Day 14 -- Among on This Fourteenth Day of Advent

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14).

The word "among" implies differences. Yet, it also carries with it a positive feeling, even when it is said of Mary: "Blessed are you among women." Somehow "among" is a word of inclusion rather than exclusion.

Religious authorities were not too pleased with Jesus's inclusive ways. Both the gospels of Matthew and Luke include the story of Jesus eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus did not hold himself apart from people.

Recently I watched a television series The Crown. The episode I watched revolved around the monarch learning to get to know people from all walks of life. Jesus did and does this well...dwelling among us. When one stops to consider where he was born -- it was not even a homeless shelter. Today this word reminds me to be among people, all types of people.

In my last post, I included reverence in creation and quoted Barbara Brown Taylor. Here I continue her thoughts on reverence to include people:

"Reverence for creation comes fairly easily for most people. Reverence for other people presents more of a challenge, especially if those people's lives happen to impinge upon your own" (An Altar in the World 27).

A great deal of impinging happens during the last shopping days before Christmas. I decided after my morning grocery shopping trip that I would not go back out; nonetheless, I will be journeying to the stores next week, and my intent is to practice reverence while I do. I am among the people with whom I cross paths, and it is my hope that each senses in my life: the Word become flesh and dwelling among us.

Day 12 -- Wilderness on This Twelfth Day of Advent

Wilderness gets a bad reputation in much of literature. Think of Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and Dante waking in the middle of a dark wilderness. Before I lose readers in my literary allusions, I'll cut this reminiscence short with the comment: the wilderness is only scary if one is lost or the woods are on fire (Bambi).

Mary and Joseph are not lost; they're simply on their journey to Bethlehem at my house and encountered a bit of "wilderness." The wilderness can be a time of paying attention, of being reverent. Barbara Brown Taylor writes in An Altar in the World: "We pay attention to the speedometer, the wristwatch, the cell phone, the list of things to do, all of which feed our illusion that life is manageable. Meanwhile, none of them meets the first criteria for reverence, which is to remind us that we are not gods" (24). The wilderness, much as Advent calls us to do, beckons us to slow down and take in the beauty.

I would say the Creator of the wilderness blessed it with an atmosphere of refreshment and wonder. For the most part, the wilderness remains so. One still has to pay attention; it is, after all, a wild place, a place we can not tame.  There are natural cycles of drought and rain, cycles of fire and growth, but there are also surges of unnatural dryness created by cement jungles and unnatural fires born out of greed -- perhaps these are our vain attempts to be in control.

However, as I wait during Advent for the celebration to come, I will wait for the days when "the beasts of the field will not be afraid, the pastures of the wilderness will spring forth, the trees will bear fruit.." (Joel 2:22).

I will practice knowing that God is present in the wilderness. I will practice slowing down and paying attention. I will practice reverence. 

Day 9 -- Messenger on This Ninth Day of Advent

If you're wondering about the strange title, I am referring to the word for the day of #adventword2017. The words seem more challenging to me this year than last year. However, I find that each is leading me into great meditation time. After pondering various experiences and feelings associated with "messenger", the verse that came to me was Matthew 10:29 from the New Living Translation: "What is the price of two sparrows -- one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it."

Each bird is a messenger to me of God's love. This past week, a gorgeous hawk flew right in front of my kitchen window and landed on the branch of a nearby tree. I ran to find my phone to take a picture (of course, I could not find it before the hawk flew away), but the beauty of the hawk stayed with me even though I did not have a photo. (This also explains why I'm putting a picture of a bird that came to visit us outside our living room window.)

It turns out (oh, how I love these types of coincidences) that a friend gave me a book to read: An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. The cover has a bird on it.

I have not finished the book, but I have found a passage that resonates with me as I think about messengers during this Advent season, or any season. It resonates with the type of messenger I want to be.

"Many years ago now, a wise old priest invited me to come speak at his church in Alabama. 'What do you want me to talk about?' I asked him.

"'Come tell us what is saving your life now, ' he answered...All I had to do was figure out what my life depended on. All I had to do was figure out how I stayed as close to that reality as I could, and then find some way to talk about it that helped my listeners figure out those same things for themselves" (xvii).

What is saving my life now? God, Divine Presence, Gentle Whisperer, Holy One, Healer, the One Who loves me and delights in me sees me, strengthens me, sustains me by continuing to show me love by way of the Word, by way of creation, by way of people and community among many other ways. Today I was loved by the team I work with. Scripture words and words in a new book encouraged me. The lights on a little tree brightened my evening. Thankfulness for a group of women who thought of me during a tough time and gave me little handcrafted Christmas tags enabled me to share that gratitude with another group of women. God who sees me opened my eyes to see all that I have to be thankful for. My hope is that in my every day life I can be a messenger of good news.