Musing #5: Baby

What is it about a baby?

What’s so magical?

The mystery of something that has grown in a hidden place.  It’s been felt, but not fully seen: only the grainy black and white ultra-sound image, or the eruption of a limb, pushing against its mother’s flesh...

And then the baby comes, and the world around it shifts; changes; makes room for this new life.  The baby comes and suddenly you have a new name: mummy, daddy, granny, grandad, aunty, great uncle, great grandma…

There’s never any shortage of love.  Love multiplies, grows: enfolds the baby.  The family reconstructs itself around this new life, and the wider community respond.  People, who were strangers until now, want to help, to support, to share in this wonderful miracle.  Because every birth is a miracle; the beginning of a new life; a new expression of God.

The baby is mesmerising: those tiny feet and hands; the peacefulness of sleep; the heart-rending cry.  A being so small. So vulnerable. So dependent – it catches the hearts of all around.

When the parents look back they can’t imagine what life was like before – how did they fill their time? What did they do?

What’s so magical about a baby?  They remind us of where we come from; of what we have lost; of the on-going circle of life.

When a baby arrives, love is born.

   

                 So, what is it about this baby: the Christ -child, Love incarnate?

What’s so magical?

The mystery of Love can be hidden – seen only in a mirror dimly.  The muffled movements not fully understood.

But, when Love is born, the world around shifts; changes; makes room.  And you are given a new name: beloved, daughter, son, child of Love.

And there’s no shortage of love.  Love multiplies: grows: enfolds itself.  Love draws us together as family and opens us up to the stranger, the outcast, the persecuted.  They embrace, and are embraced by, Love.  

Love is a miracle: the beginning of new life: a new expression of God.

What’s so magical about this baby, born into poverty?  

So vulnerable; so small; so dependent.

He reminds us of where we come from, of what we have lost, of the on-going circle of life.

God came as a baby because that’s where Love is born.

 

 

Musing #4:  Light

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2)

I have always found these words from Isaiah a comfort and encouragement at Christmas-time.  With all that is going on in the world it very much feels that we are ‘walking in darkness’ and in a ‘land of deep darkness’.  As we move through this week leading up to Christmas, and on into the winter months of the New Year, can we consciously hold on to God’s promise of light?  Can we be alert and looking for the light that is dawning?

And can we consider the other meanings of ‘light’?  Light is the opposite of darkness, but it is also the opposite of ‘heavy’.  Jesus says in Matthew 11: “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. God does not want us to be weighed down – by our anxieties and concerns, by the worries of the world, by our possessions, our obligations, by life.  He offers a yoke that is light. When we wear his yoke he enables us to let go of those heavy things.  This reminds me that we are called to a simple life – maybe this is something we can embrace as we move into 2024.

Light is also the opposite of tight.  There are some things that we tend to hold onto too tightly.  It might be our self-image, it might be certain possessions, it might be a way of doing something or a certain belief.  It might even be a loved one.  A familiar song says: if you love someone, set them free.  If love is causing us to hold onto something or someone too tightly, we need to loosen our grip: be willing to change; be willing to share; and sometimes be willing to let go.

Finally, light is the opposite of serious.  We are prone to taking ourselves too seriously.  I honestly think that part of God bringing us light is enabling us to laugh.  And an important part of this is being able to laugh or smile at ourselves.  We all make mistakes, we all mess up – I’m not saying try to do this, but God still loves us exactly how we are, and when we realise this we can lighten up a bit and smile and see the bright side.  Managing to do that will bring light to those we live with and meet during this festive season and in the year ahead.

God brings light in the darkness – let’s live out that light as we move through Christmas and into the New Year.

Poem

For Christmas

Does Christ drop into you,

like water?

Sink into the deepest places,

seep into the narrowest ways;

right down into your feet

to ground you?

 

As Love descends,

does She hollow out your soul?

Stretch it at the edges.

Expanding your capacity for herself;

opening up the space inside you?

 

In the stillness,

Can you reach down?

Can you feel the warmth

on the tips of your fingers

as you touch the mystery

within?

Is it too deep?

Out of reach,

Just beyond your grasp.

 

Don’t give in to fear, dear one.

Be still.

Wait: the Christ is born again.

Love is rising.

 

Sermon: Isaiah 2:1-5

Theme: Advent

About this:

This is a talk from Advent Sunday last year.  As I read it this time I heard words I needed to hear again.  Unfortunately we are still facing very dark times.  I still need the encouragement to find and share the light within and around me. Reading the passage again in the light of the current conflict in Gaza I long for the peace it speaks of.

I hope these words will be encouraging and comforting as we enter the season of Advent in a week's time.

Here's a link to the Bible reading:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+2%3A1-5&version=NRSVUE

Last week Riffat spoke about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  She talked about sheep – how they are not very bright, how they wander off, how one will fall off a steep edge and others will follow to see what happened and end up falling off the edge too.  As I listened to Riffat I thought again how like sheep we are.  How, unfortunately, we are not very bright – including those of us who have qualifications and experience and learning: when it comes to spiritual things we still struggle to understand.  How easy it is for us to be oblivious to our shepherd and wander away; to get ourselves lost or in danger.  How we follow each other and are unaware of what is ahead of us until it is too late.  This speaks to me of the current times that we find ourselves in.  How like sheep we are.  How lost we are.

But today is the first Sunday of Advent.  Advent is a time of waiting, and a time of hope.  We have the anticipation of something good coming – the hope of God being born among us.  Immanuel – God with us.  As we look at today’s passages my prayer is that God will speak to us and plant that seed of hope inside us in the difficult times we face.  Because there is hope for us, even though we are sheep!

In the passage in Isaiah we are given an image of God rising up and all nations streaming towards Him.  The Lord’s temple will be raised above the hills and all nations will stream to it.  And then in verse 3 it says: “Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.  He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

Let’s just spend some time dwelling on this verse…

“Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.  He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

What is your deepest desire?  What is it that you want the most in life? 

I think this verse speaks to us of our deepest desire: when people see God rise up, when they see the beauty of his temple, their deepest desire is to go to God’s house so that they learn his ways and walk in his paths.  I think this desire is deep in each one of us even if we are not aware of it: even if that wasn’t your first answer to my question. Sometimes this is spoken of as ‘a God shaped hole’ – there is a space in us that can only be filled by God, a desire in us that only God can meet.

I am currently on a course called ‘Encounter’ which is very interesting – maybe I will get to share with you more of what I am learning as time goes on.  We recently had a session on the fall and looked at different understandings of sin.  One of these understandings is that sin is ‘misdirected desire’.  If we understand humans as beings with that deep desire for God, then sin can be seen as what happens when we start desiring other things in place of God.  This can lead to all kinds of addictions because it is impossible for us to find a replacement for God that will meet our deepest desire.  I wonder how obvious our addictions are – some of us may have struggled with alcohol or drugs or cigarettes; for others of us the addiction may be a lot more subtle.  For myself I would think of food – which I eat when I don’t need it – and television – I can really watch too much of it.  In those things I am looking for comfort and rest and pleasure – but those things will never meet my need in the way that God can.

Unfortunately, Christmas is a time when we very often get distracted by all the other desires in our lives.  These might be material possessions – from an early age the question has been ‘what do you want for Christmas?’ - or it might be the desire to see friends and family, or to keep one of our dearly held traditions.  Christmas is an incredibly busy time of year and the danger is that we do not pay attention to our deepest desire which is for God. 

So this verse, I think, is very helpful:

“Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.  He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

But then I ask myself – where is it that I need to go?  Where is this ‘house of God’?  Of course, one answer is that it is here, at church.  This is a house of God.  We come here to meet with God, to learn his ways so that we can walk in his paths.  But I think that there is something else here, something that doesn’t need a building, something that I carry with me all the time.

When I read this verse I am reminded that my body is described as ‘a temple of the Lord’ and that Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within and among us.  This verse invites us to remember that God is inside us: it invites us to drop down inside ourselves and find the place inside of us where God dwells. 

In my sheep-like humanity it is easy to forget or ignore this.  It is easy to busy myself with the demands of my life, to get caught up in all that is going on in the world, even to busy myself in doing good, and not take time to be still and connect with God in his temple inside me. 

The journey I need to take to the house of God is an internal journey.  I need to be still and drop down into God; into the place where he lives in me.  When we find this place of connection with the sacred we will be taught his ways.  The ways of peace as described in our Isaiah passage. Connection with Christ brings peace, just as Jesus breathed peace on his disciples when he appeared to them after the resurrection.

Within myself I am aware of stresses, of fears, of burdens – related to what’s going on in my life as an individual and related to what is going on in the world.  But I am also aware of a deeper place – a place of peace, where God dwells within me.  God invites us, again and again, with his infinite patience to drop down into that deep place and find him.  He is the shepherd who follows us, who seeks us out and rejoices when he finds us.  He longs to hold us in his embrace.  And the truth is, he is always embracing us. But we need to find the stillness within - drop down into that stillness and rest in him.  Rest in peace, hope and love.  That is our home.

Isaiah 2 verse 5, at the end of our passage, says: “Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord” As we begin advent can we find the light within us, and about us, and walk in it?

At Christmas God dropped down from heaven to dwell with us.  Can we drop down into the depth of God within us during this season of advent, so that we can bring light and hope into the dark times we are experiencing?

We live in fear because we do not follow our deepest desire, our deepest yearning – to be in the house of love – in God.  At the beginning of advent be reminded – every day, every hour, every minute – God invites you there, God waits for you there, God seeks you there.  Let’s follow our deepest desire and find God – find peace, hope and love – this Advent.