Psalm 137; Micah 7:11-20; 1 Pet. 4:7-19; Matt. 20:29-34
‘Lord, open our eyes.’ What better thing for which to pray as we move headlong into Advent? So bedazzled with the world’s distractions are we–a shortage of Christmas trees! the recipe to guarantee a perfect Norman Rockwell holiday with your fractious in-laws! cyber Monday specials that will never be repeated! wars, rumors of wars, signs in the heavens! Be distracted, friends: look over there, ignore the little man behind the curtain…
The Christian life calls for clear vision, for accurate assessment of the world’s sorrows and challenges, of the places where love and comfort and mercy are needed, and conversely of those places (all too often curled up right inside my own skull) where blunt, direct justice and repentance is in order. To see that the Redeemer lies in a feed trough, in a cave behind a peasant hut, in a village so insignificant it didn’t even merit a wall to keep out the bandits–that, friends, required shepherds and wise men to look beyond the headlines, to read the signs accurately. And then, to take that knowledge and come to worship Him when all the world dangled its blandishments in front of them if only they’d bow down to the Powers That Be…well, that required courage as well as discernment. But courage is of no value if its not exercised in the service of the Truth–and to see the Truth, we need to ask for open eyes, for clear vision, for the grace to see beyond the headlines and the flash of cameras and ‘what everyone knows,’ to look hard for the places where love and mercy lie in a feed trough and repentance and justice have been locked out of throne rooms.
