Sabbath Pause

Today is a Sabbath pause. 

See you tomorrow for week two of Advent Explorations.

Enjoy the images:

How shall we clothe ourselves?

Isaiah 40:6-8

A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah’s prophetic voice continues from yesterday with a reminder that we are mortal, temporary, finite, transient. On the one hand we can feel small and unimportant. On the other hand, don’t need to feel responsible for the world or guilty that we aren’t doing enough. We can be assured that God’s Spirit as creator and creating stands before us, among us, and after us.

Artist, Laura Lin, offers this depiction of the text.

Laura has a site called Painted Verses, “to reveal the life-changing truth of God through art and design."

With a sense of being temporary, we can relax and enjoy what we have right in front of us. We can let go and what is unimportant. And we can clothe ourselves in those things that do last: compassion, love, and justice.

Laura offers an image depicting those clothes.

See other painted verses HERE.

Our Advent Exploration question for today is: Aware of our mortality, what can you let go? With what can you clothe yourself?

Preparing for what?

Isaiah 40:3-5

A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

It’s hard to read, “prepare the way of the Lord” without hearing that Godspell song in our mind’s ear. For those who don’t have that remembrance check out the original soundtrack: HERE

Or, there is another grander arrangement of the text from the Prestonwood Baptism Choir and Orchestra 2009 Palm Sunday service: HERE

As I scrolled down the huge number of musical arrangements of the phrase, “prepare ye the way of the Lord,” I became overwhelmed by the super-Christianity being conveyed, namely--repentance for our sinful ways that offers us a savior who died for our sins.

However, the words from the book of Isaiah, probably written 600 years before Jesus was born, was from a different time and context. The people of Israel were in exile in Babylon, far from home, and wondering if they would ever return home. Preparation of the desert referred to an old poetic depiction of God as a mighty warrior riding in from the southern desert leading heavenly armies to bring deliverance to the people. Images of straightening winding desert paths, lowering mountains, and filling valleys, might make that arrival quicker and easier.

Nowadays, we have taken that desert imagery as symbolic of the inner preparation. Rather than physical path straightening, it’s about straightening out our lives. Instead of lowering mountains, it’s about reducing our arrogance and entitlement. Filling valleys with earth are changed to filling valleys of despair with hopefulness.

Now, almost 3000 years after the prophetic words of Isaiah, we are preparing for . . . what?

What are we preparing for? Knowing the “what” might help us to decide on how to prepare.

Growing up I recall, “stir up Sunday,” as a time to prepare a Christmas pudding. The term comes from the opening words of one of the prayers on the Sunday before Advent:

Stir up, we beseech thee, O God, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In my family, we had a tradition of inserting a silver threepenny (pronounced thrupney) coin into the pudding as we each took turns stirring. On Christmas day when the pudding was served, we each searched for the coin to see who was going to be wealthy that year. I still have several of those coins for the rare occasions when I actually make a pudding.

Stirring up Christmas pudding as preparing the “way of the Lord” seems a long way from Isaiah’s message of preparation which leads to our

Advent Exploration question for today: In this Advent season, what are we preparing for? And how are we preparing?

Praying

Acts 1:12-17, 21-26

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

The book of Acts is set after the death of Jesus when the tight-knit community of Jesus followers were trying to figure out what happened. From the joyous entry into Jerusalem on “Palm Sunday” to Jesus’ betrayal at the hand of a close friend, to a trial, death sentence, and crucifixion, his friends weren’t anticipating such a dismal end to the whole Jesus project.

What I find so moving, is that in the midst of what may be a mixture of grief, disbelief, anger, questioning, discouragement, etc., they were "constantly devoting themselves to prayer."

What kind of prayer? Perhaps they were in individual agony.

If prayer was constant perhaps they found a rhthym that brought insight and peace.

Did they prayer in groups separated by gender?

Or, did they gather in communal prayer as people in the town of Ramzan did?

As someone who has prayed for years in so many different manifestations, I have less to say about prayer, and a greater sense of mystery. Prayer can be spoken, silent, walked, run, soft, raging, traditional, progressive, contemplative, justice seeking, listening, communal, individual, sung, shouted, seen, felt, tasted, . . . 

Recently, I have joined prayer and art in a process that is unfolding. I enjoy finding others who have traveled along a creative prayer road such as Hali Karla, a nurse, artist, and earth-centered palliative care companion.

In a sacred painting process she took prayers of 40 women and painted/prayed those prayers to create:

To see Hali at work on this painting go HERE

Our Advent Exploration questions for today are: What is prayer for you? What new prayer practice do you want to explore?