Daily Advent Reflections

Daily Advent Reflection: December 17

Third Thursday in Advent

Psalms 50 · [59, 60] or 33
Isa. 9:18--10:4 
2 Pet. 2:10b-16 
Matt. 3:1-12

As you would expect, we needed to write these reflections back in November to get them together in order to publish for Advent. So while it's December 17th for you, it's November 6th for me! Can you remember that? It is in the days after the presidential election when all the votes are still being counted. Can you remember the stress, the vitriol, and the uncertainty? I hope that December 17th finds us all in more certain times, but perhaps they aren't.

For most of us during our living memories, Advent has been a time of preparation for Christmas. We clergy attempt to tell our parishioners to slow down and find quiet, even as our lives generally go crazy. This year is different. There has been so much pain and loss in so many areas of our lives. For many people, this year has already been way too slow and quiet. Despite the loud anger in public discourse, this year has been one of isolation and loss of loving voices for far too many. 

I often tell parishioners that if anyone tells you they have a perfect understanding of why suffering exists, you should swiftly turn around and walk the other way. The answer we draw from our scriptures around suffering does not answer why it exists but reminds us that God deigns to suffer with us. Jesus often didn't answer his disciples directly — instead telling parables. Likewise, we are not given pat answers about suffering. Still, God points to Jesus in the manger, preaching the Sermon on the Mount, hanging on the Cross, and showing his resurrected body to his disciples. God is with us in our trials and travails, and this is why we can affirm with Julian of Norwich that "All shall be well" in the end.

In our Gospel reading for today, we are given the opportunity to remember that the brith and ministry of Jesus was not during a happy time. Judea suffered under a mad tyrant propped up by an occupying empire that ruled through terror and brutal, sudden violence. The people flock to the wilderness to see John the Baptist, who is preaching repentance. The ax is lying at the tree's root; the winnowing fork is in God's hand. Things are about to change. As Mary sang in the Magnificat, the one who is to cast down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly is about to begin his public ministry after receiving baptism at the hand of John. The wheel of history is turning, and humanity will never be the same. Caesar and Herod are gone, but Jesus remains.

If we are in a different place this Advent, perhaps we are in a place more akin to the place where Jesus, John, Mary, Elizabeth, and Joseph were. All of them made it through the Gospel story with the support of their communities even when they were separated from them. Perhaps this Advent, instead of looking for more quiet and solitude, we should be intentionally seeking out more community. This is true even if that needs to be online or socially-distanced in order to protect those we love. God does not promise us peaceful and quiet lives, but that Jesus will be with us in the struggle, pain and anguish. The communities that support us help embody that presence of God-With-Us, Emmanuel.

While we yearn for the certainty of previous Advents, there is much we can learn by living into our current uncertainty, knowing that Jesus is the Lord of history and will never leave us.

The Rev. David Simmons
St. Matthias Episcopal Church, Waukesha

Daily Advent Reflection: December 16

Third Wednesday of Advent

Psalms 119:49-72 · 49, [53]
Isa. 9:8-17 
2 Pet. 2:1-10a 
Mark 1:1-8

I learned to pray the Daily Office while a peer minister for the University of Colorado’s Canterbury campus ministry. One of the peer minister’s duties was to share leadership of daily 8am Morning Prayer. These services were sometimes attended by two or three people, and never more than five. Not only did I learn the rhythm of prayer that shapes my life as a person of faith, I was also exposed repeatedly to great swaths of the psalter.

One morning we read a portion of Psalm 119, the longest of the psalms. After finishing Morning Prayer, the priest of the parish turned to me and declared, “I can’t stand that psalm! He’s such a suck up and brown-noser, and he just goes on and on!” Her words have stuck with me ever since, and I can’t read the psalm without noticing how full of himself the psalmist seems to be in this moment. “Their heart is gross and fat, but my delight is in your law” (Psalm 119:70). Ugh.

Fortunately, the other thing I learned about the psalms during this time was about balance. For every imprecatory psalm there is a psalm of praise; for every Psalm 119 there is a Psalm 53 to balance it out. “Every one has proved faithless; all alike have turned bad; there is none who do good; no, not one” (Psalm 53:3). It might not be uplifting, but at least it’s honest.

When I read these portions of the psalter together I see a reflection of myself. There are moments when I delight in the law of the Lord, when I “hasten and do not tarry to keep [the Lord’s] commandments” (Psalm 119:60) and there are moments when my confidence is so shaken by the lack of my own faithfulness that I condemn not only myself but all around me, sure that all people will be found faithless by God. What I look at myself in these psalms I see a way to increase compassion toward myself and those I greet each day at the Hospitality Center. None of us can be expected to live like Psalm 119 at all times. We have experienced too much brokenness and sin is rooted deep within. And yet, we are also not all condemned as Psalm 53 might lead us to believe.

Instead, the truth is found in yet another portion of the psalter we read today: “God will ransom my life; he will snatch me from the grasp of death” (Psalm 49:15). This verse is an important corrective, reminding me that the primary actor in the drama of the life of faith is not me or my neighbors. The primary actor in the drama is God. It is God who meets me in my pride and in my faithlessness; it is God who saves. As the darkness continues to deepen around us and our waiting for the coming of Jesus continues, let us find rest in the good news of God, the hope of our salvation.

The Rev. Seth Raymond
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and Hospitality Center, Racine

Daily Advent Reflection: December 15

Third Tuesday of Advent

Psalms 45 · 47, 48
Isa. 9:8-17 
2 Pet. 1:12-21 
Luke 22:54-69

It seems as though the psalms for today are full of praise and glory to God:

Your throne, O God is forever and ever;
Oh, Clap your hands, all you peoples
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
For the Lord Most High is awesome
God has gone up with a shout
The Lord with the sound of a trumpet
Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
In His holy mountain,
Beautiful in elevation,
The joy of the whole earth.

Yet in the gospel for today there is Peter’s denial 3 times. Also, Jesus was being mocked and beaten by the guards. Jesus is then brought before Pilate and Herod and asked if he is the Messiah. Jesus answers, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, and if I asked you, you would not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the Mighty God.”

Is not our life like this? At times we are singing hymns and praising God and given him all the glory. At other times especially, in these times of fear, disease and unrest, we wonder, are you really there God?

I have a feeling this is what Peter may have thought, besides being afraid for his life. I am sure this is what the apostles thought after the death of Jesus. Where is God? What will we do without Jesus? Has all our following him gone down the drain? Then Peter says, “I’m going fishing.”

Reminds me of the part of the song, The Four Winds, by Neil Young:

Four strong winds that blow lonely
Seven seas that run high
All those things that don't change, come what may
The good times are all gone
So I'm bound for moving on

Peter and the apostles and others did move on to do great things and spread the good word. As Peter says, “We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

So maybe we will emerge from this dark time that we are experiencing. The day will dawn and the morning star will rise in our hearts. And maybe we will somehow prophet from the doom that seems to hover over us and see good times again with new eyes.

I read the comics in the newspaper every day. Sometimes there is an inspirational message in them or I get a better understanding about life and I can relate. (Besides, I know from experience that God has a sense of humor). One of my favorites is Mutts by Patrick Mc McDonnell. This particular day the first frame of his comic read,” No matter what yesterday was like, birds always start the new day with a song.”

Yes, a new day is coming, the Winter of our lives will turn into a Spring of new life. God will be there; He was always there in all the seasons of our lives, in the bad and sad and scary times and in the joyous happy times.

The Rev. Karen Buker
St. Peter's Episcopal Church, West Allis