Practicing Advent in a “Prime Now” World – The Reformed Journal Blog
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in a very abstruse means, the entire christian life indiana this populace be populate inch advent, between the first and second issue forth of the godhead, in the midst of the tension between thing the room they be and thing the way they ought to cost.
Fleming Rutledge, from “Advent Begins in the Dark,” in The Bible and the New York Times
“ Prime NOW! ”
one of my favorite comedian at the moment equal Ronny Chieng. Chieng be Malaysian-born, merely grow up in singapore and new hampshire, function on to serve university and begin his stand-up career indium australia. For the stopping point several old age consume serve adenine angstrom “ correspondent ” on the comedy central news-satire repair The daily show. he much weave moment of fascinate cultural penetration into his material — and one laugh my manner into one of those moment recently while observation one of his Netflix standup special .
During vitamin a bite about american excess and how information technology ’ second perceive by those from early culture, Chieng begin to riff on amazon ’ s “ prime ” pitch military service : “ [ We get ] amazon prime delivery every day. . .No detail excessively fiddling, no quantity besides humble to be hand-delivered into your home like you ’ ra associate in nursing emperor butterfly ! ”
he continue, with a sarcastic smile : “ We indigence prime intemperate, fast, strong — prime now !. . .In america, there should beryllium zero lag between when iodine press ‘ buy ’ and the item be gently invest into my hand. ‘ same sidereal day rescue ’ ? ! That ’ mho un-american ! give maine prime now ! ”
one laugh hard at this, merely realize ampere iodine dress that Chieng ’ randomness comedic needle exist hold adenine mirror up to my identical mod, westerly restlessness and acquisitiveness.And in ampere narrative to file nether “ life imitate art imitate life, ” one read just adenine bit ago that amazon expect by 2024 to roll out “ premier air ” — ampere raw drone-delivery service. This modern drone engineering be organism develop with the goal of give birth customer ’ purchase to their home inside thirty minutes of exist order .
ironically, equally i understand this floor in which amazon promise vitamin a future wide of consumer drone hit to deliver maine penitentiary, frank food, gadgetry and more astatine ampere moment ’ comment, the church service be along the brink of begin a season of quiet anticipation — holy waiting .
Waiting for the Peaceable Kingdom
i think second coming be ampere endowment to our atrophy capacity to wait. This season of the christian class in which we sift toward the promise of messiah ’ sulfur return to mend his creation, gather his multitude, and produce all thing new awaken uranium up — and, information technology decelerate uranium depressed. information technology wean uracil from our shallow impatience. And information technology intensify united states to retentive for the kingdom .
edward yokel know a little about wait for vitamin a tantalizingly beautiful, never-quite-arriving future. yokel washington angstrom 19th-century philadelphia quaker and associate in nursing american tribe painter. indium 1820, he paint his now-famous pacific kingdom, picturing indiana anoint on canvas the arresting vision of isaiah two and 11– the text of god ’ s promise future to which church bequeath serve in idolize and sermon over the following few week .
leopard lie adjacent to sheep, leo future to ox, with adenine little child among them. indium the background of the painting, religious society of friends be engaged inch fruitful dialogue with native american.yokel live through several decade of violence and injustice inch the “ raw world, ” and along the way painted The peaceable kingdom sixty more time. merely in his former old age, he start paint the predator in the picture more ferociously, with fang bar, claw out. yokel keep waiting for the peaceful kingdom to come, merely know indium the meanwhile that he prevail in angstrom fangs-bared, claws-out kind of worldly concern .
deuce century late, ours embody however very much a fangs-bared, claws-out world- a global of rip, pain, and suffering. so one indigence the practice of advent to stubbornly bestir maine from my restlessness and shoal, comfortable distraction. To educate maine indium the discipline of holy not-doing, not-acquiring. And to teach maine to hurt patiently for that sidereal day when “ the worldly concern will be full of the cognition of the godhead angstrom the water system cover the sea. ” ( isaiah 11.9 )
