Saturday, November 26, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
The end of things, a new beginning
After 34 weeks of ordinary time (which leaves 18 weeks for Advent, Lent and Easter) on the church calendar, this is the last day. Tomorrow is not only the first day of Advent, but also the first day of the new Church calendar. The readings listed in the lectionary will move from Year C to Year A.
So?
Well, I’m not a priest, but I do write a sort-of homily every day. I want to get the readings right. I also feel some celebration, as the ordinary days end and Advent begins. Soon the days will be getting longer again. And Christmas is coming with all its joy and feast and festive fare. Strawberries and champagne at midnight on Christmas Eve. And all of that. Jesus will soon be born again.
And too, beginning on November 1 we read much of Revelation. Now today is the last day for a reading from the Bible’s last book.
John said, “An angel showed me the river of life-giving water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
Today I’ll be driving over the rivers and through the piney woods of Arkansas and East Texas, back to Austin, back to Miles and Jasper and their mom and dad, back to chess club and lunch with George and the joys of Christmas concerts and parties in a city of two million.
On either side of the river grew the tree of life that produces fruit twelve times a year, once each month. And the leaves of the trees serve as medicine for the nations.
John’s visions are coming to an end. He will be heading for heaven soon, himself, and we’ll be sure to follow.
Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.
I have a bunch of Christmas-y books in the car, for Jasper and Miles and for us. We need to get some firewood, and settle in beside our fire and read those books. Waiting for Jesus. And John Shea reminds me in one of those books called Starlight, we are waiting for baby John as well:
Jesus came out of John as surely as he came out of Mary. John was the desert soil in which the flower of Jesus grew. John was the voice in the wilderness who taught Jesus to hear the voice from the sky. John would push sinners beneath the water and Jesus would resurrect them on the waves. Jesus was the fast who prepared for Jesus the feast …
God may live in unapproachable light, but the incarnate Son of God, the Word made Flesh, and his incarnate followers struggle in starlight, the mix of light and darkness … Christmas is about NOW, about the time being, as W.H. Auden said. And now consciousness, even enlightened consciousness, is light in the darkness.
There is nothing more to say, and there is always something more to say. In this “time being,” we share words of love and compassion. Some of us are dying, some are just now being born. We listen to the whispers of the wind, the wind which carries tunes of bleak mid-winter and words almost clear, almost here, almost, almost, almost, and then the whispers fade away, into the dark line of live oaks just across the fence, where the birds sleep and squirrels squawk all night long.
At last the angel said to John, “These words are trustworthy and true. Behold, I am coming soon.” Blessed is the one who keeps the prophetic message of this book.
There is just a little more on this last day of ordinary time, a little more to the last chapter of the last book in the Bible.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life. The Spirit and the bride say “Come!”
So I’ll settle into waiting, and sing O come O come Emmanuel, and let the last words echo day by day (and ransom captive Israel) by day by day. O Lord, come now, and ransom me!
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people.
Amen.
(Revelation 22, Psalm 95, Luke 21)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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