advent is a young adult dystopia

in my last post (sermon), i mentioned that if john were an author, he would probably write young adult dystopias.  as i explored that concept, i also realized that if i were to categorize the season of advent as a literary genre, it would be young adult dystopias.  i promised some exploration of that, so here it is:

during the last few months, i read 3 or more young adult dystopia series (having read hunger games previously, i read the unwind, divergent, and legend series) and realized that young adult dystopias are my favorite genre. 

young adult dystopias affirm my despair about our country and the world.  they assure me that i am not the only one recognizing all that is going wrong in the world.  i am not the only one lamenting and despairing about the fear and hate being sown in the united states, about the militarism that seems to be taking over, the potentials for abuse of power, the rampant consumerism and materialism, obsessions with how we appear over who we are.  they affirm my caution and pessimism about the path we seem to be going down.

and i love it.  i am a pessimist at times and i have been despairing a lot and to not be alone in that means a lot to me.

BUT, the thing about young adult dystopias that i really love is that they always move to hope.  they start with the despair of how the world or the country is, but that is only ever the beginning.  there's always potential for redemption. usually there are many working against the dystopic system (totalitarian, fear-mongering, whatever type of power is at work controlling and dictating life).  they work by themselves or with just a few others in secret, trying to put cracks in the armor of the dystopia, similar to those who were forced to build bombs for germany during world war ii and made sure they wouldn't explode--even just a few bombs, saving even just a few lives.

then arises one or a few characters that usually have the burden hoisted upon them to redeem their country, their society, their world.  they are not superheroes.  yes, they have unique gifts or skills, usually, and they come from a variety of backgrounds (the posh, upper, military class, the "lowest" district, the poor sector, or just one of the kids to be "repurposed").  they could be any of us, really.

as i explored all of this, it led to my last sermon about john writing a young adult dystopia in last sunday's gospel.  then i continued to think about it and realized that it's kind of the whole season of advent.  especially if you do the 7-week version of advent, which includes the last 3 sundays of the church year, advent focuses on the end-times.  

now, many people who are theologically grounded will say that this is because advent focuses on waiting for jesus 1-to be born in bethlehem and 2-to come back.  this is true, but it also means that advent looks at all of the potential harm that we has humans can do until then.  it looks realistically at our toxic politics, our fear-based approach to neighbors, our theologies of scarcity that keep us from real generosity.  advent, unlike the "time before christmas" that stores sell, doesn't sugar-coat reality.  it tells it like it is, despair, confusion, hurt, and all.

BUT, like young adult dystopias, advent doesn't just leave us there.  it brings us through the despair, confusion, and hurt into the hope and redemption of christ who does reign and who will reign.  the prince of peace.  the young adult dystopia that is advent, doesn't leave me alone with my pessimism.  it sits with me and my pessimism for a time and then starts pointing out the stars in the deep blue of the night sky, the people running into scary situations to help, the ones who live out hope, peace, joy, and love.

and in the end, the true gift in young adult dystopias, for me at least, is that they're really good for moving me from potentially being overwhelmed with despair at the reality of our world and especially our country to recognition and trust in the hope for redemption, that there is always still time for God's redeeming work.  and that is advent for me.  and i love them both.

jesus is coming.