Marketplace Monastics

Don’t you just hate them?

The little things you say and do that come straight out of a dark place.

Little lies. Little evasions. Little furies. Little bits of dirty fluff that come from jealousy and pride and wounded feelings.

Wait … hold it! … stop! It’s Christmas! Why are we talking about such things.

I heard it just this past weekend … someone who said, “No, it isn’t Christmas, it’s Advent, and that’s why we have it. ‘Make straight paths for your feet!’” Actually, it’s still Christmas to me, but I do want the blessings of Advent, even if they pinch.

How many lies will you have to tell this Christmas?

It’s really comforting to remember that in Him there is light and no darkness at all. If He forgot our names – that’s funny! – He wouldn’t lie and cover up and pretend He knew us at a football game. He doesn’t have any pride to protect. He just IS GOD. If we gave Him a sweater three sizes too small, I think He would reach out and touch us and smile into our eyes, and nothing would matter any more.

We just ARE HIS. That’s what we ought to be protecting this Advent season, not our pride.

I’m going to try it. I may not make it through the day, much less the season, but as He gives me grace I’m going to deal truly and not out of my pride. Look out! If you see me on the street, please don’t ask me how I like your new jeans or your new hair! Just kidding! But, YIKES! What if I didn’t, really? What if you didn’t like mine? It doesn’t matter – I like you!

If I didn’t … but I do … If I didn’t, I’d fix that instead of having to lie about it.

We could do what Jesus did, if we didn’t like each other.  We could just love one another instead.

But I do … I like you and love you.

And we are writing this that our joy may be complete.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth;

but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ( 1 John 1:4-7 )

Dividing Light and Darkness

Michelangelo, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 1509

Today’s reading is sobering, to my mind. We read that in some cases, the Gospel is veiled. It is veiled only to those who are perishing.

The god of this world has blinded them. We often think of these as nations far away and far different from our own, but there may be perishing ones among us, and we say this Advent season, Oh Lord God, say again, “Let light shine out of darkness!”

We know beyond mistake that the light in us did not originate with us, and so we have hope. Lord God, let the god of this world suffer a mighty defeat this month; let the light of the Coming of Christ Jesus into the world, Savior, King, Lord, Healer, Deliverer, Son of God, Son of Man, Messiah … shine in other hearts, in our neighbors’ hearts, in prisons, in nursing homes, in our towns and villages and churches, too!

I was born again on Christmas Eve. I believe in Christmas miracles. I was perishing. I didn’t believe. And then I did. I say, “Shine, Jesus, shine! Shine in us and through us, and save those near and far. Flood the nations with grace and mercy. Send forth Your Word, Lord, and let there be light!”

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.

For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

(2 Corinthians 4:3-6)

 “To Visit the Imprisoned”

Gustave Dore, 1873

May we say simply this morning, that if we are going to heed any Advent scripture, let’s make it this one.

Upon consideration we may see that these words, taken to heart (and there are others like them in the Word) will take us where we need to go in Christ, which is to say, we will end up in Christ, our hope of glory.

These are Emmanuel scriptures, “God with us” scriptures. As we have seen, it is best to say, “Yes, Lord,” fully understanding that we do not completely understand. We couldn’t – we’ve never shoe before. He understands. He laid the foundation and He is building the house and His is the only oil that can illuminate the human heart.

We will have to learn to rise and choose to rise in every circumstance and dilemna, and by discipline and sometimes drudgery we will begin to shine and walk in glory. When kings come to our doorstep, we will have discovered, may it please God, not to turn them away. (Married women live with sovereigns, in the best way, but that’s another story and not for the faint of heart.)

All of these things come with the package, and the package comes with our “Yes,” all sales final. Thank God.

And if you find yourself standing in the “Returns and Exchanges” line this Advent season, call a believing friend and go to Starbucks instead!

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.   (Isaiah 60:1-3)

Starbuck’s Map 2, by permission

public domain

Light from a strobe or candle is beautiful, but light from a rock is breathtaking.

We, the living stones, fit into a tabernacle built upon the cornerstone, a spiritual house.

One of my favorite pursuits, and especially with my granddaughter, is to drive to a new (or new to us) neighborhood, park the car, and go looking for houses that are alive.

            Perhaps you already know what I mean. Typically, up and down street after street, homes look so dead these days. Some are run-down and some are immaculate and showy, but so many are lifeless. We love to walk up one street and down the next, even for an hour or more, looking for homes that say, “Come in! Welcome! People live here – real living breathing people – and there’s life inside!”

What makes a home look alive? Virtually every time, almost without exception, it is the presence of light. A lamp on a table in front of the living room window. A ceiling light, a small chandelier, visible through the front rooms, sparkling in the kitchen behind. A porch light, solar lamps lining the front walk … something … anything glowing.

I once took a bus trip across country, and out of a dense grey fog, as the sun sank below the far horizon, we rolled into a little town in Ohio. It was a hamlet, really, but every home we passed had a candle in every window. I sat up. I rubbed my eyes. Had I died and gone to Greyhound heaven? I could scarcely believe what I was seeing. I never learned the story of the little village with a light in every window, and I don’t even know where we where, but as you can tell, I would very much like to be in on the secret of those lighted windows.

So ought our presence on earth be to others. A light in each window, in our eyes, the windows to our souls. The light of peace and goodwill and truth without condemnation. It will make people sit up and rub their eyes … and wonder where they are and wish they were in on the secret.

. . . and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For it stands in scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe, “The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner,”

and “A stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall”; for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:5-9)

photo courtesy of Cable and Track Lighting 

One of the challenges of good blogging is to keep all entries short, pithy, and to the point. May I ask, how is one to do that with this passage! I’m going to give it a go …

This Advent Scripture is like Theology 101 in a nutshell; it is the size of a sesame seed when held up to the entirety of the Word, but look at all the goodness inside!

How about this … as we light our Advent candles each evening, shall we not pray with the striking of the match that we may reprove every dark place that remains in us, be it as small as a mustard seed?

Let us awaken to the glories of light, for the Light of the World dwells in the tabernacle of our hearts, and we have been enjoined, “But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from sin.” (1 John 1:7)

This is walking with God. This is bearing the fruit of light. This is to be a walking Advent candle. This is to awaken and cast off every work of darkness, every exaggeration, all murmuring and complaining, and get oil for our lamps from the vendor. I always wonder about those virgins … uh-oh … don’t wander off the path of the good blogger! … but it does seem that we need to go out to meet the Bridegroom, keep our wicks trimmed, and take His Spirit with us!

Then, as we snuff out the candles each night, let us ask that we may be given to walk as children of light, even and especially in the dark.

There … how’d I do?

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore do not associate with them, for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),

and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret;

but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.

Therefore it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.” (Ephesians 5:6-14)

Lamp lighter in Brest, Belarus

Yogi555, by permission

            Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.

            While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said this, he departed and hid himself from them. ( John 12:35-36 )

            This is such an interesting passage.   As we mentioned yesterday, Advent is nearly a celebration of Light … THE LIGHT that was coming into the world. He came! He came and He said to His disciples, “Believe in the light while you have the light, that you may become sons of light.”

We know that He also said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

“I am going away,” He said, “but I will come and make my abode with you.” Our Light departed, but just as He said, He came again in manner that we could dwell with Him forever, that not our minds or senses alone might realize Him, but that our very souls might be “filled and flooded with light” (Ephesians 1:18-23)

Oh, no wonder this season warms us and rejoices our hearts!

We remember that Jesus said, as in verse 5 above, that we would receive power to become the sons of light, all of us who receive Him, who believe on His Name.

Jesus also warned us that the darkness encroaches when light goes out. We remember those virgins, waiting for the Bridegroom but with lamps grown dim and then cold as those maidens slept.

Oh Lord God, grant that this Advent season will be for us a filling of our lamps and a trimming of the wicks. We are to be those filled with the Spirit, yet we know that we can hardly explain that concept.

How can we be what we can’t even define?

First, we will use an Advent scripture … Nothing is impossible with God! (Luke 1:37) … and then we will use another …

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”

            What was it about Mary that she was predisposed to obey the Lord, even when the message was that she would be impregnated by the Power of the Most High.?

Here is light for today’s path, a great reality to celebrate as we light our Advent candle …

There is no greater brightness than to answer “Yes, Lord” when He speaks or sends His Word. The oil that saturates the wick of our brightness is the glory of a “willing heart to sustain us” (Psalm 51:12) Let’s see how often today we can answer the promptings of God, with joy (“My spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”) with those words, “Yes, Lord.”

We can begin by saying, “Yes, Lord, we will answer Yes!” and oh, that will result in a merry … Mary … spirit this Advent tide and beyond.

detail of the Anunciation

Andres del Sarto, 1528

public domain, Wikipedia

Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe thy righteous ordinances. (Psalms 119:105-106)

The sounding joy of Advent is light! … the Light that is coming into the world. It is, for seasoned Advent celebrants, an amazing juxtaposition of glory in Him Who Was and Is and Is to Come.

I love light. I love it! Sunrises that paint the world from first light, fireworks that cause grown-ups to ooh and ahh, thousands of “fairy lights” illuminating the shop windows and the town square and the village Christmas trees in European cities, a candle in a window, and glow sticks and fluorescent necklaces on children at amusement parks.

Rainbows, prisms, a well-lit portrait in oils, and a diamond when it catches the light and sends it back in radiance into the world … I love light. My favorite part of darkness is the way it showcases light.

Oh, we do lament the darkness in the world around us. It’s so intense these days, as we have seen and said.

The righteous ordinance of God is that we should believe on the One He has sent. When we do, there is no light, no laser light, not the Aurora Borealis, there is no star or sun that can hold a candle to the light we are. The Living Word is our lamp, and He illumines us from the inside, and we shine like torches lighting a boulevard for the world around us. We are, from heaven, like millions of luminaries marking the road to the New Jerusalem.

Shine on, my dear ones. Shine this Advent season. When a person is merry and bright … when all within is calm and bright … the darkness must flee. The Light of the World shines, shines in us, and the piercing glow of humility, compassion, faith in God, and unfeigned love are as a thousand suns in us.

photo courtesy of

Davidson Point of View

            Today’s reading takes us from the Person and Truth of God, through our fears and oppressions, all the way to triumph and then … into the Presence of the Lord. In four verses!   I’ve often though that if you could memorize only one passage of Scripture with which to prevail in life, this would be a great one.

When we dwell in the house of the Lord, we abide in light and in salvation. Can we begin to imagine what our homes would be like if everyone who came though the door stepped into this tabernacle?

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

When evildoers assail me, uttering slanders against me, my adversaries and foes, they shall stumble and fall.

Though a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.   ( Psalms 27:1-4 )

The next verse, verse 5, says this:

For in time of trouble he will hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle He will hide me, and set me up upon a rock.

David is speaking of being in Christ, all those centuries before the birth of his Lord and Savior! Here we are, in the 21^st century, reading about it. We are thoroughly modern, of course, and we can have light, we can flood our homes with radiance, with the flick of a switch, but oh! … to illumine our hearts and our hearths with Light and Salvation, personified.

That is our Advent wish, our desire, and our prayer. I love that Jesus said, in John 15:7, “Ask what you wish, and it will be done for you.” We speak of Christmas wishes, and now is the time to have them answered. The precursor was, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you …” and that statement is universally grand! We get the Presence and the Promise – that’s Christmas, dear ones! We may wish and will to abide in Christ, with all the beauties and eternal blessing to be found there.

So light your Advent candles today, my friends … and make a wish!

Young Man with a Candle

Michael Gobin, public domain

This is, as we all know, a very busy season at the Post Office. Having been married to a postman, I know first-hand that Christmas vacations were … non-existent! Nobody got them … plan your trips for some other time of the year. For those who might have asked, the answer was … no.  The mail must go through, especially the Christmas mail!

Here we are, lighting our second Advent candle, and we are asking for a special delivery this season…the most special.

Oh send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me, let them bring me to thy holy hill and to thy dwelling!

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise thee with the lyre, O God, my God.

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. ( Psalms 43:3-6 )

Do we think our God will be less faithful than the United States Postal Service?

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” That, as you know, is the postal workers’ creed, and I believe they live up to it magnificently, talk show monologues notwithstanding. Shall the light and the truth of God fail to reach us, fail to arrive at our address? Light and truth are just what we need!  Shall the Lord slip up, get distracted, take a day off, that we and those for whom we pray shall not arrive at His holy hill?

No.

Christmas Mail

Photograph, public domain, Department of the Navy release

Persian Gulf (Dec. 24, 2004) – Postal Clerks and bravo working party members begin to move a mountain of packages from one of the aircraft elevators to the hangar bay after receiving the last pre-Christmas mail delivery aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3) embarked aboard Truman is providing close air support and conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions over Iraq. The Truman Strike Group is on a regularly scheduled deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate Airman Kristopher Wilson (RELEASED)

This passage is nearly always quoted in reference to the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s plan of salvation. Praise Him forever, because nearly all of us fall into that category! Praise Him forever if you don’t, for this is His glory!

But for our Advent joys, look at verse 5 … “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony …”

The GOD of steadfastness and encouragement! The GOD of those, and of all else that is good and profitable to us. Do we vacillate a little, if not in our faith, then in our thoughts, in our determinations? Do we suffer in discouragement on occasion?

Our GOD is the GOD of steadfastness. He’s in charge of steadfastness. Steadfastness is His to command! Encouragement, too! Tell me I’m not alone in my rejoicing! Steadfastness is His, and it is with Him, and He is with us, and we shall ABIDE in Him and in His steadfastness!

I’m rejoicing as I light my Advent candle. I like to light them in the morning as I pray and study and lift you and your families before the Lord, and light them again in the evening at dinnertime. And look! I’m still here writing, you’re still there in your holy vocation, we are still in the Word, we still pray, we’re still in fellowship … steadfastness is with us!

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, steadfastness to people who want it and place a very high value upon it.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

5) May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name”; and again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people”; and again, “Praise the Lord, all Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him”;

and further Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse shall come, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles hope.” May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.   ( Romans 15:4-13 )

Banff-Rundle Mountain

Peter Kieren, by permission, Wikicommons