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Into the great
wide open
“Into the great wide open
Under them skies of blue
Out in the great wide open
A rebel without a clue”
This is one of those choruses you can play over and over
in your mind as you wander. When I first heard that song 20 something years
ago, I was driving back and forth to Chicago from DeKalb finishing my first
graduate school degree in the fine arts.
It is one of those all American Tom Petty songs that beckons you to
drift into it, almost like sleep!
Contrary to what the song stirs you to hear however… Here is this vast new plain, or horizon ahead
and the blue skies calm the soul and heighten your desire to grab hold of that
light in the center of the horizon! The
moment you realize where you are and where you need to be—you are out, awake
and seeking… Maybe it is being
rebellious—seeking to touch the face of God with that faith deep in your heart
open—wide open?
Advent is that wonderful time of year we experience
waiting to celebrate God’s entry into our world, our sense of time as Jesus the
Christ—messiah and savior beyond comprehension! The reality of God with us as
well as the reality of God saved, and saving us… Is something that we need to be stirred
inwardly with… This would be reflecting, confessing, repenting and finally
renewing ourselves to stand at attention.
Martin Luther said in reference to “spiritual sleep:” “In the Song of Solomon (5:2), the bride says—“I
slept, but my heart was awake.”
Accordingly, “to sleep” is not to be turned aside to temporal advantages
but to regard them as imaginary things and shadows rather than real things,
because of one’s concern for eternal matters, which people see through the
illumination of faith by means of a watchful heart. Therefore the works of
darkness are the works of those who are asleep in the spirit, in the bad sense,
that is, those who are snoring away in the desires of the world—not only those
works which are popularly thought to be evil but also those which are
considered good, and yet are evil because of the inner evil, for men do them
without the watchfulness of faith.”
We need the armor of light St. Paul speaks of today in
his snippet to the Romans. This armor of
light is the Gospel itself. It is the
Good News, we don’t allow ourselves to hear enough deep down into those spaces
between our understanding of time and that of God’s. I’m sure many right here and now, would more
than welcome Jesus return to our “time and space,” to fulfill our expectations… But as Jesus said in today’s Gospel: “42Keep awake therefore, for
you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43But understand this: if
the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was
coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken
into. 44Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming
at an unexpected hour.”
Living into the lifestyle
of GRACE is a pilgrimage as well “into the great wide open” landscape of
Hope. If our faith were like a rocket,
hope is the spark to the fuse of growing into a transforming, building faith—a manifestation
of GRACE—inwardly or as Luther said—spiritually. We feed this Hope in gracious obedience to
loving God and neighbor—the greatest commandment and pillar to our New-natured
selves… Would we be throwing palm
branches however at his feet once more?
Would Hosanna pass our lips? It
seems surreal… BUT it gives us life!
One of my favorite Jesus
films or “artistic” Jesus films/ musicals is the movie—‘Godspell.’ John the Baptist heralds Jesus on scene
donned like a recruiter from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band pushing a
small little cart down the desolate streets of New York City. A metropolis of many people seeking, building
upon their Hopes—waiting in expectation!
They are slowly awakened not purely by their Baptism received from John
but they become individually renewed. In
the film, their clothes change, become multi-colored and their faces become
painted with the story of their awakening to faith.
Jesus himself appears
with a heart painted upon his brow and wrapped in rainbow suspenders and multi-colored
clothes. His over-sized shoes make a
statement in themselves—walking in the ways of the Lord are mighty shoes to
fill indeed! The Prophet Isaiah paints a
picture much like this a couple of thousand years earlier: “2In days to come the
mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3Many peoples shall come
and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” 4He shall judge between
the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
I think all of us today,
in the world where it is now would love to be a part of this chorus in saying: “ 5O house of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord!” Why can’t we walk in peace? Or love God and neighbor fully as
ourselves? Perhaps we can’t awaken. Perhaps the lights have been dimmed for too
long in our hearts swaying to the ways of the world…
One of the more profound
scenes in the Godspell movie is near to the end where the entire cast sings and
dances to “It’s all for the best…” on top of the former World Trade
Towers! Yikes~ innocence and irony meet
only 28 years earlier! The point to
chisel home deeply into the walls of your heart is that the time of Advent is
much more than celebrating in anticipation “Jesus’ Birthday” party. It is a time of spiritual house cleaning—spiritual
“smelling salts” to the reality of the Kingdom of God coming. It is a time of preparation—beginning within
us and through us as children of GRACE!
GRACE is the future at
hand—it was given, planted and like the fig tree in the passage right before
today’s Gospel needs to come to bear:
(Jesus says to his disciples) “32“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as
its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is
near. 33So
also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very
gates. 34Truly
I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have
taken place. 35Heaven
and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 36“But about that day
and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the
Father.37For as the days of Noah were, so will be the
coming of the Son of Man.”
The
lifestyle of GRACE lived with spiritually attuned eyes wide open reveals Christ
Jesus true victory. Defeating sin, death
and the devil through the cross unleashed the Truth of New Life. Like the New born child coming into the world—we
need to allow ourselves to tap into—release, unleash that New Creation—New Life
given! We must die to the old and rise
as children of GRACE. Basically, WE need
to run right into that great wide open and embrace the coming of our King.
AMEN
Sunday December 1st;
Year A; 1st Sunday in Advent; SOLA Lectionary Nicole Collins
Psalm 122; Isaiah
2:1-5; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 21:1-11 (SOLA Alt) OR Matthew 24:36-44 (SOLA
& RCL)
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