The arrival of the Advent Season, with its stern exhortation to be constantly ready for the Lord’s coming makes me uncomfortable on more than one level. It is not just that this focus morphs so swiftly into getting ready for Christmas (liturgical planning and shopping, not necessarily in that order). At a deeper level, I experience a disconcerting awareness that Christians have been responding to/ignoring/not knowing what to do with this exhortation for almost 2000 years already. The interpretive key I keep returning to is its timeless assertion of God’s prerogative to disrupt business as usual in our lives, at any time, without further warning, whether that be to bring us grief or joy. My video discussing the Gospel text was recorded three years ago one week after the Pike river mine disaster, to which I referred as an illustration at the time. Please feel free to leave a comment.
Howard Pilgrim