Someone asked me if our ‘waiting art space was open this week as they had thought about it last week and it had gone… they got too busy!!!! I was waiting on someone saying something like that and simply looked at them. What can one say when what was on offer was exactly concerned with all that ensnared them and their week. I hope they got the point!
Me? Well I am actually resting up after the last few weeks and am looking forward to applying the things that had started to run away from me. In fact while I was ‘waiting’ I read
Psalm 90 v12 ‘Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.’ This verse in particular seemed to hit home and I offered it on Sunday to folks as we pondered Simeon and Anna. I think they cherished God’s promises and they held in hope to it. Hope being as Stringfellow terms it ‘reliance upon grace in the face of death’ More it is ‘living constantly, patiently, expectantly, resiliently, joyously in the effectiveness of the word of God’. I believe that in this hoping is contentment that enabled them to number their days immersed in Christ and gained hearts of wisdom to know that this child was the one. Considering Psalm 90 Brueggemann notes the ‘abiding constancy of Yahweh as home’ being the reality of this psalm. It is the sense of ‘at-homeness’ that Simeon and Anna make reality in their lifestyle – lives not captive to proof, evidence, overly impressed by data or demographic but persistently paying attention to God’s Lordship. Life rooted in faith this way gains ‘a heart of wisdom.’
So I find some way towards an answer for this elderly lady who asked a question , as well as find some lessons from advent myself. Our Highgate mission must continue in the new stages in hope (reliance upon grace in face of all that is deathly) and live out it’s at-homeness that others find home in Christ.
