We mark
beginnings, celebrating the “new:” the possibilities, the opportunities, the
change, the risk, the good ones, the not-so-good ones, those that are small and
those that are large. We continually
birth ourselves throughout life, conceiving notions and ideas, nourishing them
and letting them grow within until the time is ripe for the contractions and
the mess of birth. Birthing is not easy. With the new, come those possibilities, those
opportunities, those changes, risks and every emotion from elation to fear.
Whether
we are marking birthdays, anniversaries, a new business or job, a new house or
a new church year, we often reminisce about what came before, what has changed,
what is closing.
There’s
a 1998 pop song by a local band done good, Semisonic, called “Closing
Time.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGytDsqkQY8&feature=kp The song is about “bar time” when the bar is
closing for the night, the last drinks have been served, the last dance is
being danced. Many of us can picture the
scene. Songwriter Dan Wilson has a way with words and puts an interesting slant
on the scene. “Every new beginning comes
from some other beginning’s end.”
With
the beginning of Advent we have the opportunity to begin again. The past year is ending, teaching us and
guiding us into a new understanding of who we are for our families, our
friends, our beloved faith community and our God. What can we let go of from the past? What former beginning are we willing to let
end?
Dan Wilson has another line in the song:
“You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” I take this metaphorically. I must be willing to leave the comfort of
some of what “home” means to me. Those
emotions that drag me down, those relationships that are strained, those
burdens that keep me away from the ability to see the holy.
We are entering into Advent, which, according to Dictionary.com
means: a coming into place, view, or being; arrival: the advent of the holiday season. We,
by the nature of our baptism, are coming into a new place. We cannot stay “here” and be prepared for the
gift of Jesus without revisiting what was, we need to be willing to change
those things that are preventing us from moving into a fuller communion with
Jesus and with one another.
Our personal closing time, that
act of shutting the door of one part of our life, opens so many
opportunities. One more line from the
song: “Time for you to go out to the places you will be from.” Where are we from? What does this beginning offer us and our
world? Are we willing to go out into all
those places we inhabit every hour of the day and see the advent of this new
beginning? Are we willing to see how
this beginning can be another beginning’s end?
I wish you blessings as we exit,
together, what was, and enter, together, what will be.