This past week, on Thursday evening, I started an Advent class. It’s on Zoom, as many gatherings are these days. Last week we looked at some of the readings for the First Sunday of Advent. They talk about God tearing open the heavens and coming down, so to speak, and about a huge upheaval that will take place, but we don’t know when.

I ended the class by asking whether people found these readings comforting or disturbing. I won’t say what other people said, because that’s their business, but I can tell you what I said. I said that to me they are both: both comforting and disturbing.