Qavah

Shekinah Christmas 2, 2008

Shekinah Christmas 3, 2008

I preached an advent sermon this past Sunday and chose for the text, Psalm 37:1-9. I've paraphrased (very liberally) that psalm with a few comments. I chose it because it seemed to me to contain the essence of living the advent: the patient, hopeful, expectant waiting for joy, peace and justice to become our everyday.

"Don't fret because of those who do evil, and don't be envious of people who do wrong because like the rest of us, they'll wither away. And while you're waiting for and expecting a better world, here are some pointers to brighten the days you've been given.

1. Keep trusting in God and keep doing what you've learned to be best; loving God and your neighbour to the length and breadth of your ability,
2. Make the best home you can in the place you find yourself, and when there's peace, take the opportunity to build an amazing life for your family, your neighbours and your nation,
3. Seize as much delight in the LORD as you can, while you can. Sing, dance, play, revel in the beauty of the woods, the streams, the mountains and valleys the LORD has provided for your sustenance and enjoyment, because it's in your delight, your joy that a life well-lived takes its shape,
4. Stay committed to the path to which your faith has bound you and the rewards will become evident in time, your steadfastness and generosity of spirit will illuminate your surroundings like the sun illuminates the earth,
5. Seriously cultivate stillness and patience, live contemplatively so that you are always in the stance of a listener/learner, open to insights, epiphanies . . . and are blessed by restful nights,
6. Try not to let the apparent triumph of humanity's dark side get you down or you may sink into the abyss of anger and bitterness (or unkind posts on Facebook); that won't achieve anything, nor contribute anything to family life and health, community peacefulness or prospects for a rewarding future. Psalm 37:1-9 (SMV - Serendipitous Musings Version)"

Observation One: I often wonder how such passages will read when, say, I'm dying of cancer, or am bankrupted by my own choices, or have just lost a child to accident and I'm mostly preoccupied with “Why, Lord, why?” It reminds me that no matter how often we rote-read the Bible, we keep getting it wrong. It is—in the end—not even a guidebook as we understand the plethora of self-help books and videos, manuals of instruction, and definitely not a law book. It is a collection of wonderful literature carefully written, carefully chosen, to enhance humanity's chances of surviving gracefully and in unity; it's broad message seems to me to be that unless we embrace and practice the principles of love, justice and mercy, we are doomed—not so much “to hell” as to our own destruction. (The self-destroyed future is likely what's being referred to by references to hell, to the lake of fire, to Gehenna.)

Observation Two: When we interpret advent as waiting we may be reinforcing a misconception of what the literature actually says. The word advent does not mean waiting, its root is more like coming. The Hebrew word translated as waiting is qavah, which could as easily be translated as hoping, expecting or something between. Without qavah, striving makes no sense. It's to this truth that the psalmist addresses 37:1-9.

But the psalmist knew no Christ, no Christmas as we experience it; it is the exact same hope, the same qavah that he addresses and that we see fulfilled (potentially, not perfectly, not yet completely) in the incarnation and teaching of Christ. Our fatal flaw in Christmas may be that we too-much-spiritualize the regenerating action of the Christ, forgetting that reality dictates that the Good News is carried now in human hands, hands of believers in the embrace of Qavah. The psalmist in 37, of course, recognizes the truth of this better than does the creche—at least the creche as seen through our “religious eyes.”

I wish you all Qavah this pre-celebration season.

Shekinah Christmas 1, 2008