Advent disruptions

The readings for this reflection are:

Isaiah 61.1-2
The spirit of the Holy One is upon me,
            because God has anointed me;
God has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
            to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
            and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the time of God’s favour.

and

We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ,
Christ enters my foot, and is infinitely me.
 
I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ …
 
Do my words seem blasphemous? –Then
open your heart to Christ
 
and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love …
we wake up inside Christ’s body
 
where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy, as Christ,
and Christ makes us, utterly, real,
 
and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Christ transformed
 
and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in Christ’s light.
Christ awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.

– Symeon The New Theologian, as quoted in The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell

We have lit three candles on the advent wreath now.

One for hope. One for peace. One for joy. Our final candle next week is the candle for love.

These are the gifts of advent – or rather, this is the time of year when we bring these gifts to the forefront of our attention and hear the invitation to receive them.

The reading from Isaiah that accompanies the candle for joy is the good news for the poor, Jesus’ mission statement that he begins his ministry with. As much as we might want charming, comforting Christmas sermons in Advent, this a season of preparation and cleaning up. Advent presents us with an invitation to be unsettled.

New life and growth require some labour to bring them to birth…  God is preparing a new “way” and it requires that we let go of the old one to make space for the new. Advent invites us to allow Jesus to be something else to us, to come in a new way in us, and to initiate a new world through us. 

Meister Eckhart, a Dominican monk in 1400s wrote this:

What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago and I do not also give birth to the son of God in my time and in my culture? 

What good indeed? But it’s easier said that done.

I heard a story once of a family walking along the beach after a storm. The sand was covered with all kinds of flotsam and jetsam brought in by the tide. The children, let’s call them Anna and Alex, were running up and down the beach collecting bits of shells that are beautiful even in their brokenness, and exclaiming over each new treasure that they found.

Fresh offerings arrived with each wave, and then they all notice, bobbing out in the water is a bright blue starfish. Alex got this look on his face, the kind of look that says ‘that’s my starfish’ and he ran into the water to get it, but before he got there, he turned and ran back. Then he looked back out at the starfish, and ran even further towards it…before he turned and ran back again.

The rest of the family were very confused by this behaviour. ‘What are you doing? Go get it!’ they said, and so Alex ran out again, and got really close before he stopped again….and frustration and distress were evident in every line of his face…

What’s the matter? His dad asked.

‘I can’t do it!’ Alex cried.

Why not?

And Alex said, ‘because my hands are full of shells.’

For many of us, the greatest treasure is right there in front of you, but you can’t pick it up because of what you are already holding. The gift is set before you and you can’t receive it because of what you are holding on to.

The gifts of hope, peace, joy, love are set before us. In order to receive, you have to accept, you have to open, you have to surrender.

I wonder which of the advent themes is drawing you in this year? Which one is your life calling out for?

Our craft activity this morning gives you an opportunity to reflect and respond both here and in the week to come.

And as you consider the gift and play with the craft, consider too what wider action is stirring in you as your response to the invitation to receive this advent gift?

As you make your ornament, share what is drawing you and how you plan to respond.