First Sunday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
Communities of Tension and Love
by Amy Bratton
Thank you for joining us for the 2021 New Leaf Advent Reader. I am excited to share this collection of reflections from writers across Canada during the Advent Season. The authors are pastors and poets; historians and theologians; laypeople and church leaders. And they all come together to wrestle with the tensions of the Advent season.
Christmas can be a strange time in Canadian culture. We have inherited cultural assumptions from a bygone era of Christendom that prioritize Christian holidays, yet in this era of post-Christendom, any commitment to the religious significance of these holidays seems optional.
In some parts of the world, Christian cultural dominance would be resisted or protected. In Canada, we experience a more subtle and less confrontational approach. As a Christian, I feel like I am welcome to express my Christmas practices; if someone found them too religious they wouldn’t attack me but would instead just disengage.
There is tension between the cultural Christmas of Santa Claus on one hand and the Christian Feast of the Nativity on the other. This tension doesn’t need to be a bad thing; it can be a chance to truly see my neighbourhood and networks of connection as we all engage the Christmas season, even while we encounter it in different ways.
The practice of Advent, with its weeks of preparation leading up to December 25, is also full of tension – this time between waiting and celebrating. Each year the church calendar starts fresh at the beginning of Advent, telling again the story of Jesus’ birth, ministry, death and resurrection. Each time we start again, we know more of the story. During Advent, we wait in expectation to celebrate the Feast of the Nativity, but it is also a time pregnant with deeper meaning as we anticipate Jesus’ promise to come again, to be God-with-us.
This year we have entitled the collection Finding Advent Shalom: Waiting in Communities of Tension. While I see tension within myself, I also see tensions between others, as we face polarizing issues throughout our lives. Yet, even as tensions are created by being in community with other people, community is also where understanding can begin, where we can be seen, and where we can find Shalom.
How do you experience tension in your own life?
Do you immediately seek to resolve them?
Do you wait, paralyzed, for a clear path that points to one side or the other?
Do you embrace the tension and seek a way forward that makes space for both sides?
Do you reach out to people who are holding the other end of that tension, welcoming their perspective in your life?
Tension is an important part of life, both in the creation around us (I’m thinking of how the perfect raindrop is formed through water’s surface tension) and in our relationships. Holding relational tensions can be hard, but it is vital work within our communities: holding the tension of resonance and connection with uniqueness and individuality; holding the tension between mourning and celebration; holding the tension between the particulars of individuals and the unity of a group that chooses to do life together.
In reading the passage from 1 Thessalonians 3 in our lectionary text today, I see this community tension at work. This short passage is part of Paul’s acknowledgement of Timothy’s report from Thessalonica, a report that brings good news of maturing faith in the community where Paul spent time previously. We hear the deep joy that Paul receives from the encouragement of his friends, even as he is suffering persecution. And he returns the blessing of joy, that calls for an increase of love and maturity.
“May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.” 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13
Knowing the human condition, and our inevitable human struggles, I don’t imagine that the church at Thessaloncia is a perfect enclave of tension-free relationships. Instead of a platitude from Paul suitable for a mug or fridge magnet, I see in his blessing a provocation to healthy tension within community that increasing love and growing holiness will encourage. Living with others brings tension, but overflowing love can help us find Shalom.
Throughout Advent, reflections will appear daily in your inbox and on our website. Together we will seek to find Advent shalom while waiting in communities of tension.
Amy Bratton
Lead Editor of the Advent Reader
Thank you for reading the New Leaf Advent Reader, a collection of reflections from writers across Canada. If you are enjoying the reader, sign up to receive the readings in your inbox each day here: SIGN UP
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