Advent attention
November 30, 2011
“Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
This short poem by Mary Oliver is one I shared at Columbus Mennonite Church on Sunday and one that summarizes well the spirit of Advent.
Prior to our cultural New Year’s celebration, the church year has just rebooted, beginning again with this season of expectation, this season of longing, this season of paying attention. The coming of Christ which we are anticipating is much more than the historical birth of Jesus, although it is that as well. The call to pay attention, to be stirred with a holy longing, is the call to look at our world with eyes of faith. To anticipate seeing what we have forgotten is present. To allow ourselves to expect grace even when it has seemed absent. To allow ourselves to be astonished by what has been reduced to merely ordinary.
Paying attention in this season of Advent asks us to reverse the common notion of “seeing is believing.” Instead, we begin with belief, and are surprised to find that there is something there to be seen which we hadn’t seen before. Believing is seeing. What is it that we believe our way into seeing? Love, mercy, grace, God with us, Christ among us. The gift already given. The holy core of being which God has placed in each of us.
