December 6, 2917 - Advent Dinner Study, Holden Evening Worship

Advent - The season of light in the darkness. Wednesday we sang Holden evening prayer in the dark with candles interspersed throughout the front of the sanctuary. This Wednesday Advent worship did not feel like a wait or preparing for the light of Christmas. The moment was holy unto itself and to those gathered.

The evening started with the readings from this coming Sunday. We discussed two, a reading from Isaiah and the first verses of Mark's Gospel describing John the Baptizer and a voice calling in the wilderness. We moved from there to listing the differences in Creator's customs around baptism and the baptisms John performed

Obviously the description of John and the baptisms he performed were wilder. Baptism in the Jordan River and a baptismal font do appear different, at least on the surface.

For those living in the time of Jesus hearing the detail of Jordan River being the place these baptisms took place was meaningful. For them it represented a place of transition from the wilderness to the Promised Land, a transition to new beginnings,  After John this would become the place where John baptized Jesus. In the Exodus story the seas parted for God's people to be free from bondage. For Jesus instead of the waters parting, the heavens did today's gospel reading did not included Jesus' baptism.

The geography bothered me at first as our small group discussed this. The Exodus story is about moving from God's chosen people from bondage to the wilderness and finally to the Promised Land. Where are the people coming from that John baptizes? Physically from this same Promised Land in Exodus. Their destination should not be a transitional return to the wilderness, and this physically would not have happened. The other question in my mind was why would knowing what the Jordan River may have meant to the ancients make baptisms more meaningful in our lives today?

Then another light illuminated my soul. John's baptisms signified a transition to a new Promised Land, which emphasizes God's promise, not a particular land. Christians are now baptized in spirit and a holiness beyond place.

Today our President announced the eventual move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. For some Christians this is stuff of prophecy. As author Diana Butler Bass explained in a recent article, in this prophecy God wants to redeem his chosen people. As an indicator of the end times, the Jews experience a great religious rebirth and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. This sparks a series of cataclysmic events eventually culminating in the Battle of Armageddon, the last war of humanity and, as a result, the Jews finally accept Jesus as their savior. This triggers Jesus to return in glory and rules over a thousand-year reign of peace.

It all begins in Jerusalem. This theology is called dispensational premillennialism.and dominates American evangelicalism.

Robert Jeffress, one of Trump's evangelical advisers, declared: "Jerusalem has been the object of the affection of both Jews and Christians down through history and the touchstone of prophecy." Other evangelical pastors and teachers also praised the action as "biblical" and likened it to a "fulfilled prophecy."

This is a Christianity -- an interpretation of biblical history / prophecy -- that loses me. I resist it with every fiber of my being. I don't recognize the voice of Jesus or God in any of this stitched-together, end-times fantasy made popular by The Late, Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsey.

What the Christians I know are waiting and preparing for and the life we are being asked to follow involves a completely different cosmology, an unpredictable unfolding of events, and a call to a new way of being in the world.