Fear-full Faith
As well as marking the beginning of Advent, this Sunday also marks the beginning of the church lectionary (pre-selected sections of the bible to be read at services) and the three-year cycle of readings from the synoptic (which means look similar) gospels; Matthew, Mark and Luke.
The themes of Advent begin with judgement before moving on to anticipate the birth of Jesus. This echoes the story of the Good News; we were condemned to live in darkness but then God sent Jesus to a) bring light, i.e. knowledge and understanding of the God of love, b) provide a new beginning and c) present a way of living within this love.
However, the readings this Sunday seem to move in the opposite direction. The promised peace and prosperity in Isaiah, is followed by Paul urging followers to stay well-behaved, and then the gospel foretells God coming in judgement at an unknown hour to divide families, friends and co-workers into those who will be saved and those who will be condemned.
The underlying message is something along the lines of; be sure to stay awake and alert to the judgement of God, which is to be feared. This sets up an unstable image of God
whose unpredictability of love or punishment is similar in many ways to coercive control. This is not just in today’s readings but a pattern that is repeated in scripture, liturgy and images throughout the church.
Yet what puzzles me is that it is in direct contradiction to the love of God that the church declares, and that I have experienced in myself and in others, both in the church and outside it.
So, this Advent I am going to embark on a spiritual adventure of my own. I shall use the lectionary readings each week to unpack what we are being told about God, and try to untangle why this is so often interpreted in a way that leads to fear when it should lead to its opposite, love.
