Two more days…

That’s what my publisher just told me.

Two more days until publication of my new book.

It’s titled Change of Heart: A Wesleyan Spirituality.

Wipf and Stock will have it out by the end of the week.

Details on how to get it are still up in the air, of course.

I’m sure it will be available on Amazon, probably in hardback, paperback and Kindle editions. But when each appears is still a mystery to me. I also don’t know when other outlets, such as Cokesbury, will handle it

Believe me, I’ll let you know as soon as I know.

Normally, I’m cool, calm and collected. Right now I’m kind of a basket case. I’m definitely excited!

Soon comes the hard part: selling the book to readers. A marketing genius I am not. But I’ll do my best, and maybe with a bit of help from loyal “fans” like you, we’ll get the word out.

Two more days…

Whoa!

‘End times’ madness

War in the Mideast has ignited a new wave of speculation about the “end times.”

Almost all of this is worthless and destructive garbage – worthless because there is no biblical base for it, destructive because it distracts us from our real mission.

Our mission, you know, is not to sit around idly speculating about the return of Jesus. Our mission is to follow Jesus’ commission to live holy lives and introduce others to the new way of being human that he offers us.

Instead, the usual suspects are stirring the pot of pernicious conspiracy theories – “Double, double, toil and trouble: Fire burn, and cauldron bubble” – all the while (not coincidentally) raking in the bucks in weekly offerings and potential book sales.

These are, in fact, the “end times” – and they have been since the birth of Jesus. His coming signals the end of the old age and the dawning of the new age, the end of the old order and the dawning of the new.

But are these the final days before “the end of the world”? Most likely not.

First of all, you should not find that phrase in your Bible. You may find it, though, in some mistranslations of Matthew 13:49 and 24:3, where it actually means “end of the age.” This is the age that the coming of Jesus brought to a close.

 Jesus talked a lot about the new world order that he was inaugurating to replace the old world order. He called this new order the Reign of God, or the Kingdom of God. This new world order is the order of living in right relationship – loving God first and your neighbor as yourself.

 This new way of living totally upends all other forms of social interaction, especially those based on hierarchy and domination of the many by the few.

 Whereas, if you peek below the surface of “end times” prattle, you’ll see the old order unchanged, even unthreatened, by the coming of Jesus.

 What about the book of Revelation? What about it? It’s not a timetable for anything, especially the Second Coming. It’s an appeal for Christians to reject the old age – called Babylon – and fully embrace the new age – called New Jerusalem.

 In our time between the times, old age and new age overlap. Babylon and New Jerusalem exist side by side. You have a choice which way you live, which order of life you follow. Speculation about when Jesus will return is a distraction, and an evil one. You ought to live now in the new age, in the Reign of God.

 That’s partly what the season of Advent is all about. It’s about preparing us to live in the new age. And to that extent, it is indeed a sign of the end times – the end of the old age and the dawning of the new, shown to us in the birth of a child in Bethlehem.

Are we ready yet?

 Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent.

 You’ll often hear Advent described as a season of preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

 It is, but that’s only part of the story.

 The word Advent comes from the Latin adventus, meaning “coming.” Advent is a season of preparation for the coming of Christ.

 But not just at Christmas. Advent is a three-dimensional season.

 Remember how it goes in the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol? Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three ghosts: the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present and the ghost of Christmas future.

 Those are the three dimensions of Advent: Christ’s coming in the past, in the present, and in the future.

 The first dimension the easiest to grasp. During Advent we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus more than 2,000 years ago. We prepare by considering the familiar stories leading up to Jesus’ birth, the scriptures and the prayers that can open our hearts for the coming of Christ anew in our lives.

 The second dimension is the celebration of Christ present at Christmas. We celebrate by decorating our homes, getting together with family and friends, exchanging gifts, worshipping with others and continuing to celebrate in some way during those fabled Twelve Days of Christmas.

 If we celebrate well enough, we can feel the presence of Christ renewed in us. It’s as if Jesus were being reborn in us every year. It’s a wonderful feeling, the most magical of all the joys of Christmas.

The third dimension of Advent may be hardest to understand. This is preparation for the return of Christ in the future – the Second Coming, as it were. Despite the ravings of those who claim to know when this will happen, in truth we do not know. All we know is that Christ will return, and he said we ought to be ready.

We ready ourselves by living in obedience to Christ’s direction for how we ought to behave day by day by day. As hard as it is to practice, this is really quite simple. We are  given no timetable for when anything will happen because the point is that it could happen at any moment and we ought to live always in anticipation of that moment.

So Advent is a time of anticipation and celebration and deeper anticipation. We look forward to celebrating the first coming of Christ and the renewal of Christ’s life in us, and we look forward to receiving Christ when he returns at the consummation of history to renew the promises of God for all creation.

Scrooge feared what the ghost of Christmas future might bring. If Christ lives in us, we need not fear the third dimension of Advent. It’s another thing to celebrate this time of year.

One of my favorite sayings of advent comes from Gertude Muller Nelson, author of To Dance With God. She says: "It is Advent, and we the people of God are pregnant.” We are pregnant three ways: pregnant with anticipation of the celebration of Christmas, pregnant with the renewal of Christ within us and pregnant with our hope for the future.

Have a blessed Advent!

Here’s the buzz

My blog has gone silent for too long, but I have several excellent excuses.

 1. The name’s the same but just about everything else about it has changed. It has a new look and some new content. And we’re just beginning. More about that later.

 2. I have finished reviewing the page proofs of my new book. The title is Change of Heart: A Wesleyan Spirituality. The publisher is Wipf and Stock. It should be out around the end of the year, though not likely before Christmas. (And that was such an easy gift idea for all your friends and relatives!)

 3. Linda and I recently spent more than a week on an Aegean Sea cruise following two of the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul. We had a wonderful time, and my view of Paul has shifted substantially because of it. I’m still processing it all, but you can expect to hear more about it than you probably want to know.

 4. As part of the new website, you’ll be receiving notices of my blog differently than before. This is the first post under the new regime, so we’ll see how well it works.

 Blog topics in the near future:

 *  Advent has three dimensions, not just one.

 *  Fighting in the Mideast produces the usual end-times twaddle.

 * Whining all the way, George Santos is expelled from the House – and the national press is there to magnify every wail. These are troubled times indeed.

 * On our cruise, we learned about several major holidays we’d never heard of before, including “It’s national let’s all visit the Parthenon day!”

 More soon. Feels good to be back!

NEWS!

NEWS! NEWS!

Bulletin #1: I have signed a contract for a new book. It’s about Methodism and Wesleyan theology.

It’s still in early stages of publication – proofreading of manuscript and typesetting – so I don’t know about a release date. Details when I learn them.

Bulletin #2: This primitive blogsite will soon be transformed into a full-fledged website with features I have long wanted to add here but didn’t know how. No release date on this either.

I offer both these items as a partial explanation for why I’ve posted here so infrequently of late. I’ll be offline for a couple more weeks as I work through some other projects.

I never envisioned retirement to be so busy, but I’m not complaining. The last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun.

I hope to post much more regularly when the new website is up and running.

I also have tentative plans to publish another book on the website, one chapter every week. (Publishers don’t want it, so I’ll offer it free.)

We’ll see how these things pan out. Meantime, grace and peace from the God who works marvels in all our lives, even when we least expect them.