Wednesday, December 16: Psalm 125:4-5
4 Lord, do good to those who are good. To those who are upright in heart.
5 But those who turn to crooked ways, the Lord will banish with the evildoers.
We encounter passages like this often in the Psalms: the Psalmist exulting in the favor God shows for the righteous, but equally in God’s certain judgment upon evildoers. In our society’s current moment of pervasive “us versus them” polarization, this is an uncomfortable sentiment for the Christian to encounter in Scripture – it feels perhaps vengeful and self-congratulatory in a not very Christ-like way.
The Advent season gives us a different angle on this by reminding us of the surprising character and often mixed blessings that accompany God’s favor. Mary rejoices that she has received God’s favor when the angel shares the news of her pregnancy, even though for her it will mean not only morning sickness and labor pains but also shaming and shunning by her neighbors. Joseph will endure the heartache of perceived betrayal before choosing to believe Mary and thus sharing in her hometown disgrace. Shepherds discover the joy of the newborn baby while working the night shift, doing the cold and lonely jobs no one else wants to do. Wise Men seeking a great king will instead find a homeless couple in a stable sheltering a helpless infant. The holy family will soon find themselves strangers in a strange land, refugees from a murderous tyrant.
Advent means waiting to be surprised, and it invites us to question our place in the story. Rather than presuming with the Psalmist that we belong among the upright “us” and not the crooked “them,” it asks us instead where we should expect to find Jesus. Will we find the savior among those who delight in their power and privilege, safely insulated from the pain of others; or will we instead find him among the shunned and shamed, the lonely and heartsick, the poor and beleaguered, the homeless and the refugees? Which are truly the crooked ways and which are the straight? And when the Advent moment comes and our promised encounter with our Lord arrives, as he said, as a thief in the night, where will we be found?
John Michael Parrish