how i got over
where the people come apart
The calendar bears down on us with particular intensity during this time of the year. There’s so much to do: There are the cards to mail. The meals to prepare. The gatherings to host and attend. The ensembles to don. The gifts to purchase and wrap. The relationships to tend. And, I shouldn’t forget to mention the services to make it to, too. The Advent calendar becomes downright sinister with all those tasks on our to-do lists. Another day is over; did you accomplish everything?
Luckily, I suppose, there are still enough unopened doors on our Advent calendars to tell ourselves we’ll manage to pull everything off this year. Despite our mixed track record when it comes to managing all those Advent activities in years past. And despite all those deadlines we’ve already missed.
The time for that tomfoolery had come and gone for the people the prophet Ezekiel spoke to, though. They had landed on the wrong side of the deadline in a definitive way. They had missed their shot. Their hopes for a bright future were all dried up. But the salt in the wound was that they knew it, too. They could see all too clearly that the door to the future had closed on them.
The really horrifying discovery, though, was the realization that it wasn’t just the future that had turned from them, so had God. Their prospects had become so dim that God had cut them out of the picture. And that harrowing reckoning only made their situation that much more forlorn.
No sooner did this gut-wrenching knowledge set in, though, than Ezekiel spoke out! And he told those people who thought they were cut off from God that God was about to cut in on them! Ezekiel told those folks that now that it was too late for them to do anything, the timing was just right for God to do everything! Then, Ezekiel gave utterance to the culmination of the entire Old Testament. And, dare I say, all of human history, too! Ezekiel laid out the very first vision of the resurrection.
…It’s one thing to sneak in under the deadline. But it’s another thing altogether to stand on the wrong side of that countdown. One slips through the closing window, and the other slams into it. And while these two outcomes couldn’t be more different, the difference between them is minuscule. More miracle than mastery.
We all have varying levels of success edging out those cutoffs in life. On this side of the grave, though, it’s only a matter of time. Eventually, we will all stand on the wrong side of the critical deadline, our mortality. The best any of us can do is hold off the clock as long as possible.
The God Ezekiel proclaims, though, is the God who holds all our time in his pierced hands! And Jesus doesn’t just extend the clock. No, he obliterates it! Jesus destroys that timer ticking down on all of us! And in so doing, he actually rescues us!
Jesus isn’t in the business of second-changes. No, he’s in the business of salvation! And salvation isn’t a repair job. It’s resurrection! The wrong side of the deadline is the right place to be with the God who raises the dead!
And the truth is, that’s where all of us stand today, whether we know it or not.
…The reason all those Advent activities aren’t just activities for us is that they’re an implicit judgment on our year, and even our very selves. And we’re all deathly afraid the verdict will come out negative. We worry that if we don’t come across as winning and successful, others will think less of us. We fret that if our accomplishments aren’t enough, our future will slip away from us. And, deep down, we fear that if everything else goes to pieces, God will step out on us, too.
Ezekiel, though, declares that’s totally backward! The wrong side of all those fears is right where Jesus meets you! And he doesn’t show up there just to show you how to get back on the successful side. No, he arrives in the thick of it all to give you the victory he’s won by his resurrection!
It’s in your valley full of dry bones that you finally see just how far Jesus’ love for you goes! And that means everything on your plate is nothing more than fuel for the Holy Spirit! All those deadlines are just pushing you toward Jesus’ holiest work this Advent, resurrection!
All those other gods out there make their bones by the deadlines set on this side of the grave. That’s why trying to live up to them leaves you all dried out every time. Those gods that promise a path to winning at life only ever make demands. They never make any promises.
Trying to prove your worth by the standards of success and survival will leave you constantly running from one thing to the next, never sure you’ve made it. It’s not much of a life. A lot like those half-dead corpses Ezekiel revived that hadn’t yet received the spirit of God. Which, on a Sunday during this time of the year, is probably the grave each one of us has at least have one foot in.
So, get ready because God’s holy Spirit is about to breathe over all our tired, dry, old bones!
God covered in flesh, Jesus Christ, stands on the other side of the grave! And he has some promises for you not bound by the tomb! He promises he’s fulfilled Ezekiel’s resurrection vision! And what’s more, he promises he’s fulfilled that vision for you!
Jesus didn’t rise from the dead just to prove God’s word. No, he rose from the dead to become that Word! To prove it for you! Bring it to you!
Jesus, by his resurrection, actually meets you on the wrong side of all your deadlines! And it’s right there that he gives you his new life! His life-eternal! His life lived in light of all of God’s promises!
And in that light, suddenly this time of the year becomes, not a season of never-ending to-dos, but a true Advent! A season dripping with all God’s Promises. A time chockfull of God’s holy work in your midst!
You are no longer doomed to mere drudgery this year. For the Christ-child has shown up in the midst of all your to-do’s. He’s made them his manager. And by this holy advent in your midst, all your days and to-do’s take on a holy luster. They brim with promise. They are just one more way to experience God’s sacred work this Advent. And even an opportunity to extend a little of it to others who are all dried up by the demands of life.
And that’s something you can’t add that to your to-do list. Because Christ has already crossed it off his!
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