Advent 2016 Theme
O Come, Holy One
Lamenting. Seems like kind of a depressing topic, not in
keeping with cultural pressures to keep it positive. Positive
can be okay if it’s in aid of truth, but sometimes it isn’t.
Sometimes exhortations to positivity are a way to obscure or
ignore serious problems, or shift blame for them on the
people who are pointing them out, as if they’re the result of
negativity, whatever that is perceived to be.
But in scripture, lamenting is actually a sign of hope, a signal
of transcendence, a truth-telling art that dismantles whatever
is in the way of creation’s flourishing. It’s something much
deeper and more profound than positivity, which can be
mistaken for mere comfort, or ignorant bliss. Not my
problem, we tell ourselves. I’m going to think positive, as if
I’m the center of the universe and my puny cogitations
absolve me from my participation in the creation or
amelioration of serious problems.
Or else we shift blame for systemic, structural problems, or
even disasters and accidents onto the people most affected
by them, telling ourselves, and them, that if only they’d taken
responsibility, or planned better, or saved more money, or
worked harder or not gotten sick or discouraged…
Again, as if we’ve got control. At all.
Anything worth doing is too big to do alone, says (WHO?)
Truth-telling is often uncomfortable, sometimes profoundly
so, but it is absolutely what we are called by God to do in
every aspect of our lives. And the truth is, we’re pretty naked
and vulnerable. We’re here without much of the kind of
protection we’d prefer, which usually takes the form of
things like walls, weapons, armor, snarkiness, wealth and
distance.