Advent announces that mystery is afoot. Not just any kind of mystery, but real mystery. Holy Mystery is out there somewhere in a darkness that is only waiting for a moment when the Light will come to break it into a thousand unrecognizable pieces. This Mystery first penetrated the earth in a place filled with the smell of hay and animal manure, a normal place transformed by painful agony and then unexplicable joy, and a place where the mundane and holy became as one. It was a much anticipated moment for the two who carried the longed for and invisible one with them.
Mystery is still afoot. So often we live with blinders to what is unfolding around us. We seem only able to see what speaks of enabling us to make it to the next day, the next year, the next season of our life. Still Mystery is pressed in around us and within us. What we long for cannot be seen, but once it is seen, we know the reality of who we are and Who is it that has come and is still to come.
It is Advent, is it not? Sing the words loudly, "Come, Thou long expected Jesus." Hear the Word calling us to watch and wait. And as we dare to worship on a day so filled with what cannot be understood, we find ourselves standing on the threshold where glimpses of the Coming One Who has come to live with us, to save us, and to take us home are seen dimly and then clearly. Ah, it is indeed a moment when holy Mystery is afoot all around us.
Every evening there is a sunset. Sometimes it is not visible, but there is still a moment when the sun sets on the western horizon around these parts. But, it is never the same sunset. I have been here now a little over ten years and while I have not noticed and seen every single sunset, I have been attentive enough in that moment of the day to know that each is unique, never before been seen, and never to be seen again.
And what I know, too, is that this is true for all the sunsets which have graced this land that others walked before it came my turn. It may seem that we walk alone through our days in the places that have grown familiar to us, but as our eyes are opened to invisible possibilities and unseen realities, we come to know that we are here as short timers. The towering trees with a "thousand" years of growth rings, the rich life giving dirt underneath our feet, and the stories of those who have lived before us speak to us of our place in this ever changing world. Even though some may live to be a hundred years old, even their life is like a fleeting moment in the span of time.
And, yet, like the sunsets, each one of us is unique, has never before been seen, and once we are only memory, will never be seen again. God has made us in a such a way. We bear His imprint from the moment of our conception. Let no one think that life is about coincidence. Regardless of the matter in which our life began, the Father God was present to mark us as one of His treasured children. The God of sunsets is the same God who created each one of us which surely makes us someone glorious to behold.
Some books are read and join others on the shelf that are destined for the throw away pile, but there are always a few that turn out to be keepers. Keepers are books that are not only kept, but also read, not once, but several times. "The Book of Creation" by J. Philip Newell has been one of those books to which I have gone now several times. It is a keeper. Each time I find myself reading at a slower pace than the previous read as I seek to digest more completely what is on the page. The book is basically a series of meditations on the seven days of creation recorded in the first chapter of Genesis.
While it might seem to some that the seven days of creation is a narrative of completion, Newell invites us to understand that creation is not a done deal. It is something which is always happening. In a reference to a ninth century theologian named Eriugena, he writes that all things do not become visible at once. This is another way of saying that on the seventh day, creation was not a done deal, but something which would continue to unfold throughout time.
It is an easy enough thing to claim the idea that creation has within what has not yet become visible. Medical treatments that are developing in our day have always been inherently a part of the created order, but not always visible. As something new is announced, what has been invisible has suddenly become visible. Such is the nature of Creation. It is never a done deal. It is always unfolding out of the invisible and into the realm of the visible.
Sometimes life throws curve balls. Surely the disciples traveling with Jesus on that day He met the ten lepers experienced life in such a way. Out there in the countryside between Samaria and Galilee ten lepers encountered Jesus at an appropriate social distance and cried out for mercy. Jesus sent them on their way to the priest and as they went they saw in another a healing happening. One of the healed ones left his companions and sought out Jesus to thank Him even though the other nine went hurrying on their way. The one who returned was a Samaritan which was surely unexpected by the disciples. (Luke 17:11-19)
There are times when expressing gratitude requires some effort, being inconvenienced, and going an extra mile. It is not always an easy thing to do. In the case of the nine it is doubtful they made it to the priest although they needed a kind of certification of cleanness to re-enter normal living. They may have ended up going home to their families, or throwing a party somewhere at a tavern to celebrate. One thing is certain. They had no intent of being inconvenienced in order to speak a word of thanks.
The one who sought Jesus had a sense of determination. He recognized that he had been gifted with a blessing not earned. His trip to find Jesus was surely not a casual journey, but one filled with a double measure of urgency. There are people around us who have gifted us with blessings we did not expect to receive, but which have changed our life. It may require some effort to express an overdue gratitude, but surely this Thanksgiving Day is a good day to make the effort required to say thank you.
The preacher who preaches as one who buys into the reality of "Thus says the Lord" is one who does not just dabble in the Word from time to time, but one who lives immersed in the Word. After years and years of preaching it becomes an easy thing for the preacher to begin to see the Word as a sermon starter rather than the definition given in Hebrews 4:12: "...the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword..." One of the real temptations for any preacher is the one which enables the preacher to live comfortably in a world empty of a ongoing personal encounter with the Scripture.
If any preacher intends to preach the Word of God for the people of God, living immersed in the Scripture a required spiritual discipline. While any preacher can pick a text and manufacture a sermon, the preaching is never the same as the preaching which comes as a part of the overflow of a heart constantly being filled with the Word of God as well as the divine helping which comes from the Holy Spirit.
Preaching is hard work. It is disciplined work. In some preaching circles there is talk of Saturday Night Specials, or last minute sermons. And while I have preached too many of those, they often were more about desperation than allowing the Word God had given to grow in my heart until it was ready to be poured out in the study and pulpit. It is that constant life in the Word which give the preacher's sermon power and which also enables the preacher to stand and speak in behalf of God.
The preacher who preaches the Word of God for the people of God convinced that preaching should model the prophetic "Thus says the Lord" is one who has learned in the times of stillness to hear the Word of the Lord as it is spoken in those moments. For some all of this is too big a stretch. First, some find it unrealistic to think that today's preacher should presume to speak for the Lord, and secondly, the idea that God actually speaks His Words into the heart and mind of the preacher is nothing but preposterous. Dismissing this divine interaction does not change the reality that it happens.
It could be said that there is no real preaching without it. It is not enough just to have a text from the Word. A text can always be manipulated to say what the preacher might want it to say. And, of course, there is the possibility that the sermon begins not with a text, but with something the preacher wants to say and in those cases the text is more like an afterthought or window dressing.
If the preacher is to have something to say that comes from God, it is because the text has been taken into the silent place for pondering the question, "Lord, what is Your Word in this Word that is before me?" In order to preach, "Thus says the Lord, " there must be some moment for asking and listening; otherwise, the preacher runs the risk of preaching something other than the Word of God for the people of God.
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