Advent, Week 1
The following is a Bible passage I read often this week, plus a couple poems by different poets and words by Richard John Neuhaus that also played their way into my mind and imagination.
Isaiah 2:1-5
In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s house will be established
at the top of the mountains
and will be raised above the hills.
All nations will stream to it,
3 and many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about His ways
so that we may walk in His paths.”
For instruction will go out of Zion
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He will settle disputes among the nations
and provide arbitration for many peoples.
They will turn their swords into plows
and their spears into pruning knives.
Nations will not take up the sword against other nations,
and they will never again train for war.
5 House of Jacob,
come and let us walk in the Lord’s light.
Keeping Quiet /Pablo Neruda
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let's not speak in any language;
let's stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about...
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with
death.
Now I'll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
(I also think of these verses: The Lord is in His Holy Temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him.” and “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go up to the House of the Lord.” and “Be still, and know that I am God.” And although this was written for the Hebrew in regards to Jerusalem and the tabernacle and then the temple, we can also now say these words because of the Jesus…)
Would you wait/ Chris Yokel
Would you wait
several thousand years
for someone to make good
on their promise,
especially if you knew
they had the power
to fulfill it in a moment?
Perhaps, yes,
if you were sitting in the dark,
and your only hope
was the long, slow deliverance
of sunrise.
From Richard John Neuhaus in God With Us
God is, quite literally, inconceivable. And that is why God was conceived as a human being in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Because we cannot, even in thought, rise up to God, God stooped down to us in Jesus, who is “Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.”
As we are searching for God, the good news is that God is searching for us. Better yet, he has found us. The great question is not whether we have found God but whether we have found ourselves being found by God. God is not lost. We were, or, as the case may be, we are.
In a word, we were lost in living what we told ourselves was the good life. We wanted more and more of it, and the more we had of it the more we longed for what was beyond the reach of our longing or the grasp of our possessing. In your longing and our searching, we were blind to the gift already given, Emmanuel: God with us. (page 17 and 19)
Faith does not assert claims; faith receives the gift that is undeserved. Faith is itself a gift, the gift of receptivity. Mary received the gift in saying, “Let it be to me according to your word.” To her, through her to us, was given the gift of the Child who is nothing less, no one less, than the Savior of the world. . . . The gift is already given and forever is now for those who give him permission to let life be a gift in response to gift.
If we are full of ourselves, complaining about what we deserve and do not deserve, there is no room in our hearts to receive the gift. If we deserved the gift, it would not be a gift. “Lord, I am not worthy.” With these words, we make room in our hearts for the gift. . . . With these words, the gift is given to receive the gift of giving.” (page 21 and 23)
An Advent poem I wrote…
. . .and the stillness the dancing.
T.S. Elliot
As if Mary’s yes
opened the dark skies for the
light to appear and
to blink along smooth waters,
while kingfishers and herons
sat still, waiting for the dawn.
I love this song so very much - to listen to and to sing. Enjoy!
Playing with Christmas greens and making them look beautiful together makes me very happy.
All photos by me…
