O come, O Wisdom from on high, embracing all things far and nigh:

in strength and beauty come and stay; teach us your will and guide our way.

– O Antiphons

To Those Who Wait for Immanuel,

From the moment we entered the Sherlock Holmes Exhibit at the Seattle Science Center, we were hooked!  Picking up our detective notebooks, we set about learning as much as we could about the life of Sherlock’s creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the 19th century London setting in which Holmes appears.  Each room in the exhibit invited us to enter fully into the ambience of turn of the century England, and coaxed us into a mind meld with that most iconic sleuth.

The first room offered a glimpse into Doyle’s life and medical training and the real life mentors who provided him with inspiration for the methods and character of detective Sherlock Holmes. Moving into the Train Station, we explored and relived the invention of the telegraph, camera, and cosmetics.  A functioning telegraph, an assortment of plant derivatives, soil samples under a microscope, an old-fashioned news stand complete with true crime stories (including infamous Jack the Ripper)—all this helped create a certain mood and to train us to note details that would help us unravel the crime scene that waited for us in the next room.

Finally, with observations in hand, we found ourselves entering a replica of Holmes’ famous Baker Street apartment. Once inside we were immediately challenged to put our nascent skills of observation to the test!  All this was preparatory work, designed to prime our minds for the true test which now awaited us:  A crime had been committed.  Scotland Yard detectives, reviewing the evidence, had come to their conclusions about what had taken place and who the perpetrator was—but were their assumptions correct?   It was now our turn to sift through the evidence and, using the best tools of observation and science available, to draw our own conclusions about what took place.

The Advent season is in many ways a season of mystery.  Each week, as we move closer to Christmas, voices from ancient texts reveal something more about the identity and purpose of the one for whom we wait.  Each week we look for signs of God-with-us.  But in our searching we run the risk of missing important clues because we’ve been through this territory so many times before.

I’ll never forget the experience I had taking my behind-the-wheel test as a school bus driver.  The examiner had a reputation for failing people.  He knew that traveling on a familiar stretch of road meant examinees were less likely to observe traffic signs.  Once you’ve been through a particular stretch of road so many times, the signs, billboards and markers become like wallpaper—so familiar that they’re no longer visible.   The stretch of road he asked me to drive on was less familiar to me, and that was to my benefit.  When he asked me “what the yellow sign we just passed” said, I answered, “Which one?” for it turns out, there was not one but two yellow signs. Even as an examiner, he’d grown so accustomed to that stretch of road that he only had eyes for the sign he used for tripping people up.  I passed the test that day.  Will I pass the test of this season?

The Scriptures we hear in early Advent invite us to be alert, awake, and watchful.  It’s a warning—we’re likely to miss something important if we aren’t.  When it comes to this season of the year, it’s easy to fall into a familiar groove, going through the usual motions without getting below the surface to the heart of what this season is about.   While the mystery of God becoming flesh can never be fully plumbed, slipping into “Sherlock” mode might help us dig deeper into this mystery.  And, God willing, we’ll eventually find ourselves beside the manger once more, eyes agape in wonder at what this wisdom beyond logic has wrought.

Peace and joy,

Pastor Erik