The Incarnation is, of course, the prime example of God’s “coming down.” But every time God brings life into spaces we imagined were dead, with nothing left to offer, we experience another moment in which God comes down to inhabit us.
~Enuma Okoro,Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent
It seems the scriptures of both the Hebrew and Christian households are filled with stories of those who long for children. The scriptures of Advent have two central stories of birth. One is to an older couple who is surprised by an angel telling them they will give birth even in their old age. Miraculous. The other is, of course, the story of Mary, a young unmarried woman who is also visited by an angel telling her she will have a child. Miraculous, again. Both of these births are Holy Spirit work but then again, most birth is.
Here we are in the second week of Advent. I have been continuing my daily reading through the book Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent and was taken with the two sentences above. It is easy to focus our whole attention on this birth of one particular child born more than two thousand years ago. But the lncarnation, the in-breaking of God in the world,goes far beyond that. “Every time God brings life into spaces we imagined were dead, with nothing left to offer, we experience another moment in which God comes down to inhabit us.”
The stories of birth in the scriptures almost always seem to come by surprise. They may be longed for, waited for, hoped for but their actual occurrence is brought about by some miraculous in-breaking of the Spirit. The same is true today, isn’t it? We see situations in our world where it didn’t seem possible anything new could happen, any good could arise, and then some movement shifts the balance and everything changes. New life. I thought of this with the death of Nelson Mandela this week. Apartheid ruled a nation and for those who were under its thumb, there was nothing left to offer, no choices to be made. But his faith, his patience, his belief in the gifts of all humanity and his ability to unite a people brought life to places imagined dead. Miraculous.
It is easy to make this unfolding story of Advent a singular telling of this Christ Child. But this invitation to be present to the in-breaking of God is ours to live each and every day. At least that is the message I hear on the lips of the One whose birth we will soon celebrate. Jesus,over and over, pointed the people away from focus on him and toward the care of the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, the lost, the left out. He continued to focus people’s eyes and hearts on the places believed to be dead with nothing left to offer saying:” Wait a minute. Something is going to happen here. Watch for it.”
Today, in this second week of Advent, our own waiting continues. There are places around the world that need our prayers and our attention. Places that seem impossible, with nothing left, no hope. There are also people who seem at the end of their rope, all the choices used up, no place left to go. As the dark blanket of December continues to fall, you may be finding yourself in the midst of one life’s barren places. There are institutions and organizations that have hit the wall and can’t seem to find a way to move in any path of goodness and creativity.
The invitation of Advent continues. Keep awake. Watch for the ways light is born from shadow. Prepare our hearts with mercy and kindness. Wait with patience for the in-breaking of Spirit. It will bring something miraculous. Something amazing.
It always has.
