Advent and the Mission of the Church

 I'm exhausted with busyness.  It's all fun stuff, thinking of loved ones and matching up memories and thoughts with gifts from the heart, engaging in merriment with friends from various circles, complete with food and sweet, sweet nectar, planning extra worship services, ad infinitum.  I feel like a mid-level government employee in ancient Rome, working hard to make this world-wide census happen, too hard to notice Joseph and the soon-to-be Blessed Mother making their way to the family farm.

For all my churchy, overcommitted, overscheduled, blasted busyness, I miss Jesus.  Which, of course, means I've missed Jesus. I've missed him when my wife needs a longer hug and a prayer companion. I've missed him when Tim and Spider (our neighborhood homeless gentlemen) need to talk with another person just a bit more.  I've missed him whispering to me that his advent has changed everything, and that I'd have seen that much sooner and much more clearly if I'd only taken time to talk with him.

I've been too busy counting people for some ridiculous census in my own mind. I've one more obligation on the calendar tonight, a pint and discussion evening for Intown.  Tonight we'll be discussing this passage from NT Wright's essay, The Most Dangerous Baby:

“If Jesus is the true King of all the world, whose kingdom redefines power and glory so that they are now seen in the manger, on the cross, and in the garden, then to pray "Thy kingdom come" from the Lord's Prayer is to ask that this kingdom, this power, and this glory may be seen in all the world. It is not enough, though it is the essential starting point, that we submit in our own lives to God's alternative kingdom-vision; we must pray and work for the vision to come in reality, with the rulers of this world being confronted with the claims of their rightful King. 

 We cannot, then, pray the Lord's Prayer and acquiesce in the power and glory of Caesar's kingdom. If the church is not prepared to subvert the kingdoms of the world with the kingdom of God, the only honest thing would be to give up praying the Lord's Prayer altogether.”

Jesus, I'm sick of playing king.  Let the subversion start in my own heart.