God of our futures, give us wisdom to receive your future by living in the present differently. Move us beyond our excessive commitment to present norms, by his name, Amen.
Psalm 30
Haggai 2:1-9
Revelation 3:1-6
Matthew 24:1-14
These readings are deeply committed to a good future from God that will not be extrapolated from the present. They invite the faithful to relinquish and to shift energy toward that good future from God. This summons a deep challenge to the ideology that firms that the future will be only an extnsion of the present, as though we cannot immagine otherwise. It is an ideology preferred by those among us who enjoy disproportionate well-being in the present.
Thus Matthew has Jesus speak of "birth pangs," an image that suggests that entry into God's future is not an easy slide but a genuine newness that comes with struggle. Haggai can anticipate that in "a little while" the present tense earth will be "shaken up"; and the church in Sardis is called to be worthy of "the book of life," an image of the roster of the blessed in time to come. Advent is preparation for newness that evokes a very different participation in the present world, a participation that is not marked by fear, anxiety or greed.
Psalm 30 dramatically voices the wondrous turn from present to future. It honestly recognizes that weeping (pain, suffering, distress) lingers all through the night, a very long night. And surely we are in for a long night of weeping over poverty, violence, child abuse, sex trafficking, and a predatory economy that requires such practices. But the weeping, it is promised, will end. It will end in the morning of God's rule that will be marked by justice, mercy, and compassion. We have much preparation to make that includes disengagement from sorry practices that have become much too "normal."
Walter Brueggemann: Gift and Task
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