Sunday, First Week of Advent
Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7,17-19; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37
Enough! Prepare! Await!
The earth journeys—away from the sun, away from warmth, away from light—
and prepares for the season to come:
Trees, whipped by fierce winds, shed their yellow, orange, red, and sienna leaves.
Larch, filled with green-turned-golden needles, stand bare on the mountain sides.
Even the evergreens—pine, hemlock, fir—cast off some of their needles.
And it seems people mimic and match the earth's apparent death and retreat—
becoming cold, unfeeling, forgetful, ignorant, unkind, dark.
Gripped by fear of the unknown, doors and hearts close to a world in need—
refugees, prisoners, widows, orphans.
Pulled into premature Christmas filled with red- and green-washed platitudes,
minds enter a corporate-fueled consumerist frenzy.
Flooded with chintzy Christmas décor of Charlie Brown trees to programmable LED lights,
spirits seem helpless as Advent expectation is washed away.
Enough! Prepare! Await!
Close not your doors and hearts to a world in need—for now is the time to fling wide the gates!
Walk not the common path—for what you profess is not common!
Sing not the songs of Christmas—for now is the time of Advent!
“Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people's way.”