What’s your approach to present wrapping: do you do it beautifully and neatly, to raise a sense of anticipation and show how much you care? Or do you do it reluctantly, at the last minute, with whatever wrapping paper the 24-hour garage down the road sells? Or do you give the present without any wrapping paper?
Welcome to the first Advent reflection for the Methodist Church in Britain’s Out of the Ordinary programme. This week we reflect on the sometimes-messy process of letting go of unnecessary wrappings so that the good gift is revealed.
The core Gospel passage for Sunday (Mark 13.24-37) is one of those that you might read and wish that it was different. It’s a confusing and destabilising mixture of images of apocalyptic doom: the sun being darkened, the stars falling from the sky. How and why is this good news?
It helps me to know that the Bible often talks about stars as symbols that represent systematic evil. The English word ‘disaster’ is Greek for ‘bad star’. Jesus’ prediction of the stars falling from the sky is really a promise of hope, that one day there will be no evil. But as we know from history, when systematic evil power structures crumble, they don’t go without turmoil and chaos.
It’s a bit like the messiness that comes when you unwrap Christmas presents to reveal the good gift inside. Or, switching analogies, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.
We invite you to ponder these questions and explore them with others.
- What turmoil do you see at the moment?
- When have you witnessed new holy goodness emerging from a chaotic situation?
- What systematic injustices do you long to see crumble?
In the mundane and the ordinary,
stars will start to fall,
challenging and changing us
with holy goodness breaking through.
Advent God, challenge us today.