Wake Up Time!

Dear People of Christ Church, 
This week I'm still thinking about all of this apocalyptical stuff; we'll continue to wrestle together with stories of beginnings and endings and crashings of heaven and earth this Sunday, when our friend Rev. Elise Feyerherm tackles "Christ the King" Sunday, always the last Sunday of the Pentecost season. Christ is a king, but a pretty different kind of one.  Elise is part of organizing  The Advent Project (https://www.facebook.com/sevenweekadvent), which encourages us to think about whether our four weeks currently allotted to Advent makes any sense...but she can tell you about that on Sunday.

Advent is "getting ready" time, but it's also "wake up" time.  In my house, I walk into my 6 year old's room and declare "wake up" time and he grunts, rolls over and puts his head under the pillow. I think there's also a spiritual tendency to do that, too. Wake up time! Advent time! Your Savior is coming near! And instead of stopping in our tracks and opening our hands and hearts to the heavens and holy ground of our being, we roll over and hope that no one will open the curtains to let the light in. The fact is, our self-created darknesses often serve us quite well.   The darkness of silence is easier when someone says something racist around us. The darkness of looking away from someone in need insulates us from having to ask why our work is compensated more fairly than theirs. Even things that aren't all that big-time "sinful," like taking those we love for granted-even those things are a way of rolling over and closing our eyes to the wonder of life.

I don't remember where it's from, but there's a CS Lewis quote somewhere about how the grass in heaven is so real it hurts to walk on it; not because God wants to cause us pain, but because it's so real.  Right now, perched on the edge of Advent, we have an opportunity to go through this "holiday season" a little differently.  We haven't yet experienced the full-on assault of Santa in every window. We haven't yet fallen down the rabbit hole of trying to stuff every longing for depth and joy with shiny things.  Fun is fun. I have no problem with that. I just wonder what it would be like if we could also find joy in feeding the hungry as well as feeding our hungers.   What if the really real could also be really joyful?

Where are you finding joy this almost-Advent?
What helps you to wake up? To slow down? 

Check out this great Advent Calendar from my friend and colleague the Rev. Thomas Mousin:
http://thomasmousin.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/2013-advent-calendar.pdf

 And check out the Advent Conspiracy while you're at it: http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

And ways to "Green" your Advent with a sustainability calendar
http://www.bu.edu/chapel/life/sustainable-advent-project/

Blessings, Sara+