Advent 2024: My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout

Traditionally advent is a season of repentance, a time to take stock and make change in order to be ready to experience the birth of Jesus in yourself, and in our world more meaningfully. The biblical word for repentance doesn’t mean simply to feel sorry for an action or pattern of actions. It means to have a primal change of world view such that one then turns from the current course and goes in an entirely new direction. Moments of true repentance are often spurred, not just by a feeling of horror, or sorrow in the presence of sin and its consequences, but also by the hope of something better to come. Repentance is both active and expectant. That active expectance is at the heart of a deep Advent practice.

Advent is therefore a time for realignment. It is a realignment that shapes what we expect on Christmas and indeed every day of our lives. It is a time for honesty and waiting with joyful hope for what we know is always on the way for us. It is a time for learning that repentance, honesty and change travel the road hand in hand with joyful hope. In Advent, when we realign with Joy we come to expect joy. When we realign with justice we come to expect justice. When we realign with justification (being made right and whole) we come to expect justification. And when we realign with the mind of Christ, we come to expect to experience Jesus in our own manger heart, in our own needy out of sorts temple, in our own corrupt world, and in our own need for intimacy.

Sometimes the Advent journey can be helped by returning to a foundational text and reading it slowly and deeply through a different lens. For our devotions this year we will focus on the stories of annunciation through the birth of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel. I have chosen to take the scriptures from The First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament  published by Intervarsity Press in 2021. This translation was produced by native American scholars from a number of the tribal peoples of the land that we call home. It is what is called a dynamic translation which means that rather than seeking an exclusively literal translation it seeks to translate in a culturally sensitive way that maintains integrity of the text and resonates with the lived experience of readers. While the rich cultural and spiritual traditions of America’s native peoples are different from those of our faith ancestors in ancient Israel, there are some striking similarities. Both cultures have known oppression, and because of that, they see the hope and need for change that are at the heart of the gospel differently from those of us who grew up in dominant cultures. There is a fierceness to their hope and courage. In keeping with both Hebrew and native American tribal customs names are translated differently with the more familiar names in parenthesis. For example, Gabriel is known as Creator’s Mighty One. You will get the hang of it quickly. I have not tried to write my reflections from an indigenous point of view. Obviously I cannot, and it would be the grossest of cultural misappropriation to try to do so. Still, my hope is that if you linger with these words, a whole new avenue of understanding will arise. So let us journey now with joyful hope in what God is doing and bringing into the world in, with and through Christ. EAG

December 1: Luke 1:26-27 – When six months had passed, The Great Spirit sent the same spirit-messenger, Creator’s Mighty One (Gabriel), to another small, out-of-the-way place in the hill country called Seed Planter Village (Nazareth). There he appeared to a young virgin woman named Bitter Tears (Mary), who was promised in marriage to a man named He Gives Sons (Jospeh), a descendant of the great chief Much Loved One (David).

Angels did not appear in the theology of early Judaism. They arrived later in the story, perhaps after Persian influence, but are a part of the Christian story from the beginning. Angels are not the spirits of those who have departed. They are created beings, just as humans are, simply of a different order. Most angels in the bible are special messengers from God intended to communicate God’s purpose and will to people in an undeniable way. In today’s verses, Gabriel, God’s Mighty One, is sent to a tiny hole in the wall village to speak an unfathomable plan to one young, inexperienced, woman of limited means. His message is both life threatening (more later) and earth shaking. He tells her that God had a special purpose for her life and for the world through her one life. Isn’t it stunning that God would choose a person like Mary, vulnerable, living under an oppressive government, culturally unable to make decisions for herself about her life, marriage and bodily autonomy, to bring the fullness of God into the world? It is not to those in power that God sends this messenger. Those with little need rarely see those with great need as relevant or worthy, therefore, calls for dramatic change fall on deaf ears. It is to those who have the least power, the greatest vulnerability, that often have the ability to see the problem and can imagine the possibility of a new more perfect future. They know their need and can sometimes more easily say yes to the call to action. Vulnerability can make us usable. Can you think of a time when you have felt an unexpected call to action when you were going about your ordinary life or feeling particularly vulnerable? Have you ever felt small and incapable of creating the change you need, stuck in some out of the way place without the resources others have? How do God’s Might Ones come to you? What does God use to get your attention? Are there patterns of thought or action that keep you from seeing what God is doing around you and within you? If so, take a moment now to identify those obstacles and repent. Ask God to open your eyes and help you to choose a different way of being from now on. Ask God to soften your heart to receive God’s call on your life during this holy Advent season.

Prayer: Great Mystery, we come before you, small and vulnerable in our own ways. Help us to see your vision for our lives and to welcome the messengers you send to us. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December2: Luke 1:28 – Creator’s Mighty One (Gabriel) said to her, “Greetings, highly favored one! You are close to the Great Spirit and greatly honored among women.”

The word we translate as favored in this verse does not mean to have ease, prosperity or the absence of struggle in life. The indigenous name for Mary, Bitter Tears, makes that abundantly clear. Even in this moment full of promise we see the tears shed at the foot of the cross. Favor, rather, means the capacity to enjoy a deep and special intimacy with God. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to have lunch with then Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South African. He was one of the architects of the dismantling of the state sanctioned system or racial segregation and injustice called apartheid. At that time, he was in the midst of his work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was seeking the way of honesty, repentance and forgiveness as the path forward for the reforming nation. There was an aura around him that I have seen around few others. His eyes were filled with stories and no few tears, but his spirit, his soul, were at rest. It was unnerving and so beautiful. When his gaze fell on me and he asked me questions about my life and ministry, there was a genuineness of compassion and curiosity that, in my opinion, is only born of a long walk with the Lord. As I read today’s verse I finally have the word to describe that one faithful man: favored. The great truth is that each of us is offered the way of favor, but we often choose other ways instead. We choose the values of others or the world so routinely that when the gentle way of favor nips softly at our heels we shake it off. Today, think for a moment about how you experience a long intimacy with God. How do you make room for favor to flourish in you? It is not a commodity. It is not something to purchase with time or even prayer. It is what happens when we orient our lives toward God and God’s values intentionally, vulnerably and lavishly. Can you begin or deepen your experience of favor today? Is there a need for repentance in anyway? Do you feel the call to another path? How can you make a new beginning? If you don’t know the answers to those questions, simply take each one to God with  sincere openness. Joyful hope with a sense of direction will naturally arise.

Prayer: Great Mystery, we thank you for the special intimacy with you that is ours for the choosing. Help us today to release what holds us back from you, to start over if we need to, and to sit in joyful gratitude for the favor you lavish upon us. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December3: Luke 1:29 – Bitter Tears (Mary) was deeply troubled by this greeting and wondered what the spirit-messenger would say.

The word translated here as ‘deeply troubled’ is a big emotion word. It means to be greatly disturbed, frightened, anxious. That emotion is often the first response to an angelic inbreaking in scripture. It is not every day that God chooses to speak to us in such unmistakable ways. This was no mere experience of God’s grandeur in creation, nor of God’s cozy grace in the loving eyes of a family member or friend. This kind of inbreaking is called a theophany, an experience of the supernatural power and presence of God. Here the presence is mediated through an angel. Still, it is none the less startling and unexplainable. It is no wonder that Mary is undone. Who is this divinely sent creature? What could he possibly want with her? Mark Twain once said that the only person that likes change is a wet baby. Nothing comes with as much potential for change as an encounter with the divine. Mary must have known instantly, even before she hears her call, that from that moment on her life would change. She would never not know what she had seen. Even when grief and hardship dim the memory, it will always be there in her soul calling her to return to Holy Presence, to stop and listen to the divine messengers. Have you ever had an experience that you might call a theophany? It doesn’t have to be big and dramatic, but it was an experience where you knew you were in the divine presence, and you would never be quite the same again? Sometimes we have experiences like that that we call conversion experiences. Sometimes we are visited by angels unawares. Sometimes love washes over us and we can hardly breathe for the holiness of it. Take a moment to try to remember times of divine presence in your life. See if you can feel those feelings in your body again. How did you react? Were you afraid and wanted to run? Were you awestruck and wanted to stay there forever? Are there habits or hurts in your life that make it hard for your to experience God’s presence right now? Take a moment to share that with God, even if you do not feel that God is there.

Prayer: Great Mystery, we thank you for every divine encounter with you. Open our eyes to the many ways you reach out to us. Hold us in our fear. Soften our anxiety. Help us rest in you, joyful and expectant, for what you want to communicate to us. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December4: Luke 1:30-31with inset – “Do not fear,” he comforted her, “for you have found goodwill in the eyes of the Great Mystery. You will be with child and give birth to a son. You will call his name Creator Sets Free (Jesus).” [It seemed like time stood still, and all creation stopped to listen as the messenger continued to speak.]

Immediately Gabriel tries to soothe the frightened young woman. No sooner do his words of comfort fade from the air than he gets right to the point. God wants her to have a baby. It is not unusual for encounters with divine messenger to cause us to feel fearful. The early people of Israel believed that such direct encounters with God could actually kill a person. In our day, we can both long for experiences of inbreaking and want to flee from them at the same time. In truth, we all need comfort when we are presented with that which we can neither er explain or control. Like Bitter Tears (Mary), we may feel that we are unworthy and need assurance that God is not mad with us. We may be unsettled by a word of grace spoken to us and think that the speaker doesn’t know us very well. Especially when the message comes with an outlandish invitation to change our plans, our goals and indeed our lives. In her winsome book, Stick Stories, Margery Browne offers a funny dialogue between Mary and Gabriel. At this point in the story, the young Mary responds, “Mister, I don’t think you can do that sort of thing door to door.” But the truth is that indeed God does do this kind of thing door to door. Time and again, an angelic messenger, whether in expected form, or in any form we can receive, breaks into our ordinary lives with comfort, affirmation and concrete mission. Take a moment today to think about how God gets your attention. How and through whom do you receive comfort, affirmation and mission? Are there obstacles that get in the way of you receiving grace and purpose “door to door?” How might you address those obstacles? Addressing the obstacles to our spiritual lives is a powerful form of repentance. It almost always results in a sense of Joyful Hope. As you think about these things, see if you feel nudged to thank others in your life and world for the grace they bring to you.

Prayer: Great Mystery, we thank you that your messages to us come with comfort, affirmation and purpose. Help us today to awaken to what you want to do with us, in us and through us. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December 5: Luke 1:32-33 – “He will be greatly honored, the Son of the One Above Us All. He will be a great chief like his ancestor Much Loved One (David) and will sit in his seat of honor. He will always be chief over the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel). His chiefly guidance will never end.”

In Ireland in the 5^th and 6^th centuries, life was organized, legally and socially, around networks of clans or tribes that controlled territories and defended their own borders. Each tribe had a leader or chieftain/king who operated much like a father to his extended clan family. Within each family group there were nobles, artists and artisans, poets or bards and brehons. The poets were those charged with the telling of the stories of family glory and goodness. The brehons, also story tellers, told the stories of the laws that held the family together, the rituals and customs that gave meaning to the clan’s life. Ireland’s rulers, unlike those of other countries, ran their kingdoms as families and had close bonds with those for whom they were responsible. The social order in general was less hierarchical than in most of the rest of Europe. Chieftains cared for the welfare of their extended family. Perhaps this image of a benevolent protector/king played a role in the Irish embrace of Jesus as King of Kings. In him they saw a tender, yet strong, leader who would care for them in the cosmic plane and the interactions of the spiritual world as their own kings did in their earthly home. For Bitter Tears (Mary) rule was much less benevolent. Roman rule was harsh, unyielding and while the empire did some good things, the cost of the good things disproportionately fell on the poor or those who did not adhere to Roman religion. The desire for self-rule was deep in Israel’s core. The language of the angel in today’s verse is much more in line with that of later Ireland than Mary’s Rome. What must Mary have thought at hearing that her child would become a wise guiding ruler of her people? Could she even imagine it? Sometimes, we too have difficulty imaging leadership apart from strong arm tactics. Can you imagine what it might feel like to hear a messenger from God tell you that wise, just, rule that will change the norms of leadership will be born from you? During Advent we look forward with Joyful Hope to God bringing Jesus to life in us with power. We may not give birth to the son of God as Mary did, but we ourselves bear him to the world every day. What kind of leader do you see in Jesus? Who is the Jesus your life and choices display?

Prayer: Great Mystery, how can you possibly come to us in the ways that you continue to do? Help us today to think deeply about your image that we bring into the world and what kind of chieftain we declare you to be. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.           

December 6: Luke 1:34 with inset – [Bitter Tear’s (Mary’s) voice trembled with emotion, and her eyes grew wide as she looked into the face of the spirit-messenger.] She asked, “How will this be, since I have never been with a man?”

Sometimes it is hard to truly believe that God will do a mighty work in and through us. Especially when we narrow the scope of the miraculous to the physical. Bitter Tears (Mary) is justifiably skeptical that what she is being told is possible. Many of us, too, are sometimes skeptical that we can be used by God to further God’s purposes and bring life and light into the world. The year after I graduated from college, I was working lunches as a cocktail waitress at Joe Namath’s restaurant in Tuscaloosa Alabama and nights as a hostess at the North River Yacht club. The luster on my creative writing degree was fading a little more each month I struggled to make the rent. I lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment near campus overlooking the Black Warrior river. At night I often sat in the dark when I got home from work and watched the barges on the river and wondered how my life would unfold. It was during those late nights that my sense of call to ministry arose. One night in particular, it finally became clear. But I could not fathom the path. I had never even seen a woman minister. On that one night I remember hearing God speak God’s plan for me in my heart. My immediate response was, “Oh no! I can’t do that. I’d never get to wear my little black strapless cocktail dress again and it is not even paid for!” Have you ever had a moment in which you felt that God was asking something of you, and you felt ill prepared? Have you ever doubted that God could do wondrous things with you? If so, then you are a bit like Mary. And look what happened to her!

Prayer: Great Mystery, your path can be a strange one. Help us today to remember that the power to take us where you want us, the power to do in us what is needed, lies entirely in you. Help us to quiet our fears and skepticism and put ourselves in your hands. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December 7: Luke 1:35 – Creator’s Mighty One (Gabriel) answered, “The Holy Spirit will spread his wings over you, and his great power from above will overshadow you. This holy child born to you will be the Son of the One Above us All.”

To understand the power of today’s verse it is important to release our overly physical mindset. The physiology of this event matters little. The word “overshadow” is the same one used for the cloud at the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36) It symbolizes God’s glorious presence with all its power and mystery. This is mystical and miracle language from beginning to end. Bitter Tears (Mary) is not being told that she will be God’s consort to conceive this child. Rather, she will be surrounded by God’s presence to such an extent that God’s very will is manifest in her life. God offers that overshadowing presence to us as well. A number of years ago, in a painful time in my life, I took a month of study leave in a tiny cabin on the rocky Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. I was heartbroken, exhausted and unsure of what was to come next in my life. One morning I was walking along the tiny crescent shaped beach when a powerful dense fog arose as if in a moment. I couldn’t see anything. Not backwards. Not forwards. The rocks seemed treacherous and the wild sea closer than I thought. Only the sounds of seabirds accompanied me. I froze in place for a long time. I felt that I could not find my way home on any level. As I stood there, rooted to the sand and rocks, suddenly the deep fog began to feel like a Presence. It felt like a divine embrace, holding me steady orienting me forward, steading my soul and beginning something new that I could not understand. Almost as quickly as if arrived, the fog lifted, and I made my way to the cabin on jelly legs. I had been overshadowed by grace. I had no idea what would happen next, but I knew that something new, and not of my own making and trying, was going to be born in my life. I always think of that story when I imagine Bitter Tears (Mary) standing skeptical in the presence of God’s plan for her life. Embraced. Have you ever found yourself needing logical answers to something that is in essence a mystery? Have you ever felt surrounded by God’s presence, love and start-over grace? What was that experience like? What was born in and from you in that time of ‘overshadowing?’ Perhaps you feel stuck in the fog right now. Nothing is turning out as you had hoped, and you can’t seem to find home base. If so, just stop for a bit. Don’t try to find your way until the way opens up. Just stand in the embrace of God and breathe the breath of new dreams.

Prayer: Great Mystery, you surround us with love and make ways where there seem no ways. Help us today to lean into your ‘overshadowing’ so that we may walk the path you know is right for us. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December 8: Luke 1:36-37- Then to encourage her, he said, “Your cousin Creator Is My Promise (Elizabeth), who was called barren one, is six moons with child. See! There is nothing too hard for the Great Spirit.”

Sometimes we need to look at the lives of others to find our brave hearts. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth had suffered the emotional and public heartbreak of childlessness for years. Too many years. Her pain was such that it changed her name. In her heart she was no longer Creator Is My Promise (Elizabeth.) Her name was Barren. Until, again by grace alone, it wasn’t. Had Bitter Tears (Mary) heard this news? It isn’t clear. What is clear is that the grace-filled miracle in her cousin’s life was both an encouragement and an object lesson for Bitter Tears (Mary.) If God could do such a thing for Elizabeth, is there anything that God cannot do for Mary? Verse 37 is sometimes called The Creed of All Creeds. It reminds us of God’s majesty, all the way back to Abraham and Sarah, in bringing life from hopelessness. The potential for all good lies with God and not in us or our most detailed plans and purposes. It is God who brings hope at exactly the right time. It may not come in the form we expect. In my experience it nearly never comes the way I expect or on my time table. But one day there is a tiny shift and then another and before we know it we are six months along with hope. Many of us in the USA have just been through a brutal election season. One third of us are ecstatic and praising God for the result. One third of us are so devastated and heartbroken we can hardly breathe. One third of us gave up long ago. In those later two categories it can certainly feel like barrenness itself. But that does not mean that that is so. New things are always gestating in God’s people. Advent is a time for letting that gestation take place. It is a time for eating right, resting, regrouping and pondering what it means to hear the angel sing into our despair “There is nothing too hard for the Great Spirit.” In God’s hands, whether we know it or not, we are already six months along. Take a moment today to ask yourself honestly if you think there is anything that is too hard for God. What might it take for that resistance to fade? Take note in your journal of any signs of new life and hope that you see around you. Set a reminder for six months from now and see how love has grown.

Prayer: Great Mystery, See! There is nothing too hard for the Great Spirit! In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December9: Luke 1:38 with inset – [She looked bravely into the face of the messenger.] “I am Creator’s servant,” she said. “Let it be for me just as you have said.” Then Creator’s chief spirit-messenger left her.

My senior year in seminary, my spiritual director, not too subtly, suggested that I might benefit from a silent retreat. Schooled from the cradle to be a good girl and respect those who had power over me, I made arrangements for twenty-four hours of silence at a Sisters of Loretto convent about an hour’s drive from my beloved Presbyterian seminary in Kentucky. I was nervous as a cat. I packed a large suitcase, a book bag and a full make-up kit complete with hot hair curlers. It was the eighties after all. The beautiful nun who met me helped lug my stuff to my tiny room without comment. They were a silent order except for mealtimes and worship and there was a deep and, to me at the time, frightening stillness about the place that made me want to either sleep or flee. I couldn’t wait to get out of there, but I kept trying to feel something, to coerce some kind of epiphany. Nothing. It was winter and spitting snow. The last hour before I was to head back to seminary I donned my heavy coat and boots to walk a bit on the grounds of the sisters’ working farm. The frosty earth crackled under my feet, and I was morose. I felt a failure. Something was supposed to happen to me but, in my view, nothing had. Finally, as I turned back to the mother house to prepare to lug all my stuff back through the rolling hills dotted with convents and distilleries, I stopped at a fence to greet a friendly cow that stared at me with ice on her eyelashes. I willed myself to commune with her. “Hello, sister cow,” I muttered. Nothing. Then over her shoulder I saw a weather-beaten stature of Mary frozen in place in the midst of a small pond. It took my breath away. Suddenly, the Greek word Theotokas, God-bearer, came to mind and I found myself saying to God, “Surely I could not be that much for you, could I?” Of course, I did not mean that I thought I should give birth to Jesus all over again. But in that moment, I began to think for the first time about the humbling responsibility of being a God-bearer in a world that was even then losing its desire for God. As I stood there and the snow collected on my eyelashes too, I remember whispering, “Let it be for me just as you have said.” The moment that we release ourselves into God’s plan for our lives can happen suddenly like for Mary. For many of us, however, those moments of ‘Let it Be’ must happen again and again. Today think for a moment about your role as someone who brings God to others. How do you do that? Do you feel resistance? Can you loosen your grip on your preferred outcomes and whisper, “Let it be for me just as you have said?”

Prayer: Great Mystery, Let it be with me just as you have said. In Jesus’ holy name I pray. Amen.

December10: Luke 1:39-40 – Bitter Tears (Mary) quickly put together a traveling bundle and went to visit her cousin Creator Is My Promise (Elizabeth), who lived in a nearby village in the hill country of the Land of Promise (Judea). When she entered the house of her relatives, she greeted her cousin.

When the angel left her, Bitter Tears (Mary) made a quick decision about what she needed to do next. She needed support and she knew where to go to get it, her cousin Creator is My Promise (Elizabeth.) In Luke’s Gospel, Joseph is pretty much a cypher. We have to turn to Matthew to see how he responded to the situation, and it took an angel visitation of his own for him to cope. I’ve often wondered why when the sound of angel wings departing stilled in Mary’s ears, she didn’t run to her betrothed with the news. Although it is really little wonder. How likely was he to believe this story? And the decision with which he was faced was untenable. Since they were betrothed, but not yet living together, her pregnancy would have been a scandal of the highest order. It would have been considered adultery and subject to the death penalty for her. It makes sense that she was in no hurry to have that difficult conversation. So, she packed a travel bag and headed to her cousin’s place, I suspect, to both see if Elizabeth was actually pregnant as the angel had said, and to have a few months to see if what he said was true with her as well. When she arrived at the house of her relatives, she enthusiastically greeted her cousin. This was not a mere ‘hello.’ Rather it was a ceremonial greeting that triggered a spiritual realization between the two women. Elizabeth saw this as a confirmation that God is doing something mighty in both of their lives. Who are the ‘Elizabeth’s’ in your life to whom you can flee for support and to make sense of what is happening to you? When you find yourself on unexpected ground, who can you go to with the outlandish tale of your situation? For some of us, names immediately leap to mind. For others we may not feel that we have the support system of trusted friends and mentors that we so desperately need. In the chaotic and often abusive or bullying times in which we live, it can be hard to find trustworthy people who will open the home of their hearts to us. While never perfect and sadly often far from it, the church is one place to start to find the kind of support you need. If you are not a part of a safe and nurturing church, today begin to think about what it might be like to find one. List the characteristics that make a church a safe space. If you would like to reach out to Safe Harbor, we would be happy to welcome you or help you find a church in your area that will greet you with joy.

Prayer: Great Mystery, help us today to find the safe havens you have for us and to be such havens for others. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December11: Luke 1:41-42a – When Creator Is My Promise (Elizabeth) heard Bitter Tears’s (Mary’s) greeting, she felt her child jump inside her. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and with a loud cry she lifted up her voice and spoke these blessing word to Bitter Tears (Mary).

Creator Is My Promise (Elizabeth) is a fascinating spiritual role model. In this little passage we learn that she is attuned to what God is doing in her whole being. Her mind responds to what she recognizes. Her body responds to what she recognizes. Her Spirit responds to what she recognizes. Not only that, she acts immediately, forcefully, loudly in her own voice, to add blessing to the situation in which she finds herself. Wow. How I admire that! Perhaps her past hurt and disappointment taught her to search the very molecules of existence for joyful hope and beauty. Perhaps the miracle of her own pregnancy after long years of waiting with its communal shame and judgment, have awakened Elizabeth to the wonder that what seems hopeless never is. For Creator is My Promise (Elizabeth) her journey has taught her that hope is always warranted, and joy is always on the horizon moving her way. Take a moment today to think about Elizabeth’s attunement to God. How do you experience that in your mind, body, and spirit? In what ways do you routinely recognize what God is doing in you and with others? What makes that easier for you? What makes it harder? Are there behaviors or attitudes you can release in order to deepen your attunement? In what ways do you respond to the grace you recognize immediately, forcefully, loudly and in your own voice? Ask God to help you notice your ‘Creator Is My Promise’ moments today and look for ways to offer blessing when you do.

Prayer: Great Mystery, we thank you for the moments of awakening to your presence and grace that make every day holy and every insight a blessing. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December12: Luke 1:42b-45 – “The Most Holy One has honored you more than any other woman,” she laughed. “The child you carry inside you will bring great blessings to all people. Why is Creator being so kind to me, sending the mother of the Great Chief to visit my home? As soon as I heard your greeting, my baby jumped for joy inside me! You have been chosen by the Maker of Life for a great honor, because you believed his words to you.”

In today’s verses, Creator Is My Promise (Elizabeth) continues her joyous response to Bitter Tears’s (Mary’s) visit and the spiritual epiphany that it causes in her. Her joyful hope and awakened gratitude overflow as she shares with her cousin the spiritual insight that she has had. The phrase in Greek that we translate in NRSV as ‘among women’ and here as ‘more than any other woman,’ is powerful and aptly translated here. It indicates that Mary stands alone as uniquely blessed by God for a purpose no one else could fulfill. What is so amazing is that that is true for each of us. Granted, most of us do not have the unique role to play in the unfolding of salvation history that Mary played, still, each of us has a role that no one else can play. We are created for the moment in which we find ourselves. No one can bring Christ to nearness in our homes, work places, schools, council chambers or even our online profiles in the way that we can. Take a moment today to repeat the last part of our passage over and over again, out loud if you are comfortable doing so. Hear Elizabeth say directly to you “You have been chosen by the Maker of Life for a great honor, because you believed his words to you.” Sometimes we are not able to see ourselves as others see us. Sometimes we are not able to see what they see in us. Sometimes others don’t seem to see us at all. But, even so, God sees us. God sees what is going on inside us. God sees the labor of our lives to listen and believe what God says about us rather than what hurtful or dismissive others say. Today, allow God to speak to you through the words of our ancestor Creator Is My Promise (Elizabeth.) Hear her words as your personal truth for today and every day, “You have been chosen by the Maker of Life for a great honor, because you believed his words to you.” See if that message can take root in you and fill you with joyful hope.

Prayer: Great Mystery, help us today to hear your voice in scripture and prayer so that we may see ourselves as you see us and be filled with joyful hope. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December 13: - Luke 1:46-47 with inset – [When Bitter Tears (Mary) heard this, she was filled with gladness, and her words flowed out like a song.] “From deep in my heart I dance with joy to honor the Great Spirit.”

When I was growing up in a small town in Alabama in the 1960’s, there were few restaurants in our town. There was a Dairy Queen, a steak house and the country club. That was it. People socialized in each other’s homes. On Friday or Saturday nights my parents often went to supper parties, my Dad in his suit and tie and my mom in an elegant little cocktail dress. My Dad, like me after him, was always early for everything. My Mom preferred to be fashionably late. So, on those evenings I usually sat on the sofa with Daddy while he waited for Mama to finish dressing. My favorite evenings, he put a Glen Miller or Tommy Dorsey album on the old hi-fi and took that opportunity to teach me to dance the Fox Trot. When I was really small he lifted me up and carried me with my feet not touching the floor. Later I danced with my feet on his, feeling the rhythm of his life more even than the rhythm of the music. I loved it and was even known to suggest that Mama change her earrings so that I could have one more turn around the floor. From deep in my heart, I danced with joy. Now granted, I am not Mary. Nor was my Dad God, but I always feel in my body the joy of that connection with my father when I read the opening verses of Mary’s song that we call The Magnificat. She is so filled with wonder and the nearness and attentiveness of God that she can hardly stay in her own skin. She has to move, move in rhythm with God, move in rhythm with her own joy at the idea of being useful to God and her people. Like I sought to do in my small ways with my earthly father as well as my divine parent, Mary’s joy focuses on honoring God. The Greek text here is precious. From deep in her heart Mary dances with joy in order to make God look magnificent, in order to awaken others, with tapping feet, to God’s brilliance and join in the dance. Today I invite you to stop for a moment and think about your heart’s deep gladness. Maybe that comes from direct encounter with God. Maybe it is mediated by an angel. Maybe it comes from the small unnoticed miracles of kindness, devotion and inspiration that arrive from others or the natural world. If you pause to look for it, you will find it, even if it seems buried deep by trouble or despair. Play some music you love and dance around the office or the living room or even while crossing the street. If others smile and point, just wave and trust that God will use you today to make the world a better place and God look magnificent.

Prayer: Great Mystery, fuel the joy deep in our hearts so that today we may dance the wild dance of love that makes you look Magnificent. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December14: Luke 1:48-49 - Even though I am small and weak, he noticed me. Now I will be looked up to by all. The Mighty One has lifted me up! His name is sacred. He is the Great and Holy One.”

Bitter Tears (Mary) continues her song and dance of praise by recognizing the counter cultural wonder of God choosing her for service. It is not to the palaces that God turns when love and light need to pour forth on the earth. It is not to the rich, the winners, the power brokers. No, again and again, God turns to the small and powerless, the vulnerable and weak to bring Christ to life. Tiny things carry a sacred energy, don’t they? A number of years ago, during a confusing time in my life, I went to a monastery not too far from my then home in Denver, for a weekend of quiet reflection. It was a small Jesuit retreat center that was home to brothers who had taken a vow of silence. The only time silence was broken was during worship. The arrangements for my stay were made on line. I was met with a silent smile and a middle-aged man who took my small bag to my tiny cell. I never knew any of their names and they knew next to nothing about me except that I was the oddest of oddities, a female Presbyterian minister. Each time I joined them for a meal or passed someone in the hall or on the grounds, I was met with a smile and a tiny bow. Each day when I left my little room, when I returned, my bed had been made, a fresh towel placed by the basin and a small gift left on my desk. One day a peppermint candy appeared. One day a jay feather. And one day a tiny pine cone still attached to its little dried branch. In those small gestures of care and respect I found a window into a truth at the heart of our faith, the small and seemingly insignificant carry a mighty spiritual energy. Perhaps you sometimes feel small and insignificant. Perhaps you know what it is to struggle, to be looked down upon, to not have the resources to change your situation, to be locked in the claws of centuries old prejudices. Mary knew all of that too. And yet God used her in a mighty way that changed, and continues to have the capacity to change the world. Today, take a moment to celebrate God’s favor toward little powerless you. God notices you and God knows all the dreams God has for you. They are not over. They will never be over. Feel God take you by the arms and lift you up higher than you ever dared dream. There is no way that you can do this without smiling!

Prayer: Great Mystery, we praise your name for noticing us today, for giving us honor and purpose. We lift our hearts to you with joy. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December15: Luke 1:50 with inset - [Her face seemed to shine as she continued.] “He shows kindness and pity to both children and elders who respect him.

The Greek word here translated as ‘kindness and pity’ is sometimes translated as mercy. It refers to the outward manifestation of pity. It is the kind pity that does something to alleviate the suffering of another. This word assumes that the one who receives the ‘kindness and pity’ actually has a real need for it. It further assumes that the one who offers ‘kindness and pity’ has the resources and capacity to actually meet the need of the one receiving it. It is a big word in our faith story and is applied to both physical, emotional and spiritual need. In Ephesians 2:4 we learn that God is rich in this powerful ‘kindness and pity.’ God is rich and has the resources to reach out with mercy. Mercy is the rails upon which salvation rides into our lives and world. No wonder that the translators of this verse imagined Bitter Tears (Mary) with a shining face. Throughout the scriptures a shining countenance is associated with being in the near presence of God. Moses face shone so brightly when he returned to base camp carrying the deeps values of God carved on tablets of stone that he had to wear a veil until the wonder faded a bit. God’s kindness, pity and active capacity to help us, is enough to make our faces shine too when we pause to reflect upon it. Many of you may have put up a Christmas Tree or holiday lights in your home by now. Each of those lights is a shimmering mini reminder of the wonderful mercy of God lavished upon all of us. What might it be like for your face to radiate that shimmering gratitude to those around you? As Christmas draws nearer, take deep breaths and remember that the light of Christ dwells within you and pours out among you. You have received mercy, and it shows. In preparation for our annual holiday celebrations in our family, one of the task/traditions is to polish the silver until it sparkles for that one glorious day. Advent is the season for polishing away anything that tarnishes either our awareness of the light of Christ, our insight regarding our need for mercy, or our responsibility to be light in the world. So today, think for a bit about your life. Are there things that tend to dim the light in you? Commit to the polishing of repentance and gratitude. Won’t it be wonderful for the light from the manger to shine in your eyes on Christmas eve and every day thereafter?

Prayer: Great Mystery, polish us with your kind pity so that the power of your mercy will shine from us each and every day. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December16: Luke 1:51 – “His strong arm has brought low the ones who think they are better than others.”

Sometimes it is hard to hold on to the truth that Bitter Tears (Mary) so exultantly declares in this verse. Out of her faith drenched encounter with God, and God’s invitation to use her is achieving God’s saving ends, Mary has experienced an overshadowing of God’s deepest yearnings and that has left her wide awake and able to see that, for some, the path toward healing and wholeness lies through being lifted up in the arms of mercy and justice. And for others the path to healing and wholeness must come through being taken down a peg or two. While never wealthy, nor a person of much worldly power, I have lived in privilege in many ways. I am white in a world where whiteness rules disproportionately. I have had a strong education in a world where those with advanced degrees have a leg up. I have been in positions of leadership in the church in which people gave kind consideration to what I said, and to that for which I have advocated. I was blessed by birth and circumstance. Still, I know with clarity that it has been my losses that have been the making of me, my mistakes and humiliations that have softened my heart and made me both a more teachable and usable creature. I don’t think that this promise to bring down the arrogant is a simple matter of vengeance, or even justice. As with everything that comes from God, it is a matter of goodness, kindness, salvation and new hope. It is easy to exult in the idea of the arrogant misusers of wealth and power getting a public and tumultuous fall. I get that these days. Still, the belief in God’s desire for the good for all, humbles my schadenfreude, at least on my best days. What God inspired Bitter Tears (Mary) to sing to us over the millennia is that God wills and works for that which is best for ALL. Too much wealth, power and arrogance are not only spiritual diseases of the arrogant they are the excuses those ones need to justify their exploitative choices and other dismissing world views. Bitter Tears (Mary) tells us in no uncertain terms that in the realm of God that will not be allowed to stand forever. A baby is on the way whose Way refuses to bend the knee to the proud and heartless. A baby is on the way who will display, without nuance, the radical all-loving-playing-field-leveling salvation of God. Today take a moment to ponder honestly whether or not you sometimes feel that you are better than others. What is your excuse for that belief? How does it limit you? If a comeuppance is due, welcome it with a joyful shout because it will be your path to redemption.

Prayer: Great Mystery, O you of the path of justice, help us today to see where we need to be brought up, and where we need to be brought low, so that we may walk your Way in joyful hope. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December17: Luke 1:52 plus inset – “He counts coup with arrogant warrior chiefs but puts a headdress of honor on the ones with humble hearts.” [She smiled, looked up to the sky, and shouted for joy!] (note: In the tribes of the plains Indians, the coup was a stick with an eagle or hawk claw attached to its tip. A warrior in battle would scratch an enemy with it as an act of courage to show that he could have killed him but chose to spare him instead.)

This verse expands on the theme of yesterday’s verse. In a perhaps more familiar translation, the verse states that: “He brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” The indigenous scholars who translated our verse today used marvelous language that would have been deeply evocative to their people, but perhaps less so to others. The image of counting coup as a sign of both defeat and mercy toward the arrogant is beautiful indeed. Even in the great reversal and leveling that lie at the core of Jesus’ coming to be with us, there is the sense that what may feel bad for a moment also has mercy in it. During our recent US election season, I had a real struggle. It was so hard and my feelings toward my opposing candidates were so intense that I was upset all the time. My blood pressure sky rocketed. I found language offensive even to myself flowing from my lips. I didn’t want to win. I wanted to defeat. I didn’t want to count coup. I wanted metaphorical carnage. At one point when I was spinning in those unsavory juices, I felt God nudge my spirit. “Eugenia, don’t you think I love ‘them’ too?” It was a moment of God counting coup with me, scratching my self-righteousness but leaving me with the gift of life and a widening of the heart. And, in the following days since, I have made it a practice to try to pray for those that feel like enemy to me. I can’t always do it. But when I can, I begin to feel a bit of the headdress of honor being placed on my head with the knowledge that I don’t know everything and there are always ways when I can see no way. Today think about the exquisite spiritual quality of humility. How do you see that in yourself? Do you value it in others? Have there been times when you have felt a spiritual headdress or crown when you have humbly looked at yourself in the mirror and felt God’s call to enlarge your vision? If so, thank God for both experiences and look forward with joyful hope for the fullness of God’s reign to come in your life.

Prayer: Great Mystery, we thank you for humbling us when we need it and adorning us with glory when we don’t deserve it. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December 18: Luke 1:53 – “He prepares a great feast for the ones who are hungry, but sends the fat ones home with empty bellies.”

When I was a child on cold or rainy Saturdays, sometimes my mother invited me to join her in making a pineapple upside down cake. We always made the cake in the old cast iron skillet that had been my grandmother’s. I had a step stool on which I stood to watch the sugar caramelize. When it was perfect, I carefully laid the pineapple slices to cover the caramel and placed a single maraschino cherry in the middle of each. While I did that, my mom whipped up the yellow cake batter that she then poured over the fruit and sugar. The pan went into the oven. Then came the waiting. My favorite moment, even more so that either helping to prepare or eating the results, was the moment when my mom deftly turned the skillet over onto the cake plate and shook the confection loose with the sweet bottom suddenly becoming the top and making the whole thing gooey and perfect. When I hear Bitter Tears (Mary) describe that bottom on the top feast of the reign of God, I always think of the pineapple upside down cake. Truthfully, it is an only marginally appropriate illustration. Because what Bitter Tears (Mary) is describing is a radical change of fortune and power structures as a result of the coming Jesus. There are several instances in the New Testament in which God sends the wealthy away empty. Think of the story of the rich man and his parching uselessness that rendered him incapable of seeing the need of poor Lazarus on his door step. (Luke 16:19-31.) Surely Bitter Tears (Mary) must have had a vision of the opulence of the wealthy Romans who kept tight rein on all those they thought of as useful inferiors. She must have heard descriptions of the lavish dinner parties that could go on for days, while the poor had little or nothing at all. Sometimes, we too, want to do a pineapple upside down twist with our economies and power structures. Sometimes we too might dream of free groceries for the poor and the shelves empty when the rich arrive. Sometimes that is beyond horrifying because we know that we are the fat and we like it that way. Today spend a little time with this verse. Repeat it to yourself often. Write it out in your own hand. How does it feel to you to linger with this word? What does it tell you about the purpose of Jesus’ coming? What kind of Christmas banquet are you planning for the One whom Mary expects?

Prayer: Great Mystery, help us today to sit with uncomfortable truths, and upon rising, to be changed by your bottom on the top values. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December19: Luke 1:54-56 with inset – He has been kind to the tribes of Wrestles with the Creator (Israel) who walk in his ways, for he has remembered the ancient promises he made to our ancestors—to Father of Many Nations (Abraham) and his descendants.” [When she finished, they both laughed with joy. With hearts full of gladness, they told each other their stories.] For three moons Bitter Tears (Mary) stayed in the home of her cousin and then returned home to her own village.

Sometimes even hope and awe can wear us out. Bitter Tears (Mary) finishes her song of hope and passion by rejoicing in God’s faithfulness to both the people who walk the path of trust, and the remembrance of God’s own promise. Have you ever felt so swelled with joy and gratitude that you could not help but smile? Have you ever laughed and danced until your limbs quivered and your face muscles seemed to freeze? Have you ever thought, “This is it! Things are finally turning around for me?” Have you ever seen all that you hoped for within your grasp and exulted in understanding how God intends to use you? If so, what happened after that? What happened when the soreness of waiting for hope fulfilled began to set it? Did you lay aside the hope and joy thinking that maybe you were wrong about it all? Did you wonder if you had what it took to persevere through the long labor to create a safe welcome for what God promised in your life? Bitter Tears (Mary) must, when she took a breath from her joyous outburst, have wondered about what comes next. How would she tell her family the outrageous news that God was using her to turn the world upside down and bring Love in skin into being? How would Joseph respond? Would he be compassionate? Would he stay by her? Would he turn her over to the authorities for trial and possible execution? Even underneath our greatest moments of joyful hope and reaffirmation of faith, there is always the response of the world, of others, held a bay for a moment by our laughter maybe, but still uncontrollable and inevitable. How did Mary deal with her joy and her uncertain future? She did two things that we ourselves can do in times of roller coaster emotions and our inability to control others and their responses to us. She took all the time she needed for support. And she and her cousin told each other their stories. Finding rest in solidarity with trusted others who will listen to our stories and vulnerably share their own with us, is a potent way to prepare for any future outcome. When we rest with those we trust and venture forth with our own stories, our bodies and souls respond on a cellular level to the love and energy with which we are surrounded. Think for a moment about the people in your life who really allow you to rest and be yourself when you are with them. Do you find that today you need a special measure of that kind of support and solidarity? Perhaps you don’t need a three-month story telling retreat, but I expect you, too, need places and times to be real and to gain strength to face difficulty and uncertainty. To whom can you run today to laugh and share stories?

Prayer: Great Mystery, we are so grateful that you give us models of rest and solidarity. Help us today to find the people you have for us who can support and protect us while we prepare for what comes next in our lives. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December20: Luke 2:1-3 – When the time drew close for Bitter Tears (Mary) to have her child the government of the People of Iron (Romans) ordered that the people be numbered and put on government rolls. This happened during the time that Powerful Protector (Quirinius) was governor of Bright Sun (Syria). All Tribal Members were required to travel to their own ancestral village to register.

The intervening verses in Luke’s Gospel tell us the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah and the birth of their own grace delivered son, John who we call the Baptist. There is nothing in the text that tells us what happened next for Bitter Tears (Mary) and her betrothed He Gives Sons (Joseph) when she returns to her home. We have no word of her circumstances during the next six months of her pregnancy. In considering scripture it is always dangerous to make arguments from silence. Still, we can only assume that there were challenges that had to be faced and no small amount of shame and scandal. Luke picks up the story in chapter two, late in Bitter Tears’s (Mary’s) pregnancy. Even with the hand of God upon them, Mary and Joseph, also had to deal with iron rod of Roman government. The governor demanded a census, and each was required to go to their ancestral home to be counted. Why did Rome need this census? The Romans were incredible record keepers and wanted to keep a clear count of who lived in the empire for the purpose of taxation. There is scholarly controversy about this particular census, but it seems likely to me that Luke saw it as a literary device to get Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem as the prophets had spoken. It is wonderful, as well, to see how, in the hands of God, what governments do, even in self-serving ways, can be used to further God’s purposes. Rome did all it could to control the Jewish people. The boot was always on their necks. And yet at the moment of the birth of their deliverer, Rome unwittingly played a role in the fulfillment of prophecy. Whether we are aware of it or not, in our own day, we too carry dual citizenship. On a deep level we love and support our country even when we are baffled or thwarted by its policies. Still, we know that our true citizenship is in the kingdom of God. It is touching that this government mandate sent Bitter Tears (Mary) and He Gives Sons (Joseph) home, back to their roots and ancestral ties. It reinforced their story as children of the covenant. It strengthened their identity in the line of David. Even corrupt government is no match for the hand of God intent to save. Today take a moment to think about the dual citizenships of your life. Perhaps you carry the passport of the land on which you live. Perhaps that land has been taken from you like with Mary and Joseph. Perhaps you carry the passport of your family lineage, you are a Midwesterner, a Scot, a Swede, a member of a tribal nation of this land, or a descendant of people forced from home and brought here as slaves. All of those passports tell us stories we need to hear, both our own and the stories of others. The common ground we have with our different stories is that we carry the passport of the kingdom. It is stamped not in a paper folder but on an ever softening and expanding heart. Think a bit today about those loyalties. Do any of them compete for dominance in your life? How do you balance all of that?

Prayer: Great Mystery, we thank you that you can use even that which is burdensome, corrupt or painful in our world to further your redeeming work. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December21 – Luke 2:4-5 with inset – He Gives Sons (Joseph) and Bitter Tears (Mary) set out on a long journey from Seed Planter Village (Nazareth) in Circle of Nations (Galilee), to House of Bread (Bethlehem) in the Land of Promise (Judea), the village of their ancestor, the great chief Much Loved One (David). [The journey took several long days and cold nights as they traveled over high hills and through the dry desert. When they arrived, tired and weary, they entered the crowded village.]

The very last thing that Bitter Tears (Mary) and He Gives Sons (Joseph) needed at that time was to take a long trip. Life itself at the end of a pregnancy is tough enough. Surely the scandal had affected the whole family. He Gives Sons (Jospeh’s) carpentry business must have suffered leaving him with questions about how he would support his family. Bitter Tears (Mary) was no doubt tired, swollen and frightened. What would delivery be like? Did she have enough people to support her healing in the time after the birth? I can only imagine the look that passed between the couple when news of the census reached them. Joseph would have to shutter the shop. How could Mary have walked on her swollen ankles? (The sweet image we have of Mary riding on a donkey while Joseph walked beside her is not at all likely. It is doubtful that they would have had the donkey and even if they did, it would have culturally been Joseph riding it and Mary walking beside.) What if Mary went into labor on the side of the road with no midwife? People had been taught to flee blood at all costs. Would anyone help her? Would she survive? This was going to be a nightmare. Today’s verse is dripping with what is left unsaid. It was a long, hard, dangerous journey into which the couple was thrust, and they had no choice in the matter. Sometimes, in our own ways, we, too, must take a long and dangerous journey. There is simply no choice. It is to do the hard thing or die, either literally or metaphorically. We have to face our addictions, or prejudices, or moral failures, or spiritual apathy. Those journeys can be long and hard with little comfort along the way. Many families must face a journey, literally, as they flee government oppression or grinding poverty to try to find a new home where it is safe for them to live and raise a family. There is no softening, Christmas Pageant-like, note in this verse. The journey is forced upon them, it is hard and dangerous, and when they reach Bethlehem they are met with a throng of other people with similar stories and nowhere left to turn. And yet they set out. They do what they can do. They put one foot in front of the other. Sometimes that is all we can do as well, take the next step, the next breath, live the next moment. Think today about the journey of your life. Have there been paths you never wanted to take? What was the outcome? Did the long journey lead to something wonderful and new? Are you on it now? Take heart, something new is on the way!

Prayer: Great Mystery, we thank you even for the hard journeys and trust that in them we will find new birth. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December 22: Luke 2:6 – The time for Bitter Tears (Mary) to have her child was upon her!

I have never given birth myself, but I know enough about the process to know that you can’t stop new life when it is time by crossing your legs. When the time is ripe, it is ripe. A number of years ago I had the honor of serving as a birthing coach for a young woman whose husband was unwilling to do so. It was a long hard labor. Longer and harder than either of us imagined. Near the end, the nurse midwife told us that the time was at hand. The baby was crowning. The young women yelled, “NO! NO! NO! Put it back! I can’t do this!” The wise midwife smiled and said, “Honey it is out of your hands. Take a deep breath and then push.” Sometimes we can feel like we are not up to the task that lies before us. Sometimes the pain and fear of a long ‘labor’ can make us want to go backwards to some kind of picture of how life would and should be but really never was. What Bitter Tears (Mary) no doubt realized, when the labor pains became intense, and she did not even know where they would go for her to give birth, is that there is no going back. Back no longer exists when God is doing a new thing with us. Have you had moments, right on the cusp of a new thing, when you just wanted to run backwards? Have you had times when the labor to change was more than you could bear and all you wanted to do was rewind the clock and returned to your whitewashed memories or too easy visions? I have. When my doctors recommended that I retire long before I was ready, my inner response was “NO! NO! NO! Put it back! I can’t do this.” And yet in reality that transition was out of my hands. All I could do was breathe and push into the new life that seemed at the time so unwelcome to me. Today stay with those feelings of resistance and fear for a moment. Dig around their roots a bit. What are you afraid of? What are your choices? Perhaps it will be helpful today to return to Creator’s Mighty One’s (Gabriel’s) words of assurance in Luke 1:37 “See! There is nothing too hard for the Great Spirit.”

Prayer: Great Mystery, give us strength today to face all that you have in store for us! In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December23: Luke 2:7a – But no place could be found in the lodging house,

My favorite story from a colleague’s Christmas Pageant is the one in which the young Mary and Joseph stumble up to the Innkeeper. They have been perfecting their roles for weeks. Teenaged Mary is wearing a complicated pillow contraption slung low on her belly. She is walking slowly with the hint of a limp holding tight to Joseph’s arm. When they reach the Inn, the gangly teenage Innkeeper announced that there was no room for them. Unscripted and yet perfect, Mary burst into tears and Joseph, startled, put his arms around her and pulled her close, as close as her pillows would allow. In that moment, the congregation was breathless. The next lines were lost in the poignancy of the spectacle. Finally, as the couple turns to leave, the Innkeeper says, “No. Wait. You can have my room.” Our story doesn’t unfold exactly like that, nor do our own life stories. Most of us know that our life struggles are not always met with an unscripted burst of compassion. Mercifully, sometimes they are, but what happens in the moment when the obstacles become clear and before the long for compassion arrives? Sometimes we just have to sit for a moment with what is. Sometimes we have a shoulder to lean on and sometimes we do not. But in that breathless moment when the obstacles before us seem insurmountable, especially if we are exhausted and confused, we, too, find unscripted tears and don’t know what to do next. In today’s verse Bitter Tears (Mary) and He Gives Sons (Joseph) are caught in circumstances beyond their control. They can’t see the compassion that is on the way. I imagine the sense of defeat and desperation they must have experienced for that instant in which they felt they had no options. Have you ever had moments when you were brought up short by circumstances over which you had no control? How did you respond before the way opened before you? It is tempting to either dissolve in those times or lash out, sometimes both in the space of a moment. Obviously, lashing out at others has to be curbed, but feeling what we feel when we are stuck is an important avenue of spiritual growth. If we damn up fear, grief or confusion they will metastasize and spread both within us and around us. But when we accept that we are feeling what we are feeling, it makes tiny chinks in the feelings, like an ice pick on a large block of ice, and before we know it we have manageable chunks to deal with and lots of entry points for light and life.

Prayer: Great Mystery, help us today to stay present to the obstacles in our path, to feel our emotions without being stuck in them, so that there will be openings in our hearts for your new way. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December 24: Luke 2:7b – “so He Gives Sons (Joseph) found a sheep cave where it was warm and dry. There she gave birth to her son. They wrapped him in a soft, warm blanket, and laid him on a baby board. Then they placed him on a bed of straw in a feeding trough.

The luxury of standing still in the face of our obstacles is short lived. The psalmist tells us that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30) This is without a doubt true. It is also true that a lot has to happen in the night for that joy to arrive in the morning. He Gives Sons (Joseph) cannot stand stupefied for long. So using the resources of the truly desperate, he finds a safe warm place for them to stay. We don’t know how. Maybe he had relatives who offered the cave. Maybe the Innkeeper took pity and offered his own animal shed. All we know is that He Gives Sons (Joseph), with God’s help, found a way when there was no way. New life comes in its own good time, and it must be protected. What touches me so in today’s verse is the tenderness of the welcome they prepare and offer their baby. This is a father who did the best he could to provide for his wife and baby. He found a way to keep them warm and dry. He gathered straw to cushion the baby’s hard entry into the world. Surely Bitter Tears (Mary) had made some preparations of her own. A soft warm blanket (swaddling clothes) had been packed with care. The insertion in this translation of the baby board is another indication of the care and practical love with which the baby was met. In many of the native tribes of North American, baby boards or cradle boards were fashioned with care to welcome and protect newborns. Babies were swaddled (wrapped tightly) in small warm blankets and strapped to a specially designed flat board, make of a wood plank or woven from basket fibers. The baby board was then carried in the mother’s arms or strapped to her like a back pack or propped up on the ground like a baby chair. These baby boards were designed to protect the newborn from danger until the baby was old enough to sit up and crawl. The image is of warmth, dedication, love and protection. Think today of times in your life when you had to act fast to protect those you loved. Maybe you had to grab a child’s hand as he threatened to run into traffic to retrieve a ball. Maybe you had to figure out how to get food for your family after a layoff. Maybe you had to figure out how to survive in a time of war or oppression. Maybe you just had to muster the courage to rise a bit from depression or anxiety. Most of us know what it is like to have to think fast, to make new plans on the fly, and somehow find the energy we need to do so. In those times, were you able to make a soft landing, metaphorically place straw in an unfamiliar basin to cushion the impact of circumstances on those you love? We you able to find a safe warm place to meet the new thing that was coming. How might you create a baby board, a safe protected environment for yourself as you grow spiritually and learn to breathe in a new and unexpected world? Know today, that wherever you find yourself, you have what it takes to move forward. Joyful hope is warranted!

Prayer: Great Mystery, we thank you for the baby board of your grace. Help us today to do what we must do and then rest in your loving care. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December25: Luke 2:8-11 That night, in the fields nearby, shepherds were keeping watch over their sheep. Suddenly a great light from above was shining all around them. A spirit-messenger from Creator appeared to them. They shook with fear and trembled as the messenger said to them “Do not fear! I bring you the great good story that will be told to all nations. Today in the village of Much Loved One (David) an Honored Chief has been born who will set his people free. He is the Chosen One!”

What marvelous news indeed! Shepherds in the time of Jesus were no longer the honored professionals of the time of Much Loved One (David.) As wealth accumulated in the hands of fewer and fewer, lands and flocks were cultivated and tended for absentee owners who paid little and supervised less. Shepherds were hired hands who were known as much for being drunk in the fields and stealing sheep as they were for vigilance in tending. They were largely a disreputable lot who had either foreclosed on other options, or felt they had none to begin with. So, on an ordinary chilly night, while they were probably asleep or near to it, the night sky split with light and a messenger from God came with the message most of us have longed to hear at one time or another: “Do not be afraid! Your story just changed!” Many of us know what it feels like to find ourselves in an uncomfortable situation, whether of our own making or not, in which we can’t see either a way out or a way through. We know what it feels like to try to numb out when no path forward seems open or accessible for us. Whether it is a landlord, a supervisor at work, or a far-flung overload of some sort, we sometimes know what it is like to long for change while resisting it and thinking it is impossible all at the same time. Have you ever been trapped in a no-win situation? A job? A relationship? A stalled project? A bad habit? Toxic old memories? If you have, stop and think about what that felt like at the time. What might it have been like to hear a messenger from God break into your thoughts and say: Do not be afraid! Your story just changed! Whether in times in which you feel stuck like the shepherds, or just the ordinary challenges of daily life, the angels declare that you can lay aside your fears because God is bringing a great good story into your life. Today as you celebrate and worship, as you relax with family and friends, with belt buckles undone after the feast, take a moment to consider the nature and power of the hope that is born in and for you today. Don’t be afraid! You story just changed!

Prayer: Great Mystery, changer of night to day, changer of pain to dancing, changer of despair to hope, we thank you on this holy day. We thank you, that you continually come to us to calm our fears and change our stories. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December26: Luke 2:12 – The spirit -messenger continued, “This is how you will know him—you will find the child wrapped in a blanket and lying in a feeding trough.”

How poignant that the baby is found in a feeding trough! It is as if the angel tells the confused and battered shepherds that they will recognize their savior in the places of nourishment. For many of us the holiday season is a time of feasting. We prepare special foods that carry cozy memories and a sweet nostalgia. I remember as a child, my great Aunt Suzy always came by our house on the night before Christmas eve with a giant glass Tom’s Peanut jar filled to the brim with a variety of cookies she had spent the week baking. Even the crumbs when the jar was empty fed us with thoughts of her twinkling eyed love and infectious laughter. On Christmas morning, my mom rose before dawn to stuff the turkey and put it on to roast. I still remember waking up to the wonderful smells! One Christmas when I was a pastor, a parishioner prepared a beautiful brunch that she brought over to my apartment before the morning service so that I would not have to scrouge for something to eat afterwards. All of our experiences of feast and everyday sustenance can remind us of the one who lies at the heart of all of our nourishment. Jesus meets us around table. Jesus is found wherever we are fed, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Take a moment today to think about the ways that you are fed and nourished. How do you meet Jesus in those places or activities. Remember that the messenger told the shepherds how they would recognize the baby savior. It was their choice to get up and go to the place where he was. That is your choice today too! So, rise up, shepherds, and follow!

Prayer: God With Us, help us today to find you as you nourish our bodies, souls and spirits. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December27: Luke 2:13-14 – Suddenly, next to the messenger, a great number of spirit-warriors from the spirit-world above appeared giving thanks to Creator, saying “All honor to the One Above Us All, and let peace and good will follow all who walk upon the earth.” Let peace walk with us.

Isn’t it poignant to see that the spirit-warriors (The literal Greek here is heavenly army) appear with gratitude and praise on their lips? Isn’t it poignant that the angelic realm’s greatest hope for human beings is that peace and good will follow everyone that walks the earth? The beautiful Greek word we translate as ‘peace’ is much more than the absence of war. It refers to harmonious relationships between persons, peoples, nations, between a person and God, and within all of the various aspects of a person’s life. This is God’s desiring for us. This is what Jesus came to bring. The word we translate as ‘good will’ is made up of two Greek words: good and thinking or appearing. It carries connotations of pleasure, benevolence, and both being and appearing good. It implies a gracious purpose to life in which the choices we make are always toward the common good. Sit with that for a moment. Let these words sink into your heart. God’s desire for you, and for every other person on earth, is to live in total peace in such a way that is gracious, pleasing and of service to the greater good. That is what Jesus came to make possible and apparent. Think today about how you hear gratitude and praise of God in your daily life? What draws you into praise? What does it mean to you to know that the divine plan is for peace and goodwill to walk with you everywhere you go? How can you deepen that experience today? The passage ends with an invitation to allow peace to be the trusted companion in our lives. Imagine for a moment that divine peace is a person that you can invite on a walk. If you have access to the out of doors, go for a walk with peace. What does peace say to you? What do you say to that companion?

Prayer: Great Mystery, let peace walk with us and let us be peace for the world. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December28: Luke 2:15-16 When the messengers returned to the spirit world above, the shepherds said to each other, “Let us go and see this great thing Creator has told to us.” So, they hurried to the village of Chief Much Loved One (David) and found Bitter Tears (Mary), He Gives Sons (Jospeh), and the child, who, just as they were told, was lying in a feeding trough!

The shepherds have experienced a powerful spiritual awakening. Their ordinary lives have been addressed by divine messengers that tell them that a new story for them is not only possible, but that the means for change has been born into the world for them. They could have watched the glow recede. They could have rolled over and gone back to sleep, certain that real transformation might be possible but not for them. They could have blamed it all on the wine. But that is not what they did. They got up and went to see for themselves. At least for that moment, they trusted enough that God’s plan for them was real and accessible, and they went to see for themselves. They didn’t wait for another message. They didn’t sit on the hillside, arms folded across their chests like defiant toddlers. They got up and went. Maybe they were testing themselves or their experience of divine inbreaking. Maybe they were sick of where they were and hoped beyond hope that things really had changed. We don’t know their motives. They were probably mixed, as our motives usually are. Regardless, they acted on the revelation they received and in so doing gave us a model for spiritual response. Years ago, on a mission trip in Nicaragua I met a theologian who described the life of the house churches there. Those believers met several times a week in each other’s homes for prayer and scripture study. At the close of each gathering, those present shared one concrete thing that each would do as a result of the word and insights they had from the study. In talking about this, the leader said, “If we say we believe something and do not act concretely on that belief then we either do not really believe it, or we believe something else more strongly.” Think today about how you respond to inspiration, insight and spiritual guidance. What do you believe? How do you act on that belief? What other beliefs paralyze your actions? How can joyful hope in Christ be made concrete in your life today?

Prayer: Great Mystery, help us today to do what we can to act on our faith. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December29: Luke 2:17-18 – The shepherds began to tell everyone what they had seen and heard about this child, and all who heard their story were amazed.

Telling the story of what God has done for us, what we have seen and heard, what we know to be true, is the calling of every disciple of Jesus. After their wondrous encounter with the angels, and their journey to the Christ child, the shepherds could not contain their joy. Somehow the whole story of their lives was changed and they just had to tell the story. Today’s is a do-it-yourself devotion. I invite you to spend some time thinking about the story of joyful hope that you have to tell from your relationship with Christ. How has ‘meeting Jesus’ changed the trajectory of your life? How might it still? When have you been amazed by grace? What is the story that you cannot help from sharing?

Prayer: Great Mystery, each day we are changed through our life in you. Today help us to think with gratitude about the story we have to share. Lead us today to those who need to hear it. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December30: Luke 2:19 – Bitter Tears (Mary) kept these things hidden in her heart and wondered what all this would mean.

After moments of momentous change that leave us facing a whole new story arc in our lives, we, like Bitter Tears (Mary) need time to ponder, to sort out our thoughts, to see what we take with us from the past and what we can now relinquish as no longer needed for our new reality. For most of us, I suspect, those moments of path change are not as earthshaking as was Mary’s. Perhaps a new job arrives, or a relationship ends or changes direction. Perhaps we have a baby or find a new love. Perhaps a parent dies and we keenly feel the weight of ‘working without a net.’ Perhaps the world around us turns in a direction for which we feel unprepared, and we don’t know how to see the good in it. Perhaps our relationship with God inexplicably deepens and we find the insights coming faster than we can process them. What Bitter Tears (Mary) teaches us is that when change comes, welcome or not, full of hope or not, we need time to make sense of what is happening to, with, and around us. This is especially true if the labor has been long and hard to get where we are. Today in this holy season of Christmas, I invite you to take a moment to think about the path changes in your life, especially those that may be happening now or you think are just on the horizon. What might these things mean for your life? Think, as well, about the grace-filled path change that you walk each new day with Christ. What difference does it make in your life that Jesus was born? How can you more mindfully walk with him in the new year? From what do you need to be saved? To what do you need to transformed. What wholeness do you long for? Ponder these things in your heart, knowing that indeed Jesus is with you, within you, beside you, and among you. Immanuel, God with you, is the constant reality of your life. Joy to the world.

Prayer: Great Mystery, help us in this busy season filled with change to ponder your presence with us and what it means for our lives and world. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.

December31: Luke 2:20 – The shepherds returned to their fields, giving thanks to the Great Spirit for the wonders they had seen and heard.

My husband, Robbie, loves a saying common to Buddhist practice. “Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.” In its Zen context, it is usually interpreted as a message for those who, before enlightenment, want to get out of chopping wood and carrying water, but who do it out of habit or hopelessness. After enlightenment when illusions burn away, that which seemed like a hopeless drudgery is seen through the eyes of harmony. For me, when I hear that phrase it reminds me that in Christ everything changes, even that which does not change. Think about that for a moment. The shepherds lives have been changed by their encounter with the angels that led them to the living Christ. Nothing would ever be the same again. And yet, they go back to their fields and do what they have always done. Meeting Christ does not take us out of our lives. It places us, transformed, into our lives. Later, Jesus himself recognizes this when he tells his fisherfolk followers that he will make them fishers, but just of a different catch. We do not change who we are when we meet Jesus. We heal in broken places without a doubt, be we are still us, only more so, more truly. After the high moments of Christmas Day, take a moment or two today to think about the field to which you return. I may be your job. It may be your daily chores. It may be your education. It may be your faith formation. How do those situations change when you bring your awareness of Christ with you into them? How can you carry the Christ light this next year as you ‘chop wood and carry water?’

Prayer: Great Mystery, today we come to the end of a year full of joy and distress, wonder and confusion. Help us each day of the new year to live our lives deeply aware of your presence with us so that we can do those things that others say cannot be done. In Jesus’ holy name we pray. Amen.