Week Four, Day 2: Human Beings Become Human because God Became Human

"God is ever-present in our lives and the lives of all human beings, but not to engage in magical manipulation of the forces of the universe. Creation is not control. God's creative Spirit is, was, and always will be the ongoing involvement of a loving God made known to us supremely in the person of Jesus the Christ. Jesus--through whom we understand God as incarnate in our world--offers us the clearest intellectual and relational image of God. In mission we are collaborators with the ongoing missional activities of the Creator God, revealed through the person of Jesus Christ and the experience of the ever-present Holy Spirit."
The Rev. Dr. John Edward Nuessle


"We believe that those dear folk who say -- presuming intellectual humility - that God is ultimate, distant, ineffable and unknowable, are wrong. God is not vague and indistinct, aloof and indiscernible. God has a face, a name, a certain way of talking and living, and dying, and rising. Jesus Christ - who lived briefly, died violently and rose unexpectedly - is the One in whom “all the fullness of God chose to dwell” (Col. 1:19)."
Bishop Will Willimon



The only way we could hope to understand God is to meet God in a way that is familiar to us. We do not become God but instead God becomes us, with a face, a name, a certain way of talking. God comes into the world as we do; vulnerable. Last night we discussed the vulnerability of babies; the complete reliance upon the parent. It doesn't get much more human than that!

Week Three, Day Six: Overcoming Fear

"And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’"
Matthew 8:23-27

In the same way that the birth of Christ is a reversal of human norms so too is the redemption. "God comes into the very midst of evil and death, and judges the evil in us and in the world. And by judging us, god cleanses and sanctifies us with grace and love." In the very places we feel lowest and furthest from God, those are the very places God finds us. We can find comfort in that thought, and move away from fear towards an understanding that there is hope!

Week 3, Day 5: World Judgment and World Redemption

Close to you I waken in the dead of night.
And start with fear -- are you lost to me once more?
     Is it alwasy vainly that I seek you, my past?
I stretch my hands out,
and I pray --
and a new thing now I hear:
"The past will come to you once more,
and be your life's enduring part,
through thanks and repentance.
Feel in the past God's deliverance and goodness,
Pray him to keep you today and tomorrow."

The poem printed above was composed by Bonhoeffer during the last year of his life, probably during his last weeks at Tegel prison in the suburbs of Berlin. After his time at Tegel, Bonhoeffer was moved to the Gestapo headquarters in downtown Berlin, followed a few weeks later by a move to the notorious Buchenwald concentration camp. By April 1945, Bonhoeffer had moved once more, to the Flossenburg concentration camp. It was at Flossenburg that he was executed on April 9th.

One thing I have always found striking about Bonhoeffer was the calm way in which he writes. The aforementioned poem starts out with an uneasy feeling, where the writer awakens in fear, but ends with a feeling of God's deliverance and goodness. It seems Bonhoeffer really believed his redemption was drawing near!

On the day of his execution, the SS doctor that witnessed Bonhoeffer's execution wrote that Bonhoeffer was “devout . . . brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds . . . I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.” Bonhoeffer's final message to his friend George Bell had a similarly submissive tone: “This is the end, for me the beginning of life.”
Quotations from USHMM


"If we want to participate in this Advent and Christmas event, we cannot simply sit there like spectators in a theater and enjoy all of friendly pictures. Rather, we must join in the action that is taking place and be drawn into this reversal of all things ourselves."

Week Three, Day Four: Look Up, Your Redemption is Drawing Near

²⁸Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Luke 21:28

The example of the trapped miner is an appropriate one. Trapped underground, feeling like all hope is lost, suddenly there is a sound from above. The miner looks up, hears and sees his rescuers and replies "here I am!" In many ways, we too are trapped and looking "down." You can begin with the Advent season and think about all the ways we "look down," but extend it outwards to the entire year. In what ways are we "looking down?" We are concerned with so many things that we get caught up in our ways and our wants. There is a fine balance to strike, though. Should you spend all of your time "looking up," ignoring the things of the earth? Probably not! I heard a saying once that seems to apply to this situation "keep my feet on the ground but my head in the clouds." There are things that we should concern ourselves with in our temporal place, but even greater are those that are to come. Look up from time to time!

Week Three, Day Three: Becoming Guilty

18 Come now, let us argue it out,

says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be like snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.   

Isaiah 1:18

The Bonhoeffer reading for today comes from a sermon delivered to a German-speaking congregation in London during the brief period in which Bonhoeffer lived there. This sermon is one of only a handful that survive from that part of his ministry. The entire sermon focuses on the Magnificat, the hymn of Mary that we read last week. While rereading the sermon, on particular passage stuck out with reference to our theme today:

"When we reach a point in our lives at which we are not only ashamed of ourselves, but believe God is ashamed of us too, when we feel so far from God, more than we have ever felt in our lives, than and precisely then, God is nearer to us than he has ever been. It is then that he breaks into our lives. It is then that he lets us know that feeling of despair is taken away from us, so that we may grasp the wonder of his love, his nearness to us, and his grace." Sermon on the Magnificat

It is clear to me that Bonhoeffer is talking about guilt here, specifically the acceptance that we are all guilty of something. That low point can be a very lonely place, where we feel incredibly far away from everything. What is comforting, though is the reminders we have been getting all along: the places we don't expect to encounter God, the places that feel most far away or dark or dirty or unhappy are the very places that we do encounter God. God is the God of the oppressed and the downtrodden, but also the God of the guilty:

"Christ the son of a poor working man’s wife in the East End of London! Christ in the manger . . . God is not ashamed to be with those of humble state. He goes into the midst of it all, chooses one person to be his instrument, and does his miracle there, where one least expects it. He loves the lost, the forgotten, the insignificant, the outcasts, the weak, and the broken. Where men say, 'lost,' he says 'found;' where men say 'no,' he says 'yes.' Where men look with indifference or superiority, he looks with burning love, such as nowhere else is to be found. Where men say, 'contemptible!,' God cries, 'blessed.'" 

 

 

Week Three, Day Two: Taking on Guilt

16 Then someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ ¹⁷And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ ¹⁸He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; ¹⁹Honour your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ ²⁰The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these;^* what do I still lack?’ ²¹Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money^* to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ ²²When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Matthew 19:16-19

Last night we had a wonderful conversation about redemption and guilt. Guilt is a hard subject. You don't want to dwell on things in the past, but it is important to recognize the things that hang up your life. In the Methodist tradition, salvation from the guilt of sin is termed "justification." In his sermon entitled Justification by Faith, Wesley wrote:

"The plain scriptural notion of justification is pardon, the forgiveness of sins. It is that act of God the Father, hereby, for the sake of the propitiation made by the blood of his Son, he 'showeth forth his righteousness (or mercy) by the remission of the sins that are past.'"

The entire sermon is worth reading, but the takeaway from this portion is pardon. We are pardoned, by God, through Christ. As we discussed last night, we need to look up from time to time, if only to recognize that we aren't in control of everything. Again, John Wesley:

"Thou who feelest thou art just fit for hell, art just fit to advance his glory; the glory of his free grace, justifying the ungodly and him that worketh not. O come quickly! Believe in the Lord Jesus; and thou, even thou, art reconciled to God."

Week 3: Redemption

God lets it be known today so that we may all the more passionately, all the more eagerly, seize the promise of grace, so that we might recognize that we do not stand before God in our own strength, lest we should perish before God; that in spite of everything God does not desire our death, but rather our life”  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom

"What about the 'good and evil' about which Christ will ask us on that final day? The good is nothing other than our asking for and receiving his grace. The evil is only fear and wanting to stand before God on our own and justify ourselves. To repent, therefore, means to be in the process of turning around, turning away from our own accomplishments and receiving God's mercy. Turn back, turn back! The whole Bible calls us to joyfully turn back--where? To the everlasting mercy of God who never leaves us, whose heart breaks because of us, the God who created us and loves us beyond all measure." 
 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The idea of redemption refers to deliverance from sin and in the Christian context is the result of the revelation of God in Christ. In today's readings, guilt is the major stumbling block that is overcome in Christ. According to Psychology Today, "guilt and its handmaiden, shame, can paralyze––or catalyze one into action. Appropriate guilt can function as social glue, spurring one to make reparations for wrongs." I am fascinated by the idea of "paralyze or catalyze." Either you let your guilt paralyze you, rendering you unable (or unwilling) to repent, or you let your guilt catalyze your actions. You do something. One of my professors at SMU, Dr. Billy Abraham, would always say "it's time to either fish or cut bait." You have to make a decision. In the second Bonhoeffer quote, this decision is very clear: we must "[turn] away from our own accomplishments and [receive] God's mercy." Redemption is always available to us. God's mercy is ever present and everlasting, but we have to turn around and turn away from ourselves!

Week 2, Day 7: An Unfathomable Mystery

To whom then will you liken God,
   or what likeness compare with him?
An idol? —A workman casts it,
   and a goldsmith overlays it with gold,
   and casts for it silver chains.
As a gift one chooses mulberry wood
   —wood that will not rot—
then seeks out a skilled artisan
   to set up an image that will not topple.

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
   Has it not been told you from the beginning?
   Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
   and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
   and spreads them like a tent to live in;
who brings princes to naught,
   and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
   scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and they wither,
   and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

To whom then will you compare me,
   or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
   Who created these?
He who brings out their host and numbers them,
   calling them all by name;
because he is great in strength,
   mighty in power,
   not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob,
   and speak, O Israel,
‘My way is hidden from the Lord,
   and my right is disregarded by my God’?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
   and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
   and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
   they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:18-31

"He appeared among mortal sinners as the immortal righteous one, mortal like humanity, righteous like God."
St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions X. xliii

Ecce homo is the Latin translation of the words spoken by Pilate when he handed Jesus over to the hostile crowd before the crucifixion (John 19:5). It translates as "here is the man." This simple statement has a great deal of meaning for us. Here is Christ, sent on the "humiliating path of reconciliation" that in turn sets the world free. All this week we have been thinking about the dramatic reversal of order the coming of Christ represents. I like the simplicity of the phrase "ecce homo" as a meditation for today; here is God, made flesh, to redeem the world. Why? Because God loves us. Not as ideal humans, because we aren't. God loves us as we are, ecce homo. 

God of peace, your will is that your love be known to all humans. Your forgiveness and your presence become a song in our heart, and even at night we can think of you and remember your name.
Brother Alois of Taize 

Week 2, Day 6: The Mysteries of God

¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Luke 2:15-20

I was talking with my 7th graders the other day about how readily available information is. We were studying the Renaissance and discussing how scholars like Petrarch would collect and preserve classic writings from the Greek and Roman empires. This collection of writings sparked Italian Renaissance Humanism and rekindled the love of knowledge for many Europeans. This was a difficult idea for a 7th grader. We live in a world where most knowledge is readily available. A Kindle has instant access to over 100,000 books. Google Scholar can be used to track the changing usage of semi-colons throughout history. We all use Google on a daily basis to find out things we don't know! The is very little wonder throughout our days.

I really like the Peterson quote that accompanies today's reading, especially this part:
"Once a year, each Christmas, for a few days a least, we and millions of our neighbors turn aside from our preoccupation with life reduced to biology or economics or psychology and join together in a community of wonder." Can we make it more than a few days?

Week 2, Day 5: The Power and Glory of the Manger

⁴⁶And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, ⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, ⁴⁸for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; ⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. ⁵⁰His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. ⁵¹He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. ⁵²He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; ⁵³he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. ⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, ⁵⁵according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Luke 1:46-55

Today's passage, called the Magnificat or The Canticle of Mary occurs at a place in Luke's gospel where Mary is visiting her cousin Elizabeth (pregnant with John the Baptist). Elizabeth praises Mary for her faith, to which Mary responds with this canticle. The canticle gives a clear picture of what is to come with the birth of Jesus; a dramatic reversal of order. The powerful are made lowly and the lowly are lifted up. The hungry are fed and the rich are sent away empty.

Bonhoeffer's statement clarifies things further: "Whoever finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger; whoever remains lowly and lets God along be high; whoever looks at the child in the manger and sees the glory of God precisely in his lowliness."

Think about what this all means for you. On one level, it means we have to let go of a few things; pride, power, honor. On another level, is that so bad?

Do not despise yourselves, men: the Son of God took on the form of a man. Do not despise yourselves, women: the Son of God was born of a woman. And who could despair of themselves when the Son of God wanted to be so humble for us?
St. Augustine of Hippo 

Week 2, Day 4: The Scandal of Pious People

He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; ²he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ³He said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; ⁴for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.’
 Luke 21:1-4 

"In a word: in Christ's life and words and works, we find nothing but true, pure humility and poverty such as we have set forth. And therefore where God dwelleth in a man, and the man is a true follower of Christ, it will be, and must be, and ought to be the same."
The Theologia Germanica of Martin Luther

I've often had the thought "wouldn't it have been easier if..." I think this applies to today's reading. Wouldn't it have been easier if Jesus had not held back and removed all ambiguity? It would be an easy decision. We would have all the proof we need, but what does proof do for us? Jesus had to be a human like us. A supernatural fact does very little for us. We need faith. We need to believe that this paradoxical event, this Advent. leads to our salvation. Jesus came in absolute glory in a completely humble fashion. "Only when I forgo visible proof, do I believe in God."

Week 2, Day 3: The Wonder of All Wonders

⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
    nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—

¹⁰ these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 

 1 Corinthians 2:8-10 

⁶ who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited,
⁷ but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
⁸   he humbled himself
   and became obedient to the point of death—
   even death on a cross.

⁹ Therefore God also highly exalted him
   and gave him the name
   that is above every name,
¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus
   every knee should bend,
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue should confess
   that Jesus Christ is Lord,
   to the glory of God the Father. 
Philippians 2:6-11

In the Monologion, St. Anselm of Canterbury wrote "Of all things that exist, there is one nature that is supreme. It alone is self-sufficient in its eternal happiness, yet through its all-powerful goodness it creates and gives to all other things their very existence and their goodness (The Major Works, 11)." The gift of God is that God loves us, often in strange and mysterious ways. We can't explain it. It shouldn't make sense that, as Bonhoeffer said "it was a mystery because God became poor, low, lowly, and weak out of love for humankind, because God became a human being like us, so that we would become divine, and because he came to us so that we would come to him." This dramatic role reversal shows the power of God and the love for humanity. It isn't something that makes sense, but it doesn't have to.

Week 2, Day 2: The Mystery of Love

“Christ did not come to earth to create a new religion, but to offer to every human being a communion in God.”
 Brother Roger of Taize

"Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I fell but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours."
St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions (xxvii, 38)

Today we continue the theme of paradox. The closer we become to someone, the more the mystery increases. You can know everything about a person and still this does not remove the mystery of love. Former Dean of Perkins School of Theology Robin Lovin wrote

"Love, likewise, values other people as they are related to God and not as they are useful or important to oneself. Love as a virtue, as a habit of choice and action, consistently does those things that enable others to flourish as persons with their own dignity and their own relationship to God." Christian Ethics: An Essential Guide

Love is a very mysterious thing. The more we know about God, the more we love God, the more mysterious the relationship becomes. It often (or always) is beyond explanation. Think of the phrase "God is love." Think about what it means. One of the first thoughts may be a "because" statements, as in "God is love because ______." We use examples, we describe attributes of God, and very quickly it becomes clear that this is a very mysterious relationship that is very hard to describe. Love is a mystery and that's okay. 

Week 2: Mystery

"Where the understanding is outraged, where human nature rebels, where our piety keeps a nervous distance: there, precisely there, God loves to be; there he baffles the wisdom of the wise; there he vexes our nature, our religious instincts. There he wants to be, and no one can prevent Him.
Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and grand, that he works wonders where man loses heart, that he makes splendid what is slight and lowly. Indeed, this is the wonder of wonders, that God loves the lowly.
"God has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden." God in lowliness - that is the revolutionary, the passionate word of Advent."

"From the Christian point of view, spending Christmas in a prison doesn't pose any special problem. Most likely, a more meaningful and authentic Christmas is celebrated here by many people than in places where only the name of the feast remains. Misery, pain, poverty, loneliness, helplessness, and guilt have an altogether different meaning in God's eyes than in the judgment of men. God turns toward the very places from which humans tend to turn away. Christ was born in a stable because there was no room for him at the inn: A prisoner can understand all this better than other people. It's truly good news for him; in believing it, he knows he has been made a part of the Christian community that breaks down all spatial and temporal frontiers, and the walls of prison lose their meaning."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Mystery of Holy Night 

When I think about the mystery of Advent, my first inclination is towards the concept of the paradoxical nature of the coming of Christ. There was nothing grand about the situation and yet it was the perfect situation. God came where we didn't expect it, "vex[ing] our nature, our religious instincts." This is what Bonhoeffer describes from his jail cell, a place where "only the name of the feast remains." This is a place of mystery and of confusion. God is in the very places where we seem to turn away, the places that are outside of our normal boundaries.

Today, meditate on the final line of the last Bonhoeffer quote and imagine what it means to be "a part of the Christian community that breaks down all spatial and temporal frontiers."

Day Seven: God's Holy Present

"For I hear the whispering of many--
terror all around!--
as they scheme together against me,
as they plot to take my life.

But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, 'You are my God.'
My times are in your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your steadfast love."

Psalm 31:13-16

"Serve the opportune time" the first line of today's reflection seems to be missing a word.  "Serve at the opportune time" reads much easier. Working towards patient anticipation for the birth of Christ reminds me to experience God's presence in my time...my lifetime...rather than at nine o'clock tonight when I finally have chance to sit still.  

Receive the blessings of Christ in all aspects of your time...your day, your family, your work, your service.  During this period of waiting, lets explore how we can serve the most opportune time!

"Every time rightly understood is immediate to God, and God wants us to be fully what we are."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Day Six: Silence: Waiting for God's Word

¹¹He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; ¹²and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.
1 Kings 19:11-12

"The heavy storm on Mount Sinai was splitting rocks, but God’s silent word is able to break open human hearts of stone. For Elijah himself the sudden silence was probably more fearsome than the storm and thunder. The loud and mighty manifestations of God were somehow familiar to him. God’s silence is disconcerting, so very different from all Elijah knew before.
Silence makes us ready for a new meeting with God. In silence, God’s word can reach the hidden corners of our hearts. In silence, it proves to be "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit" (Hebrews 4:12). In silence, we stop hiding before God, and the light of Christ can reach and heal and transform even what we are ashamed of."
The Value of Silence, Community of Taize

My trip to the Community of Taize during my Senior year of College had a profound effect on me. Life at Taize circles around the three daily prayer services in which the entire community gathers for a period of singing, prayer, and most importantly, silence. The silence is uncomfortable at first, lasting for at least 10-15 minutes. Try sitting in silence for that long. In my experience, the first few minutes are occupied by whatever thoughts were currently swirling in your head. After that, you think about the silence. Eventually, your thoughts subside and you simply become a part of the silence. This is what the reading refers to as a "listening" silence. You shift to a state of reception, a state of listening for the word of God. Today, meditate on silence in silence. Start out with 5 minutes and work towards 10. Try to get to a state of "listening" silence. It isn't easy, but the benefits are profound.

¹⁴Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:14

Day Five: A Soft, Mysterious Voice

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Isaiah 9:6-7

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ²‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’^{* 3}This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
   make his paths straight.” ’
Matthew 3:1-3

The reality of our waiting is that it is a real and certain thing we are waiting for, but when? We have no idea. The preparation is ongoing, it is right now, in the present. Bonhoeffer wrote about the laugh that goes through our "self-assured world" when we hear the call of salvation. We may be self-assured, but that which is unknown far outweighs the known. It is in this mystery that we are told of "the blessed certainty of salvation through the birth of a divine child." We don't know how long we have to wait, but we do know a child has been born for us.

Day Four: An Un-Christmas-Like Idea

"There was then no man that sinned not. Even from the day that sin entered into the world there was not a just man upon earth that did good and sinned not, until the Son of God manifested 'to take away our sins.'" 
John Wesley, Christian Perfection (John Wesley's Sermons: An Anthology, ed. Albert C. Outler and Richard P. Heitzenrater, pg. 76)

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah,^* the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,^* praising God and saying,
¹⁴ ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
   and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’<sup>*

Luke 2:8-14</sup> 


In today's reading, Bonhoeffer poses an interesting scenario in which we are "so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us." We readily embrace the joyous parts, but the judgement seems to be less important. I for one fall into that category. In all truthfulness I do not like to think about the "shiver of fear." The reality, though, is that despite the brokenness of the world we live in, despite sin, death, and judgement, God is redeeming us, loving us, and purifying us as only God can.

Day Three: Not Everyone Can Wait

Wait for the Lord,
Whose day is near.
Wait for the Lord,
Keep watch, take heart.
Song of Taize

"I used to be very fond of thinking up and buying presents, but now that we have nothing to give, the gift God gave us in the birth of Christ will seem all the more glorious; the emptier our hands, the better we understand what Luther meant by his dying words: "we're beggars; its true."
Letter to fiancee Maria von Wedemeyer, December 1, 1943.

Today's readings center on the idea that when we strip everything away, we still have an underlying need that can only be met by Christ. Bonhoeffer wrote that they had nothing with which to prepare for Christmas, so they would need to be content with only what was truly essential, the birth of Christ. Try to imagine what that would look like in your life. What if you had nothing to give? Nothing to prepare? What would Advent look like with nothing but what is truly essential; the gift God gave us in the birth of Christ? Today, meditate on these thoughts and see where they take you.

Day Two: Waiting Is an Art

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!"

Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem built as a city that is bound firmly together.

To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

For there the thrones for judgment were set up, the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you.

Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers."

For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, "Peace be within you."

For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.

Psalm 122


Today's reading contains a portion of a letter Bonhoeffer wrote to his fiancee, Maria von Wedemeyer, from his jail cell. They were engaged three months prior to his imprisonment, with the public announcement of their engagement coming after the arrest. Though they knew each other quite well before becoming engaged, their life as a couple was spent with Dietrich behind bars. The letter talks about the dark hours both are experiencing and yet it contains a great deal of hope. One of the most striking lines reads "God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment." The letters Bonhoeffer exchanged with Maria are full of love and hope. They also show the reality of their relationship: they had to wait. In many of her letters, Maria encouraged Bonhoeffer, saying "don't get tired and depressed, my dearest Dietrch, it won't be much longer now (Bonhoeffer in Love)."

Waiting takes patience. As we discussed yesterday, patience is very difficult in our modern lives. We must make a conscious effort to wait. Today, meditate on the idea of what it means "to struggle with the deepest questions of life...to patiently look forward with anticipation until the truth is revealed (God is in the Manger, 4)." Then, think about "the splendor of the moment in which clarity is illuminated (ibid.).

Week 1: Waiting

"The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. ²In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. ³Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. ⁴He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ⁵O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!" Isaiah 2:1-5 (NRSV)

 “Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. … Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting — that is, of hopefully doing without — will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

For the first week of Advent we will contemplate what it means to wait. In the traditional liturgy of the Christian Church, the first Sunday of Advent is marked by a purple candle which represents "Hope." Waiting and hoping are very familiar ideas for many of us, especially within the context of the Christmas season. Our challenge is to consider for what exactly we are waiting and hoping. Tonight we discussed the many ways we are "right now" people. We have the ability to get much of what we need right away. Waiting becomes something that annoys us or slows us down. Hope often turns into want of material possessions.

Advent is a time that forces us to slow down and to thoughtfully prepare for the coming of Christ. This isn't an easy thing. The weeks leading up to Christmas aren't always the most peaceful, quiet, or thoughtful. One way to break this habit is to think of Advent as a time of preparation similar to the 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter. It is a time of reflection and hope that leads us to the most joyous event; the birth of Jesus Christ. This week, we will focus on the theme of "waiting" and what it means for us as Christians.