Patriots chased perfection in the 2007 season sports reporters and commentators asked the question, “Is this the greatest football team ever?” Comparisons were made to other undefeated teams and teams that had produced dynastic runs. Schedules were compared for levels of difficult opponents leveled against each benchmark team. Most concluded that such comparisons were difficult to make because of the changes in the game over the years. And no general consensus seemed to be reached, at least not until the Pats were upset in the Super Bowl. But isn’t that the beauty of talking sports? We compare what is very hard to compare where as much if not more is dissimilar.

Today in the Isaiah reading God asks “To whom can you liken me as an equal?” Maybe that’s where we fall short as we try to understand God. We compare God to what we know. God is Father. For some that would mean controlling, for others permissive; for some absentee, for others attentive. Compare God to a mother and you’d likely get similar, mixed results. 

But Isaiah’s prophesying is not mere philosophical consideration. He is speaking of an existential crisis. He is speaking to Israel in captivity, to Israel in Babylon. The people had begun to think “God has forgotten about us.” God replies: “Why… do you say… My way is hidden from the Lord, my right is disregarded by my God”? In self defense God asserts, “They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength… run and not grow weary.”

This is a God with whom all things are possible. But this is also a God whose ways are inscrutable. Job leaned that the hard way, and perhaps that is the only way we’re capable of learning that lesson.

Isaiah’s prophecy is bold from start to finish: 

            To whom can you liken me?

            Do you not know

                        have you not heard?

He has not lost track of us. He knows not only our troubles and trials, but also our names. Not only are we not forgotten, we are known by name! Intimately! Is God not the greatest ever? 

·        What is the burden you are carrying today? How can Jesus make it lighter? With what burden would you like to be able to run and not grow weary? If you were convinced God was with you in carrying this burden, what difference would it make today?

Surprised by God?

Second Week of Advent – Tuesday

Isaiah 40:1-11 / Psalm 96:1-2, 3 and 10ac, 11-12, 13 /Matthew 18:12-14

Surprised by God?

Today’s passage from Isaiah contains verses 6-8 which are omitted from the reading on the Second Sunday, so perhaps they deserve special attention.

These verses do not seem cheerful, hopeful, joyful – Advent-like: “All flesh is grass… and all the glory… withers… wilts… So then, the people is grass.”  Where is the good news and glad tidings of verses 9-11? Is Advent about our withering and wilting? Is it about paling in comparison with the constancy of God and God’s eternal word? The contrast is even more sharply drawn if we look back to verse 5: “Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” whole human glory withers and wilts at the breath of God.

Are we that fragile? Perhaps. Yet, as St. Therese of Liseuex testified, every flower is accounted for, and not only accounted for, but beheld, known and admired. 

The word of God stands forever. It is inflexible, stubborn, unchanging. How can we understand “forever” in a world where everything is constantly changing due to planned obsolescence? I received a DVD player as a Christmas present one year. With only sparse and gentle use, it ceased functioning before the next Christmas. God’s word is “a bit” more dependable, its richness never exhausted. 

As for the parable of the lost sheep: it sounds tender in our ears, but it would have seemed outlandish to Jesus’ listeners. They all knew that the moment a lone shepherd would leave ninety-nine sheep to seek one stray he’d end up with only one sheep if he managed to find the stray. Yet we presume that Jesus was trying to portray God as reasonable because we know the moral too well. 

The point of parables is to shock the listener into a new truth. God’s love for us is extreme – dependable in a radical way. Where others would consider this shepherd’s actions unreasonable, with God we’ve just come to expect. Are we capable of being surprised by God?

·        What is your opinion? Is God’s love foolish in your eyes? Are you capable of being surprised by God’s love? Or has it become a commonplace, taken-for-granted assumption for you? 

·        What can you do today to demonstrate God’s unreasonable love to someone?

The Holy Highway of Advent and Every Day

Second Week of Advent – Monday

Isaiah 35:1-10 / Psalm 85:9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14 / Luke   5:17-26

The Holy Highway of Advent and Every Day

Isaiah’s vision of all things weak made strong, all things barren in bloom, all infirmities healed is one that is ever at the outer limits of our reach. Technology progresses and cures are found while at the same time side-effects abound, setbacks are suffered, and we realize that despite all the advances of society, we are yet forced to admit that there is so much about us that is much the same as it ever was generations ago. We are still dealing with human beings in need of healing, in need of redemption. 

And so we need to read Isaiah’s vision again and again – not as a reminder of how the more things change, the more they remain the same; but as a reminder that Isaiah’s vision is a reality on that ever-receding horizon that is always ahead of us.

There are so many powerful images of reversal in Isaiah 35:1-10 that we might miss the image of the highway Isaiah speaks of. This highway is called the holy way; it is a road for Advent people, for people who are on a journey toward holiness.

If we immerse ourselves in Isaiah 35 and look at the images the reading presents, we might be tempted to think we have made it. But Isaiah’s image of the highway reminds us that the goal is still ahead. Contemplating these images is not unlike the experience of Robert Frost’s winter traveler stopping by his neighbor’s woods:

            The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

            But I have promises to keep,

            And miles to go before I sleep,

            And miles to go before I sleep.

We can be lured in easily by the loveliness of the poetic reversals depicted by Isaiah, but when we are immersed in the world we risk becoming disillusioned at the realization that these words spoken over 2700 years ago have yet to be fully experienced. 

Perhaps the reason why Isaiah speaks about feeble hands being strengthened and weak knees being made firm is because we need them to walk along the way that leads to fulfillment of this prophecy. “Be strong!” says the prophet, you have a journey ahead. “And miles to go before we sleep.”

In the gospel today, Jesus says to the lame man, “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”   We are on a journey, a journey home, where there is forgiveness of sins. Our guide is the Savior we await at Christmas, and who comes to us even this day.

• Recall a journey you made, by foot, by car, by plane, train, or however; a journey that was frustratingly long. How do you feel as you consider this memory? Do you see any connection with your own long journey of faith and spiritual growth in Christ? In your prayer, speak to Christ about the challenges.

Season's Greetings from John the Baptist

Second Sunday of Advent — A

Isaiah 11:1-10 / Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17 / Romans 15:4-9 / Matthew 3:1-12

                                                                                                 

Season’s Greetings from John the Baptist

Why is it that we never see John the Baptist on a Christmas card or in a manger scene?  He is after all one of the prominent figures of Advent, along with Isaiah the Prophet and Mary. But I don’t think the greeting card companies will soon be adopting John as one of their holiday images, nor will they use his message inside. Imagine the picture of John in camel’s hair and a leather belt on the cover, a hand full of grasshoppers and honey, sporting a stern look on his face. Inside the greeting reads:

Repent you brood of vipers.

The ax is laid to the root of the tree. 

Every tree that does not bear fruit

will be thrown into the fire. 

Merry Christmas

No, I think we will sooner find Scrooge and “Bah humbug!” than John the Baptist and his prophecy in Christmas Greetings.

But we need John in our Advent if we are to be ready to welcome Christ at Christmas. John is the forerunner, the one who goes before the Messiah to make the rough ways smooth and the crooked ways straight, to merge mountains and valleys into a new geography of salvation and hope. “Repent!” is John’s call. It sounds so out of place in Advent. Can’t we leave that for Lent and do our shopping and party-hopping instead? That all depends.

Advent is the time of anticipation, or preparation, of making things ready - for God! Are we ready for God? Are we bearing the fruit John talks about in today’s gospel? We can’t let ourselves slip into a false sense of security thinking, “I’m a regular church-goer. Of course I’m ready, or I will be in two weeks.” Something more is needed.

John tells the Pharisees they should not rely on their status as sons of Abraham to save them. “God can raise up children to Abraham from these very stones,” the Baptist says. What does he mean by that? Does he mean the rocks on the banks of the River Jordan will come to life and give praise to God? Does he mean the stones in the river bed where he baptizes repentant sinners will rise up and shout God’s praises? 

The miracle John speaks of is much subtler than that. The psalms speak of sinful hearts as hardened and stony. The process of conversion and repentance is one whereby our hearts soften and become hearts of flesh, hearts aflame with love for God and neighbor. 

To be ready for Christmas the hardness of our hearts must give way to the soft, fleshy, human heart that Jesus took as his own in the mystery of Christmas. The work of Advent is to respond to the call of the Baptist. The work of Advent is to allow God to make us his children, brothers and sisters of Jesus the Lord, with hearts of flesh, hearts aflame, hearts of love.

·         When you reflect on the state of your heart, how ready to you believe you are for Christmas?