Day 13 - Themes
Living Christ Sangha - Advent Ango Practice Period
Readings
(click the header to view the readings)
Isaiah 7:10-25
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5
Luke 22:14-30
Reflection
We’ve just passed the halfway point for Advent, and I want to take a step back and see if I can put some additional order around the reflections I’ve offered thus far. They can each stand on their own, but they are also centered around a few key themes that are worth exploring more systematically. I’ll identify the themes and make some connections, but I leave the work of making sense of it in the context of life to each of my readers.
Seeing
Five of the reflections I’ve offered thus far (days 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8) are concerned with the theme of how we see things. Collectively they make two main points:
The eschatological moment is now.
We are not separate, independent selves, but entities that arise from and give rise to myriad other forms via the process of interbeing.
The Eschatological Now
The eschatological moment is the moment when the old ends and the new arrives. We sometimes describe it as the end of history, the end of the world, and even as the end of time. In Christian theology, it is usually associated with the second coming of Christ, and much saliva and ink has been sprayed and spilled predicting and planning for a big finale.
A different perspective is possible, and it has the power to transform us and our world. It is the recognition that every moment is the end of the old and the beginning of the new. Every moment is fresh. In every moment, we (who scripture calls the Body of Christ) can make Christ know to the world. Every now is the eschatological moment.
Interbeing
The second perspective concerns our view, how we see and understand ourselves, our neighbors, our fellow creatures, and our world. We tend to see ourselves as separate from other people, animals, plants, and minerals. They have their identity, we have ours, and we feel that our identity is pretty much fixed and solid. Yet an anxiety betrays the certainty of this feeling. We know deep down that we are subject to growth, change, and decay. But this process of change and loss is only true for our small, separate self.
The perspective of interbeing is the insight that everything in the created order is empty of a permanent, separate self. Everything changes, and each entity depends on and arises from all of the other entities in the universe. We cannot exist if the soil, air, water, worms, plants, bugs, flowers, manure, light, and millions of other factors did not also exist, and they cannot exist in isolation either. The upside down, lung-shaped trees in the forest exhaling oxygen are just as vital to our respiration as the pink, multi-lobed breathing organs in our chests. Life is not contained within our physical bodies.
Awakening
It is one thing to give intellectual assent to the ideas of the eschatological now and interbeing, but it is a very different matter to live as if they are true. The theme of a majority of entries (days 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12) is the call to awaken. When we wake up, we know the truth of our interconnectedness, we see and care for each entity in our world informed by interbeing, and we fully attend to each moment as a precious new beginning in which the Kingdom of God arrives. But how do we make this move from knowing these truths intellectually to realizing them existentially?
Practice
The answer to the above question is also the final theme: practice. Several of the reflections (days 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12) proposed different practices that we can engage in to cultivate true awakening to insight, compassion, peace, and love. These included slowing down, becoming still and stable, being diligent, practicing gratefulness, and different mindfulness techniques for working with our thoughts, speech, and actions.
We all have practices in our lives. Some are intentional, some are not. Some are helpful, some are not. As we repeat these practices, they shape us, regardless of whether we intend it or not. And ultimately, they will determine the shape of our lives. The Advent call to keep awake and stay watchful is the call to engage in Right Practice, the practice that leads us to peace, understanding, and love.
Prayer
Ground of our Awakening, grant us the gift of perceiving your always new now. Let us feel in our bodies and bones that we are connected in being to everything that is, and in seeing this, inspire us to shout a great yes to belonging.1 Amen.
A “lived yes to belonging” is one of Brother David Steindl-Rast’s definitions of love.
Thank you and happy Advent. Love the quote about belonging.