THEY ARE US - Advent 2

The stories proclaimed within the Advent liturgies of the Christian tradition recount situations when humanity is most lost in its own greed, tribalism and violence and the victims are those most outside, vulnerable, and powerless  These stories include a remarkable cast of very human characters who played pivotal roles in God’s extraordinary interventions into human history.
 
They are us.  The sacred texts hold a mirror up to the hearer not only urging us summon the courage the be faithful servants, but also challenging us to recognize the villain within ourselves.  These stories call us not only to be watchful and alert, but also to be proactive in the divine plan.

What sort of person ought you to be,
conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames
and the elements melted by fire.
But according to God’s promise we await a new heaven and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you await these things,
be eager to be found without spot or blemish before God, at peace.
 
The 2nd Letter of Peter

You Brood of Vipers
V. Patrick Ellis
found objects/2017
 
The work is an assemblage of found and recycled objects. The style, aesthetic, and form are patterned on the narrative totem pole traditions found in primal religious cultures around the world.  In this type of spiritual storytelling, the shape is simplified to only the elements critical to the narrative … in this case camel hair clothing to signify outsider-ness, eyes to see injustice, a mouth to speak truth, and an axe to carry out God’s work within creation.

A person of faith does not merely believe a certain dogma but has a transformed vision of the world around them.  This is a vision that sees the world not as it is but with the potential to be as God created it to be.  But too often that faith-filled vision gets compromised by privilege, economics, power, or politics and the only way to be reawakened or refocused is by the words and actions of the religious zealot with a fanatical and uncompromising pursuit of the truth. 

John the Baptist was one such voice crying out in the wilderness.  John’s words are not just angry rhetoric … he is ready to carry-out the great pruning.  The world has gone so terribly wrong that only a direct intervention from God can save humanity.  John announces a world on the threshold of transformation, and he rants on those who have lost that transformed vision of a true believer. 

“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.  Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
 
John preached a fiery message of repentance with intense urgency because he recognized that while the Kingdom of Heaven had come near, there was another, more sinister, and destructive vision, that stood in its way.  The time of reckoning had come because the love and justice of heaven had rained down.  Through his public baptisms John was mobilizing an army of righteous believers reawakened to that original vision.  The kingdom was among them with a vision clear and without compromise.  The healing of the nations had begun.

Spiritual traditions throughout time have addressed humankind's relationship with money and possessions.  Greed and attachments are impediments to right relationships with others and with God.  However, the drive to consume more than we need and to want more than we have is integral to the human condition.  With a contemporary prophetic warning, Tracy Chapman's Mountains O' Things gives a first person view of this struggle.

What does repentance look like?  Padraig O Tuama, in his poem Twisted, offers that it requires us to "twist our spines to the truth and see behind us."  And in doing so, we take in the consequences of our actions on ours and others lives. Watch O Tuama read his poem below.

I will hear what God proclaims.
Kindness and truth shall meet.
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice look down from heaven.
 
Unnamed Lyricist of the 85th Psalm

Wait, Repent, Renounce, Twist, Hear.  How will you respond?

Suggestions for further exploration:

• Read and meditate on the lectionary texts for this week.
• Listen to Krista Tippett's interview with Bryan Stevenson.  Stevenson's work explores mercy and redemption in American culture.
• Spend some time with Sister Joan Chittister's book, The Time is Now:  A Call to Uncommon Courage, in which she offers a series of brief reflections about the characteristics of prophets and urges readers to abandon complacency and work for justice and peace.
  
• Experience the physical sensations of twisting.  Try a basic seated twist or practice a more advanced reclined yin twist posture.
  
• Learn more about Padraig O Tuama and about the work of the Corrymeela Community to bring peace and reconciliation in Ireland.