Looking Back, Looking Around, Looking Ahead

 

We began the week honoring St. Cecilia, the patroness of music.  Today, I want to honor one of my favorite female authors, Marilynne Robinson.  She is a theologian and prophet and pastor.  She once wrote, “I have spent my life watching, not to see beyond the world, merely to see, great mystery, what is plainly before my eyes. I think the concept of transcendence is based on a misreading of creation. With all respect to heaven, the scene of the miracle is here, among us.”

 

On this day after Thanksgiving, I can think of no better prayer practice and posture than to try to witness to what is right before our eyes.  The scene of the miracle is here, among us in the ordinary and every day.  In leftover turkey in your refrigerator.  In moments of sitting outside soaking in creation trying to still our busy lives.  In times of laughter with friends.  In moments when God-goose-bumps race and run down our arms.  This is the holy hovering and humming here and now for you and me. 

 

This coming Sunday, we begin the season of Advent.  At the heart of this season is one of the most miraculous moments in human history ~ God entering our world in the form of a vulnerable infant.  God still enters our world with each new birth.  God is in the flesh in you because you are crafted, created, loved into being by God.  Every morning when you look in the mirror you are seeing one of the infinite ways God is incarnate (which simply means embodied) in you. 

 

Yet, we don’t always practice this holiness with ourselves and others.  We are quick to judge where we fall short, fumble, and false starts.  We are quick to point out other’s blunders and fumbles.  We know that Jesus taught, “Do not judge,” but we have quickly abandoned that challenging invitation because we can post anonymously in comment sections on-line.  We prefer the cultural narrative of the bottom line, balance of our bank accounts, and whether we are winning.  The gospel medicine of good news, of God’s care for the lost, lonely, left out and left behind is what we encounter each Sunday, but how can we live that way? 

 

Advent is a time to re-orient our lives toward God’s prayerful plea to live differently.  Advent is a time for us to recall that hope is not found in any store or shelf or online sale; peace is a practice internally to impact the external world; joy is a fuel (rather than hate and fear) of life; and love wins.  God’s love born in a dusty, dirty stable against the backdrop of Roman political power of might makes right.  What we are preparing our hearts for is a mystery we will never fully understand but is a truth that can change our lives if we decide to live as if the Gospel is true and trustworthy.

 

Hold your one precious and wild life (to quote Mary Oliver).  Behold your life on this day for the beautiful gift you are.  And may you give thanks to the Author and Source,