The Unbearable Lightness and Darkness of Being
AM Psalm 18:1-20 • PM Psalm 18:21-50
Isa. 2:12-22 • 1 Thess. 3:1-13 • Luke 20:27-40
I did not grow up in a church which celebrated Advent and my husband Tim had to explain to me what it was (part of a larger educational series he treated me to on the intricacies of the liturgical year). Now it is my favorite season. We celebrate by going to Lessons and Carols, slathering greenery over anything in the house which will stand still, and putting candles in our windows. It is a joyful time of year in our home.
I particularly LOVE our yearly Advent calendar, which usually starts on Day 1 with some of the more famous Old Testament prophecies of Christ’s birth and ends up with the story of the Nativity on day 24. The Bible verses I associate with this time of year are the passages of Isaiah which talk about the blooming of the desert and the story of the Annunciation and descriptions of angels singing to shepherds on a cold and starry night.
So I was surprised by the verses appointed to this first day of Advent. In Psalm 18, the author tells us that “the breakers of death rolled over me, and the torrents of oblivion made me afraid.” God himself “wrapped darkness about him, he made dark waters and thick clouds his pavilion”. Even Isaiah’s passages were not as flowery or poetic as I remember them; instead, the Lord “rises to terrify the Earth” while the people “enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts in the crags” to escape. No happy, singing angels here.
So what should we take from today’s reading? Maybe that, beneath the joy of Advent, there is a dark side, literally and metaphorically. The descent into winter—and its accompanying longer nights—has always been a time of contemplation, particularly the contemplation of mortality and the end of days. But it is important to also keep in mind that this darkness also only makes the light of the season—its hope and joy—shine all the more brightly in contrast.
Written by Stephanie Barr
I am the life skills teacher at Harrison High School and my husband Tim and I enjoy puttering in our garden, serving our cats, and bird-watching along the Buffalo River when we are not fleeing to Fayetteville for its walking trails, book stores, and of course for St. Paul’s.