advent = waiting

This has been such a wonderfully busy month! As part of a neighborhood Advent celebration, several of the people in my neighborhood took turns writing a meditation for each day in Advent and sharing it through email. I volunteered for Tuesday, the 24th day in Advent, and I must admit the act of reading various translations and reflecting on the verses was very meaningful and touched me in a way I could not have expected. I wanted to share the meditation with you, as well. Although Christmas day has past, I hope it speaks to you, still.

Zephaniah 3:14-20

A Song of Joy
14Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;
shout, O Israel!
15Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
16On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands grow weak.
17The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you* in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
18 as on a day of festival.
*I will remove disaster from you,*
so that you will not bear reproach for it.
19I will deal with all your oppressors
at that time.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
20At that time I will bring you home,
at the time when I gather you;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes, says the Lord.

And from Eugene Peterson’s The Message:

So sing, Daughter Zion!
raise the rafters, Israel!
Daughter Jerusalem,
be happy! Celebrate!
GOD has reversed his judgments against you
and sent your enemies off chasing their tails.
From now on, GOD is Israel’s king,
in charge at the center.
There’s nothing to fear from evil
ever again!
Jerusalem will be told
“Don’t be afraid
Dear Zion,
don’t despair."
Your GOD is present among you,
a strong Warrior there to save you.
Happy to have you back, he’ll calm you with his love
and delight you with his songs.
“The accumulated sorrows of your exile
will dissipate.
I, your GOD, will get rid of them for you.
You’ve carried those burdens long enough.
At the same time, I’ll get rid of all those
who’ve made your life miserable.
I’ll heal the maimed;
I’ll bring home the homeless.
In the very countries where they were hated
they will be venerated.
On Judgment Day
I’ll bring you back home— a great family gathering!
You’ll be famous and honored
all over the world.
You’ll see it with your own eyes—
all those painful partings turned into reunions!”
GOD’s Promise.

Discussion:
Back-tracking a bit in chapter 3, it is clear that God isn’t pleased with the people and wants them to repent— to turn around completely and change the way they are living. God threatens to destroy God’s own people, in no uncertain terms.And then, almost as if part of the story was left out or lost in translation, the passage for today elaborates on how God will save the people and protect them from all enemies.An earlier verse reads, “In the end I will turn things around for the people.” So, it seems that perhaps God was truly angry and frustrated with the people, pleading for them to turn around on their own. But God ends up doing the turning— God reverses judgment and goes in quite the opposite direction, reclaiming the people as God’s people and reassuring them of God’s presence among them.Could this be the cycle that God goes through with us every year, wanting us to repent and live peacefully, getting so fed up that God wishes to simply purge the population, yet continually releasing us from our deserved punishment and taking ownership once more?Advent is about preparing ourselves, about waiting to receive an unimaginable gift. The gift of Jesus our savior. And maybe for God, Advent is also a time of waiting anxiously, to withhold wrath and embrace us in grace and mercy once more.

Exercise/Motion:
Stand up a few feet away from a wall. If you close you eyes and walk forward, you will eventually run into the wall, right? But if you keep your eyes open, you will see the wall ahead of you and go a different direction. Imagine that the space in front of you is the path down which your life is headed. So, it is with our life. If we live with our eyes closed to God, we will hit a wall, past which we cannot go on our own. But, if we live with our eyes open to God, we will be able to see when we need to turn around. I encourage you to actually stand up and try walking toward the wall with your eyes closed. Can you tell that you are getting closer to the wall? What is your initial reaction? Was it to turn and keep your eyes closed or to open them and look around you?

Prayer:
God of Advent, we confess that we often close our eyes to you and your people. We want to experience Advent in a whole new way this year, and we are trying to open ourselves to the coming of Jesus, again. Please forgive us, as you did long ago and as you have continued to do throughout time, and embrace us as yours. Although we may have anxious hearts and minds, you are the God of peace and hope. Peace that will help calm our anxiety and hope that we will keep our eyes open so that we can know and share your grace and mercy this Advent. Amen.