The Way of Mary: Prepare!

 Good Sunday morning, good pilgrims on The Way of Mary. The sun has not yet made an appearance. I am preaching at the 8 & 10 this morning at St. Peter's (I'll post my sermon later) so it's up and out the door early for me.

I also have a Foyer Group at noon and today's Advent Wreath Lighting Liturgy is scheduled for 4 PM, not 5:30 because a beautiful Service of Advent Lessons and Carols is scheduled at the church for 5 PM and suddenly, there is a traffic jam on the "information superhighway".

It's Advent. You know, the quiet, contemplative time.

Turns out, preparing the way of the Lord is fairly labor-intensive (you should excuse the wee little pun there).

And, that's the word that came to me this morning as I did a brief meditation to start my day. "Prepare". Actually, in my sermon, I disdain the word "Repent" for Advent.

Now, "repent" is a perfectly fine word. It's a great word. And, an important spiritual exercise. At any time, actually, but especially for Lent. But, this is not Lent. It's not even a "mini-Lent."

It's Advent. It's its very own season. It's the shortest liturgical season of all of the liturgical seasons and, for some reason, some folks just can't leave it alone and let it be what it is.

Here's the thing: Advent prepares us for the Incarnation and, without the Incarnation, nothing else really matters. I mean, if you don't believe in the Incarnation then all of those miracles of Jesus? Yeah, they're just cheap magic tricks.

And, let's be very clear: Jesus was not performing cheap magic tricks. That was straight-up divine intervention.

You don't even have to get tangled up in the stuff about "The Virgin Birth". Who really knows what the ancients meant when they said "virgin" and then how it got translated over the years and bent and shaped into what some folks thought would be an even better story?

But, without the Incarnation, forget the part about The Resurrection, and, if you're a Christian, you really can't forget the part about The Resurrection. If you do, you best take that pretty gold cross off from around your neck.

So, preparing for The Incarnation is really important work. All the rest of the articles of our Christian faith hangs right here, on this first miracle.

You know, just like the rest of life. It starts small - teeny-tiny, microscopic - and then it grows and then it's amazing and then we think it's over and then we discover that we live on in something called Eternal Life, which is the gift of The Resurrection which wouldn't have happened without The Incarnation.

And that? Right there? That's thousands of dollars of education and 40 years of experience boiled down into one very complex sentence that the nuns of my youth would faint if I had written it down as an answer to a quiz. Indeed, for my penance, they'd probably make me try to diagram that sentence.

So, best be prepared, even if it means you're a lot busier than you intend to be. Ask any woman who has ever been pregnant
- or any person, male or female, involved in the creative process - how that works.

The sun is just starting to break on the horizon. It's time for me to brush my teeth, put on my game face and prepare to break open The Word for the faithful who will gather for prayer and inspiration.

And, follow The Way of Mary so that we can be nourished and fed to follow The Way of Jesus. I'll leave you with this wonderful poem and artwork from Jan Richardson to contemplate.

I hope something good happens to you today.

Bom dia.

Prepare
A Blessing for Advent

Strange how one word
will so hollow you out.
But this word
has been in the wilderness
for months.
Years.

This word is what remained
after everything else
was worn away
by sand and stone.
It is what withstood
the glaring of sun by day,
the weeping loneliness of
the moon at night.

Now it comes to you
racing out of the wild,
eyes blazing
and waving its arms,
its voice ragged with desert
but piercing and loud
as it speaks itself
again and again:

Prepare, prepare.

It may feel like
the word is leveling you,
emptying you
as it asks you
to give up
what you have known.

It is impolite
and hardly tame,
but when it falls
upon your lips
you will wonder
at the sweetness,

like honey
that finds its way
into the hunger
you had not known
was there.

—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons