{"id":3680,"date":"2012-11-26T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T06:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/?p=3680"},"modified":"2012-11-21T19:17:44","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T19:17:44","slug":"traveling-advent-to-epiphany-roadside-assistance-from-luke-and-matthew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2012\/11\/traveling-advent-to-epiphany-roadside-assistance-from-luke-and-matthew\/","title":{"rendered":"Traveling Advent to Epiphany: Roadside Assistance from Luke and Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>A Meditation on the Gospel for Advent One:\u00a0Luke 21:25-36<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to your destination twice as fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

I overhear a man on a phone telling someone this. Speed is a good thing, I suppose, if you don\u2019t want to be where you are.<\/p>\n

How can I forget\u2014I can\u2019t, I will never forget\u2014the hurried, weary pastor I met at a Christmas Eve dinner. \u201cIt\u2019s such a holy time,\u201d she said of Advent. \u201cI can\u2019t wait \u2018til it\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n

She left the dinner table earlier than the rest of the guests, to go prepare the way of the Lord, that is, to unlock the church and make sure there would be enough worship bulletins and candles to hand to the coming, expectant multitude at midnight. The candlelit \u201cSilent Night\u201d tradition, all waxen and melting, would culminate the sacred season. The people who had felt hustled most of the month, having now rushed to church to get decent seats, would see the great light they held in their own hands. They would join their voices in a rising, moaning O. And a calm the duration of a carol would overcome them.<\/p>\n

Here at Advent\u2019s beginning, can you wait \u2018til it\u2019s over? Can you weather December at the pace at which the sun burns, the moon shines, and the stars brightly evolve\u2014no faster? <\/em>Let heaven\u2019s everyday lights illuminate the world for you. They will burnish your face and make you glow like an acolyte at the altar.<\/p>\n

Stop moving for a change. Stand up and raise your head. Know the kingdom of God to be near but not here, not fully, not yet. Consider Advent a borderland between heaven and earth, the limbus of logos and flesh.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake care of yourself,\u201d says the man on the phone, then nearly whispers, by way of goodbye, \u201cMe too you.\u201d<\/p>\n

When will he see in the flesh the faraway one who called? Is love a destination to be rushed-to twice as fast? A longing to be savored?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love you without any gifts,\u201d my sister-in-law texted me. I had asked what her son wants for Christmas.<\/p>\n

Imagine this Advent: a darkening month of unhurried days that won\u2019t pass away until the world gets for Christmas the redemption that faces the whole earth.<\/p>\n

This Advent, unlock your prayers. Let in a shaken multitude seeking shelter, clarity, and cheer. Offer them the bulletins and candles that comprise your midnight faith. Keep vigil, unmoved as a tree. Notice clouds overhead and announce to the distressed earth whose arrival they portend. One who loves us without any gifts is coming. You will bear witness to his advent if you aren\u2019t worry-drunk and don\u2019t squander your attentions on this generation\u2019s histrionics. Go easy on the spirits this month\u2014on all the stupefying pastimes that let luminous reality bypass us unobserved.<\/p>\n

Unburden your heart. Station yourself under the sky, near the water, in a grove, by a road pilgrims take (if but once a year) on their way to a gathering place where people burn holes in the gloom, singing into their handheld fires. Let their song infuse and prepare you for one year\u2019s noisy demise and another\u2019s startled beginning. Stand by. Monitor the highway. Wave your slow yellow flag to alert approaching souls: Caution. Oncoming Glory. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>Rachel M. Srubas is the author of\u00a0Oblation: Meditations on St. Benedict\u2019s Rule\u00a0(Paraclete Press, 2006),\u00a0City of Prayer: Forty Days with Desert Christians\u00a0(Liturgical Press, 2008),\u00a0and The Girl Got Up: A Cruciform Memoir\u00a0(forthcoming, Liturgical Press, 2013). Her poems and essays have appeared in\u00a0The Best American Poetry, The Christian Century, Weavings, The Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion\u00a0andGive Us This Day, among other publications. Much of Rachel\u2019s writing emerges from her practice of\u00a0lectio divina\u00a0and her experience of the Word as living and active.<\/em><\/p>\n

Baptized at 23 in the late 1980s, Rachel is the solo pastor of Mountain Shadows Presbyterian Church (USA) in Tucson, Arizona. She also teaches on the faculty of the Hesychia School of Spiritual Direction and serves as the spiritual director for religious leaders of varying faith traditions.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Meditation on the Gospel for Advent One:\u00a0Luke 21:25-36 \u201cYou get to your destination twice as fast.\u201d I overhear a man on a phone telling someone this. Speed is a good thing, I suppose, if you don\u2019t want to be where you are. How can I forget\u2014I can\u2019t, I will never forget\u2014the hurried, weary pastor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1293,"featured_media":3683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTraveling Advent to Epiphany: Roadside Assistance from Luke and Matthew<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Meditation on the Gospel for Advent One:\u00a0Luke 21:25-36 \u201cYou get to your destination twice as fast.\u201d I overhear a man on a phone telling someone this.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2012\/11\/traveling-advent-to-epiphany-roadside-assistance-from-luke-and-matthew\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Traveling Advent to Epiphany: Roadside Assistance from Luke and Matthew\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Meditation on the Gospel for Advent One:\u00a0Luke 21:25-36 \u201cYou get to your destination twice as fast.\u201d I overhear a man on a phone telling someone this.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/faithforward\/2012\/11\/traveling-advent-to-epiphany-roadside-assistance-from-luke-and-matthew\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith Forward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-26T06:00:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-11-21T19:17:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/101\/2012\/11\/10271213571-e1353524752137.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rachel M. 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