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Strange Expectations: Reflections from Advent

Strange Expectations: Reflections from Advent

Last updated on: January 3, 2025 at 2:33 am by Jeff Hood

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Strange Expectations: Reflections from Advent 2025-01-03T02:33:34-06:00 Jeff Hood

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The First Sunday of Advent

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Wow. This shit is scary. I mean…these passages read like something straight out of a horror movie. Straighten up! Stay awake! Escape! God…the Son of Man does not sound like anyone that I’d want to hang out with. I want to run in the opposite direction.

What do we do with passages like this? Are they meant to cause us to live in fear? Are they intended to literally scare the hell out of us? Sometimes I wonder if the author didn’t just sneak them in so that we would pay attention.

Growing up, our youth leaders regularly talked about the end of the world. They would use all sorts of tactics to scare us into doing what they wanted us to. Is that what we see here? Is Jesus trying to scare the hell out of us?

Maybe discussion of the storm helps us to know that the storm has passed? Sometimes the only way to know that you are on the other side is to tell where you have been. Maybe we are hearing where people were before Jesus came? Hell, I don’t know. I just know that whatever is being talked about here, I don’t want any part of it.

Grief is sort of like this. You speak of it…but you don’t really want any part of it. The best way to talk about it is in the past tense.

Then again, maybe this passage is about justice. When God makes all thigns right, we want to make sure that those who have done evil get theirs. Of course, we want this…until we realize that them getting theirs means that we will get ours.

Maybe the purpose of the passage is to teach us not to look too harshly upon others?

Truth be known, I don’t know. I trust God far more than any passage of scripture. I put my faith in the Love that never ends. Of course, God is Love. God never ends.

Love is making all things right. Of that, we do not have to be afraid. Indeed, there is no fear in Love…perfect Love casts out all fear.

So, stay awake so that you might feel the complexity, profundity and immensity of God’s love.

The horror is not the end. Love wins.

Forget anything that doesn’t create in you a knowledge that you are Loved…the very Beloved Son of Man. I trust that we will judge others as we would wish to be judged. Maybe that’s how we make the judgment a little more manageable.

The Second Sunday of Advent

Luke 3:1-6

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,

Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;

As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;

And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Hell. The great construction that the church has used throughout time and space to keep the people in the pews in line. Of course, hell is any moment that we are separated from God. It seems to me that the only thing that ideas of hell have accomplished is to keep people separated from God. Fear is a great separator. There is no fear in Love. There is no fear in God.

Have you ever heard a minister brag about how many people got baptized? I used to hear that shit all the time. It’s sort of like someone telling you how big the fish they caught was. The numbers are always a little exaggerated.

When we begin to create lines as to who is in and who is out… When we begin to brag about what we’ve accomplished… When we begin to talk about numbers… Things always start to sound a little silly.

What makes us think that we get to decide who gets to be baptized? It seems to me that the waters John the Baptist was wading in were open to all? I guess that’s why Jesus felt so comfortable just walking up.

Have you ever met someone that loves talking about who’s going to hell…and thinks that they’re in that number…thinks that they’re going to hell? Don’t happen. We tend to think that God hates the same people that we do. God doesn’t hate. The waters are open. So many just need to bathe.

Justice work illustrates this principle as well. Sometimes those who most loudly call for justice are the biggest perpetuators of injustice. We love to draw lines…but we don’t realize that we are most often drawing a prison around our self to wall us in from God’s people.

We don’t need any more directions. Jesus shows us the way to the water. We are cleansed in order to clean…to set the world to right. We are a part of the clean-up crew not the destruction crew. We should be making things better not worse.

We should be making connections in love…because love is the only connection that lasts.

It’s easy to demonize, damn and other the world…it’s harder to see your place in it.

We are the crooked that is being made straight. We are the valley being lifted. We are the mountains being made low. We are the rough being made smooth.

Softly and tenderly, Jesus is showing us our place in the world…beyond our lines and into Christ’s hope.

We belong to each other. Let us join together and rebuild our world.

In the economy of God…the in is out and the out is in. Stop creating lines. Look to the out and make a way in. Look to the in and make a way out. Start listening to the voice in the wilderness that is leading us all home…to that place where all…and I believe it means all…flesh will see the salvation of God.

May all that divides from God and each other melt away.

Confirmation not condemnation.

Third Sunday of Advent

Luke 3:10-18

And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?

He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.

Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?

And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.

And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.

And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not;

John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people.

The Word of God washes away our sins. Too often we think that we have to do something or be something. We forget that it is the Word of God that washes away our sins. It is the very Word. We are also told that the Word will not come back void. The Word pursues us and the Word will find us. The Word is Love.

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God.

In the beginning was the Gospel, the Gospel was with God and the Gospel was God.

It is the Gospel that saves.

We forget sometimes.

We spend too many days thinking that we’re not doing enough. We spend too many days thinking that we’re not saying the right things. We spend too many days wondering whether we are believing the right things.

The Gospel is enough.

John the Baptist talks about a whole bunch of things. Yet he forgets the Gospel. It’s not about what you do. It’s not about what you say. It’s about the Gospel.

The Gospel is about God’s presence with us…a God who will never leave us nor forsake us. The Gospel is enough.

We create our hells. We can extinguish them. The Gospel is enough.

God is always sitting there waiting on us to come home. The Gospel is about the wait of love. Love that is true love always waits. Love is enough to bust through the greatest of obstacles.

The Love of God is the Gospel.

The Gospel is enough.

The Gospel always wins.

The Gospel will reconcile all to love.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Luke 1:39-45

And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;

And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.

And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

Light consumes much of what we spend our lives searching for. We don’t want to be in the dark. We want to be enlightened. We want to keep the light on. We want to know the light of life. Light is something we so desperately want to keep around.

Perhaps the most important juxtaposition to light that we can know is how we feel the light. Our Gospel reading today is about feeling the light. When Elisabeth heard Mary…the baby let out a big kick. The kick is the forerunner of the light. The kick was something that could be felt. The kick is the affirmation of light’s presence.

We all need a good kick in our souls this morning. Am I right? Elisabeth started speaking all kinds of power because she had enough sense to follow the kick…to follow the light…to know the light.

I get depressed from time to time. I feel like I don’t have much to give. I feel stuck. I can’t see the light. Then, I remember.

Light doesn’t come from the outside. Light comes from within. We are made in the Image of God. God is within us. We have to pay attention to the kick that is in us too. The kick is the light. Can y’all feel it? That kick is the kick in the ass that we need to get up and keep going.

Light comes from within. Light comes to us. So let us not dismay. The baby still kicks within us all. The light is still speaking. Nothing can extinguish it. Nothing can extinguish the light.

We are made by the light to become the light so that we might live in the light forever.

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