advent.

i always love advent. i always have loved it - growing up, it was the time of putting electric candles in the window, decorating the house, playing the same cds each year, having the christmas pageant at church (the highlight of which was the year i played joseph! :-) on a more serious, theological note, however, i love how advent is a time of waiting for what has already come to come in all fullness.

the season of advent so captures the reality that we live in each day of the year. in advent, we know that Jesus is already born, but we anticipate his birth all the while. it's the already but not yet fully time. same with the kingdom of God. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is at hand, yet it is still to be fully fulfilled. this in-between waiting time can be hard to navigate - how do we live as if the kingdom is fully here, while it is not yet completely present? how do we live as if Jesus is here while we proclaim waiting for him to come again?

i don't have the answers. i'll probably have some more thoughts as the year progresses, especially as i'm being especially inspired right now by a book called "the powers that be" by walter wink and the power of non-violence. and because you all know how much i love having thoughts on things. :-) for now, though, i think these next few weeks leading up to Christmas are a perfect time to think about living more deeply into this tension. how do we live into the kingdom of God which is present and still coming?

here are two kingdom ideas that relate particularly to this time of year that i've appreciated seeing in the last week. no, this time of year has absolutely nothing to do with buying buying buying, contrary to popular belief. i would say it has to do with the opposite - giving giving giving. and not just more of what we already have and don't really need. Jesus came to bring freedom to the oppressed - are we oppressed, are we bound to a view of Christmas that undermines it's true meaning?

does our spending on one more t-shirt perpetuate the oppression of children laboring unfairly in sweat shops? does our consumerism feed bondage, or further liberation? here are some fair trade christmas lists and links.

and what if we gave presence instead of presents? what if we spent a small bit of the billions we spend on gifts to help provide clean drinking water to the world? check out what some churches are doing in response: they call it the advent conspiracy (i love their sub-heading - "christmas can [still] change the world")

i see the ways that i am bound to another kingdom, to a worldly kingdom, to money, to things, instead of living into the liberation that Jesus brought and continues to bring to me and to the world. Lord, have mercy. deliver us from evil. come, o come, emmanuel, God with us. be with us as we strive to live in Your kingdom. forgive us when we fail. forgive us when we celebrate your liberation with bondage. and continue to bring Your kingdom, in spite of us.