Advent 1

Some days what you see going on around you makes a person wonder. It has been an interesting couple of days. Again the stories of the people of God being attacked by the people we have entrusted to lead and care for them have come filtering down to me. The image which best describes it is of sharks, who smell the blood of the injured moving in for the kill.

I hear stories of leaders, dramatically shedding tears, over situations they have caused situations in which they had an opportunity to act with compassion but refused.

And again I hears stories, of church built will millions of dollars, who then make sure that the homeless and the poor are kept away and definitely not sleeping under their tree (which would have been a good story if they had invited them in to sleep inside instead).

And the Gospel this Sunday. It is of the end of time. I must admit I understand the yearning it expresses. Lets face it life is pretty good, and far from what the Gospel of Mark describes. We have it easy compared with so many others who truly suffer and are persecuted. Yet, I can’t help but identify with the yearning. Things just seem so broken. It even seems like the desolating sacrilege has been set up where it ought not to me, namely amongst God’s people. Having some revolutionary God showing up and setting things right sounds pretty good right now.

That’s when I trip over the gospel. “For the Kingdom of God is amongst you and within you.” Christ is already here. The revolution has already begun. Can’t we see it?

The Gospel lesson speaks of awakeness and awareness. Perhaps that is our current call. I know that God is here, and that God is moving. Perhaps, what we are now called to is a new awareness, and new wakefulness, so that we can see God moving and move with God.

I went to a lecture the other night. Tony Compelo, preaching about how God is a God of the poor, who calls us to serve the poor. I talked today with a pastor who brings people to Mexico, not to build a house and relieve some guilt, but rather to listen, and be transformed, and to come home and transform their community. A parishner came up to me this morning and encouraged me to have the congregation focus on trying Lectio Divina or the Jesus prayer for lent – so that we might experience God’s transformation.

I think I see glimpses of God, coming in glory these days.