Advent is coming…
The reading for this week may catch several of us unaware (particularly if one didn’t grow up in a tradition which uses the lectionary). We’re starting to get ready for Christmas – Isn’t Advent all about the expectation of that baby in the manger? Then, why are we reading about the Second Coming?
Well, we are living in the time of in-between. In the Christian religion, the last two thousand years have been the pause between two comings, two advents. So, as we remember the first, we have to turn expectantly toward the second and…imagine…
(and we do love to imagine through these particular verses…even if that means imagining the exact opposite of what the verses say — i.e., you should want to be “left behind” according to the verses)
Christianity is not the only religion to seek to envision the end, particularly as both an end and a beginning. It may be interesting to see through the eyes of the other in order to gain perspective on our own tradition.
In some traditions, ending simply starts the cycle new over and over (e.g., Hinduism, Mayan religion). For others, it may end in a great silence (e.g., Buddhism). I particularly like the Norse myth. After Ragnarok (compare to Armageddon), that is when their “Adam and Eve” (Lif and Lifthrasir) are created to walk out into the world formed from the deaths of the old gods. It’s hard not to focus on beginning when the tale is told that way.
Or, we could dial things forward away from religious mythology – we could talk of the statements of Matt. 24 as “the best of times and the worst of times.”
The apocalyptic imagination – endings and beginnings writ large – is still turning…
…and we ever come to that last phrase of the Gospel passage – “an unexpected hour.”
You see, that phrase holds all the promise and dread of all the millennia of human thought and civilization. The unexpected brings to us the unseen horror or the unlooked-for good…depending on our attitude of waiting.
What are you waiting for? Judgment or salvation? Doomsday or enlightenment?
…or simply the opening door of endless possibility?
Hope, always hope.
Thanks, Dann. I find apocalyptic Scriptures most applicable to personal transformation. It helps me reach into the deepest levels of personal insight. That coming age I look for is a time when I can truly fulfill the most mysterious and compelling inner callings. Hope you folks are doing well.
We’re doing just fine. Concerning apocalyptic and personal transformation, I wholeheartedly agree!