This was the moment when nothing Happened...
Ursula Askham Fanthorpe, (1929 - 2009) was the first woman nominated as Professor of Poetry at Oxford University.
She wrote this Advent poem:
BC: AD
This was the moment when Before
Turned into After, and the future's
Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.
This was the moment when nothing
Happened. Only dull peace
Sprawled boringly over the earth.
This was the moment when even energetic Romans
Could find nothing better to do
Than counting heads in remote provinces.
And this was the moment
When a few farm workers and three
Members of an obscure Persian sect
Walked haphazard by starlight straight
Into the kingdom of heaven.
We are entering Advent in the Christian calendar. A season of waiting. Our culture hypes up this season of waiting so that it has become a time when everything seems to happen… there are shopping lists and parties and … so much to do…. and yet for some of us in the church it truly is a moment when nothing is happening and so we wait…
We wait with the few farm workers and the obscure Persian sect
and the expectant family walking haphazardly into …
What do you do while you wait… are you counting days, making listings, creating strategies, reading the trends…
What do you do while you wait with hope for the unexpected?
So far, I have led God's people into the Advent journey, put up the Xmas lights, and sorted the recycling. And tried to sing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" on a hoarse voice, but quite unsuccessfully!
ReplyDeleteAnd tonight, as my "Advent spiritual discipline", I will begin daily readings from "Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent & Christmas" with meditations by CS Lewis, Merton, Bonhoeffer, Annie Dillard, etc. Don't be surprised if some of them get quoted here!
Feel blessed by all the family and friends who remembered my birthday; try not to get involved and bogged down by the secular Christmas preparations already underway - not very unexpected is it??; wait expectantly for the next issue of the advent blog - thanks so much for this, what a pleasant surprise!
ReplyDeleteThe balcony lights (LED, of course) will be turned on Wednesday evening after work, my response to the dark and the cold! Went to the first concert of the season at WPGU last night - my old alma mater, the Vancouver Men's Chorus. Happy to receive an invitation from Dunbar Heights to their lessons and carols and will attend to renew acquaintances with the caring folk I met there whilst at First.
ReplyDeleteEastern star hangs high
ReplyDeletein azure blue sky
foretelling what will dawn
this day,
and years from now.
Light flowing
like mother's milk,
Light spilled
like blood from a
sacrificial calf.
A new way born
within the old way lived
dawns and offers
a different path home.
Each time the star rises
the east opens
the gate to a new way
an alternate road
a Lighted path.