Holy Disruption with Mark

Really enjoyed my Advent choice of a book, Tracy Daub’s “Holy Disruption: Discovering Advent in the Gospel of Mark” – a fascinating reflection on how to relate Mark to the Advent season. Mark challenges us to think about difficult things and, as Daub says, “Participating with Christ’s transformative work requires a willingness to enter into the real-time apocalypses around us. In this world of violence, intolerance, and division, a world where global pandemics and the consequences of climate change threaten the welfare of our planet, God gives us a special task: being witnesses to hope. Faithful anticipation in the coming of Christ is found not in calculating the exact time of the Messiah’s return, but in witnessing to his hope and love.” She also says, “In truth, all is not well in most of our lives or in our world. Quite often the peace we attempt to create at Christmas is not genuine. It is a fake peace. Like faux pearls, or faux furs, or faux leather, sometimes the peace we settle for is a shallow imitation. We settle for this imitation because often we would rather accept a comforting lie than an uncomfortable truth.” Mark may have no nativity, but there’s a lot of incarnational stuff!