So there is this bar and in walks this lion who then sits down at the bar.
A minute later in walks this lamb who then sits right next to the Lion. They sit there together and order drinks.
John the Baptist is there tending the bar. He serves the lion and the lamb.
John the Baptist then looks out over the bar and announces, “Get ready ya’ll things are about to get weird. Prepare the way. God’s Kingdom is just starting to arrive. That means time is up, its time to set aside all those fears and fights. It is now the time to do for those who can’t do for themselves. To care for those who are not cared for. To remember those who are forgotten. To protect those who are vulnerable. The priorities of life and living have changed. The rules for survival have changed. Prepare. Get ready.”
The lion then leans over to the lamb and says, “Does that mean he’s buying?”
The Advent of the Kingdom of God. The arrival of a new way of doing things. The rules of natural selection play out differently. Supernatural selection.
Woody Allen has this great line where he says, “The Lion may lay down with the Lamb, but the lamb won’t get much sleep.”
Sometimes we are like that lamb, caught between two kingdoms, one ending one arriving, two sets of rules, sleeping with one eye open.
Sometimes we are like the Lion, tempted as our stomach growls, hungry for both what was and what will be.
John the Baptist tells us to prepare for this change, to welcome it, to bear the fruit of change worthy of what is about to arrive.
The good news is that it all works out in the end. As Julian of Norwich said, “All will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”
The bad news is that between now and then it’s going to be messy, with watchful sleepless nights.
This Advent season- bear fruit worthy of the arriving kingdom. Live under the new set of rules. A new sort of survival, where our survival depends on us all going forward together, no one left out, no one left behind, no one taken advantage of, everyone insisting not on their own way but on the way of others.
The beauty of this life is not about everyone getting along and agreeing. It’s about what we do when things get difficult and frustrating and painful. What do we do with all those tangled knots? Will we play by the old rules and pass the pain along? Or will we make something beautiful and welcome the Advent of the Kingdom?
So there is this bar and in walk this Lion and this Lamb.
What happens next? Our lives finish the story.
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