Advent Contra Empire -- week 6
When the Desert Blooms and the Prison Still Holds
Decolonial Advent — Week 6
When the Desert Blooms and the Prison Still Holds
“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom.”
— Isaiah 35:1
Dear Becoming Ones,
By the sixth week of waiting, the temptation is not despair.
It is accommodation.
We grow tired of watching.
We grow skilled at spiritualizing delay.
We learn how to survive without changing.
Advent stretches long enough to expose this truth:
Waiting is not neutral.
Waiting either forms us toward liberation or sedates us into compliance.
The Desert Is Speaking Back
Isaiah does not promise escape from the desert.
He promises response from within it.
The wilderness rejoices.
The dry land blossoms.
Bodies long deemed disposable are repaired.
A Way appears where there was only exclusion.
This is not sentimental hope.
This is political ecology.
Creation itself refuses the terms of neglect.
The land joins the work of repair.
But notice this:
The desert blooms without permission from empire.
John Waits from a Cell
Matthew 11 is not a story about doubt as weakness.
It is a story about truth-seeking under captivity.
John is imprisoned — silenced by a violent regime.
The prophet who prepared the way now asks:
“Are you the one who is to come,
or should we wait for another?”
This is the question of every generation living under domination:
Is this really liberation — or have we settled too soon?
Jesus Refuses Empire’s Script
Jesus does not answer John with certainty or spectacle.
He does not say, “Yes, just wait longer.”
He says:
Look.
Pay attention.
The blind see.
The lame walk.
The poor receive good news.
Jesus names signs, not systems.
Repair, not overthrow.
Transformation already underway — but not on empire’s timetable.
And then the line that unsettles us:
“Blessed is anyone who does not stumble because of me.”
Because liberation that does not flatter our expectations
can feel like disappointment.
Here Is the Edge: Waiting Is Not Enough
This is where Week 6 turns toward us.
Advent waiting becomes vain
if it is not accompanied by repentance.
Not guilt.
Not self-loathing.
Not moral performance.
But metanoia —
a daily turning away
from the systems that deform us.
If we wait for justice
while continuing to participate in:
domination
extraction
racialized capitalism
carceral logics
spiritual bypassing
then Advent becomes theater.
The desert may be blooming —
but we will not see it
if we refuse to turn our bodies.
Metanoia Is the Practice of Alignment
John preached repentance because the kingdom was near.
Jesus embodied it because the kingdom was already interrupting reality.
Metanoia is not a one-time decision.
It is a daily reorientation:
turning away from what numbs us
turning toward what repairs
refusing the lie that we are powerless
Advent asks:
What must I turn from in order to recognize what is already growing?
Advent Contra Empire
Empire tells us:
“Wait quietly. Consume spiritually. Don’t change too much.”
Isaiah and Jesus tell us:
“Turn around. Something is happening — and it requires you.”
The prison door may not open yet.
But the desert is blooming now.
The question is not whether God is at work.
The question is whether we will keep walking the old roads.
Field Guide for Week 6 — Practicing Metanoia
This week, choose one small, embodied refusal:
Turn away from one habit that keeps you compliant
Redirect one resource toward care or repair
Interrupt one story that tells you change is impossible
Practice attention to a place that feels barren
Do not rush for resolution.
Do not demand certainty.
Just turn your body.
The Way appears underfoot.
Next week, we will arrive at the scandal of incarnation —
not as arrival from above,
but as God choosing the long road from below.
Until then,
keep turning.
🌱RCE+
Thank you for this powerfully small reminder/encouragement!