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Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,
and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?
Today’s reading: Isaiah 63:16-19
Prophetic Hope and the Seedbed of Being
The God of Israel is enigmatic, as far as deities are concerned. Why does our creator hide from us? Why does this all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving God stand so often on the foul line of human history, allowing us to write our songs of lament, or worse, allow the sensuality of our pursuit to fade into the fog of history or be bled out by the crushing pressure of institutional religiosity?
The prophet asks the question, and Christians can rather neatly and effortlessly shout the answer back like a crowd of unruly teenagers hopped up on Mountain Dew waiting for the opening act at a Billy Graham Crusade:
“I-love-jesus-yes-i-do! I-love-jesus-HOW-BOUT-YEEEWWW?!?!”
But wait a minute. Advent gives us this unique opportunity to remove the tight-fitting dogmas from our heads in exchange for the cold, crisp open air of risk-taking faith in practice. This is the raw and irreligious faith of someone with the cojones to ask God where he’s been (and when’s the last time you’ve heard that worship chorus at church?). It’s the beautiful and tragicomic journey of an entire people who experience setbacks as well as victories, confusion alongside revelation.
Today, the Advent meditation isn’t so much whether we trust in the appearance of the LORD, but how. Our sense of being is wrapped up in faith like a plant is wrapped up in the sleeve of a seed, as yet unrealized. For a planting, we choose daily between the plastic platitudes of smug religious certainty that lives in a perpetual state of self-preservation, versus the rich earthy seedbed of existential experimentation into a radical new way of being human, which is characterized by risk, sacrifice and (above all) love.
If it’s any consolation, seeds tend to grow better in fertilizer than in plastic.
For approximately four months, I have wanted to possess and thus wear a funky hat. For some unexplainable reason, many new friends from ReImagine seem to be fond of the funky hat wearing tradition, which drew my initial curiosity – you know, conform in the interest of flying the flag of funkitude.
Well yesterday I finally had my chance. Needing to return some gift merchandise that did not fit, I found myself with a little liquidity burning a hole in my proverbial pocket, and I immediately went shopping in the funky section of the male accessories department. Now in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that my wife was not initially fond of the idea. And in the interest of continued full disclosure, I should also say at this point that she remains steadfast in her disdain for the hat of funk.
The truth is, the hat is an emblem: a symbol of my fierce grip on a shred of individuality in the stormy sea of matrimonial compromise. I don’t wear it to spite my beloved… although it is admittedly fun to playfully push her buttons in this harmless way. One must know at which point to yield and at which point to hold one’s own. And when it comes to funky head wear, I hold my own. I’m so grateful that my wife continues to love my hat-wearing head, and I may remove it if at some point in the future it becomes apparent that the hat is driving a wedge in our budding relationship. Uh-oh, here she comes. Better take it off.
I’m joining my faith community in being God’s planting at Hoover Elementary School in Emeryville/W. Oakland this Saturday, April 5 from 9 a.m. to Noon. Everybody’s invited to love on the school in the Way of Jesus, through garbage pick-up, pressure washing, bubble gum scraping, painting and planting… and praying, always praying.
E-Mail me at john(at)sequoyahcommunity, or join up at the Facebook Event Page.
