Each Thursday, we look at one of the lectionary passages for the upcoming Sunday. This week we continue our journey towards Christmas through Advent by looking at Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13.
This is a difficult holiday season. The real world keeps encroaching on this supposed time of peace and goodwill. If we were honest with ourselves, this is actually the case every year. Maybe I am just paying closer attention this year.
Anyway, as I read this passage, I cannot help think about the massive disconnect between text and present reality. The psalm is filled with this beautiful hope for a day when steadfast love and faithfulness join hands, when righteousness and peace kiss. And all I can think about is the protests that I've being seeing on the news. Yesterday the non-indictment for Eric Garner's killer was issued and the streets of New York flooded with protesters. One scene I saw was of a "Dead In" in which people lay on the ground as if they were corpses. So this is Christmas...
In my head, I have understood for some time that Advent embodies a certain tension: hope in the midst of a painful world. Watching the news this year, that tension has become more real. The pain is deafening. People are hurting and angry. They are looking for peace, justice, answers. They feel like their lives do not matter. Whatever you think about the cases, these concerns are real. The brokenness of the system and of people is true. And I have to look at it. I have to listen. To do otherwise--to dismiss it or to slip into the willful ignorance of a holiday cocoon--would be wrong. The hope that we proclaim at Advent means crap if we ignore these places where pain is so profoundly deep.
There is Good News in this season. Christ has come. Glory to God in the highest, peace and goodwill to all. Yet that message is glacially slow in getting out. The work that Jesus started is not finished. He asked his followers to continue it. Look at the news: Ferguson, New York, Syria, Ukraine, Mexico, down the street. Righteousness and peace seem far from kissing each other. I'm not even sure they've met yet. As we wait in Advent and read the gospels and the prophets, I get the sense that God wants us to introduce them to each other.
Okay, the idea of us setting up righteousness and peace on a date seems silly. But we are supposed to be like Jesus. What did Jesus do? He brought peace. He brought comfort to those in pain. He railed against the systems that abused. He healed. He listened. He pointed to God. And he didn't ignore those who were hurting. That is what his followers are supposed to do.
It is Advent. This psalm seems a long ways off, but we have a role to play in bringing this together; even if that role is miniscule. But to do what we are called to do, we have to look deep in the shadows and see those that are hurting. That may not seem very Christmas-y. We would rather ignore the shadows and keep things holly and jolly. God did no such thing. This may make people uncomfortable, but again we have to listen carefully and with humility to what is going. Recognizing the shadows and brokenness is perhaps the most Christmas-y thing that we can do.