An Advent Prayer: God, You Exist... (Advent 3, 2022)

An Advent Prayer... 

God, You exist… in the voice of one crying out — calling — 

in the wilderness, as Scripture tells us…

You exist, 

like the raging wind of December’s winter,

like a power outage in every village,

like the power outside of human control and convenience.

God, You exist…

Like the flickering flame of the candle-light in each house, disconnected electrically,

where family and friends rely on the little light they have, which is beautiful and enough.

In that moment, You exist … 

as a welcome and warm assurance of safety.

God, You exist.

in the inner strength of our embodied self,

when we withdraw into the deep and the hidden

and find the pearl and the treasure, unburied and priceless.

(The joy of the Creator is in us and among us,

and it shall never dry up.)

God, You exist.

In the joy of wordless communication,

the space between the lines,

the silence, the darkness,

in the subtle dance of our emotions…

God, You exist.

In our enjoyment of the familiar, of beloved family and Church traditions…

God, You also exist, in a different kind of joy,

The joyful discovery and development of new traditions and new friendships…

The happiness that comes when we open ourselves to new learning, exploring the separate origin and the common story of two different people, two different communities…

God, You exist.

When we intentionally displace our comfort zone

to build meaningful relationship with our neighbours.

Your joy abides in friendship, and for this reason, we pray:

we pray that, with all those who are treated as if they are in the background of society, the under-loved, the underserved, and those who are estranged from family, friends, and faith, due to their social status or identity, we may be able to “reconstruct" a Christmas experience to hold the pain and offer hope, acceptance, encouragement, and love in this Christmas season.

God, You exist in community.

Mary sings in her Magnificat:

“My soul rejoices. My spirit magnifies my Lord.

My Joy is not an isolated sentiment I keep to myself.

I sing the collective joy God calls us into. Lord, you exist in community!”

God, You exist, in embracing and being embraced, in the times of grief.

May we never deny the suddenness of loss and oppression, and at the same time,

may we never give away the power in us to still feel joy…, which is a gift from YOU.

God, Your People exist.

We pray for the places and the people where and for whom, after the news Headlines fade, the emergency and unimaginable humanitarian crises remain and are still experienced.

God, All Creation exist.

In this Advent season, may we strengthen our relationship with the Earth, and learn to live with the rhythm of it, slowing down, and not being afraid of going deep…

Especially as we move towards the birth of Immanuel — God being with us --, Immanuel — God being with all creation, 

and being born among them —. 

May Truth and Reconciliation, and the recovery of our communion with the Earth in right relations, be good news to us… for learning, humility, joy and transformation.

Blue Christmas Reflection: Exist, God says... Dec 18th, 2022

Luke 2:27, 34-38

Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, … Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed ³⁵so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” ³⁶There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. ³⁸At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

 

For those who are feeling overwhelmed in this Christmas season

This month, in this season, this week, even today, you might feel like Mary. Mary, the mother of Jesus, just had this beautiful child, Immanuel, the assurance and loving whisper from God that God is with her, with her child, as God is with all creation; the child, bone from her own bone, flesh from her own flesh, Word from God’s own Word, with a face that radiates and reflects the exact beauty of God’s face. Mary looks at her baby, Jesus, in her arms, his brown eyes astonished by all that surrounds him; this small body, cradled in her bosom. Mary enters the temple with Immanuel and then, unprepared, hears the prophet Simeon, saying, her child will be falling and rising as many would do the same in Israel. Her child will be a sign that will be opposed. Witnessing, journeying with, carrying the faith all the years while being part of the Immanuel’s path on earth, will be painful, difficult and so overwhelming that it might feel like “A sword pierces her own soul too.” Anna prophesies that the path of the child is destined to the redemption of Jerusalem, and therefore, in the end, the story will be one of glory, resurrection, and restoration. But- oh, no, Mary might whisper to herself, hoping that the prophecy may never come true. That can’t be the future for the life of my child, she silently prays … Why must there be pain? 

 

You might feel as well, this month, in this season, this week, even today, that you are like the child, Immanuel, whose heart is pierced through by a sword, who is being hurt by an overwhelming avalanche of agony, deep sorrow, loneliness, betrayal, exhaustion, grief. I mean, grief after grief after grief unending, loss after loss after limitless loss… so much that you feel as if the heavens are breaking, countless burdens fall on you, the weight almost compressing you flat, almost squeezing you out of existence, erasing you from the cosmos… “Yourself down into near nothingness” 

 

Friends, hear this. Here is the voice of God (telling you from the start of Eternity and whispering to you until the end of the story that has no end): 

 

Exist… God says, 

 

Exist, just the same as I exist. Immanuel says. 

See the cosmos, and learn how I exist. Eternity says. 

 

(The following is An Advent poem by Avery Arden)

 

As a child packs a snowball 

tight and firm and 

cold seeping even through their mittens 

into palms 

 

So You

once packed the Universe 

into a ball scarce larger than 

the pomegranates that had yet to burst 

into being…

 

But still a greater miracle awaited! 

— a denser packing of Infinity 

into small single atoms — 

 

You! You

 

curled Your endless Being up 

into an embryo 

 

oh! You who grew 

the cosmos on a particle of Breath

 

You packed Yourself down into 

near nothingness — and waited. 

 

You waited there 

in warm dark roundness till 

the time had come for Her to birth you, 

wet and bloody, into an uncaring world. 

 

Somehow the Being who could wear the galaxy 

like a bangle nursed and grew and toddled, 

walked among

us tiny beings of the frail bones…

 

i’ll never, 

ever ever fathom it. 

 

Divinity! if i could hold YOU now 

as Mary held you, in my quaking arms 

i think i might just know why You sustain

 

each instant — now, and now, and now again — 

all of existence. 

 

Seed upon the palm 

tucked lovingly into a rich dark soil 

 

infant on the breast 

fed lovingly from one’s own aching flesh 

 

— but not yet. Not yet — 

already yes — and still 

not yet. 

 

with Earth i wait for You 

with bated breath. 

 

Friends of the Child, you might feel overwhelmed, as if a sword is piercing your heart… The outside noises and even inner thoughts from your mind might shout at you the wrong message — each instant erasing you, working against your true identity, against the bright core of your being. But in the midst of all of these hostilities, dare to

 

exist. 

Friends of Immanuel, 

friends of the Child whom the pierced-heart-Mary holds, exist. 

Exist, you child of God… Exist just as the divinity exists, 

just as the Earth waits. 

Just as each instant is sustained by the densely packed Pomegranate Eternity. Exist.