Advent Day 18

Psalm 53:7 - Oh that the deliverance of Israel will come from Zion! When God restores the fortunes of Her people, Jacob will exult and Israel rejoice.

An interesting thing about the psalms is that we're not exactly sure who wrote them or when they were written. Of course, that's true of many of the books of the Bible. Shh don't tell anyone. We have educated guesses about most dates, except for those that coincide with history. Anyway, this makes the psalms available to us even without knowing the context. They speak of universal feelings of fear, revenge, laughter, sorrow, confession, deliverance, hope, praise, lament, and even joy. This psalm speaks of "evildoers, who devour my people as they devour food (v5). That's a good description of what is happening in America this week. Republicans taking money from the poor and giving it to the richest and corporations IS devouring God's people. And as this psalm makes clear, that is nothing new under the sun.

This is the world Jesus - and all of us - was born into. Jesus came into a world filled with violence and greed and preached peace and generosity instead. That our world continues to be violent and oppressive to many is a condemnation of us as Christians. When Jesus said we will always have poor people, that, too, was a condemnation of us. When Mary sings "God has put down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly," she is declaring God's judgment against our greed and violence.M

So, today we lament. We mourn with those who mourn and weep with those who weep; even as we rejoice at God's promised deliverance. When our mourning and weeping are over, it's time to get to work co-creating with God a better world for us now and for those who will come after us. My sister said it best, she feels joy by helping others.

Advent is a time of waiting and waiting is hard. We want that hope, peace, joy and love NOW. We don't as a rule like waiting. But the question of Advent isn't whether we like waiting. No, the question of Advent is what will we do while we wait for God's promised deliverance? Will we perpetuate violence and greed? or will we work with God to co-create a better world, a heaven here and now?