His name is Dr. Kenneth Lawrence, but his students all knew him simply as “Lorenzo”.
He taught in the Religion Department at Texas Christian University, and I inherited my love for theology and the arts directly from him.
Dr. Lawrence served as Editor and Writer for Imaging the Word a three-volume arts and lectionary resource.
In seeking to find a way to share the beauty and fullness – really, the importance – of this Season of Advent I went back to the text Lorenzo wrote and edited and found these words waiting for me, waiting for us:
Life is filled with times of waiting; often a time of waiting overlaps with other periods of expectancy. Though many people do not want to have to wait for anything if it can be avoided, everyone has such experiences of waiting. We learn that times of incubation are necessary for the truly significant to come to fruition. Amidst all the small waitings of mundane life experiences are those most significant times of marked transitions, small or great transformations, goal fulfillments, culminations of processes and learnings. We continually experience incompleteness and await, hope, expect. We wait for some realization, fulfillment, salvation.
The season of Advent can be artful waiting. The lectionary readings variously proclaim the preparation, the expectation of the coming together of the Transcendent and the Earth, the diving fully present in the fully human. Almighty God deigns to be imminent, accessible, knowable. Paradox abounds in the scriptural readings of this season; in Advent we await the greatest mystery to be realized.
I hope you will join us each Sunday in Advent as we walk though this season of preparation and culmination. On the first Sunday in Advent we will decorate a Jesse Tree, an artful way of hearing once more the promises and prophecies of Christ Jesus as we eagerly await, as Lorenzo put it, “the greatest mystery to be realized.” I’ll see you on Sunday!
Yours in the Journey,
Rev. Brian
Rev. Brian
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