An Advent Teaching on
Presence
Isaiah 40:3-5, 9-11 and Luke 2:15-20
Second Sunday in Advent + December 5, 2004
Douglas K. Huneke
The scientific world confirms that we are hardwired for
God. It’s nice to have a thoroughly
contemporary word like ‘hardwired’ to describe what human beings have sensed
and experienced from the beginning of time: we are not alone, the ineffable
Presence permeates creation: creative, life-giving, justice-seeking, and
communal. Our souls are pulled toward
the experience of deep inner freedom, spiritual ecstasy, compassion, divine
energy, and union.
The fundamental truth grounding our experiences of God is
that God refuses to be alone in the universe, refuses to be ignored or taken
for granted. And the parallel truth of
being human is that we are genetically, constitutionally predisposed to be in
relationship to God – we do not like a divide between God and ourselves anymore
than God does. Relationships with God
are not cookie-cutter conformity as some traditions insist; every relationship
to God is unique to each soul. Assent
to doctrine or dogma does not forge a divine-human bond. It is formed when we kindle the small spark
in the soul into the flaming, unquenchable light of the Eternal.
God is not going to be alone in the universe—it’s just
not the nature of God. A relationship
with God is not to be found in intellectual abstractions and lofty arguments
from the brightest corners of our minds.
Our response to the ineffable is not about living in the shadow of the
experiences of our spiritual ancestors.
We are not to be held captive to an inherited legacy of rites and
rituals, doctrines and dogmas, teachings and beliefs.
We honor the experiences and
insights of our spiritual forebears, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Ruth
and Deborah, St. Paul and John the Revealer, to name but a few, but more
importantly, as each of them we must craft a relationship to God in our own
unique ways. Rabbi Heschel wrote,
“Authentic Faith is more than an echo of a tradition…. In every [person’s] life
there are moments when there is a lifting of the veil at the horizon of the
known, opening a sight of the eternal.”[i]
This is the season of the
Christian year that most tempts us, pulls us toward union with Christ. Year-after-year, Advent and Christmas pop-up
to surprise us with the truth that God still wants to be intimately in our
lives. In this season, laden with awe
and wonder, we open ourselves to the possibility of union, and in some magical,
mystical Christmas moment we can open the manger of our hearts to welcome the
Christ child. This holy season can
rekindle the flame of a life-long relationship or it can be like a comet racing
through the cosmos with only a faint after-glow.
The bright flame of openness
and union was lifted one more dimension in Mary following the birth of Jesus
when the shepherds rushed from the fields to see it all for themselves. With great fervor they told everyone in the
stable what had happened. Mary stored
all of it in her memory and then held it in her heart, pondering the textures
of her experience and the shepherds’ words.
It is a simple but evocative line, mostly passed over by theologians,
“Mary held these things in her memory and pondered them in her heart.” That’s what we do in moments of awe and
wonder: we stand speechless, trying to make sense, to find categories, to
process meaning and experience. What
did Mary ponder?
The miracle of birth is in
itself ample cause for awe and wonder.
The miracle of bringing to life the Messiah of God is more than
sufficient reason to pause. Did Mary
ponder more deeply the love that dispelled her fear and forged her affirmation
to Gabriel nine months earlier? Might
she have pondered the mystery of a devout young woman becoming the vessel by
which God, who had been so selective, distant, and ineffable, became so
intimately one with all of humanity?
Perhaps in the light of the Bethlehem Star she thought more deeply about
devotion and trust as she cradled Love’s perfect presence in her arms.
She might have pondered how
all the formulaic prayers and all the dogma and doctrine now paled in the face
of such an audacious birth. She may
have pondered how all of this would affect her journey of faith; certainly she
would now walk a new path with God, a path weaving between “the echo of
tradition” and the mature soul embodying Christ.
Mary is our reminder of the
hope that the union between the human and the Holy was fully realized. She shows us how faith made possible God’s
full and complete presence in history, and in turn, we see how our faith makes
possible Christ’s full and complete presence in the world. Protestants do not venerate or worship Mary,
but our faith is profoundly deepened by her response to God. We honor her for revealing the intensely
personal quality of God’s love, and the power of that love to drive out the
great and petty fears that lock us into trances of triviality.
The truth of Christmas is
that God believes in us; and the meaning of Christmas is that we return God’s
faith by welcoming Christ into the manger of our hearts. This holy season urges us to ponder the
truth that God is no longer distant and ineffable; on the contrary, in Christ,
Love is intimately present. Emmanuel,
“God is with us”, is ready to be born in you.
Emmanuel, “Divine Presence”, is ready to fill your life with meaning and
purpose, serenity and joy, compassion and love. Emmanuel, “Love embodied”, is ready to embrace your hopes, give
you courage for your dreams, strength to resist your fears, and to be the
compelling holiness that permeates the core of your being. For a few moments, let us meditate, ponder
what is stored in your spiritual memory, and what do you hold in your heart
this Advent season and ponder?