Sabbat- (or) Holy Advent, part VI

Sabbat- (or) Holy Advent, part VI

Richard M. Wright

(The Sabbat- is going somewhere… trust me.)

This Sunday is the first in the season of Advent. The word advent comes from Latin and means simply “coming.” Normally we think of the (first) coming of Christ. But as our pastor Jay Hogewood along with Christian tradition remind us Advent is about both the first and the second coming of Christ. Indeed the season of Advent begins by looking forward to the second coming. The song of Advent begins on an eschatological note.

In other words… Advent is a season in the Christian calendar when we not only look backwards but also look forwards. Advent straddles the past and the future.

So what does this have to do with Sabbat-?

Speaking of beginnings… look at the creation story/ies of Genesis 1 and 2. (My personal theology is heavily creational and begins with and emphasizes the book of Genesis. Manifesto available on request.) Genesis 1 emphasizes what God does. God speaks… creates… names. Human beings are described in royal terms (1:28) – they have power and responsibility within creation. Genesis 2 emphasizes what human beings do. They are necessary for creation to continue (2:5). And now they name things. (What scholar Terence Fretheim calls “creaturely creation.”) Human beings are described in terms of service (2:15).

And what marks the transition between the first and second stories? Between how God creates and the beginning of creaturely creativity by human beings? Between power and service? Between “the heavens and the earth” and “the earth and the heavens”? Between the “grandeur of God’s cosmic designs” and the “commitment of creation to live in harmony within God’s world” (Samuel Balentine, The Torah’s Vision of Worship, 83)? Between…

A ritual world in which the liturgy of creation might be sustained (Genesis 1:1-2:4a), and a relational world in which God invites humankind to share responsibility for the maintenance, development, and restoration of God’s purposive designs for the universe (2:4b-25). (ibid., 81)

“By the seventh day… God rested…. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy” (2:2-3a).

More on this next week…