Advent's tough love

Reggie McNeal is a writer and conference leader who speaks boldly about missional focus for Christians.  He tells the following story, which I pass on because it has helped me to articulate thoughts about the temptation to resist stillness and simplicity during Advent. 

There is a small country church in Germany. It has railroad tracks running along the back edge of the property. There are first person accounts of church life during Nazi Germany. Every Sunday the people would cringe as they heard the whistle blow from far away. You see, everyone knew that this whistle meant the train was coming—it was a cattle-car train. But it wasn’t carrying cattle; it was carrying Jews to the death camps. From inside the church, the people could hear the cries of the Jews as they passed by. So, whenever that whistle blew, the people of the congregation started to sing hymns. And they would get louder and louder and louder as the train got closer and closer and closer. As the train passed by the back of the church, the people inside were singing at the top of their lungs, lest they would have to hear the cries of the people who were being led to the slaughter.

This story makes me wonder, how are we like the congregation in the story?  What do we do that is the equivalent of singing ever more boldly as a stream of human need flows by?  What might be moved if we really, really pause to listen to how God calls to us in the midst of suffering, including our own?  How does the busy-ness of holiday preparations anesthesize us to the birth movement that God is stimulating? 

These questions move me to call (again) for Advent simplicity and stillness.    It takes discipline to foster Advent stillness in our households.  It takes discipline (and constant directive) on the part of worship planners to guide participants about PAUSING FOR SILENCE between readings, prayers, hymns, etc. 

I can feel momentum building around the heart of Advent. As the days of December pass, there may be a minimal response to the invitation to come to a place where we gather to simply and silently "be" with God.  The beat of tin soldiers (which began in the world sometime shortly after Halloween) strives to  determine our pre-Christmas pulse instead of the loving heartbeat of God. 


Well, perhaps we need to live with the restlessness (or apathy) about the discipline of Advent.  Perhaps we need to exert some tough love, and say:

 "You know what?  Maybe the reason you are impatient with the stillness and the waiting is because God is inviting you to pay attention to the cries within and without, pouring from the suffering in the world.  God with you wants to be with you in the deepest ways so that you can be with those who need you." 

Love, hope, joy, peace are all stirring within you and me right now.  Let us, together, watch God nestling and nudging in the womb of our soul.  Christ is with us and is being born again our words and our deeds as we serve others in His precious and holy name!

Prayer:  Stir up your power, O God, and pulse in our hearts.  Help us to be still with you, and responsive to your nudges.  If our hands are to be active during these Advent days, may they be active according to your Word being born in us!  Amen.