Advent
by Rev. Dr. Tom Thresher
I recently spent four days at what is
called an Enlightenment Intensive. Despite the somewhat pretentious title,
this was a humbling and profound process that seems apropos to the scripture
passage at right, which introduces Advent.
All too typically, this passage from
Matthew is read with literal eyes, suggesting that the Son of Man will come
at an unforeseen time to redeem the earth from badness. It is the
foundational story of the rapture, where God's select will be lifted up to
heaven:
Then two will be in the field; one will
be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together;
one will be taken and one will be left. (Matthew 24:40-41).
To my mind this literal conception has lead
to terrible distortions with reverberations throughout our culture.
Besides enriching the authors of the "Left Behind" novels, it has motivated
self-destructive cults, disrupted lives, inspired new religions (the Seventh
Day Adventists emerged from the disappointment that the world did not end in
the late 1800s), and it appears to guide our current aggressive foreign
policy.
Is there a way to understand these passages
without historicizing them? Do they have any "juice" if they are not
interpreted literally?
It is my belief that we can only do credit
(and not distort them) if we take them allegorically, as myth, to guide us
on our spiritual journey.
I have suggested that the Christian
liturgical year represents a path of spiritual development that spirals
upward through different stages of our spiritual development. Advent
represents the beginning of a new cycle of development. Advent is a time of
preparation, of cleansing the psyche, if you will. It is a time when we
explore deeply within ourselves for the psychological baggage that prevents
us from being open to grace.
Let me explain this in terms of the
Enlightenment Intensive I attended. The primary purpose of this Intensive
is to open oneself to a direct experience of the Divine, or Truth (as in
"Know the Truth and the Truth will set you free). The method is to
contemplate, with the help of a partner, a particular question (I used, "who
am I?"). Whatever arises, you speak to your partner so you don't get stuck
thinking about it. Once you have gotten a thought, an emotion, a struggle,
or whatever, out of your system you return to your contemplation of the
question. While no one can tell grace when to arrive, the premise is that
we can prepare ourselves, or "encourage a happy accident," by clearing the
space in our psyche to receive grace when it does come.
As our scripture suggests, no one knows
when this will happen -- "about that day and hour no one knows." No one
knows when the Son of Man will come. The Son of Man does not refer to
Jesus, of course, it refers to the Christ awareness that awakens within us
only by grace; that is, through the intention God (the Father, the Mother,
the intelligence of the universe, the Divine, the Holy...).
The purpose of the practice of the
Intensive was to "keep awake" by clearing the clutter from our hearts and
minds so we can pay attention to grace, a direct experience of the Divine,
when it arises. (I am of the opinion that grace is always given; it is our
minds that are cluttered with thoughts that prevent us from receiving it.)
During Advent, as the initiation of a new
cycle of spiritual development, we are invited to turn inward to clear out
the psychic debris that clutters our hearts and minds so that we can receive
the Son of Man, the Christ, which will arrive without notice. The arrival
of the Son of Man we then celebrate as Christmas in two ways. On a mystical
/ mythical level, we celebrate the awakening of the Christ within us (which
only happens when it happens, not on a particular date) and, on a literal
level, when we celebrate the arrival of the Christ awareness in the man
Jesus who walked with us and showed what is possible when one lives in the
Christ presence.
Happy Advent... Tom
