Advent and the New Day

I was writing my newsletter article for November and found myself out on the proverbial tangential limb. Here is the result. See how it begins like a newsletter and veers into the esoteric. I offer it up to you. David

As we move into November the trees change color and remind me that winter is coming. I become aware of the darkening world, the long nights and short days. November and December remind me of things ending, the end of another cycling of days which we call a year. Just when the nights seem the longest, the world's spiritual traditions proclaim a light within the dark, a calling into a new year, a new day. In the church we call this new year's day "the first Sunday of Advent." The newness of life invites us to participate, invites us to welcome the light of the world. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed."

One place that revelation comes to us is in scripture. Scripture is many things: in our scripture we can find a moral code for the good life, we can read great stories -- the very stories that inform us about who we are and where we come from . In scripture we discover "our people," the people who preceded us in faith. One often overlooked quality of scripture is that scripture also reveals, it removes the veil of our illusions and introduces us to "reality," our real lives as they are lived, in Paul's words, "in Christ." For the study of scripture Isaiah's words might again work, "the glory of God shall be revealed."

Some people have asked me why we are studying koans on Wednesday night. The koan tradition comes to us from China and is thousands of years old. The intention of koans is to help us have a direct vision of reality, to see things as they are rather than as we imagine them to be. I thought that it would be an interesting project to apply the centuries old study of koans to our own Christian scripture. An example of a scripture that can be read as a koan might be this saying of Jesus:

"The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is in your midst."

To read this as a koan would be to begin to ask questions of oneself, each question leading you more directly into reality itself. Examples of these questions might be: Where is the kingdom of God? How do you enter the kingdom of God? Show me the kingdom of God. See how the questions ask us to put our finger on something that does not come "with careful observation?" Instead, the koan and the questions invite you to directly experience "the kingdom of God" in your life. To be lead into spiritual experience is a gift. A reading of scripture from this perspective is an invitation into the continuous renewal of our lives. To read scripture thus might well fulfill Isaiah's, "the glory of God shall be revealed."

So, as Advent approaches, get ready for new year's day. For the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.

Blessings,

David