Advent: The season for Preparation

I wonder if you have been encouraged by the Black Friday sales to start your Christmas shopping, and whether you have already begun to decorate your home and garden with festive lights and ornaments?

Of cause to succumb to the commercial world's desire for you to spend your money may encourage us to also to miss the whole point of Advent! And while Advent is traditionally a time of preparation – it was originally a preparation of quite a different sort!. This is because the traditional themes that lie behind this four week season during December, are more about a yearning and hope for the fulfilment of quite a different sort to the incitements of the commercial world. The season of Advent is not just for us humans – it includes the whole of creation!

Perhaps this is easier for those who live in the Northern Hemisphere to relate to this idea. This is because during December they are rapidly approaching their longest and darkest time of the year. Some years ago I lived in a Franciscan Community in America and experienced or the first time a winter Christmas. It did appeal at first. But as the winter darkness (and snow) slowly deepened, it was not long before the novelty began to wear thin. However, in retrospect, because we spent much more time indoors the season actually seemed to invite us to think back over the past year, to celebrate the times where we excelled, and to review the situations where we could have acted differently. It also encouraged us to set new goals and intentions for the new year.

We find a similar theme of spiritual renewal in the Bible Readings set for this season of Advent. We will hear about:

1. The parting of the red sea and in the pillar of fire by night and cloud by day that led the Hebrew people during the difficult stages of their journey – to remind us that God does not abandon us in times of our need.

2. Of God's provision of manna and water in to his people times of hunger and thirst – which also is a reminder that God continually journeys with each one of us, providing and sustaining us on our journeys.

3. How God also provided his people with a rule of life for them to follow. Initially this was engraved on tablets of stone, which the Hebrew people carried with them as a constant reminder that God was still journeying with them, through all their joys and challenges. May we also learn to 'write' that wisdom upon our minds and hearts.

4. And as they carried the tent of the Tabernacle with them as their place of worship, we are also reminded that even in times and places of desolation and danger, the divine presence is still close at hand, to direct and guard us, on our journey of life.

Advent is also, a season to appreciate and care for creation.

Some years ago I came across the book 'Soul Survivor, A Spiritual Quest through 40 days and nights of Mountain Solitude'. It was written by the Wellington TV documentary film maker, Paul Hawker: In it he described his 40 day spiritual pilgrimage alone into the Tararua Mountains behind Masterton in an attempt to hear God's voice and obey it.

I think most of us have been touched by the spirituality that flows from creation, for example: the sense of wonder, and of our insignificance, when gazing at the star filled sky at night, or the stillness of a peaceful landscape, or the joy and sacredness of a beautiful garden where we may feel “nearer to God's heart... than anywhere else on earth”.

And finally, Advent is a season of Stories

Scientists like Brian Swimme and the cultural historian, Thomas Berry have suggested that Life is really a question of story, and while we we hear of those stories in our Bible Readings, however, we are now living in a period that is' in-between' stories. The Old Story that included how our world came to be and how we fit into it is no longer functioning properly. However, we have not learnt the New Story that whether we like it or not, we are actually responsible for the whole further evolution of our planet.

It is important for us to remember, that what happens to our outer world will inevitably affect our the inner world, Because, ‘If our outer world is diminished in its grandeur, then humankind's emotional, imaginative, intellectual, and spiritual life will also be diminished or extinguished¹.

I wonder what stories we are creating by the way we live?

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and good will on your journey.

Phil

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1. https://thomasberry.org/life-and-thought/about-thomas-berry/a-universe-story