Reflection based on today’s scriptures for the First Sunday of Advent, 2017
Advent charms our restlessness
Challenging us to begin again
As breathless clay in the hands of a potter
An apocalyptic summons to calm our volatile egos
To rest in the mud and miracle of creation
Watch and wait
In all that is not perfectly whole or loved or finished
Tangled half-truths and corrupted injustice
For a new presence of divine peace
Spaces in our darkened world where light
Shall reflect the beauty of our Creator’s imagination
This year I wait for Jesus among mangled hope
Walking amid shattered glass from boarded up store fronts
Stepping over cardboard huts along the street
Leaning up against the survivors of hurricanes and fires
Watching for tenderness not blame
With all my heart I believe
Jesus will be born in Puerto Rico this year
Amid dark-outs and lack of fresh water
Hidden in the empty schoolhouses
Seeking shelter under the rumble of roofless homes
Jesus will be born somewhere in the sex scandals
Where relationships of power finally give way
To humble awareness that we cannot control or demean people
Somewhere deflated egos will make a home for real love
Jesus will be born in vast divides this year
In inflamed discussions about hospitality of immigrants
Or buried in the concrete pilings of border crossing walls
He will paint red and blue into a hue of hope
For skin shades of brown and white and black
Jesus will be born this year along the freeway of human trafficking
Where our journeys will lead us into caring for our children
Jesus will be born this year in the controversies of guns
As we grieve innocent people from unimaginable violence
Jesus will be born among our leaders and bishops and among the hopeless
Holding together the challenges and paradoxes and arguments
Whether or not love should be our most valuable friend
Where hope is dried under the nails of the potter’s hands
Oh my that was so beautiful- touched my heart
Thank you