For Sunday
Advent 1C
Collect
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
It is hard to imagine Jesus’s words in this gospel as being all that comforting. All of this confusion, frustration, division…is a sign of the good things to come? It may seem hard to follow why we ought to see these things as good. Well, we’re not supposed to exactly. These are good things in themselves, but they are signs that good things will be coming.
The late great John Lewis famously spoke of “good trouble.” The idea is that, while trouble itself is generally a bad thing, sometimes, getting into trouble can be good—like when we demonstrate against injustice. But more importantly, this kind of good trouble is what happens when injustice is confronted—that people who protect the unjust norms will fight back and cause pain. In this way, there are growing pains, when we can see justice trying to break through.
Jesus directs his followers to see the division to come as the potential in-breaking of God, the potential arrival of justice—and the backlash that comes when the unjust realize their elevated stature is threatened, their privilege and power might not last, that God doesn’t actually favor the powerful and wish them to exploit the poor. That, in fact, it is all humankind that are to be in solidarity with one another, in love, service, and faith.