No manger is too rough
for the tenderness of God.
No threat of Herod too awful,
no poverty too dire
for God to come and be at risk
for sheer love of being with us.
God does not sigh, rolling the eyes,
“I suppose I have to come down there and save them.”
No, God says, “I am with you. Because
you are where my heart is.”
No darkness is too deep,
no banality unworthy,
no failure too utter for God;
God’s love is more utter.
We, the flesh of God’s Word,
can’t be without. Even our doubt
shines from within.
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Lord, prepare us for your coming – in our community.
In the problems of our locality
help us never to forget the supremacy of love.
May love motivate our care for our neighbourhoods.
May love heal the social ills which drag us into despair.
May love inspire our citizenship to rise beyond mediocrity.
We name in our minds the problems of which we are aware
and pray that love, gracious and practical, will find a way.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Advent Lord, come ever nearer.
Come to rejuvenate our faith.
Come to fortify our social conscience.
Come to open wide our eyes of wonder.
So that when the Saviour comes,
he may steal into our hearts – and find them ready.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Luke 1:39-45
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.
John 15:12-17
Reflection taken from Enuma Okoro’s “Silence and Other Surprising Invitations of Advent.”
The narrative leaves out so much information concerning the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth. Perhaps we can imaginatively consider the space they shared during Mary’s three-month visit. Given their experiences, they would undoubtedly have relished the chance to ponder the holy words spoken about their miraculous pregnancies. They could share their excitement as well as their fears, possible anxieties, and insecurities of being suited for the tasks before them. Even with the level of faith they possessed, they must have experienced moments, if not days, of restlessness, worry, and anticipation. Elizabeth and Mary could strengthen one another’s hearts. Perhaps they prayed together regularly. Maybe the wisdom and trials of Elizabeth’s years provided comfort and security to a frightened though courageous Mary.
Advent seems as much a time to dwell in holy friendship as a time to wait on God. Ultimately, we are all called to friendship with God, and we imitate this divine call to friendship as we practice sharing ourselves and our stories with one another. In our congregations and faith communities, we laud romantic relationships and focus all our relational energies on the states of marriages or single people. Our foundation for understanding God’s covenantal love for us has become steeped in romantic and sexual ways of being together. Such spaces do provide avenues for God’s redeeming love, but Jesus was never married or romantically involved with anyone as far as we know. And when Christ speaks of his way of relating to his beloved disciples, he calls them his friends. Friendship is another way of being in covenant with God.
We have allowed our culture’s obsession with romance and sex to dictate how we view life-giving relationships. We have dulled friendship’s ability to illuminate the corners of our lives. We can endure very little without the support of friends. Choosing to open ourselves in friendship and to expose our vulnerabilities relieves the weight of carrying our burdens alone.
God’s promise not to leave us alone finds fulfillment in the people God sends to be with us. Sit quietly during this season and prayerfully reflect on the friends who remind us of who we are, who challenge us to live into who we are called to be, and who accept us at every stage of the journey. These people mirror God’s love and patience in our lives. How do we mirror God’s presence in the lives of those who call us friends?
Holy God, in Christ Jesus you call us friends. Equip us to be friends who offer sustenance to one another as we learn of covenantal love from our friendship with you. Amen.