We step into a new liturgical Christian calendar year from this Sunday as we begin the season of Advent, amidst lockdown and restrictions in place due to this pandemic. Perhaps, it will be right to call this season in 2020 as ‘Pandemic Advent’ and Christmas as ‘Pandemic Christmas,’ for the word ‘pandemic’ not only qualifies Advent and Christmas but also defines our times and context today in which we are called to reflect Advent and Christmas. Collins English dictionary has chosen ‘lockdown’ as the word of the year for 2020. On the other hand, the Oxford English dictionary (OED) has chosen not to name a word of the year, describing 2020 as the ‘unprecedented year’ and ‘year that left us all speechless’ and named too many names to sum up the events of 2020. These words include a wide range of words in various settings. The chosen words for 2020 include ‘unmute,’ ‘mail-in,’ ‘coronavirus,’ ‘lockdown’, ‘pandemic,’ ‘face-masks,’ ‘Black Lives Matter,’ keyworkers,’ ‘workation’ ‘staycation,’ ‘remote,’ ‘social distancing,’ ‘systemic racism,’ and ‘anthropause.’ It was reported that during this year the levels of media coverage for climate change has reduced due to the pandemic. But it was said that it resulted in the using of a new word, ‘anthropause,’ referring to “the global slowdown of travel and other human activity and the subsequent welcome consequences, such as decrease in light and noise pollution, and an increase in opportunities for wildlife to thrive.”
As we begin this season of ‘Pandemic Advent,’ I recognise the very meaning and a faith relevance of this word ‘anthropause’ which literally means “human interruption,” where ‘pause’ is a verb. In the text from Isaiah 64:1-9, we notice that the prophet called ‘third Isaiah’ was lamenting to God, confessing the trespasses and the iniquities of his community and seeking the intervention and interruption of God into their times. The community just returned back from the Babylonian exile through the aide of the Persian King, with the challenge of restoring their city, temple, faith and scriptures, in front of them. This post-exilic, post-colonial community as they returned to their own land, out of their desperation, helplessness, division and tiredness were interpreting their times as the period of God’s absence. Through this poetic lament, the prophet calls for an ‘anthropause,’ a human interruption to such notions of periods of God’s absence, for there can never be a phase, space and period in time and history which is devoid of God’s presence. God is always present in every situation, waiting and wanting to work with people and community in restoring their hope, confidence and faith. The prophet in this text invokes ‘anthropause’ in at least two ways. Firstly, he upholds ‘God’s play’, recognising God’s being and God’s activity, where God is at work with some awkward pauses. Secondly, the prophet explains ‘anthropause’ in seeking a confession about humans, an offering made in the presence of God to wait on God, driving away all iniquities and self-righteousness. In other words, ‘anthropause’ is a time of waiting for humanity, especially during Advent, on the one hand where we celebrate God’s play forward, and on the other hand where humanity’s righteousness is taken backwards.
1. ‘Anthropause’ is a time, where God’s play is celebrated:
This post-exilic community though came back to their ancestral land, free from the Babylonian captivity, their faith still remained under the rubric of colonisation, where they spelt hopelessness as a situation of God’s forsakenness and even as God’s absence. The prophet was calling for an ‘anthropause’ in their play and faith, and uplifting them to wait, recognise and celebrate God’s play which has been at work. Human beings wanted to play the game, drawing their rules, and taking everything into their own control, without any fair play on the ground. The prophet begins to explain God’s play by calling God as his playmate, inviting God to “tear open the heavens and come down,” (1v) for when God starts playing, the mountains will quake, where the creation serves as a playfield. On God playing in the field, “the nations might tremble” for their unfair rules and unjust play, “for God’s name known to their adversaries,” for God will play against the forces of injustice, inequality and hopelessness. “For no one has heard, no ear has perceived, and no eye has seen” such a player of the histories, the God, whose play is known through eternities, for God is a just player and a best player. God the just player, “meets those who gladly do right and those who remember God in God’s ways.” The height of this moment of ‘anthropause’ arrives, when the prophet affirms in God’s play, that God is “our Father” and “our potter” (8v).
God is the father of the play that God plays, and also the father of the play that the humanity plays, which is a wake-up call for the community, for they assumed that they were whole and sole of their play at that point towards restoration. In other words, history is God’s play where God the father of the play, plays along with the creation as God’s playmates. In that recognition, their faith is reinvigorated and revived. When God plays with God’s playmates, the creatures, God is at work, and God helps God’s playmates in overcoming their sense of hopelessness and helplessness. God is also called “our potter” who spends time in the dirt and dust designing diversified pots from the clay. This image of God, the potter, explains that God is at play designing wonderful and unique pots. Both these images of God as “our Father” and “our potter” contests all notions of God as someone away from all the pains and perils of life, and relocates God among people, knowing that God is at play working with them in their common jobs. ‘Anthropause’ therefore is a time to celebrate God’s play as God is our Father and our potter.
2. ‘Anthropause’ is a time, where humanity seeks confession:
In knowing that humanity along with the creation has been chosen as the playmates of and with God, the prophet in this text invoking an ‘anthropause,’ confesses their pride, privilege and prestige explained in their self-seeking righteousness. The playmates, humanity has thought that God, the father of the play, was hiding and therefore they have “sinned and transgressed” (5v). ‘Anthropause’ is a time to understand that lack of God-consciousness is sin and transgression, which implies being God-conscious is finding salvation in God the father of the play. The prophet calls for ‘anthropause’ from humanity where they collectively seek confession, where he laments, “we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth” (6v). This post-exilic community not only de-recognised they were God’s playmates, they were also proud of their own righteousness, thinking that their righteous deeds can save and bring solace and hope in their desperate situation. The word used for ‘filthy cloth’ is used for the cloth used during women’s menstrual periods. In a patriarchal society where men considered any discharge of blood during menstrual periods as polluting, for they thought such blood would have made these Israelites ceremonially unclean. Without undermining or demeaning the normal physical cycles of women, this type of uncleanliness for the ritual seeking Israelites was the worst sort. To mention their acts of righteousness with such cloths is only to explain the depth of their uncleanliness, explaining that they are at a cul-de-sac in their journey of faith, and are now turning towards the righteousness of God.
“Anthropause’ is a time, where the community have recognised that they are ‘clay’ used by God the potter to be mould and designed in God’s creativity. In that moment of ‘anthropause,’ the prophet continues his collective confession by saying, “we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (6v). The self-righteousness will not save them, for they will be carried away by wind and will fade like a leaf, but in the righteousness of God the community now realises that they can flourish and stand up against all odds of life. In that moment of ‘anthropause,’ a time of confession, the prophet ends with a prayer, where pleads, “do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity for ever. Now consider, we are all your people” (9v). ‘Anthropause’ is a time where in that interruption from the norm and status quo, the community on their return to their land have recognised that they as humanity are ‘God’s people,’ ‘God’s playmates’ and ‘God’s co-workers.’
The relevance of this text for this Pandemic Advent 1 is at least three-fold. In the context of pandemic, lockdown and restrictions, with the news about the vaccine is now on the horizon, the first learning from this text is to recognise that Advent is a time for an ‘anthropause,’ where we are called to slow down from the busyness of our life, interrupt from the norms of our society, and uphold to that fact that God has always been at play, for God invites us as God’s playmates to join with God in collectively overcoming this phase of life filled with hopelessness and helplessness. Self-righteousness is very unchristian and pulls us down, for we are called to recognise they are ‘filthy cloths’ in the presence of God, for they cannot save us. It is purely waiting on God and willing to be led by God’s grace that this ‘anthropause’ is directed towards. Secondly, Advent is a time to celebrate God’s play, for God in Christ is at play in this field of creation. In his book The God who plays: A Playful approach to Theology and Spirituality, Brian Edgar writes, “the central idea around which everything that follows revolves is the notion that play is the essential and ultimate form of relationship with God. A playful attitude, I suggest, lies at the very heart of all spirituality and is critical for the whole of life.” Christ is God at play, and it is important to recognise this element of play as part of our theology and spirituality, and kindly don’t discount play as childish and unspiritual. God’s play interrupts the flow of games this world engages with, for in God’s play, fairness, justice, peace, equality and love are the only rules and guidelines. Anyone who subscribes to such a play is welcome to join with Jesus in playing the play of the Kingdom of God. Advent is a preparation towards that play, giving us time for warm up, to know the rules and get into the field to play along with Jesus. Thirdly, Advent reaffirms the worth of ‘anthropause’ to this our creation, where we are called to interrupt from polluting this creation and ecology that God has created with our selfish acts of greed and accumulation. It was reported that as bustling metropolises have calmed down due to the ‘anthropause’ in the first lockdowns during this pandemic, it improved the air and water quality, as well as reduced wildlife disturbance. These ecological benefits should not be limited for a short-term, rather we need to consciously allow ‘anthropause’ to happen in our lives, and contribute towards greening our planet, and striving towards sustainability, addressing climate emergencies. Our commitment to our earth is directly proportionate to our faith in Jesus Christ, where the deeper our faith in Jesus Christ, the stronger our commitment for a green planet.
In conclusion, Advent calls for a time of ‘anthropause,’ waiting and celebrating God’s play at work towards peace and justice, transforming our planet to be a better and greener place to live. “The shortest definition of religion: Interruption” wrote Johanne Baptist Metz, a Catholic theologian from Germany who was articulating his theology after ‘Auschwitz’, where he was challenging that Christian faith cannot be slipped into uncritical weaving into the culture of the powerful and dominant society. By its very nature, for Metz, Christian faith disrupts the histories of conquerors and vanquished and interrupts the ideologies of the powerful and the powerlessness of the victims. To that end, may this season of Pandemic Advent help us to pause and wait on God so that we can be God’s instruments in interrupting the norms and status quo of this world that upholds unjust systems, and join with God as playmates in transforming this our planet into a green planet. ‘Anthropause’ is not only one of the words to define this year 2020, but also serves as a word that finds its meaning and significance in the Christian faith lexicon, especially during this season of Advent. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta
27th November 2020
Pic credit: https://www.futurity.org/seismic-noise-covid-19-anthropause-2408882-2/
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