Grace and peace to you from the Mystery in whom we live and move, and have our being. The Annunciation of Mary.
And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
Commercialism
When trying to understand Advent, it’s easy to attack the commercialism of Christmas as a distraction. Commercialism is an easy target for religious folk, but isn’t there a sort of commercialism in our Christian institutions at Christmastime? While a bit more overlooked, aren’t the massive church productions partly culpable in the commercialism of the Bible story? Or is the Church supposed to be given a pass because it’s the boss’s birthday?
Let’s face it, there’s a lot on the line for the annual budget when it comes to giving during Christmas. But let’s forget about that for a minute. I love the Christmas season, but I’m feeling like the Grinch, so let’s talk about the Christmas story itself.
What about the unimaginable miracles in the story? If we had never heard the story, wouldn’t it just make us go, “Wait… what?”
The Annunciation of Mary
Can you relate to an angel named Gabriel who appeared to a young virgin girl and told her she would conceive a son? (I’m gonna claim Gabe as Latino, by the way.)
Okay, let’s go slower. An angel named Gabriel communicated with Mary. Can you relate? I’m wracking my brain trying to remember an incident when I or someone else experienced such a thing. Could it have happened? Sure, but I’m not sure I can relate to it.
Mary conceiving as a virgin? Yeah, not a memory there either, except for the show, “Jane the Virgin”. Jane’s gynecologist confused her with another patient and gave her In Vitro fertilization; she became pregnant and had trouble explaining to her Catholic family she was still a virgin, probably much like Mary the virgin.
Mangers, singing angels, drummers, a star guiding the way, three wise men? Can you relate? Not so much. Is there something more than parables, metaphor and even more than facts?
the christmas story
Many of the mainline denominations are all about Advent. Most Christians celebrate Advent as the coming of Christ in the past, present and the future.
History, in fact, confirms the person of Jesus on Earth. His words, life and message are worthy to be followed. The writers of their experiences were so taken by him that they wrote of their passion and love for Jesus 100 years after his death. His subversive and welcoming message of belonging healed the hearts of the sidelined and shook the ground of counterfeit empires. Their transformed lives spilled onto pages commemorating the birth of peace and the presence of Christ amid the chaos of impossible circumstances. This is documented. But the Christmas story and the miracles?
Bible scholar Marcus Borg writes this about the Christmas story:
“Does the truth of Christmas depend upon the “happenedness” of the miraculous? Or is its truth more-than-factual? For me, the answer is clear. For me as a Christian, Jesus is light in the darkness, the path of liberation, the way of return, the Word of God and Spirit of God embodied in a human life. In him we see God’s passion for a different kind of world. That’s what his coming and Christmas is about.”
In the preface of my friend Michael McCabe’s novel, Padre Cisco: Conversations with a Desert Father, Rocky says this about the stories the Padre is about to unfold: “While I cannot attest to the specifics of the Padre’s stories, I can attest to their truth.”
christ in me
This is what I can relate and attest to in my story: I had my own sort of Annunciation moment in a waffle house once that absolutely changed the course of my life. It was an encounter with a homeless Vietnam vet at one o’clock in the morning, and I swear it was Jesus speaking to me when I needed it the most. He broke through my shattered life and breathed oxygen into me with his candor. It was a Divine Presence. This was, for me, the embodiment of Jesus.
If not for my own personal failures and fallen empire, I could not have identified with him. I might have dismissed the Christmas traditions if not for its subversive, compassionate story.
The Birth of Me
The unconditional presence of Spirit midwifed my own inner birth. The One who awakens me in the mornings of my distress with the anointing of compassion. In me, the power of pride is brought down and my soul is grateful.
My body, wrapped in the linens of my powerlessness, lay silent. Like in a womb, life-giving blood flows through my body as I await the birthing of the me I always was, but never knew. In the deep, it’s as though a star hovers above, waiting to guide me to a perfect light.
Loved ones, like angels, wait for me to allow love, to welcome me out of my resistance… love I kept at a distance for so long. Any theory of Christ’s history and eschatology fades into the experience of my present reality and I am reborn again. Every time.
The Christ of the past, present and future is embodied for one moment of awareness and this is the coming of Christ in me. An advent.
My guess is that these writers knew of this cocooning experience.
This new “coming” together in one moment of heaven and earth, black and white, beginning and end.
I have felt this three times, during the birth of each of my children. In that advent room the coming of Kristi, Joshua and Andrea were all that mattered. The world could go to hell as far as I was concerned. My world was being born. Can you relate?
Amen
Wednesday Respite is a 30-min contemplative service of scripture, prayer, music and a Spirited Touchpoint by Henry Rojas, spiritual director at Spirit in the Desert.
Touchpoint is a reflection on where God’s story touches our life story. It is a short homily based on a biblical story of people in the Old and New Testaments and their relationship with God. Our spiritual ancestors’ experience of God’s grace connects with our lives in the present and our relationship with the Divine. Previous Touchpoints are available as PDFs or on SoundCloud.
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