Dr. Eldon Olson, retired pastor and member of Peace, is the author of this month’s Pastor’s Pen column.

“Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come!”

I was staying for few days at our Seminary in Oakland, California several years ago and happened to be there for the first weeks of Advent. On the first day of Advent, instead of the regular morning Matins service, the entire Seminary community met in the chapel to ‘stir up’ the ingredients of Christmas Fruit Cake – the old-fashioned kind with all sorts of fruits, candies, nuts, and spices. They observed this annual ritual of fruit-cake production since each of the opening prayers for Sunday worship for the weeks of Advent begins with the petition “Stir Up!” (“Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come!”, “Stir up our hearts, O Lord!”,  “Stir up the wills of your faithful people!”, and again “Stir up your power and come!”).  Although I’m not a big fan of fruitcake, the ritual of beginning Advent with a festive community appeal to “stir up” left a lasting impression.

The phrase “stir up” could have at least two nuances. On the one hand, it could mean to get organized, to start up a momentum, an impulse that gets things going. This suggests some sort of collection, gathering, or assembly – something that calls otherwise unfocused and diverse people to get their collective act together. This is certainly part of Advent’s message – it’s time to awaken to a new year, a new collective attention to the season of beginning, birthing, or new life. Wake up! Come together! Pay Attention! Those of you who would prefer to slumber through winter’s hibernations,  “Stir up!”

John the Baptizer, who enters our Sunday texts as Advent begins, brings the more jarring meaning to the call to ‘stir up!”.  His intention is to provoke a revolution, incite a reformation, instigate a rebellion.  “Stir up!”  “Repent!” shouted to a crowd to arouse them to action.  When this message is conveyed by the strange figure of John it is a loud harangue by a long-haired and unwashed prophetic character.  Clad in hippie-type tatters of animal skins, the call isn’t simply to come together for a new beginning – it’s much more provocative.  It’s more like Paul Revere, riding through the night with news that a rebellion is upon us – not just another new beginning, but a cataclysmic event that will set your world on its edge.  With this announcement, our collective consciousness will never be the same again.  Whatever is coming will be momentous!

Another Biblical image for this is the rather strange image of time itself having gotten filled up – “in the fullness of time.”  Literally, it’s that Time itself is now pregnant!  The clock isn’t just monotonously ticking off its usual hours and days so we can be lulled by the predictability of its tick-tock – the very clock is about to explode!  Those who use this image even designate the struggles of this Advent moment as the “labor pains” of the coming delivery.  You’ve heard about the consistency of seven days a week, seven days of creation – well, you’re about to witness the eighth day, a day no one has ever imagined before.  Or another image – the tiny seed that no one notices is about to burst into a huge tree that can shelter every bird in creation!

How do you begin to describe something that’s beyond human imagining?  How do you wrap your head around a new creation, populated by a new humanity, subject to a new structuring of human behaviors and relationships? That’s the challenge of Advent!  It’s mind boggling! Our normal response to news of such complexity or magnitude might well be to become overwhelmed.  But the appeal to “stir up” comes to us each year with the nuanced response – be excited and alert to the promises of a coming Messiah, and be bothered by the illusions and evils this Messiah comes to dispel.

But wake up! Or better yet, “Stir up!”