Advent Collage

 In Mark 13: 35 we read: Therefore, keep awake---for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: keep awake.

In the next chapter, Mark 14, we find:

Vs 17- When it was evening, Jesus came with twelve… and they had supper.

Vs 33- After supper Jesus took, Peter, James, and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. Jesus said, ‘I am deeply grieved even to death, remain here, and keep awake. … and Jesus went off in the garden to pray. We know this story – three times Jesus returns to the disciples and finds them, not keeping awake and praying, but rather sleeping.

In vs. 68 – Peter is in the courtyard of the high priest’s house, where he denies knowing Jesus. The time …Peter went out into the forecourt. Then the cock crowed. And again, the servant-girl, on seeing Peter, began again to say to the bystanders, ‘this man is one of them.’ Again, Peter denied it.

And chapter 15 begins, as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation …they bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him to Pilate.

This story that leads to Jesus’ arrest and death marks time, exactly as predicted and forewarned, in Mark 13. It is an example to future generations of what it means to: Therefore, keep awake--- for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: keep awake!

 

I have always anticipated with joy walking through the Season of Advent. The mood of the season, the words of the hymns, the ritual of the Advent wreath, and the tension in the scriptures read – along with the shortening of daytime hours, resonates with my heart and sense of being in the world.

Advent, to me is like a collage – a few of my favourite things, juxtaposed with the suffering and troubles of our times.

As a child -and I will admit today too – I enjoy making collages. A collage is art created by collecting different scraps of material (sounds, paper, fabric, buttons and bobbles, photos, et cetera) and combining them together into one work; a work where pieces overlap, juxtapose, complement, change perspective. Pieces can: be indecipherable, alarmingly dissident, take on different meaning, and miraculously bring a union to disjointed scraps, form beauty out of chaos, and illustrate a hope that the broken and incomplete can be made whole in community.

 

The Season of Advent is a collage of scripture – in the next few weeks we hear scraps of Gospel, from Mark, John, and Luke. For those who follow the daily lectionary readings, Matthew texts get included too. Each has its own peculiarities and thrust. Each its own story of who this Jesus is, whom we are waiting for. At this time of year, pieces of the Gospels get all mixed up, the pieces we like and the ones we don’t care for so much.

Today’s reading -by itself- is an excellent example of an Advent collage. The author of Mark picks and chooses from scripture and tradition. In chapter 13 he has included thought and word from Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, and Zechariah, and Jesus. There are apocalyptic images, end time and present day, prophecy, a foretaste of the feast to come, the reading of signs, common knowledge… all these combine into one text; one piece of art.

A collage is a curated piece of this-that-and-the-other-thing that is a working out of thought and feeling. Each piece added gives a new perspective in relation to the scraps around it. A collage is a way to make sense out of the senseless; collect details, and form patterns to create order in chaos; and apply sensibility to bring different elements together to explore connection and form relationship.

 

Swedish musician Jens Lekman describes the relationship of bringing together dissonant pieces this way: The beauty of the collage technique is that you’re using sounds that have never met and were never supposed to meet. You introduce them to each other, at first they’re a bit shy, clumsy, staring at their shoes. But you can sense there’s something there. So you cut and paste a little bit and by the end of the song you can spot them in the corner, holding hands.

 

The notes in my Oxford study Bible, summarize Mark 13: 3-37 as one unit, with one theme, an: Exhortation not to be distracted from the movement by distressing events. One needs to read carefully so as not to get caught up in the apocalyptic images and words from the prophets that Jesus uses.  Jesus’ point is to caution against an apocalyptic interpretation of historical crises. This oppression by the Roman Empire is not the end of the world. Centuries before, centuries after, when times are difficult humans look to and expect the end to come; imminently.  

The proclamation of the Gospel is that the Jesus’ movement – God’s kindom- is present and working in the midst of historical crises. Jesus’ followers are called to remain disciplined in practice, vigilant in resistance, and endure hardship, and before all to hold hope that a resolution of ‘this’ historical crisis is near – the time however is unknown, so followers are told to ‘keep awake.’

 

As a child one of the things I enjoyed about making collages, was the collection of items because it included all of my senses. I had a collection of handpicked unusual rocks, snatches of ribbons, and unique buttons. I kept scraps of brightly coloured and neatly patterned papers, and interestingly textured fabrics. The items I collected gave me pause, gave me joy, a moment of wonder, imagination, intrigue,a chance to experience beauty.

Today my collage making is through words – sermons in particular. I have a journal where I write phrases, snippets of texts, interesting quotes, and new words I am introduced to. I spend my week collecting scraps of news, sifting through sections of scripture, conversing with people, practicing the disciple of faith, enduring historical crises, reading apocalyptic type signs of the times… what you receive on Sunday morning is a weekly collage where I bring together the scraps and pieces of the week in an attempt to make sense of it all, to interpret and wonder at the moments God’s kindom was present, to proclaim that the historical crises of our times do not hold us bound, that it is not the end of the world, and that with discipline, vigilance, and endurance we can be the kindom. We can be scraps of joy, hope, peace, and love.

Perhaps we are asked to ‘keep awake’ because each of us – when awake, living intentionally to resist that which is not lifegiving – are not individual pieces but a collage – unified, together, beautiful, and a created order amidst the fragmentation around us. Our Advent role – being scraps of Christ’s coming- creates a collage of grace in the chaos of our times; just like American sculptor Louise Nevelson said, I make collages. I join the shattered world creating a new harmony.

 

 The Gospel of Mark tells listeners not to waste God-time fretting about the end or deciphering when it will be, rather focus on the Movement – Jesus’ movement – life, death, and life; teaching, preaching, healing, being present with compassion, peace, hope, unity, love, grace.

 

Our journey through Advent, confronted with today’s scripture collage, Jesus is telling us like it is, like it could be, like it will be. Take a look around us – at a hurting and chaotic world. The scripture is not to scare us with apocalyptic images, but rather to have us pause and ponder our part in the Movement, and to reassure us to endure, to carry on regardless. Art critic and poet Donald Kuspit expresses it well: Collage is a demonstration of the many becoming the one, with the one never fully resolved because of the many that continue to impinge upon it.

 

Together we are a collage, pieces that come together to bring God near, there is always room for the addition of pieces to the collage – a continued Movement  -  a community that shares the task of ‘keeping awake.’

Keeping awake to share an evening meal. Keeping awake to pray in the garden. Keeping awake at cockcrow to proclaim ‘we know Jesus.’ Keeping awake at dawn to bear witness that in death there is life.