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Bless it All

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

The promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.

—LUKE 1:46-55 (THE CANTICLE OF MARY, MODERN VERSION IN THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS)

Suddenly, Mary found herself pregnant and unwed—a cultural no-no at the time. Her fiancé Joseph would have every reason to break it off as soon as he knew the truth, leaving her futureless and disgraced. We wouldn’t have blamed Mary for being down and out about what was happening to her. But instead she erupts in a song of praise. How could Mary have that reaction under those circumstances? Her song defines humility because it embraces all she can’t control, and lets everything rest on a goodness far beyond herself. Mary blesses it all and sees herself as somehow within that blessing too—despite the reality in front of her. Maybe there is something we can learn from Mary as we too open our hearts to God and to God’s promises. When we bless it all—all we know and can’t know.

This models the same wisdom of the ancients who, in the decades after Jesus lived on earth, saw that when we bring it all to God there is a mysterious “peace that surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams says that the good life “is honest about where it lives.” From that place of honesty, all our instinctual and reactive selves can be brought to God whose loving gaze is the beginning of the healing we seek. Williams says that it is a place of both prospect and refuge, “where my rhythm is echoed, my speech is understood. My face is seen…To be recognized and recognizable, lifts from me the burden of making myself up.”

So with the apostle Peter we can invite our worried and anxious selves into the presence of God. This is the intimate space where peace-making within oneself begins.

“So, humble yourselves under God’s strong hand, and in his own good time he will lift you up. You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, for you are his personal concern.” —1 Peter 5:6-7 (Phillips)

READ THIS BLESSING FROM THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE

for a peaceful day or night (p. 20)

Oh peace, you are the mountain we glimpse from afar, the height and depth of our needs.

We chart our way to you by starlight, through paths overgrown with wrongs we ourselves have seeded,

then left to grow unchecked.

REFLECT

1. Let your worries and fears and disappointments come to the surface. Take them by the hand and lead them into the light of day for a conversation with God. What can you tell God about how these things are affecting you?

2. What is God saying to you about them?

GOING DEEPER

• Listen to Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) put to music by William Kembrough in “Mary’s Song (Our King of Peace)” (3:30 min), also on our Advent Playlist.

• As many in this community have expressed, they live in “the landscape of the unknown” and that is where you might be living right now. Look around. What is it that can be known? What feels like solid ground? Take pen and paper and, without thinking too much, jot down those things that ground you.

• Sometimes—maybe most times?—it’s just true that “we live between a problem and a solution, between sick and healed, between a prayer and a miracle.” This quote is from Kate’s conversation with writer Taylor Harris whose child has an undiagnosed condition. Listen to “Peace for Our Anxious Selves” (35 minutes) for the nuggets of wisdom that surfaced about living in this liminal space, in lives that are a continual Advent as we wait together.

• What does the most ancient Christian wisdom tell us about what a good life is, and what can ground us? Listen to this talk by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams given in 2018 to the Camden Hospital Psychotherapy Unit (38 min).

From "Bless the Advent we Actually Have" by Kate Bowler and The Everything Happens Project

SONGS FOR SUNDAY

O Come All Ye Faithful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEUrVz-ZUD4

In Christ Alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjR_A2pGPrY

Christ is Risen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IExdrZGQVeI

Your Name (Christmas Version)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtHRoMPaRZc

Shepherd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeJ8JwQXZEU