I don't actually want everything to be about politics, but here we are...

In the last few years, I've felt a strong pull towards the idea of Advent. I've always liked Christmas (this seems like an utterly insufficient way to express the sentiment) - I like the family, the food, finding presents for the people I love. But more recently, I've been drawn towards the anticipation, maybe even more than the actual event. I also love the idea of celebrating the solstice, and I think these stem from the same deep-down place, that idea that yes, it is dark, but there is light and it is drawing nearer every moment.

Anyway, I keep looking for ways to honor the Advent season that feel meaningful to me. I'm quite a lapsed Christian, but one practice that has given me some of that meaning is following along with Advent readings in the Bible. I've also been influenced lately by the brilliant podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text - they have pushed me to make deeper connections with all kinds of text, and they gave me the idea to keep my mind open for florilegia as I read these Advent texts.

It isn't actually Advent yet, but the ELCA has a nice calendar with daily readings and I've been through them the last couple days to get myself in the habit. All of this is a very long way to say that one of today's readings was something I wanted to remember and to share. It feels too long for florilegia, but holy buckets did it feel especially of the moment. It comes from Nehemiah and it is obviously talking about the Israelites as they wandered in the desert. But it hit me hard:

But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, "This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt," or when they committed awful blasphemies. (Neh. 9, 16-18)

If 45 isn't a golden calf (orange calf), I'm not sure what is. The chapter actually goes on to describe how God brought the Israelites to Canaan and gave them a country that was already inhabited, allowing them to subdue the Canaanites and steal their riches, which is also uncomfortably familiar. Suffice to say, stiff-necked seems like an excellent way to describe Republicans. (The phrase that sparked brightest for me was "slow to anger and abounding in love," but "stiff-necked" was a close second. What I wouldn't give for a sacred text buddy to talk about these sparkly words with.)