Monday, December
22
Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to
be still before God.
Opening Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ,
Thou Son of the Most High, Prince of
Peace, be born into our world. Wherever
there is war in this world, wherever there is pain, wherever there is
loneliness, wherever there is no hope, come, thou long-expected one, with
healing in thy wings.
Holy Child, whom the shepherds and the
kings and the dumb beasts adored, be born again. Wherever there is boredom, wherever there is
fear of failure, wherever there is temptation too strong to resist, wherever
there is bitterness of heart, come, thou blessed one, with healing in thy
wings.
Saviour, be born in each of us who raises
his face to thy face, not knowing fully who he is or who thou art, knowing only
that thy love is beyond his knowing and that no other has the power to make him
whole. Come, Lord Jesus, to each who
longs for thee even though he has forgotten thy name. Come quickly.
Amen. (The Hungering Dark by Frederick Buechner)
Scripture Reading for the Day: Isaiah 43:16-21
Reading for Reflection:
Most often in the
scriptures it seems like we are called upon to remember, and rightly so.
We are called upon to remember how God has moved and how he has worked on
our behalf. We are called upon to remember how he has provided for
our needs and how he has guided our paths over the course of our lifetime,
as well as that of our ancestors. We are called upon to remember how he
has protected us from our enemies, defended us from peril, and fought for
us when we were too weak, or powerless, or exhausted to fight for
ourselves. Remembering is a very good thing.
But, interestingly enough,
in this instance we are actually called upon to forget. Forgetting, it seems, is also a significant
part of the spiritual journey. Especially when we are being called upon
to forget one thing, in order that God can begin to do a new
thing. Because somehow not forgetting the former things actually
keeps us from being able to perceive the new thing that is being born
within us or among us. But how are we to know when we are to do one
versus the other? What does it mean to forget the former things?
And what things are we really talking about here?
Maybe what God is really trying to get
at in this passage is the idea that, at times, we have the tendency to hold
onto the old at the expense of the new. And when I say old, I am not
just referring to the old in a negative sense, I am also referring to old
in a more positive way. We seem to have the tendency to think that just
because God acted in a particular way, at a particular time and place, that he
will always act in just that way. We
tend to expect and demand, and even try to determine, how and where and when
God will show up in our current story. The problem with that is it keeps
us from being open to the new thing God seems to be birthing within and
among us. If we hold too tightly to the
way things "have always been," or to the ways that God has always
come thus far, we shut ourselves off to the new thing that he is
trying to do. Therefore, we must forget. But forgetting
the former things does not mean forgetting what God
has done, maybe it means only forgetting the way in which he has
done them. We should not come to expect, or demand, that he always do
things in that particular way from here on out. In that sense don't
dwell on the past might actually mean don't live in the past.
Do not limit your vision for, or your openness to, what God might be up to
and how he might be up to it. Don't always expect that he will show up
exactly the same way as he did before, or in exactly the same form. If
you do that, you will likely miss the new that he is trying to bring
about.
The season of Advent is that time
where we are encouraged to always be ready for however and wherever and
whenever God might choose to come. Because he will come. A
friend of mine reminded me once that, "We come into Advent this year
different than we did the last. We are different people, in a different
place, with a different set of circumstances.” A lot of water has passed
under our bridge since we last came to the season of watching and
waiting. So, if we are different people, wouldn't it make sense that God
would want to come to us in a new and different way? In a way that
addresses the time and the place and the season in which we now find ourselves
living?
Therefore, we must not stubbornly cling to
our old ways and demands and expectations, but must be open to receiving this new
thing that we, thus far, have not perceived. In some way, we must
become a blank page, waiting to be filled. The problem is that being a
blank page is vulnerable and uncomfortable. Thus, we have a
tendency to try and fill our pages at any and every opportunity.
Therefore, during this season, it might actually take some emptying before we
are able to perceive, and then receive, this new thing. That's where the forgetting
comes in. It could be that the story of the nativity has grown so
familiar to us that we have forgotten that one of the essential elements of the
story in the first place is that God came in a way and a form and a place that
no one expected. Should we expect that this Advent and Christmas will be
any different?
Reflection and
Listening: silent and written
Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself
Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, master of both the light and the
darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas. We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces
to hear your voice each day. We who are
anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us. We who are blessed in so many ways long for
the complete joy of your kingdom. We
whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence. We are your people, walking in darkness, yet
seeking the light. To you we say,
"Come Lord Jesus!" Amen
~Henri
J. M. Nouwen
