Author: Pat Liberty

It is impossible to speak of peace without speaking of justice.  The two are inextricably bound.  As Dwight D Eisenhower said, “they are two sides of the same coin.” As such, peace is more than individual inner tranquility or a sense of well-being.

Peace, in the biblical sense is not primarily personal. It is communal. Some of us know the Hebrew word for peace as “shalom.” It means more than an absence of war, though I suspect most of us would settle for that. It means a well-being that is primarily a state of affairs. In includes the personal understandings of peace, but extends to the communal. It includes security and safety. It also includes all people, not just individuals. For there to be true shalom, all must be cared for and treated with justice. Shalom assumes a level of wholeness that leads one to give back so that others might experience wholeness.

And there’s the rub. A small percentage of the world’s population owns the majority of the world’s wealth. They will not go quietly to the place of equitable sharing.  Our capitalist roots (at least in the US) run far too deep.  It is very much a “What’s mine is mine and tough munchies for you” mentality. It is the root of shaming and blaming the poor: the notion that I worked hard and if you do, you can succeed too.  If you are poor you must be lazy or stupid or…pick a derogatory adjective.

Embodying a path to equitable distribution of goods and services is part of the United Nation’s 16 goals for sustainable development.

Goal 16 states, “Peaceful societies and countries depend on sustainable development and effective accountable inclusive institutions for all.”  This means that individuals must have equal access. As long as a few people control the majority of the world’s wealth, there will be no peace and there will be no justice.

In the Advent season we prepare to meet the one who came to radically remake the world economy. That the known world was a lot smaller than it is now is not relevant. It was the same system” a wealthy few controlled access to the majority of goods and services. The poor were left to fend for themselves. The radical peace, the deep Shalom,  that Jesus came to bring was and is possible only when there is enough for everyone.

There is enough for the world’s need, not the world’s greed.

The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for.

And the most you can do is live inside that hope.

Not admire it from a distance, but live right in it, under its roof.

 

Barbara Kingsolver

I believe imagination is stronger than knowledge.

That myth is more potent than history.

That dreams are more powerful than facts.

That hope always triumphs over experience.

That laughter is the only cure for grief.

And I believe love is stronger than death.

Robert Fulghum

Many years I ago, when I was in my first pastorate, I received a card from a parishioner. On the outside it read:  “YOU are the answer to my prayer!”  On the inside, “You are not what I prayed for but apparently you are the answer.”

It’s an apt summary for much of our prayer life. We pray for someone to get well, for another to find a job, for the end of marital problems, the success of children and more.  And often our prayers are not answered to our satisfaction. It can occasion a real crisis of faith.

Toward the end of one of his movies Woody Allen comments, “It’s not that I have anything against God, I think the worst you could say of God is that God is an underachiever.”  In our minds, God never quite lives up to God’s potential.

God’s perceived underachievement is the stuff of Isaiah’s lament in the 64^th chapter. It’s worth a moment to read it. It is a psalm of communal lament. It is one person writing for an entire community that is feeling completely bereft of God’s presence.

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down!”  It is an anguished outburst.  Having prayed all the prayers of politeness, having exhausted all possible human alternatives, the cry erupts, “Tear open the heavens and come down!”

This is the prayer for those moments when we have prayed and felt we were talking to ourselves.  It is the prayer of frustration and powerlessness in the face of that which we cannot change.  It is a prayer for today.

It may be a little surprising to realize that anyone in the Bible ever prayed this kind of prayer.  Personally, I find it comforting to think that the spiritual giants of our religious history struggled in their relationship with God.

It wasn’t until I started to seriously study scripture that I got over the impression that people in the Bible had the God thing all figured out. If God was always so obvious, like Moses and the burning bush or Paul getting knocked on his butt on the way to Damascus, staying connected to God would be a snap.

But that’s not usually the way it happens.  There may be the occasional burning bush, or the unmistakable voice of God somewhere deep inside us.  But more often than not, while I am busy looking for God in primary colors, bold strokes and angel choruses, God is found in the shadows, speaking in a whisper.  Whispers are hard to hear when you’re waiting for the Hallelujah Chorus.

God is not going to show up on our command in a readily recognizable form carrying the answer to all our prayers.

Enter Advent. While the world calls us to be loud and busy; Advent calls us to be quiet and still.  The world calls us to do more and buy more; Advent calls us to wait expectantly and seek the gifts that are given and received without money.  The world calls us to create a holiday celebration, Advent reminds us that God offers the best celebration: life that is rich and full and tender and just.

Advent rhythm is the antidote to what’s out of whack with Christmas. God is in the silence, waiting to whisper in the quiet that comes when we pause, when we are in the emptiness that is usually filled with the busyness of our days.

While we are waiting for the shouts, God comes in whispers, in the spaces between what we dream for and what is. God comes in the spaces between our deepest longing and our greatest fears. God whispers our name in the silent spaces.

It may not be what we pray for, but apparently, it is the answer.

Click Here to Listen

 

O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel.

That mourns in lonely exile here until the son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, thou rod of Jesse free your own from Satan’s tyranny.

From depths of hell thy people save and give them victory over the grave.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, thou day-Spring light and shine on us your healing light and cheer.

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night and peaceful shadows o’er the tomb

O come thou Key of David, come, and open wide our heavenly home;

Make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel

O come, O come, O Adonai in thy glorious majesty

Be patient, kind, receive the love enthroned in majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel

 

 

Contrary to popular belief, prophets were not fortune tellers or soothsayers.  They did not see into the future or predict what was going to happen.  The sum total of their strange skill set was in FORTH telling rather than foretelling.

As such, prophets were a versatile lot who served up words of rebuke, social, religious and political analyses as well as hope, encouragement and care.  The common denominator of their message was a blue print to help us find our way home. By home, I don’t mean that place where they have to take us in, but rather that place where we have always belonged.

As a prophet, John collides with what we have done to Christmas.  He doesn’t fit in with shepherds and starry skies and wise men.  While the angels are singing in their gentle soprano voices; “glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,” John is interrupting with his own song, sung loudly and off key; “you brood of vipers.” Then he quotes Isaiah, “In the wilderness prepare….”

The wilderness Isaiah refers to is not a physical place you can point to on a map. It is a state of being, a kind of spiritual lostness. It is an inner desolation where nothing is clear. It is where chaos and confusion and temptation are in charge.  Perhaps you know that inner address. It seems to me we all take up spiritual residence there from time to time.

There are countless roads that take us there.  Jobs evaporate, families disappoint, illness robs, death comes out of turn, war erupts, addiction consumes, choices are hard, consequences are unforgiving and the world teeters on the brink of disaster.

Every day we are reminded that life isn’t fair and, despite all our best efforts, we are not the captains of our own fate.   Every day we catch a glimpse of the fragile human experience that binds us together and wonder what’s coming next. Perhaps more at this time of the year than any other, we see the parts of life that didn’t happen the way we thought they would.

Wilderness is a familiar place.  It is around us and within us.  And John says “prepare a place.”  In that wilderness, prepare a place.

Even though John sounds a bit like a travel agent for guilt trips, he stands in the tradition of the great prophets, calling to people in the places of their deepest sadness, pain and confusion.

The primary incentive is not guilt. It is love.  The prophets’ greatest motivation was that people would know in their bones, not just in their heads, the deep love and great passionate desire for God.

Moreover, they knew that only God’s life-giving love could transform the inner wilderness of emptiness and ache. They knew that the only way through the desolation of the present moment was to return to the embrace of the God who never lets us go and never lets us off.

It’s not just about us and what’s broken in our lives, but also what’s broken in the world.  It’s all of a piece in God’s world.

It’s an invitation to repentance, which simply means to “get a new heart.” It is not a function of beating one’s breast and saying penance. Repentance is that gracious, life giving opportunity that allows us to pitch the “figure out your own life instruction book” and take up a more comprehensive guide. This guide is authored by the One who desires nothing less than to love us, heal us, hold us and send us on our way to invite others.

It’s not the Hallmark card theme song of Christmas, but it is the biblical one.

The images of shepherds and bright stars piercing the night sky will fade. John’s invitation to radically realign the assumptions of life has staying power. It is far more likely to bring lasting hope to our lives and to our world than all of our mad dashes to wrap packages and buy fruitcakes.

 

 

 

 

Patience, People

(Click on above link to listen)

Patience, people, till the Lord is come.

            See the farmer await the yield of the soil.

            He watches it in winter and in spring rain.

Patience, people, till the Lord is come.

You have seen the purpose of the Lord.

            You know of his compassion and His mercy.

Patience, people, till the Lord is come.

             Steady your hearts, for the Lord is close at hand.

            And do not grumble, one against the other.

Patience, people, till the Lord is come.

This daily calendar can be used individually or as a family. It is designed to help reflect on the bounty in our lives through specific, simple daily actions that have a nominal price tag. Use a container and label it “Abundance” and leave it in a prominent place in your home. At the end of the Holiday Season, donate the money to your favorite charity.

December 1        Give $1.00 for each person for whom you buy a Christmas gift.

December 2        Cut three coupons from your grocery circular and donate the items you buy to your local food pantry.

December 3        Give $.10 for each writing instrument in your home

December 4        Give $.10 for each light bulb in your home.

December 5        Give $.25 for each pair of shoes, boots, flip flops, etc.

December 6        Give $.01 for each book you own.

December 7        Give $1.00 for every set of dishes you own.

December 8        Give $.10 for every CD/DVD you own, including downloaded files

December 9        Give $.05 for every chair you own.

December 10      Give $.25 for every kitchen appliance you own, including portable ones.

December 11      Give $.25 for each piece of fresh fruit you ate today.

December 12      Give $.25 for each fresh vegetable you ate today.

December 13      Give $1.00 for every computer, phone and electronic device in your home.

December 14      Give $.10 for every coffee/tea mug in your home.

December 15      Give $1.00 for every television in your home.

December 16      Give $2.00 for every piece of property you own.

December 17      Give $2.00 if you own a boat or recreational vehicle.

December 19      Give $.05 for each condiment/sauce/pickle jar in your refrigerator.

December 20      Give $.25 for each lawn/garden machine you own.

December 21      Give $.25 for each portable electric tool you own.

December 22      Give $25 for each source of protein in your kitchen (eggs, meat, canned beans, etc.)

December 23      Give $.50 for each pet your own

December 24      Give $1.00 for every vehicle you own

December 25      Give thanks for the abundance in your life while remembering those who have nothing. Count the money as a family and decide which charity will receive it.

 

Happy Holidays

Every day for the month of November I will post something for which I am grateful. I invite you to join me in this exercise privately or by leaving a comment to share with others. Please share this blog with others and invite them to share this month long practice.

When we live from a place of gratitude within, our energy and being shift, neurobiologists believe it actually rewires the brain.  Gratitude regulates the sympathetic nervous system, where our anxiety response is activated. By living from a place of gratitude we strengthen the mind/body connection and it causes a physiological response. Gratitude can help relieve stress and pain, improve health over time and lighten depression.

In short, practicing gratitude can make us kinder more peaceful people.

Today I am grateful for you, dear readers. I appreciate your support, comments and faithfulness.

What are you grateful for today?

This blog is a safe space. The intent is to civilly engage social and political issues in a theological context. It is predicated on the inherent dignity and worth of all humanity and creation. Disrespectful, hateful and judgmental comments will be removed. Off topic comments, photographs and links to other sites may be removed at the discretion of the moderator.

Traditionally Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas. Untraditionally, it is a daily spiritual practice that can help us stay grounded in the midst of what can otherwise be the busiest time of the year.

The four Sundays of Advent represent hope, peace, love and joy, which are central themes of the Judeo Christian tradition. Whether you go to church or not, Advent can be a time of rich reflection. The peace and promise of the season is to be found in that place where we embody the promises of hope, faith, joy and peace.

To encourage your reflection, I will post something each day, a reflection, music file, quote or book.

It is my hope that these small offerings will bring opportunity for a quiet moment and some reflection on the promises of the season.