Third Sunday of Advent: From Fragmentation to Holy Wholeness

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” -Hebrews 13:8

Advent points us to the past, present and future.

First, the four weeks leading up to the Nativity focus our attention on the event of the Incarnation some 2000 years ago. The Son of God, the Logos, came to earth and took on flesh—as a fetus in Mary’s womb, developing and growing until Mary was “great with child” as she rode the donkey en route to Bethlehem with her finance Joseph.

Advent likewise points us to the future. Christ not only came to earth as a baby those two millennia ago, he will return at the end of the age as King of kings and Lord of lords. The time-space world in which we live has a telos—a goal, fulfillment, completion—toward which the centuries run. God will roll up the heavens and earth “like a robe; like a garment they will be changed” (Hebrews 1:12). We will receive a new heavens and earth, beyond our earthly language to describe. We will join the wedding feast of the Son and be joined forever with Christ, our Bridegroom.

Between these two advents of Christ, we exist today. Just as Jesus broke into the past and will come again with surprise in the future, he wants to break into our everyday lives. He is Emmanuel—God with us—in our human existence. We must live in light of Christ’s present-day presence, else we will be consumed by the materialism of the world and cave in on ourselves in self-focused preoccupation. The secular shopping season contributes all the more to the material fixation that steals our attention from active and living presence among us.

We must resist the temptation of materialism, however, in order to find our meaning by discovering our place in the larger Story. The past anchors us in the concrete events of God’s redemptive act of salvation as we celebrate the Incarnation. The future offers us hope as we wait for the consummation of this age and the consummation of the wedding feast of Christ as we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

The present, then, is a time of both remembering and waiting. Such is the message of Advent. He is here with us, as he promised, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). The season of Advent tutors us in how to live during this time. It attunes us to God’s divine action and his desire to come into the ups and downs of our earthly existence. We embrace the here and now, discovering the divine in the midst of daily life.

This Advent season we can ask ourselves: How is Jesus breaking into our day? Where is his glory filling the earth? How is he Emmanuel right here and right now?

Such a three-fold focus is difficult to maintain; it can even be unsettling. However, we must not neglect any of the three: past, present or future. Advent instructs us as it helps us to integrate all three into a meaningful whole—not only the overview of the ages but also a personal reality for each of us existentially. By juxtaposing past and future, Advent calls us to wait in present. Advent causes us to see Salvation History as a whole, and, doing so, helps to make our lives more whole as it invites us to see how our lives fit in.

© 2017 Glenn E. Myers

Second Sunday of Advent: From Impatience to Holy Waiting

        

           “Wait for the Lord;

      be strong and take heart

     and wait for the Lord.”       

            -Psalm 27:14

Waiting. No one that I know likes to wait. Whether it is standing in a long checkout line during Christmas shopping or finding oneself stuck in a traffic jam, we usually find ourselves in a waiting situation much against our plans. If possible, we try to distract ourselves while the minutes tick away—texting being the most common method these days. If we are not able to find a suitable distraction, we simply go numb. Waiting, so often, is what we do against our will.

But what if waiting were a spiritual activity? What if waiting turned out to be God’s plan for our lives—not only for character development but for greater purposes than we are aware of at the time?

This is holy waiting. As well as cultivating patience in our lives, holy waiting molds us into God’s timing and purposes. Advent is a wonderful opportunity for such waiting. By following the church calendar we step out of the rush of our contemporary culture—with all its materialism and catering to immediate desires—and enter a holy rhythm. That rhythm of the church year begins the first Sunday of Advent, which continues for three more Sundays, preparing our hearts as we anticipate Christmas.

Instead of an instant but shallow satisfaction of singing Christmas carols on the first Sunday of Advent, we are called to again take the journey to Bethlehem, asking God to do whatever work he chooses in us in order to form us for fresh inner growth. The four-week wait of Advent stirs longing deep within us, so we appreciate the coming of Emmanuel on a whole new level.

Waiting is not easy. Our natural passions want fulfillment as soon as possible. Waiting enables us to deny those desires—at least for a time—so that our attention can move from the material to spiritual, from the outward-ness of our existence to the inner life of the soul. 

This Advent invites you and me to holy waiting. Will we embrace the discomfort to waiting in order to grow deeper in faith? Will we step away from busy distraction into a holy rhythm of anticipating Christ’s coming afresh into our lives?

© 2017 Glenn E. Myers

First Sunday of Advent: From Ordinary Time to Holy Time

Advent—the arrival of something new.

The four Sundays leading up to the feast of Christ’s birth are set aside to prepare our hearts for the arrival of the Son of God come to earth—Emmanuel, God with us. Historically this event took place some 2000 years ago, but we are invited to participate afresh in our Lord’s coming, as we join Christians around the world and over the centuries to observe Advent each year. We have the opportunity to personalize the events of holy history—Heilsgeschichte—as we prepare our hearts anew to embrace the Lord in our lives.

The first Sunday of Advent moves us from ordinary time into holy time. Two-thirds of the church year are lived in ordinary time. That is as it should be—for the majority of life is lived with daily chores, normal jobs and school, and commonplace pleasures and challenges of existence. We serve the Lord in everyday relationships and responsibilities. We love God and others through our unnoticed faithfulness to our calling in life.

With the upcoming first Sunday of Advent, however, we move into holy time—“holy days” that have often become in our culture mere “holidays.” Yet, we can reclaim their significance in the life of faith. We can regain their original purpose in this season of the church.

“Holy”—Latin “sanctus”—means to set aside or consecrate to God. Rather than simply a season for shopping, Advent is a time set aside for the Lord. These weeks are an opportunity for us to recommit ourselves to lives of faith, focused on our relationship with our loving Creator. They are an invitation to prepare our hearts for a fresh encounter with Christ—the Eternal Logos, God’s Word—who condescended to come into our world, our lives, our suffering, our struggle with sin, our shame, our human situation.

As we enter Advent, we move out of mere chronological time—that simply ticks by the minutes, hours and days—and we step into kairos time. The Greek term kairos refers to the appointed time for something. As Galatians 5:6 asserts, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”

Advent is the appointed time for dedicating ourselves anew to the Lord. Advent is the appointed time for setting aside some special time of devotion, whether a weekend retreat, a daily devotional or some extra time of silent listening to God. Advent is the appointed time for stillness, stepping back from the bustle of buying gifts and baking cookies to still our hearts. Advent is the appointed time for attentive waiting, as we anticipate the celebration of Christ’s birth on Christmas day.

© 2017 Glenn E. Myers

Surveying the Garden by Listening to Our Lives

In the stillness of the garden we are given space to take an honest look at our life. Here we observe our activities, relationships, attitudes, frustrations and inner longings. We pause to listen to our own life.

If setting aside time for solitude is difficult in contemporary culture, listening is even more so. It is much easier to keep busy and avoid looking too closely. Often we have an inner sense that we will not like all that we see. We do not really want to hear what our life, our bodies, our friendships, our hearts are telling us. Yet, listen we must, if we want to grow spiritually.

In order to listen to our lives, we must take the time to stand back and observe. Observation needs to be objective. I must be willing to look at reality, not what I would like reality to be. What do I see when I look at my life?

Where are the activities of my day life-giving? What situations or commitments are life-draining for me?

Where do I sense hope? In what areas do I feel stuck, disappointed or in despair?

Who are the friends in my life with whom I can share my hopes and dreams and disappointment? Do I feel safe and secure? Where are there lonely holes in my life?

What is our physical body saying to us? It might be a simple message of the need to take more time for exercise or sleep. Or, perhaps the weight we have gained is pointing to an inner ache that we are trying to medicate by eating too much comfort food. What does the pain tell us? Maybe we are pushing too hard, trying to find fulfillment—or approval from someone—by our accomplishments. Maybe the physical pain is a manifestation of inner grief that we have suppressed too long.

As we ask these questions, we sometimes discover that we are alienated from ourselves.

Here we listen to our own life, our own heart. If we are silent and attentive, we will begin to hear what is inside us—sometimes joyful cries of thanksgiving, other times loud cries of anger, still other times silent cries for help.

2017 © Glenn E. Myers

This series is Creation Proclaiming God’s Divine Nature, as Romans 1:20 declares, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”

Nurturing Stillness in our Inner Garden

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

            -Mark 1:35

“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

            -Luke 5:16

Physical gardens offer us unique doorway into the secret garden of our souls—that inner sanctuary where our true relationship with God blossoms. Physical gardens offer external stillness, which in turn helps us to enter a still place within. Like any garden, however, our inner garden must be nurtured.

One way we nurture the inner garden is by cultivating stillness. Stillness seldom happens on its own. In our hyperactive world, we must give ourselves permission to pull apart from what we consider to me a more productive use of our time. We disconnect from technology of any kind. We settle our racing thoughts.

To do so, we must truly value our time alone with God and be intentional about setting such time apart in the midst of our hectic days.

Without sufficient stillness, our spiritual growth will always remain superficial. If Jesus needed regular solitude and stillness for prayer in his life and ministry, how much more do we? Only by cultivating the deep soil of stillness can our roots reach down.

2017 © Glenn E. Myers

This series is Creation Proclaiming God’s Divine Nature, as Romans 1:20 declares, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”

Clearing the Path to the Inner Gard

“They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD— the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more.”

            -Jeremiah 31:12

Literal gardens can be a doorway into the inner garden of our soul. We discover that the greenness and growth things around us lead us down the narrow path to the hidden garden within.

That narrow path, however, can easily become overgrown with the thorns and weeds of this world’s cares. When that happens, we becomes difficult to find our way back to the inner garden of our spiritual life.

Therefore, on a regular basis we need to clear the path to that hidden garden. Cutting down some of the underbrush of life’s busyness and clutter, pulling out weeds of bad attitudes that have sprung up in our hearts, we free up our footpath to the garden. Even more, as we walk that path on a daily basis, we keep it untangled and unclogged.

As we open the door to the enclosed garden, we step into a space set aside for God. In this inner garden, we find that we are content simply to “be.” We are living to the fullest right here and right now. At least for a few moments we are in a place where time and eternity have become one!

2017 © Glenn E. Myers

This series is Creation Proclaiming God’s Divine Nature, as Romans 1:20 declares, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”

Garden of the Soul: Entering a Different Inner Space

“The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”

            -Isaiah 58:11

The greenness, beauty and stillness of a garden help us enter a different space within. They help us access a good place mentally and spiritually—a place where we are at peace. Here there is no rush, no hurry to produce.

In each of us is an inner space where prayer resides and poetry springs forth. This inner garden is fruitful with creativity, connected-ness, prayer and inner peace.

Creativity comes forth from our inner garden. That creativity may bubble up in the form of poetry or photography. It might be a unique idea of how we can serve someone in our life. It could take the form of arranging flowers or painting.

This inner place is a space where we are relational. Often in the stress of life we become alienated from ourselves, and we need some room to reconnect with who we truly are. The solitude of the inner garden offers us just such an opportunity.

Prayer likewise grows in our inner garden. Here we reconnect with God in this inner sanctuary of the soul. “Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return,” writes Thomas Kelley. It is “a holy sanctuary of adoration and of self-oblation, where we are kept in perfect peace, if our mind be stayed on Him who has found us in the inward springs of our life.”  [1]

Finally, the place of our inner garden offers us peace. Entering the garden of our soul is so essential for each of us. When we enter that mental space, that inner place, we step away from stress and worry. Our minds stop spinning with lists of things to do and decisions to make, and we find some stillness. This hidden place within is where our true self resides. This is not the self we try to project to the world or the self of achievement and activism; rather, it is where we are free to simply be.

Thus when we step into the garden mentality—away from the pressure to produce—we ironically find that this garden is bursting with produce! That produce, however, cannot be manufactured in an efficient production line—it can only be cultivated in peace.

[1] Thomas R. Kelley, A Testament of Devotion (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1941, 1992), pp. 3-4. 

2017 © Glenn E. Myers

This series is Creation Proclaiming God’s Divine Nature, as Romans 1:20 declares, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.”