Advent as a way of life
Text: Luke 1:39-56
Advent is a way of life. We choose to become the space for God to be born again in and through us. We become pregnant with God. That is, we allow ourselves to be a channel of God’s ongoing creation. Mary’s courageous yes reminds us that the work of God requires our openness and willingness to participate in the unknown. Trust is what makes advent possible, and what keeps us going. Without it, there would have not been what’s called, advent. We can wait because we trust in the One who has arrived and will continue to arrive in this broken yet beloved world. Once we embark on the journey of advent, we know that we are not alone; we find ourselves joined by countless others who have been the conduit of God’s blessings. We also know that our lives are no longer our own; they belong to the creative and life-giving movement of the Spirit. The work of advent is deeply communal. Like midwives, we hold space for each other until the God we have been waiting for is born safely. The time of waiting is crucial. It is as important as the delivery. Just as the seed in the ground must stay in the darkness before it sprouts, the seeds of God need time of nurturing in a safe space. While waiting, we must stay awake. We keep one another awake, cheering, empowering, and staying together in the darkness. As our waiting is getting deeper our anticipation is getting stronger. We pay attention to what’s happening in and around us. We look deeply into ourselves and feel a new life stirring deep inside of us, leaping for joy.
The birth of Christ described in the Bible clearly shows us that it is the work of the community. The birthing of the baby Jesus requires a great teamwork right from the beginning. First and foremost, God enters the world through the space in the human body, Mary’s womb. Mary needs Joseph to be on board so they can protect and nurture the new life together. The holy family needs the space from the animals for the baby to be laid. The heavenly angels need the chorus from the shepherds to make their praise down to earth, indicating that the arrival is good news to the heaven AND to the earth. The wise ones travel as a community, and act as divine agents by taking another road as instructed in a dream. The story shows that it takes everyone to bring about God’s dream for the world. Hope, peace, joy, and love, they are alive in community.
Kofi Hope is a social entrepreneur and change maker based in Toronto. In a recent TEDx he talks about the power of community. People often ask him “how can I as an individual help change society?” After spending most of his adult life thinking about social change, engaging the world, and meeting various activists around the world he has come to realize that the well-meaning isolated individual actions do not change how society functions. According to Kofi Hope, the only thing that changes society is when individuals come together as communities and those communities contest and transform power relations. Back in 2005 Kofi Hope was a student at University of Toronto and president of the black students’ association. That year was the year of the gun that every day he’d open up the paper and read horrible news. Faces of young black men and women had lost their lives to gun violence one after another. And on top of it there was a rhetoric in the media talking about black youth like this foreign species who had invaded Toronto with gangs and violence. Hope wanted to do something. He reached out to other student leaders and they created an advocacy coalition. They launched a campaign called BLING (Bring Love In, Not Guns). That was the beginning of a social change. Hope reflects on how a small community, just 10 people meeting every night could impact thousands and shift a national conversation. Kofi Hope says that communities provide us with something that acting alone does not provide: a sense of safety.
Kofi Hope’s insight explains why Mary must set out on a journey with haste to meet Elizabeth. The angel’s promising message alone can’t provide what it takes for Mary to nurture the child inside of her. Mary needs to be in a space where she can feel safe, where she can just be herself. The story clearly shows that providing such space is reciprocal. Turns out, Elizabeth needs the space as Mary does. So, they both become the space for each other. The child inside of Elizabeth affirms their reunion by leaping for joy. When we hold space for one another, we realize that there is always invisible presence stirring among us. When we are attuned to the Spirit, we can have a clear vision of where the Spirit is leading us. We will join countless sisters and brothers in singing Mary’s song of praise – how God has brought down the powerful and lifted up the lowly.
What if this time of physical distancing is a long period of being pregnant with God? Did you know that this week marks the 40th week since we stopped gathering in person? Did you know that the practice of “quarantine” dates back to the 14th century, during another plague, when ships arriving form infected places were required to sit at anchor for 40 days before landing? The escaped slaves of Israel wandered in the wilderness with Moses for 40 years before they reached the promised land. And Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the desert before beginning his public ministry. Forty is a number with great meaning. Of course, we don’t know for sure for how much longer we should wait, but at least we have gained a perspective that what we are doing is a spiritual work. We learn to become the space for God in the world. We also learn to hold space for each other in spirit. The space we can provide knows no limits. We can hold space for those who struggle, those who are vulnerable, those who are lonely, those who have lost their jobs, those whose financial security has gone, those who are anxious around paying rent or providing family needs, those who are sick, those who are fearful, those who put their lives on the line to help others. We all need this mantra that will help us get through our day, ‘how can I be the space for you at this moment in time?’ Advent is a way of life. We choose to become a conduit of God’s blessing by holding the space. We shall not cease it until all of God’s children feel safe, and are safe.
Photo by: Min-Goo Kang