November 27, 2016 - First Sunday in Advent - An Advent Devotional?

We are in a new church year waiting, preparing, meditating on the second coming of Christ.  Pastor Michelle touched on all this in her sermon.

This Advent, however, feels different with profound anger and fear upending what many find meaningful in this season.


At a Crosswalk

I see this particularly strong reaction in pastors as I read their Facebook posts and blogs.  There is a Lutheran pastor in Silicon Valley who kicked off and is writing a #F*!kThisS&)t ∞ An Advent Devotional (without the masking symbols).  I know the masking symbols fell a bit prudish but without them writing about this seems to inspire more anger and fear. 

This was my friend Bishop Dave's response to the lament and anger of this pastor's writing:

One of the primary criticisms of the Trump campaign has been his encouragement of the unleashing of misogynistic, homophobic and racial/xenophobic tendencies in people. What a great sadness! In the same way I find this devotion to be “reactionary” and not “responsive.” It fails by the same criteria. We rightly call on President-Elect Trump to call “his people” to account. As a bishop of the ELCA I am wondering what my responsibility is here. Surely we can do better than this. “F*!k” may be used today as a “catch-all word” but it is itself deeply misogynistic, abusive and angry. This would seems to me to be what Matthew 24:44ff calls us to be watchful around! Be angry, Tuhina, but as a leader in the Church please seek to “go high.”

My complaint here is as a bishop of the church in which Tuhina is a pastor. Personal lament is one thing. Public witness as a leader is another. I get what you’re saying. I just don’t like to see the cancer spread. Trump has unleashed great harm in our culture through his words. Pastors like Tuhina and me wield the same sword, for better or for worse.

Say what you want to say. Grieve the way you need to grieve. We all break stuff, curse, yell and cry in our pain. That’s natural. I depend on people I trust to hold me at such times — and to hold me accountable. “Lament” is one thing. “Anger” is another. In my life I find lament healing and anger often hurtful. At its best, though, anger keeps me alert, watchful and wary. So, Tuhina speaks to me when she says she is weary of feeling angry, but unwilling to let go of the anger yet. It is unsafe to do so at this point. Yes.

When I wake up in the morning thinking, “Oh f*!" that’s real. But isn’t there another reality? I mean, a promise, a hope, a shimmering of the sacred even in the midst of all this?

Tuhina was offering an Advent devotion on watchfulness. Matthew 24:41: “Two women are grinding meal, one is left and one is taken.” Life is random, rude, unfair and painful. I get that! But for me to be watchful is to be awake for that which is other, of the Divine, healing, more truth than all the ugly carp. I think that’s the point of Matthew 24:44. What I need is a community which is honest, justice oriented and bold. And in the midst of all the pain I need a ‘sub-version’ — a deeper story. That’s what works for me, anyway.

"F*%k." I don’t have a better word for you. I don’t think there is any really good language and pain and persecution. I personally give thanks that the Spirit will intercede for me with “sighs too deep for words.” That’s kind of what I was taught, I guess. But I do have questions about where words are used and to what end. I like your question about how we can “change what we are saying.” What’s the story we tell and choose to live in? For me that’s the deal.
A deeper story.  That is what many friends seem to be struggling towards. Does another reality, Christ crucified seem less powerful a reality because of what we are facing now?