Advent Simplicity, Light and Beauty Friday Five

In a wonderfully meditative Friday Five Sally brings us the following: "Imagine a complex, multi-cultural society that annually holds an elaborate winter festival, one that lasts not simply a few days, but several weeks. This great festival celebrates the birth of the Lord and Saviour of the world, the prince of peace, a man who is divine. People mark the festival with great abundance- feasting, drinking and gift giving....." (Richard Horsley- The Liberation of Christmas) The passage goes on, recounting the decorations that are hung, and the songs and dances that accompany the festival, how the economy booms and philanthropic acts abound.... But this is not Christmas- this is a Roman festival in celebration of the Emperor....This is the world that Jesus was born into! The world where the early Christians would ask "Who is your Saviour the Emperor or Christ?" And yet our shops and stores and often our lives are caught up in a world that looks very much like the one of ancient Rome, where we worship at the shrine of consumerism.... Advent on the other hand calls us into the darkness, a time of quiet preparation, a time of waiting, and re-discovering the wonder of the knowledge that God is with us. Advent's call is to simplicity and not abundance, a time when we wait for glorious light of God to come again... Christ is with us at this time of advent, in the darkness, and Christ is coming with his light- not the light of the shopping centre, but the light of love and truth and beauty. What do you long for this advent? What are your hopes and dreams for the future? What is your prayer today? In the vein of simplicity I ask you to list five advent longings....

• I long for a world who knows who God is. Really is. The one who created our wonderful selves in God's own image, lamented over how we were unable to sustain God's vision and dream for us, loved us enough to break into history to show us enfleshed both who God was and who we could be at our best. If we knew, really knew that God, that love, we would have to be different with ourselves and one another. The world would change. It would have to.
  
• I long for greater simplicity. For the volume to be turned down so we can hear the silence. For the bright lights to dim so we can see the stars. For the hurry to stop so we can simply...be.
  
• I long for a warmer world. For a world where people count more than things and we know there is enough if we would just simply share.
  
• I long for justice.
  
• I long for peace.