Re-member
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Revelation 1:7-8
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Dear Friends,
Advent looks like waiting for something amazing and historical to arrive. Right now there’s quite a lot of historical waiting taking place. Yesterday was a historic day when red-haired and nimble Margaret Keenan became the world’s first woman to receive the COVID-19 vaccine—a day we’ve waited nine months for. Historic, amazing, notable indeed.
We are living in a weary world desperate for a bit of rejoicing. Mental health has eroded, physical bodies have depleted, spiritual lives have dried up, emotions run willy-nilly, to and fro. Suicides have increased. Mandatory reporting has decreased. Children are neglected and hopeless. The temporary feels permanent because it’s hard to see beyond what’s happening in this current moment. And it feels impossible to detect another perspective.
The Biblical book of Revelation obscenely invites the reader to notice another perspective. To keep watch towards the clouds and know the Almighty Power of the Lord God—who is, and was, and is to come—will arrive. The Advent of something amazing and historical. As a Christian person, I have faith there will be a future arrival making all things right (shalom).
However, an arrival did happen 2000 years ago! If I keep looking towards the sky, waiting for a different arrival, dreaming of the sweet by and by, I will likely miss the arrival that's already taken place. A different perspective and way of being was shown through Jesus Christ and the life he lived while on earth. Friends, he lived through temporary traumas, hardship, difficulties, and afflictions and he walked alongside others in their pain. Every broken moment would pull him apart a bit, disrupting his serotonin levels, depleting and tiring his strength, draining his empathy. And when he felt sapped and expended, Jesus didn’t power nap his way through. He didn’t drink a green smoothy and up his probiotics. He temporarily stepped away from it all to gain new perspective to the chaos and overwhelming needs around him and within him.
When Jesus felt pulled apart, he retreated to recenter and re-member—to holistically come back together again. He stepped away to pray. The Alpha and Omega, the Powerful Almighty didn’t shrug off his humanity or feel embarrassed by his needs. He stepped away to gather all his human parts back together again by devoting himself to the spirituality of life. Because all our parts are spiritual parts and are held together by the grace of God.
This is why you feel fully *you* when you’re walking on a trail or along the beach and with a deep breath and full lungs you look up to the clouds. In that moment, an Advent takes place because God is near. And even in the midst of all the hard parts of life and a global pandemic, you’ve re-membered.
Christ has come and Christ will come again.
With (love),
Bethany