Outrageous Love
And here we are again, starting the Advent season in 2022. I ask myself every year what is it about this season I love. I love Advent because it is a faithful reminder in our Christian year that a perfect world is coming. As we gradually come out of a pandemic uncertainty we can look to our faith to find the certainty and hope that Advent offers.
Andrea Bocelli reminded me of this in his breathtaking concert "Believe". In 2020, he performed eight beautiful songs on the island of Malta. I watched it and marveled at his witness to the watching world, singing Ave Maria, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, and You'll Never Walk Alone to name a few. Not being able to go on tour because of the restrictions during the pandemic, he took it on the road, sharing these songs of faith to all who have the good fortune of attending. You can listen to it here.
And so I begin my own Advent by turning to Isaiah 65:17-19.
"See here, I am creating new heavens and a new earth - so wonderful that no one will even think about the old ones any more. Be glad; rejoice forever in my creation. Look! I will recreate Jerusalem as a place of happiness, and her people shall be a joy! And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and in my people; and the voice of weeping and crying shall not be heard there any more."
It goes on to say a baby will never die, people will live out their years, every person will dwell in a home, and there will be no hunger, disease, famine or strife.
Heaven and earth will rejoice!
You will rejoice.
I will rejoice.
Walter Brueggeman in his Advent book, Celebrating Abundance, says the poem in Isaiah is outrageous. Outrageous in a good way. He says "This new world of God is beyond our capacity and even beyond our imagination. It just does not seem possible. In our fatigue, our self-sufficiency, and our cynicism, we deeply believe that such promises could not happen here...merely poetic fantasy."
But Advent begins and we discover the hope as we read again the passages from Isaiah. Hope for a perfect future. We won't even remember the pandemic - I know, that really is outrageous.
We will never cry again.
Outrageous.
No more sorrow.
Outrageous.
I can hardly take it in.
O Wondrous and Outrageous Love,
You came as a small child, helpless, defenseless, homeless... and yet your small hands flung the stars into space and cast planets into their orbits. You are outrageously wonderful. You are making all things new and one day we will see you face to face. You whisper my name and invite me into your presence so that I might live forever with you.
Thank you does not seem quite adequate. Amen
(Walter Brueggeman, Celebrating Abundance, Devotions for Advent; 2017. Westminster John Knox Press)
