Advent thoughts – Tuesday of Advent 3

Sorry we’re running late today. Holiday dinner with family last night.

‘I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. (Apocalypse 3:15-18)

When I took a course on the Apocalypse in seminary we joked, at this point, about churches that make God want to puke. ["I will spew thee out" seems stronger than just spit.] We had just emerged from the 1960s. My adolescence was shaped by the words of Dr. King. And then we lost him. I cried every time I heard the song “Abraham, Martin, and John.” We were flower children (even Baptists) protesting the war in Vietnam. The stability our parents had so yearned for after the turmoil of WWII seemed bland, conformist, feckless, and sterile to us. So we mocked the lukewarm. We wanted passion.

Now, thirty-five years after my graduation from seminary, we seem to have some passion and I find myself sometimes wishing we could all take a chill pill. (Stop laughing. Just because I carry on and rant or wax effusive doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a cup of chamomile tea.)

Then I think of Congress and all the “centrists” who just want to keep their corporate donations flowing so they can afford to stay in office and I’m back up on my soap box. “I wish that you were either cold or hot.”

Lion of Judah by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM

On a more serious note, how often do we deem ourselves rich, blessed, A-OK, only to have God intrude into our bubble of self-congratulation? “You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Ouch.

In what categories did I consider myself so rich? Are they categories that God values? I have a home and clothing and food. Central hearing and air conditioning. A car that runs. Reasonable health. All in all, an incredible mountain of creature comforts. Things. Lots of things. But God reminds me I am wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

Where is the true wealth? Do I abound in faith, hope, love, the sundry fruits of the Spirit, various virtues, compassion, generosity, truth, wisdom, and humility? Am I not pitiably in need of the true riches, healing, and clothing that God offers rather than the illusions in which I wrap myself?

With God it is not about the trappings.

Your throne, O God, endures for ever and ever, a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom; you love righteousness and hate iniquity. (Psalm 45:7)

Note that the scepter is not a mere trapping of power or object of artistic craft and beauty. It is a scepter of equity (מישר, evenness, uprightness; from the root ישר, straight, right, pleasing to God, straightforward, just, upright). God rules not from abstracted might but from a position of justice. I rather enjoyed encountering “evenness” and “uprightness” juxtaposed in my Hebrew dictionary. This puts me in mind of several things. First there is something like “an even playing field,” one standard and equal opportunity for all. That, in itself, is a powerful vision we still need to work toward, no matter how much progress has already been made. Uprightness leads me to visualize a plumb line (what a simple, elegant, and useful device from ancient times). Leaning structures just don’t inspire confidence.

When one combines this horizontal evenness and vertical uprightness one gets the figure of a cross.

And I don’t need to elaborate further.

Returning to a theme from earlier when I spoke of Christ both surrounding and among the churches, here is another instance echoing “that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.”

‘For I will be a wall of fire all round [Jerusalem], says the Lord, and I will be the glory within it.’ (Zechariah 2:5)

What great imagery!


One last comment regarding those who obsess over the Second Coming.

‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.’ (Matthew 24:36)

To me this implies that the timing is none of our business. As we are repeatedly admonished, out task is to be about the work God has given to us to do and stay awake.

Lord, give us grace to awake us,
to see the branch that begins to bloom;
in great humility is hid
all heaven in a little room.

--Carol Christopher Drake (verse 3 of Hymn # 69, The Hymnal 1982)

--the BB