December 2007
Reflections - "Waiting for the Sun to Rise"
On the top of Mount Sinai this past June 29th, after a 2½ hour hike, Moussa, my guide, pointed me to the spot where the sun would rise in about 45 minutes. Moussa then left me alone to cool off, to think, to be quiet, to pray. So I pondered the significance of Moses’ ascent of Mount Sinai and God’s giving the Law, the Torah for him to take down to God’s people. I then reflected on another mountaintop experience where Jesus, Peter, James, and John climbed a mountain and instead of receiving a new Law received the Transfiguration Event, a new vision of the Glory of God in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the One that like the Torah should be listened to and obeyed. After all Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.
As I waited for the Sun to Rise I prayed Morning Prayer and prayed for you and asked "What are you calling me/us to be and do Lord for you?" As the Sun rose I took a picture of its spectacular beauty, of me and the Sun, of Moussa and the Sun, of Moussa, Me and the Sun. And after the Sunrise and picture taking, I was rejuvenated again. I was ready to go down the mountaintop as a playful child jumping from step to step, enjoying the views, thanking Moussa for his being such a wonderful companion and expert guide. Back at St. Catherine’s Monastery, after the hike down, I sat at a table in the outdoor café to eat my breakfast. There was quite a commotion in the courtyard as a mother cat had just given birth to two new kittens. What had excited everyone is that some of the stray cats at St. Catherine’s began attacking the kittens as the mother either exhausted, unconcerned, or disconnected to her newborn sat passively and watched. Two French women got a box and put the mother cat with the two baby kittens in it to bond, directing them to be family rather than St. Catherine’s latest dead cat statistic. Some of the Bedouins told the women to leave them alone. But they persisted in providing a safe shelter and helping this new family to hopefully live in a barren, rough and tumble world together.
Today we begin the Season of Advent where we prepare not just for Christmas and Christ’s first coming but also for the second coming of Christ at the end of time, where Christ will reign over all. We believe that just as certain as the rising of sun in the Sinai desert is the certainty that God will reign, God’s justice will prevail, God’s peace will come. As we prepare, wait, yearn for this coming into our lives and the life of the world, God desires for us to have relationship in the meantime. God wishes to converse with us about our hopeful future and our part in bringing about the completion of Jesus’ work today. In the midst of a world where life and death issues abound, God is about liberation, setting free, letting my people go from slavery to freedom. Into this liberating world we too are called.
Bruce Feiler, the author of "Walking the Bible," asked one of the monks at St. Catherine’s "What should I listen for at the top of Mt. Sinai?" The Greek Orthodox Monk responded, "When you go up open your hand and receive the gift God has in store for you." Feiler reflects on his Mount Sinai experience after his hike and shares, "God comes down to the land itself on Mount Sinai. God has a relationship to the land and to the people of the land. I have learned as God reaches out to us, so we are called to reach out to God. To let go of our fears, anxieties, doubts, cynicism, despair, and open our self to God and receive the promise to come."
The Advent promise for us in Christ Jesus is Incarnational connection to the land, to the people of the land, to the God, not only of the Land but also of the whole universe. The Advent promise worth waiting for, stopping for, watching for, being awake for is relationship with God – in silence, worship, prayer, study yes, but also in doing Jesus healing redemptive work in the world with God. God desires for us ongoing conversation, conversion, and consummation, all to be experienced and lived out NOW and at Christ’s second coming reign of hope at the end of time. Blessed Advent! Joyous Christ Coming! God Bless!
