Reading this morning’s newspaper, I was surprised to read the ‘celebrity tweet of the day’: “Looking at the pattern of our existence from birth to death, we can see the way in which we are fundamentally nurtured by other’s affections.” The author of this twitter message? The Dalai Lama!

I had to sit for some time trying to comprehend that the Dalai Lama has a Twitter account. This seemed impossible to me and yet, from what I have read, he is someone whose very existence has been dedicated to helping people live full, rich and spiritual lives grounded in the present. So why should I be surprised?

His message, of course, was not a surprising one. Looking for the patterns in our lives. Honoring the ways in which we are inextricably woven together as humans. Naming the importance of a caring, compassionate, loving way in which we move in the world. Reflecting on many of the inane things people write with their precious 140 characters on Twitter, this message is a profound one. And one that provides a challenge to be lived out each day.

It reminded me of a scene I experienced many summers ago. I was vacationing in Bayfield, Wisconsin and we were driving up the main highway toward the sweet little village of Cornocopia. That evening we were set to go to Big Top Chautauqua to hear a concert by Zen Buddhist priests. Driving at a leisurely pace to the town named for the overflowing horn of plenty, I saw some action on a playground to the right of the car. I turned to see 6 to 8 Buddhist priests, saffron robes flowing out from their small, trim bodies, swinging and playing on the equipment. Their smiles were radiant as they became physical manifestations of joy. These grown men were bathing in the affection of one another. The sight should have been odd but somehow wasn’t. It seemed the most natural thing in the world.

Reading the message from this wise man, I felt a sadness that moved into a prayer for all the people who do not know this kind of affection, this human interaction that breeds birth to death stories in us. I thought of the people I know who find it difficult to form relationships that last, that go deep, that makes crevices in their cells. I thought of the children who may never know the kind of affection that will help them form into their best selves, which will see them through life’s struggles. My heart goes out to all those who never know the kind of affection the Dalai Lama speaks of.

But my heart also goes out to all the people who know the affection of others and who do not take it for granted. Those who are painting an epic story of their lives through the kindness and love that has been poured into them. Those who have been loved unconditionally from the time they slipped into this world until they are carried lovingly Home.

Affection…….it is ours to share. Today and every day.

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.” ~Mary Oliver

Only a few days into this theme of ‘In Days to Come…..Great Joy’, and I had already begun to feel guilty. Over the first few days of Advent, I had been writing words, preparing for worship, trying to let the intention of the church’s theme get into the marrow of my bones. Just as I was settling into it, I would read the newspaper or watch to the television report. Or I would catch the eye of one of the many folks standing at an intersection on my daily drive.  In that instant, I would recognize the nagging at the pit of my stomach. How could I be ‘preaching’ joy, inviting people to stay awake to the joy that comes to them, when so much around us seems to speak to the opposite?

Then I read these words of Mary Oliver, the poet who can always say just the right words to wake me up to the Holy, wake me up to myself, wake me up to the world. It is true that devastating things happen every day, right under our noses and in far away places we will never see. Redemption……whatever that means……also is often in short supply. But love still comes to us, still enters the crevices of our days and the black holes of the universe, in ways that surprise and bring us what can only be called great joy. And on that I am willing to stake my life. Are you?

And so I have spent the last week, watching and anticipating great joy as it comes my way. I have watched our son’s enormous, black dog play in the snow, acting more like a young child who is experiencing this fluffy water for the first time, than the canine he is. I have laughed as he comes to the door with a huge, bulbous puff of white covering his nose. He looks like a distant cousin of Rudolph. I have watched as two of the babies I know best in our church community seem to be growing and discovering the world in virtual leaps and bounds. Their eyes and spirits are drinking in the unconditional love that washes over them. Yesterday, I was privileged to be present for a Christmas play staged by our youth, an original work, in which they struggled with what it means to understand and invent the Christmas story in their lives. I have eaten meals with my husband and son, talked with our son who is away at college, and laughed and felt the deep joy one has in knowing such a great love. On Sunday, I was blessed by sharing in prayer and singing with people I have known for decades and some I’ve known for only a few weeks. I sang happy birthday to a young woman I have known since she was five years old and I relished the gift of having been able to watch her life unfold. So many joys…..

For the most part, the news remains unchanged and there is much yet to be changed, saved, re-framed, salvaged, and, even redeemed. Perhaps all this will happen or perhaps it will not. But as one who has been called to sing tidings of great joy, I will continue to do my part. Since I agree that joy was not meant to be a crumb, I am doing my level best to bake a cake of it. Perhaps I will adorn that cake with candles and share that sweet light with the world.

Liberator God,
Why did your exiled people look backwards so much?
Did it make them feel safer, and give them courage,
these stories of the path you made through the sea
for their ancestors to escape captivity?……….
Take us out of our backward-facing seat.
Turn us round to see what you will do.
Show us today’s exiles and captives,
chains to be broken, pathways to open up.
New things, liberator God –
things that have never been written,
things we would never have thought of,
things for a New Age dawning!
~Brian Woodcock & Jan Sutch Pickard, Advent Readings from Iona

It is easy to forget that Advent is a now and not-yet time. That it is not just the really soft-sell that leads us to the splash of Christmas. It is a time of anticipation for how Emmanuel, God-with-Us, is being born in our day. It is also a time of honoring the birthing moments of God that have taken place over the life of Creation. As humans, one of our challenges, one of many, is to not take the moments of God’s in-breaking and freeze them in time, make them static.. build up little altars to them. This is what we often refer to as ‘putting God in a box’ so we can be the ones in control. In the church, this often gets articulated with words like: ‘ But we have always done it that way.’ or “This is how we(with a capial ‘W’) do it.’.

One of the great gifts of Advent is that we have never done it this way before! Each year we have the opportunity to be attentive to the many ways the Holy breaks into our lives each and every day. Just like that first Christmas when the Christ Child came in the unexpected way of entering the world as a little baby, we don’t really get to decide how God shows up.  Our real work is to keep our eyes and hearts open to the reality that it is happening…..again and again and again. Advent provides the intentional time of seeing  it, of choosing to be present.

This prayer by Iona community members Brian Woodcock and Jan Sutch Pickard reminds us of how often we are looking…..even facing….in the wrong direction. This happens sometimes by chance but most often, I believe, out of choice. To be awake to God’s movement in our lives carries a certain risk, a risk of being called to places and people who make us uncomfortable. Like the shepherds in the Christmas story, we’d like to just mind our own business watching over the sheep we know, in fields that are familiar. We don’t want to look up and see any stars that might cause us to have to go in a direction ‘we’ve never gone before’. We don’t really want to hear angels singing because we might have to sing along, or even become one of these messengers-of-God, and who knows where that could lead? We don’t want to chance having to pack up our family and all our belongings and head across the desert on camels, carrying a really precious gift headed to some far off, unknown destination.

And yet, if we allow ourselves we can remember at least one time when something caused us to take a step out of ‘ the way we’ve always done’ our lives, and something new and wonderful happened. Like falling in love….or finding a new friendship….or discovering a solution to a plaguing problem…..or fulfilling a life-long dream…….or landing a new job…..or opening a treasure that had been hidden in plain sight.  Something surprising entered the path of our day and everything changed.

This is the work…..the liberation….of Advent. Are you up for it?