New Life Out of Decay
Jeremiah 33:14-16, Luke 21:25-36
When you walk through an old growth forest such as Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island British Columbia, you see some of the old stumps and trunks of trees that have been decaying for some time on the forest floor. The amazing thing is that out of these old decaying trees you can see new young trees shooting up and being nurtured from the decay. It is a reminder that in the forest new growth and renewal continually come out of decay and deterioration.
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New life coming out of decay is the image that I hold on to when reading the Scriptures appointed for today, the first Sunday of Advent. Jeremiah presents us with a picture of his time as one of moral decay and destruction suffered by the attack of enemies. Jerusalem is described as desolate and the whole of Judah is as a waste without human beings or animals. Jeremiah brings a message of hope that out of this decay and desolation, a new branch with spring forth bringing the renewal justice and righteousness. In the Gospel we have the image of a fig tree rising from the dormant time of winter when everything looked dead recovering with new growth – a sure sign that summer is coming. So, in the midst of the distress and confusion of their time when they see the destruction of Jerusalem and everything held near and dear to them in lying in ruins, there will be new life like the coming of summer after a cold hard winter. It is time to stand up raise their heads for their redemption or liberation draws near. The Kingdom of God, the reign of Justice and righteousness is taking place before them if they have the eyes and heart to see it. In other words there will be growth and renewal out of decay and deterioration. It is time to awaken from their darkness and look for the light.
Now we realize that these images of darkness, deadness, terror and a wretched state of affairs presented to us in scripture may refer to what people were experiencing in a particular time of history but they also refer to all times and our time. The timeless message Advent, The Coming, is ta call to awaken from our darkness and look for the light of new life and renewal happening before our very eyes.
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Do we have darkness, decay and deterioration in our time? What is new life and renewal to us?
In our time there have been amazing technological advances and life has been made more comfortable in a lot of ways, at least for the people who have been fortunate to be born into a first world country, but it is not the earthly paradise that was predicted by some of the early writers of the enlightenment. There is darkness, despair and hopelessness in the world and in the midst of our lives. Also, in our attempt to judge everything according to reason and fact, we have lost a sense of the transcendent and immanent experience of God, the ground of all being, which we cannot know completely and is always beyond our reasonable process. We have ignored the mythologies of the past that helped people connect with that transcendent and imminent reality and as a result we have lost the spiritual resources that other people of other generations and civilizations have had to face the circumstances of their lives. We have also become so self-focused and self-serving that we have in a lot of ways lost the sense of sacrifice on behalf of others, and the compassion and respect for all people.
Karen Armstrong in her book A Short History of Myth points out some of the challenges that face us at this time:
The twentieth century presented us with one nihilistic icon after another, and many of the extravagant hopes of modernity and the Enlightenment were shown to be false. The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 showed the frailty of technology; the First World War revealed that science, our friend, could also be applied with lethal effect to weaponry; Auschwitz, the Gulag and Bosnia spelled out what could happen when all sense of sacredness is lost. We learned that a rational education did not redeem humanity from barbarism, and that a concentration camp could exist in the same vicinity as a great university. The explosion of the first atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki laid bare the germ of nihilistic self-destruction at the heart of modern culture; and the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11 September 2001 showed that the benefits of modernity – technology, ease of travel and global communications – could be made instruments of terror.
Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth, Canongate, N.Y. , 2005 p. 133.
We need to awaken, look for the light and connect with a mythology that will help deal with these challenges of our time. Karen Armstrong continues:
We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow-beings, not simply with those who belong to our ethnic, national or ideological tribe. We need myths that help us to realize the importance of compassion, which is not always regarded as sufficiently productive or efficient in our pragmatic, rational world. We need myths that help us to create a spiritual attitude, to see beyond our immediate requirements, and enable us to experience a transcendent value that challenges our solipsistic selfishness. We need myths that help us to venerate the earth as sacred once again, instead of merely using it as a ‘resource’. This is crucial, because unless there is some kind of spiritual revolution that is able to keep abreast of our technological genius, we will not save our planet.
(p. 136, 137)
The mythology that has developed around the Coming of Christ can still help us deal with these issues now. We have to realize that when I refer to myth, I am not talking about that which is false which is how many modern people think of myth. I am talking about writings and the ways and means by which we connect with a truth which is beyond reason and fact. The ritual of baptism through which we make a descent with Christ into the tomb, identify with his death, and rise to new life is an example of the mythological approach. The limits of a purely logical way of thinking cannot possible compehend the depth and power of this act. Through it we leave our self-centred life behind and share in the enhanced humanity of sacrificial love and compassion. As Paul says ” I now live not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me”(Galatians 2:20). The Eucharist is another way that we continue to mythologically participate in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. These acts, of course, are meaningless unless they result in living the truth of Jesus’s life and sharing in his ethical practices.
Jesus’ way was a concern for all people – no one was excluded from his radius of concern. People who would follow his way would enter the kingdom emptying their hearts of the darkness of egotism, selfishness and pride, being connected with the God within them, being at one with all of life, united with others in love and showing practical compassion toward all those in need.
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What about us at this time? What can we do? Where can we start? In this Advent season we need to take a new look at the rituals of our lives and how they help us to connect with a new life beyond the despair and helplessness that we can feel as we look upon some of dark epiphanies of our age. It is a time of self-examination, an honest look upon our inner world and to honestly face the darkness that lies within ourselves and our motivations. It is a time to discover what we can do as individuals to develop a meaningful spiritual life.
We need to step beyond our selves with Jesus and journey with him toward a true and meaningful life. To do this is to take the words of Albert Schweitzer seriously:
“Open your eyes and look for some person, or some work for the sake of humanity, which needs a little time, a little friendliness, a little sympathy, a little toil. See if there is not some place where you may invest your self.”
By that we begin to moved beyond the darkness of destructive selfishness into the light of creative altruism.
The growth in a spiritual life begins slowly and takes much practice. We know in many other areas of our life that everything takes a great deal of practice until it becomes natural to us. But we must start and then practice, practice,practice. We sometimes have to start in small but meaningful ways. In our family, we have decided against expecting elaborate gifts for ourselves and giving one another large gifts this Christmas. Instead we thought that it would be appropriate to help some of the people in the world that have far less than we do by donating money to buy certain needed items. World Vision produces a gift guide that helps children and families in forty-five different countries of the world. Items that could be purchased through donation include such things as a goat, medical supplies, nutritional school lunches and clean water to name only a few .
That may seem like a small gesture it will grow as we look for more and more things that we can do to help others as we move toward developing the art of compassion that is often lacking in our world today. There is much to be done in developing a true respect for all people, to work for justice, peace and freedom and to venerate the earth as sacred and to be saved from merely being seen as a resource to meet extravagant needs.
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Yes, this Advent season is a time to look beyond the present circumstances of our lives and how much decay and deterioration exists in the world, to be nurtured through worship and other rituals in the God ‘s way and to realize that out of decay can always come new life and renewal.
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