THE REIGN OF GOD

Much of what Christian community needs right now is... awareness... In its most complete expression in both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, awareness is the quality of simple alertness and receptivity to whatever the Divine Presence may be doing.

Jesus seeks to draw people into a fuller state of awareness with the words we know nearly by heart: "Let the little children come to Me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it" (Luke 18:16-17).

We are to become like the awed and the open, like those blinking their eyes at the wonder of life. Do this, Jesus counsels, and then we shall enter most fully what God sets before us. Not long before His crucifixion, Jesus responds to those seeking dramatic signs of God's reign: "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you" (Luke 17:20-21).

Be open, Jesus counsels. Be attentive. Be aware! The reign of God is in our very midst. 

-- Stephen  Doughty in “Discovering Community” 

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ADVENT WAITING AND WATCHING

It turns out that the One who made us is also the One who cannot stand for us to be apart. And that One begins to whisper to the ones who will listen -- "I will come again, I will walk among you. Look for me in a child who is to come, born of a maiden." The ones who hear the whisper and believe it begin to whisper themselves, trying to describe as best they can what they hear and what is to come. They use words like "Messiah," "Immanuel," the "Rod of Jesse," and "Son of David," trying to speak of what they know can hardly be said. The collective repeating of the whisper grows in volume until it has become as the sound of a voice crying in the wilderness.

Those who have begun to wait and to watch can indeed do only that: wait and watch. They look for the signs of God among us and wait and hope and wonder if they have somehow misunderstood.

And now we wait along with them again. 

-- Robert Benson in “The Night of the Child” (Nashville, Tenn.: Upper Room Books, 2001. Used with permission.) 

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