Welcome to Advent 2024…with various scenes of liberation.
This is the first entry in this year’s Advent series available exclusively through the newsletter. If you are not signed up visit the homepage or any signup form on the website. If you’re new here, welcome to Advent! If you’ve been here a while, thanks for being here too. Let’s settle in. Find a comfy space, take a deep breath, and let’s begin with today’s reflection which read more like musings…..
Darkness.
Around these parts a harsh winter has arrived earlier than usual. I’m on Treaty 7 territory in Calgary, AB, where for the past couple of weeks the cold, coupled with lots of snow, has been brutal. It doesn’t help sunrise and sunset are around 8:30AM and 4:30PM. It makes for looong days. Some of you know the feeling. And as every year passes I find it harder and harder to “enjoy” the cold (my tropical bones are rebelling). The cold and darkness create a certain melancholy in our bodies, where something deeper in our being crackles and groans through the frozen snow covered underground.
I feel that dark and cold.
That’s a layer too. The dark we sense in the depths of our being. Some of you may know what I’m writing about.
This year Advent coincides with a lot of world events. The recent Presidential election for one. I was surprised with the results. Many of my American friends were sadly not. As a writer, I’ve been mulling over my response and how I want to proceed in the face of much wider culture shifts. Where should I put my energy? A lot of ink has been spilled on why certain Christian affiliations continuously support downright evil policies and leaders. It’s for selfish gains of course, but that’s all been written about. It’s been said. Proudly accepted in fact depending on where one lands on the political spectrum. No, I won’t be investing time trying to bridge gaps between polarized worlds. There’s a better way forward I think.
It’s dark out there… can you feel it?
This is where I land, I’m writing for those who can feel the dark. You know what I mean? If you’ve seen the dark–been in the dark–you’re adept and know what to do when darkness descends. It’s a type of desolation that brings an eerie quiet that forces a pause. An invitation perhaps to linger in search for flickers of light. For possibilities others cannot see.
When it’s cold, candles, headlights, fireplaces, are all symbols of warmth, an invitation to huddle up with kin and take stock to linger in the lamentations of desolation before proceeding forward (or sideways).
Those used to the dark have developed vision to catch those flickers of light. We know what it means to bear down and survive. We also know what it takes to find a new way, cause that old (or current) way? It ain’t for us.
Today’s Advent reading is from Luke 1. Traditionally called Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46). The context, teenage Mary is visiting extending family when she receives an announcement she will have a son named Jesus. Her ensuing words become prophetic, recorded as a type of hymn, containing biting declarations. Mary said,
“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
47 In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
48 He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
49 because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
50 He shows mercy to everyone,
from one generation to the next,
who honors him as God.
51 He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
52 He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty-handed.
54 He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
remembering his mercy,
55 just as he promised to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.”
Mary is foretelling what Jesus is going to do. She is setting the stage by previewing the type of liberation forthcoming.
Don’t forget, the land during this time was under foreign occupation. Rome was colonizing the region. Mary is a subject with no power (plus she’s a young woman…actually she’s a teenager not a woman). With this in mind, What type of liberation do you think she envisions?
She declares, the POWERFUL are pulled DOWN, the hungry filled with good things, the rich sent away empty-handed. It’s scandalous. It’s dangerous. It’s also material. A tangible liberation that can be touched and felt. At no point is Mary thinking of a salvation that would merely “save” her immaterial “soul” to spend “eternity in heaven”. This is an oft cited refrain out of certain contemporary Christian traditions that’s empty (and not particularly orthodox). Mary is thinking of an all encompassing liberation for her present.
…The hungry are filled, the powerful pulled from their thrones, the lowly lifted up….
Now here’s a connection. A couple of chapters later in The Gospel of Luke, Jesus is starting his ministry and does so by summing up his purpose saying:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim release to the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to liberate the oppressed,
19 and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Do you hear it?! This is thematic, repetitive if you will. When ideas and announcements are repeated, take note. Mary’s Song is related to the calling of Jesus himself!
And after dark comes the light….I wonder if you would join me this Advent and linger, as if we’re huddled around flickers of light, to envision how our communities can be organized where the last are first and the first last, a space where there’s enough for all, and where the radically embodied characteristic of love takes hold. All present tense. This is where I want to put my energy. Reaching for wide liberation here and now.