First Tuesday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
2 Samuel 7:18-29
18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said: “Who am I, Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 19 And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant—and this decree, Sovereign Lord, is for a mere human! 20 “What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Sovereign Lord. 21 For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant. 22 “How great you are, Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel—the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? 24 You have established your people Israel as your very own forever, and you, Lord, have become their God. 25 “And now, Lord God, keep forever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, 26 so that your name will be great forever. Then people will say, ‘The Lord Almighty is God over Israel!’ And the house of your servant David will be established in your sight. 27 “Lord Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you.’ So your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. 29 Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.”
Psalm 90
A prayer of Moses the man of God1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. 2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.” 4 A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. 5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death— they are like the new grass of the morning: 6 In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered. 7 We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. 10 Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. 11 If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due. 12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 13 Relent, Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. 16 May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. 17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.
Revelation 22:12-16
12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. 14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. 16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
NIV
Sugar and Torture
by Kate Bowler
Kate Bowler, PhD, is an associate professor of the history of Christianity in North America at Duke Divinity School. She completed her undergraduate degree at Macalester College, received a Masters of Religion from Yale Divinity School, and a PhD at Duke University. She is the author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (Oxford University Press, 2013) which received widespread media attention and academic praise as the first history of the movement based on divine promises of health, wealth, and happiness. She wrote the New York Times bestselling memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason (and other lies I’ve loved) (Random House, 2018) after being unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 35—a book Bill Gates lauds as “belonging on the shelf alongside other terrific books about mortality” and includes on his must-read list. Dr. Bowler subsequently staged a national conversation around why it felt so difficult to speak frankly about suffering through her popular podcast, Everything Happens. Her book The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities (Princeton, 2019) follows the rise of celebrity Christian women in American evangelicalism. She has appeared on NPR, The TODAY Show, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and TIME Magazine. Her latest book, No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear), grapples with her diagnosis, her ambition, and her faith as she tries to come to terms with limitations in a culture that says anything is possible. Originally from Manitoba, Canada, she now lives in Durham, North Carolina, with her husband, Toban, and son, Zach.
This reflection originally published by Kate Bowler in 2020.
***
The season of joy runs on two things: sugar and torture.
Growing up, my sisters and I built gingerbread houses and decorated them so thoroughly that the powdered sugar dust lingered in the curtains for weeks. We built palaces of icing and cookie sheets. But then the horrible reality set in almost immediately as we recalled The Great Law of Advent.
1 Candy = 1 Day
We could only eat our houses one...piece...at...a...time...one...day... at...a...time.
It was torture.
Family rules (like English Common Law) were developed over time to legislate our concerns.
New rules included:
Gingerbread houses must have structural integrity. Icing is glue, not its own wall.
No eating your sibling’s candy.
No licking other people’s candy.
You are not permitted to immediately devour walls that “cave in.” Too many walls had caved in for too many dubious reasons.
On glorious Christmas morning, we would gorge ourselves on stale gingerbread sheets. One year, we built our houses in November—so early that we had to blow all the dust off the roofs of the houses. Then we ate it anyway, of course.
For most of my young life, I counted every day of Advent in gumdrops. Then I became an adult and I forgot how good it can feel to wait.
Advent is technically a time of waiting and preparation for the baby Jesus. The church waits in anxious expectation, repenting of distractions in order to focus on the miracle of a prophecy fulfilled. Advent and Lent share the same liturgical colour: purple. Christians wait in the dark, just for a little while, because we know there is new life, resurrected life, at the end. We wait patiently in the purple time.
When you are in the season of terrible, time is heavily weighted. You experience waiting differently. Sometimes the waiting is torture, but oftentimes it isn’t. I feel attuned to every emotional and sensory facet of each kaleidoscopic day. I don’t want the Christmas rush. I want the Advent anticipation to go on forever.
A still, dark house is one of the best places to be in Advent. When I can’t sleep, I creep out to the living room to be alone with our Christmas tree. I sit in the stillness of my Lego-strewn living room, lit by the twinkly lights, and breathe in the lengthened seconds. Zach will be stumbling out of bed any moment, dressed in dinosaur pajamas, ready to start another gumdrop day.
May your Advent be as sweet and completely absurd.
Bonus Activity: Gingerbread megachurches
The first year after my diagnosis, my mom bought me a gingerbread kit with firm instructions to “Make a megachurch, sweetie.” And so I did. So every year, I make a glorious candy congregation for a charismatic man (or WOMAN). She knows how to run an empire. Everyone is welcome as long as the marshmallows don’t crash through the ceiling. (Toban does NOT let me spray paint indoors, otherwise, the roof would always be gold. THANKS A LOT TOBAN.)
Pull out some gingerbread supplies and make your own mega-church. But please, please, please tag me in any photos so I can see. I hope this tradition brings you as much absurd joy as it brings me.
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