Advent weeks one and two
Been trying to spend more of my time focusing on things that actually matter to me. I've been trimming some of the fat in the department of commitments and trying to rearrange the furniture in my life to free up some space. To that end I'm also trying to spend a little less time on the interwebs, but I saw this on a friend's facebook, liked it and thought you might all as well. Happy Advent.
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advent. Show all posts
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
A New Genesis: the Second Sunday of Advent
This is the second of a series of posts on Advent. See the first one here
As we wait through the Advent Season it's worth our while to ask ourselves the good old fashioned newspaper reporter questions: who, what, where, when, why and how. For many of us we've heard this story (along with many of the biblical texts) so many times that they have become wooden, in service to a status quo (or remnant of a disappearing past age). Instead I find the story of the Nativity to be a wild counter-story, not just to the dominant Roman/Temple-State Judism of its day but the consumeristic/nationalistic/individualisticone of our own.
So with that in mind I wanted to share to really great pieces on the Biblical stories as Anti-Empire counter-naratives. As I'd say some of us are desperately in need of a new story
I'd like to suggest that the Genesis and God's new Genesis - that is new beginning - among humanity in Jesus are just the kind of texts we need.
First I wanted to point you to a discussion on Genesis 1-2
led by Wes Howard-Brook, a writter and educator (and aquaintance of mine) from the greater Seattle area [this one is part of a retreat at Holden Village]. His premise is that the Genesis story was written as a counter to the Babylonian Enûma Eliš with it's warring gods, with humanity as an afterthought (vs. cooperation and humanity as the culmination of creation "Let us make man in our image") and the city being the height of perfection (vs. the pre-agricultural garden). Enûma Eliš is a story that feels a little stylized for us moderists but seems like a not so distant cousin to our contemporary fairy tale called "progress".
Similarly in the Advent story we can see the resistance to the Roman/Herodian claims of kingship maintained by quid pro quoes, threats and force when required. A bastard baby of a refugee causing kings to get nervous about their status is an amazingly empowering story in my mind.
Welcome to the new Babylon. It's easy to buy into the Western European/North American civil religion with its gods of militerism, nationalism, industrialism and consumerism (and indeed many of us have and some of us struggle with it daily). Jesus spoke of a "Kingdom (Empire) of God", Paul and the other NT writters appropiated Roman immperial language (words like Gospel and Church) to show that this kingdom was something in direct controdiction to the current order.
(Part 4 of 7 of a discussion with Biblical Scholar Richard Horsley on Bible Study. I'd recomend the whole thing but in this part he covers some thoughts on the radical nature of Christmas)
As we wait through the Advent Season it's worth our while to ask ourselves the good old fashioned newspaper reporter questions: who, what, where, when, why and how. For many of us we've heard this story (along with many of the biblical texts) so many times that they have become wooden, in service to a status quo (or remnant of a disappearing past age). Instead I find the story of the Nativity to be a wild counter-story, not just to the dominant Roman/Temple-State Judism of its day but the consumeristic/nationalistic/individualisticone of our own.
So with that in mind I wanted to share to really great pieces on the Biblical stories as Anti-Empire counter-naratives. As I'd say some of us are desperately in need of a new story
I'd like to suggest that the Genesis and God's new Genesis - that is new beginning - among humanity in Jesus are just the kind of texts we need.
First I wanted to point you to a discussion on Genesis 1-2
led by Wes Howard-Brook, a writter and educator (and aquaintance of mine) from the greater Seattle area [this one is part of a retreat at Holden Village]. His premise is that the Genesis story was written as a counter to the Babylonian Enûma Eliš with it's warring gods, with humanity as an afterthought (vs. cooperation and humanity as the culmination of creation "Let us make man in our image") and the city being the height of perfection (vs. the pre-agricultural garden). Enûma Eliš is a story that feels a little stylized for us moderists but seems like a not so distant cousin to our contemporary fairy tale called "progress".
Similarly in the Advent story we can see the resistance to the Roman/Herodian claims of kingship maintained by quid pro quoes, threats and force when required. A bastard baby of a refugee causing kings to get nervous about their status is an amazingly empowering story in my mind.
Welcome to the new Babylon. It's easy to buy into the Western European/North American civil religion with its gods of militerism, nationalism, industrialism and consumerism (and indeed many of us have and some of us struggle with it daily). Jesus spoke of a "Kingdom (Empire) of God", Paul and the other NT writters appropiated Roman immperial language (words like Gospel and Church) to show that this kingdom was something in direct controdiction to the current order.
(Part 4 of 7 of a discussion with Biblical Scholar Richard Horsley on Bible Study. I'd recomend the whole thing but in this part he covers some thoughts on the radical nature of Christmas)
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Status Quo and the First Sunday of Advent
For better or worse Christmas shopping season is upon us. Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day/the single largest shopping day of the year was on Friday (ironically placed as it is after a day when we at least claim to be thankful for all we have and run out to get more and more than we need or even sometimes want) and today is the First Sunday of Advent. I hope to over the next four weeks to post some things about how the Christmas Story (when I make to pry it from the death-grip pop culture seems to have on it) speaks to and radically challanges me. I expect much of the reflections I share will be heavily influenced by the Advent book I'm planning on going though Follow the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas.
Today I read a piece by Henri Nouwen where he says:
waiting is active. Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands. The bus is late? You cannot do anything about it, you have to just sit there and wait. It is not difficult to understand the irritation people feel when someone says, "Just wait." Words like that seem to push us into passivity.
But there is none of this passivity in scripture. Those who are waiting are waiting very actively. They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing.
That resonates with me because the world's messed up and I need to get my rear in gear to help fix it (I wrote a piece on work a few weeks back that seems particularly relivant at this second).
The other side of waiting (and Nouwen does go into this) is hope.
I'm excited about some of the things that are happening in and around the #Occupy movement but part of that excitement for me is rooted in a hope the status quo is unsustainable and at some point must change but also that God's going to make things right. I've heard Stanley Hauerwas say that it's important for us to read the Bible in reverse and I think that's true in how we should read the Gospels (Good News) as well, with with Life beating the hell out of Death. And if we can't muster the strength to make that story one that is being lived out in our communities, it can feel like cheap lip-service to say we'll see it in the realm to come.
May we all learn to actively wait
To live out resurection in our own lives and community
And may we find our hope in things bigger than the stuff is (not) under our Christmas tree
A joyfull Advent to you all.
Today I read a piece by Henri Nouwen where he says:
waiting is active. Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands. The bus is late? You cannot do anything about it, you have to just sit there and wait. It is not difficult to understand the irritation people feel when someone says, "Just wait." Words like that seem to push us into passivity.
But there is none of this passivity in scripture. Those who are waiting are waiting very actively. They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing.
That resonates with me because the world's messed up and I need to get my rear in gear to help fix it (I wrote a piece on work a few weeks back that seems particularly relivant at this second).
A Resurrected Christmas from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.
The other side of waiting (and Nouwen does go into this) is hope.
I'm excited about some of the things that are happening in and around the #Occupy movement but part of that excitement for me is rooted in a hope the status quo is unsustainable and at some point must change but also that God's going to make things right. I've heard Stanley Hauerwas say that it's important for us to read the Bible in reverse and I think that's true in how we should read the Gospels (Good News) as well, with with Life beating the hell out of Death. And if we can't muster the strength to make that story one that is being lived out in our communities, it can feel like cheap lip-service to say we'll see it in the realm to come.
May we all learn to actively wait
To live out resurection in our own lives and community
And may we find our hope in things bigger than the stuff is (not) under our Christmas tree
A joyfull Advent to you all.
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