Confidence

21Dec
Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet, in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay; but my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back. ’But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

 -Hebrews 10:35-11:1


A Jew goes to his Rabbi and says, “Rabbi, you’ll never guess what happened to me. My son left the house and became a Christian!” The rabbi closes his office door, says,”Shhh,” and whispers hoarsely, ”…you’ll never believe what happened to me. My son left the house too and became a Christian!”


“So what do we do?” asked the first Jew. “Of course, we pray to God.” Said the rabbi. They prayed to God and God said, “You’ll never believe what happened to me…!”


In the years after the Resurrection and before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, there were surely many households that were shamefully admitting that family had left home to become Jesus-Jews. There were also other religious sectarians who sought to poach on the work of the Apostles who had set about teaching Christ’s truth. 


The Letter to the Hebrews reads like a field manual for Apostles teaching in homes and villages amid such challenges. The prose has a directness and inertia one would need to draw a straight line from the Law and the Prophets to the new home-port of Jesus’ Kingdom.


There is a difference in scale, to be sure, but a commitment to Advent preparedness and the Hebrews letter remind me of navigating a nuclear submarine from the open ocean to the Naval Weapons Station at Charleston, SC. They are tasks of increasing difficulty and faith…Then you’re home.


The submarine journey is broken down into many straight chords that glide an ungainly vessel over a sinuous tidal channel one cannot see beneath the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. The navigation team follows a series of markers, arranged in pairs called ranges. With one marker directly ahead and the other directly aft, the navigators take it on faith that the channel is beneath the keel. Tidal currents, wind, and an ungainly ship conspire against perfection. Confidence vigilance, skill, and commitment are the stuff of inland piloting at this scale. After the last range is run, far up-river, the ship breaks into the harbor and the chubby grey tugboats take over. Home.


As the fresh wick of the fourth Advent candle flickers to life, I realize how quickly we will sail past it and into the safe harbor of Christmas Eve with our Savior. In time, I will reflect on the currents and distractions that challenged this Advent journey of faith. But not now. Today I am ready to say, “Enough struggle.” Now it’s like the first night of the first snow of winter. Soft, whispering quiet, serene, crisp. With the four candles passing behind me, I reach into the soft darkness toward the straight-way of John’s preaching. Before I can see it, a tiny hand reaches from within the holy darkness and grasps my outstretched finger, it pulls me into the safe harbor of His Love. “Welcome Home, my beloved!”, says a tiny voice of silent, eternal thunder.


Musical Reflection - In the Bleak Midwinter, Holst - Tenebrae Choir


Emmanuel. As we release ourselves into the stillness of the mid-winter nap; keep us warm under the blanket of St. Theresa’s prayer: “Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.” Amen.

― Santa Teresa of Avila

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