I am sitting at the kitchen table in the evening of the second Sunday of Advent. I have been reading Advent meditations this week, which in itself is actually quite astonishing, because I usually start seasons like Advent and Lent with high hopes and a goal of doing some deep reflecting and pondering each day, and then inevitably miss a day or two after which point I get discouraged and then give up on the thing all together.

So far, I have not given up.

Manzanita on a cloudy day. Really, this doesn’t have much to do with this post. Except I have a dear friend who uses manzanita branches instead of a traditional pine tree for her Christmas tree, and I think it’s marvelous.

I am especially enjoying Walter Brueggemann’s Celebrating Abundance: Devotions for Advent. In one of this week’s passages, Brueggemann tells us of John the Baptist, (Jesus’ cousin? or some kind of relative), who prepares the way for him and who “quickly, abruptly, and without reservation” steps back when Jesus appears. John said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Brueggemann challenges us to examine our own lives and to “decrease/increase” ourselves. He writes, “Decrease what is old and habitual and destructive in your life so that the new life-giving power of Jesus may grow large with you: Decrease what is greedy, what is frantic consumerism, for the increase of simple, life-giving sharing. Decrease what is fearful and defensive, for the increase of life-giving compassion and generosity… Decrease what is hateful and alienating, for the increase of healing and forgiveness, which finally are the only source of life.”

Advent is “not a time of casual waiting,” he concludes. “It is a demanding piece of work. It requires both the outrageousness of God and the daily work of decreasing so that Jesus and God’s vision of peace may increase.”

What is the “demanding work” of Advent that I could do this week? What does that look like for me? (What does it look like for you, for any of us?) Continue Reading…