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Living the Word

Receive the Mystery
by Joyce Hollyday
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Our sriptures take us through the season of Advent almost to the edge of Lent. This journey of weeks is like a treasure hunt, in which each clue reveals a truth and points us on to the next. God is the mystery behind the puzzle.

During Advent, we wait for God to reveal God's self in human form, as one of us. In the weeks that follow, we see God as Spirit, creator, light, judge, and giver of grace. This is a season of awe, a time to rest in the amazement of having been created, loved, and redeemed by a God who defies description, yet chooses to reveal the mystery to hearts that can receive it.

December 11: Take a Seat
Zephaniah 3:14-20; Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18

Joy, joy, JOY! Our Zephaniah, Isaiah, and Philippians passages are brimming with invitations to rejoice in the God who brings justice.

On the last day of September 1981, I was walking on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. All the cafes were adorned with banners entreating patrons to "Ring in the New Year Here!" New Year? In September? Is our Congress three months ahead of the rest of us, I wondered, or miserably behind the times?-well, let's not go into that. The mystery became clear when I saw a banner that had added the word "Fiscal" in front of "New Year."

The next day, October 1, 1981, was the first day of the Reagan budget. I happened to be sitting in a cell in the D.C. jail as a result of a political protest. I will never forget the conversation with the other women there.

Most of them already felt pushed by desperation and despair into prostitution or selling illegal drugs. They spoke openly about the changes they feared were coming: severe cutbacks in education and job-training opportunities, in Food Stamps and drug rehabilitation programs. Whether or not fiscal year 1981 was something to celebrate had everything to do with whether you were sitting in a Capitol Hill cafe or the D.C. jail.

Perspective. That's what these passages are really about. So we have the ironic juxtaposition in Luke of axes being laid to the roots of trees, a winnowing hook clearing the threshing floor, and chaff being burned with unquenchable fire-followed by "So, with many other exhortations, John preached good news to the people." Good news indeed! Cause for joy and celebration.

For some, that is. It depended on where you were sitting.

JOYCE HOLLYDAY, a former associate editor and now a contributing editor for Sojourners, writes, leads retreats, and works with survivors of domestic abuse in western North Carolina. She is the author, most recently, of Clothed With the Sun: Biblical Women, Social Justice, and Us (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994).

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From Sojourners Online, copyright 1994 Sojourners, July 1994, Vol. 23, No. 6.

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