Reflections on The Season of ADVENT
Advent Blessings, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
The readings for the second Sunday of Advent have me reflecting on the passage of time.
When I was 10 years old, I calculated how many years away the age 60 was. I thought I would be so old, I could hardly imagine it. I thought the world would be completely different by then, and even people would look different. When you’re 10, 50 years in the future seems as far away as 5000 years in the past. I thought it would take for*EVER* to get there, but the time virtually flew by. In that time, my clothes have worn out and been replaced. I have had 4 careers and 9 or 10 cars. I have gotten new glasses about 25 times. I lose and re-grow 30-40,000 skin cells a day. How many is that a year—about 14 ½ million? But I’m still here in some kind of recognizable form. And I still speak English—more or less. But it’s not the same English that people spoke when I was a child.
With the world we experience changing, and disappearing, it makes me wonder: What is worth spending time on? What is worth investing effort in? Especially if human creations—and the human body itself—eventually fade like the grass of the field. As an academic, I absolutely believe that education is worthwhile. And I *certainly* believe that studying Holy Scripture and learning about our faith is worthwhile. But is that enough? Apparently, St. Peter was thinking along the same lines.
In the Epistle, he muses on the fact that God experiences time differently than we do: a thousand years is like a day and a day is like a thousand years. And since the God’s-eye view of time is so different, God is not slow to fulfill the promises—that’s a human perception. No, God is patient. Big difference there. If God is slow, God is simply not getting around to things. *I’m* slow. But if God is patient, that implies that God is waiting FOR something. Actually, it’s US that God is waiting for. God is perfectly comfortable waiting millennia for us to repent. God seems not to care how long it will take. God lives in Eternity.
BUT, make no mistake. There will be endings. Even as we experience the small endings of civilizations, of people, of styles and fads, God promises that heaven and earth will eventually end. Sooner or later. But how do you define “soon” for a God who doesn’t notice the difference between 1,000 years and a day?
St. Peter zips directly to the heart of the question. Given that sooner or later, everything WILL end, what sorts of people should we be? What kinds of lives should we be leading? What is it that will actually be carried through into the new heaven and the new earth?
God has slow answers to these quick questions: lead lives of holiness and godliness. Wait for the coming of the day of God. Better yet, do everything you can to hasten the coming of the day of God. But while you are waiting, be at peace. God does not want you to get all worried and nervous about the end times—even if today we can find lots of things to be anxious about. Instead, recognize that because God is willing to be patient with us, we can work on what is permanent, eternal. No need to despair over the things that fade away. Because we have the promises of God that there is a place for us where righteousness is at home. Eternally.
Joy to you all as we wait together!
Mo. Laura+
View our Virtual Service on YouTube
(Available 9:00 AM the Day Of Service and Thereafter)
