The first Sunday of Advent is traditionally Hope Sunday. The first candle on the Advent Wreath is lit and readings and prayers encourage us to hope for the return of Christ. I was raised a dispensationalist Christian in a loving but rigid Bible church. I had a Schofield Bible with notes to explain this point of view in plain King James English. When other translations began to be published they were feared and loudly proclaimed to be the work of the devil. It seems the dispensational reading of end times didn’t work quite so well in the the more accurate translations of older texts so recently discovered in the Dead Sea scrolls or the Nag Hamadi fragments. I have read dozens of books on the end of time and commentaries on the book of Revelation. All of which caused me to become quite cynical about waiting for the second coming of Jesus, thoughts I kept completely to myself for decades. I remember a recent Goshen College graduate who attended a Bible study I was leading back in 1979 asking me, “Who else but Jesus is allowed to be 2000 years late for dinner?” I was shocked and mortified by his question but it certainly stuck with me. I had all the fancy words learned in seminary, the concept of “already but not yet” view of the Kingdom of God. Intellectually, this has never worked and taking it all on faith began to seem a little silly.

When I dared to research the origins of the end of times theologies (there are many) I began to see that this concept of waiting for the Savior to take us away from all of this and to punish all the bad guys to be quite dangerous and not much cause for hope. Even the first century Christians were not at all sure that was what Jesus meant. So what is the basis of hope for the coming of Christ Jesus in these times? He clearly said that heaven and earth would pass away but his word would not. (Matthew 5:18, 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33)

I believe that one day we will understand but in the meantime, the only way we should concern ourselves with the second coming of Christ is to allow Christ to be fulfilled in our lives here and now. Many of the earliest Christians understood the meaning of the second coming in this way – The Second Coming of Christ is within our own lives as we become one with Christ in the same way Christ is one with God. In other words, we are to BE Christ in the lives we live here and now. That is so much harder than waiting for a savior to rescue us from the pain of this life.
Today I have tried to be hope to the people I encountered. The young cashier with bright blue highlights in her hair and piercings in her brow that didn’t want to look me in the eye; the lonely woman with so many disabilities; the man in the truck who almost ran me off the road; the person who pumped gas for me (yes, we actually have two gas stations here that do that!)…all these people are Christ coming to me for me to reflect hope back to them. There is a sanskrit word for this way of thinking: namaste - “the Divine in me greets the Divine in you.” This is for me the hope of the coming of Christ, Emmanuel, God with us.

Forget the past, for it is gone from your domain! Forget the future, for it is beyond your reach! Control the present! Live supremely well now! It will whitewash the dark past, and compel the future to be bright! This is the way of the wise.

Paramahansa Yogananda

By nature, I am not a patient person. I learned the hard way that God answers prayer for patience by bringing to one’s awareness situations that require patience. I don’t pray for patience anymore! However, prayer itself is an exercise in patience…it is waiting for God who comes to us, Emmanuel himself, the Spirit herself.
To “control the present” certainly cannot mean the pitiful attempt to make everything work according to the desire of the day by sheer willpower. Control requires the utmost of patience with myself and with the situation of the moment.
I usually wait an hour past my appointment time to see my chiropractor. In the past (that dark time that is no longer within my domain) I would have walked up to the counter and demanded to know how much longer it would be and proclaim the value of my time and exclaim my displeasure. My children referred to this as “ mom getting her bitch up. See why I like this whole idea of whitewashing my past?
Today was like every other day I have visited the chiropractor. I always bring something to read and my MP3 player on which to listen. It was a snowy day today and I was the only one in the waiting room. Usually it is filled with assorted characters, many of whom appear to have very little in life. On those days, I have become accustomed to praying for each of them, focusing my attention on each one and blessing them silently. There have been times I have seen a grumpy person turn to me and smile…times I’ve seen a tear sliding down a man’s cheek..times I’ve seen a child become calm. Most of the time, I just have that unspeakable peace in the region of my heart. Today, there was none of that – just a silent waiting. As the nurse walked me to the examining room. she remarked about the snow storm and icy weather. I smiled at her and she asked me if it didn’t bother me. I said truthfully “I love the snow – it turns everything beautiful and I don’t mind driving in it. The roads in this area are always plowed and well maintained. I love it here.” She looked at me in dismay and said, “Nothing bothers you! I’ve noticed this about you. You never get upset at waiting, you are always calm and smiling. You must be the most laid back person I know!” I just smiled…and that dark past of anxious impatient control was whitewashed into the gentle power of patiently waiting and a day of living supremely well.

Advent is a spiritual season of waiting and watching which requires one to be awake and alert. I suffer from insomnia as part of a chronic illness. It’s a strange thing to wait and watch for sleep to come…not wanting to be awake or alert and yet being so. I know I’m not alone in this – insomnia plaques many adults in this turbulent time. I wonder how anyone can sleep soundly…perhaps they don’t watch the news or read it on-line. As I watch and wait, I’m learning to use this time to “control the present and to live supremely well now” in surprising ways. (see yesterday’s post for this reference)
This has become a time to repeat the “Jesus Prayer” Om Jesu Christi Misreri Nobis which means O Lord Jesus Christ, shed thy grace on us. I have learned to control my thoughts in this way. A wise man taught me that our thoughts are like creative sounds that manifest according to their own nature. Another way to put this is this: what the mind dwells upon… it becomes.
When I dwell on the peace of Christ through this ancient prayer of the heart, I awaken to that peace. A problem that might be on the back burner of my brain will take on a new shape and solve itself. Perhaps there has been someone that day who pushed my buttons…in the midst of sleeplessness transformed by prayer, I begin to see this other with compassion and to see myself through the mirror of their eyes. Often the news of the day or the debating politicos make me wonder at our future as a planet much less as a nation…..Lord Jesus Christ have mercy makes melody out of dissonance and I remember that God so passionately loves this world that he became one of us. And I watch to see how he will live through us in these turbulent times. The candidates faces waft through my mind and I pray “Lord Have Mercy” and I can see the light of Christ in their eyes even though their hearts might be filled with fear or arrogance that belies that light. Indeed, Lord Have Mercy. Then sleep comes, “God gives to his beloved sleep” the psalmist wrote and as I settle down into the arms of the beloved, sleep comes and my soul is truly awake.

It’s been a long season of writers block for this practical mystic. In a year in which my soul’s work has been one of awe and wild joy, it has also been a year of increased physical pain and aching frustration. But this, this day is the beginning of yet another year of waiting the coming of Emmanuel, awakening once again to the ever new God within us.
I began to read the Bhagavad Gita this year, or rather translations thereof. I’m about half way through the first of two volumns entitled by Paramahansa Yogananda The Bhagavad Gita: Royal Science of God-Realization reading a verse and commentary a day. I’ve been pondering this quote for a week:

Forget the past, for it is gone from your domain! Forget the future, for it is beyond your reach! Control the present! Live supremely well now! It will whitewash the dark past, and compel the future to be bright! This is the way of the wise.

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And so, for this advent I am pondering what it means to control the present and live supremely well NOW as a christian in these turbulent times. What I am controlling to day is an attitude of hope, choosing hope over despair, hope rather than cynicism, hope instead of frustration, hope in contradiction to fear. Won’t you join me?