Water Daily

12-22-21 - Witness To the Light

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Many people are busy bearing witness to darkness lately, often in destructive ways, seeming to delight in pointing out just how awful this situation or that person is. And there are many who bear witness to pain and injustice and oppression – which is important to remedying such conditions. Often that is part of our calling as followers of Christ. But not without the even more important calling: to bear witness to the light. That was the vocation of John the Baptist, a holy man who came to bear witness to the coming light:

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

The world badly needs more of us to testify to the light – the light that came into the world in the embodied Christ, and is ever coming in through his Body now, the church.

Where do you find yourself called to testify to the light, to proclaim in the face of poverty or evil, illness or lies the triumph of God’s light – even if things still look pretty dark? If we want to be effective at offering that counter-testimony to so much of what passes for truth in our world, we have to be aware of where we experience the light of Christ, what darkness we have seen enlightened by the presence and love of God.

Today the light will last a little longer than yesterday now that we’re past the winter solstice; tomorrow, a little longer still. As Christ followers we are always living on this side of the longest night, as we participate in bringing more light each day than the last. In the midst of preparations for Christmas Eve, take a little time to reflect on where the light of Christ is most visible to you. And then find someone and bear witness to that hope.

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12-21-21- Life and Light

You can listen to this reflection here.

Well, this worked out nicely – the next part of this week's gospel passage is about life and light, light overcoming darkness. And here it is, the longest night of the year. We’ve experienced increasing darkness all through Advent – and not only with the shortening of days. Now comes the promise that light will prevail: What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

I once had a very vivid dream. I was driving a car in a strange city, my parents in the back seat. In this city, all the hospitality businesses – hotels, restaurants, bars – were in one part of town, and we were looking for a particular hotel driveway. But there were no lights. Nothing. No car lights, no street lights, no lights in windows, nothing. Pitch black. We were hurtling through the dark, looking for this driveway, with no way to see. It was very scary.

And then someone in the back said, “Have you tried the infra-red lights?” And I flicked a switch on the dashboard, and boom! All the lights sprang out. Street lights, lights from cars, lights in windows. They’d all been there, but we couldn’t see them without the infra-red lights.

It seemed to me the next morning that this had been a God dream – but I wasn’t sure what it meant, until a few years later I learned how infra-red works. I hadn’t known it when I had the dream, at least not consciously. Infra-red vision works by detecting heat; it sees where life is, and that shows up as light. Life is light. “In Him was life, and that life was the light of humankind.” I gradually realized that this dream was about seeing with the eyes of faith, seeing what is already fully here but not visible without faith vision.

The life of God is here already, full, vibrant, but we need faith vision to see it. In Christ, we have been given that vision, to see the life that is coming, to see the life that is. As we become able to focus on this future that is already here, we can anticipate with hope, expecting blessing. We are able to believe that healing can come in the starkest of situations, conversion in the darkest of hearts.

And we come to see that what looks like complete darkness is in fact a beautiful night in a wonderful city – we might even say a city of blinding lights– lit by the Light of the World.

12-20-21 - The Real Beginning

You can listen to this reflection here.

Friday night we will celebrate the beginning of Jesus’ earthly life, with candles and carols and pageants. And then on Sunday, those who venture to church will be invited to contemplate the real beginning of Jesus’ life – which, John’s Gospel tells us, happened before time began.

Yes, next Sunday is the first Sunday in the (12-day! don’t kick your tree to the curb yet!)) season of Christmas. As always the gospel reading appointed is this passage that opens John’s Gospel. Where Luke and Matthew begin their gospel accounts with the birth of Jesus, and Mark just jumps in thirty years later when Jesus begins his public ministry, John goes deep into the pre-history. Deep, way deep, to infinity and beyond. “In the beginning,” he begins, and by that he means before everything. Before anything was, when there was only God, God had a thought and it issued forth as a word, a word with the power of genesis.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.

Before we get to the manger and the animals, the shepherds and the angels, the magi and the evil king, before we even get to Mary and her stranger-than-fiction pregnancy, we have this: a word. Not just any word: The Word. God’s Word – and God’s word is more than words. God’s word has the power to make real what did not exist before. God’s word is active, life-making. God’s word is creative, world-making.

How many eons did that Word exist before the time came for him to be given human life, to enter human history? And why did he come into visible being that night in Bethlehem?

There are more questions than answers. Let’s just hold this thought as we make our own journey to the manger this week: that the One whose birth we celebrate was the One who gave birth to us.

12-17-21 - Mary the Revolutionary

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Mary of Nazareth is often depicted in art as quiet and pensive, her gaze downcast. Perhaps some artists thought that conveyed her deep devotion, and then it became a convention, like associating her with the color blue. If I were to draw a picture of Mary, her face would be upturned, her gaze focused toward heaven, and her expression fierce and energized.

This Mary portrayed in the Gospels is not “round yon virgin tender and mild.” (I know, I’m butchering the lyrics – it’s the holy infant who’s tender and mild, and love’s pure light that’s “round” her... but this was my impression as a child.) She is quick and tough, brave and prophetic, alive to the cosmic implications of what God is doing in her as well as the personal ones.

Mary’s Magnificat is not the song of a meek young woman – it is the cry of a revolutionary who sees in her own chosenness God’s redemption of all the little people, and the bringing low of those who wield power. It foresees equitable distribution of wealth, of power, of justice. This is Occupy Jerusalem, circa Year O, AD:

God’s mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

It is impossible to take economics and politics out of the Christmas story – indeed, I would assert, out of any of the Christian story. These Advent those themes continue to ring loudly, as we face such crises and divisions in the world and at home. It is also impossible to take women out of the story. Over and over in the Bible, we see God work through strong, faithful, opinionated, courageous women to accomplish God’s purposes. Mary of Nazareth, like Mary of Magdala and Mary and Martha of Bethany, is the recipient of God’s revelation in Christ, and is able to connect the dots between Jesus and cosmic redemption.

Mary’s willingness to say yes, in faith and obedience, are part of what make her holy. But there’s so much more to her, as Luke’s gospel shows us. Can we take the time to get to know her more fully, not just a stained glass saint but a flesh and blood girl, who shed her blood and shared her flesh so that the Redeemer might be born? Who bore that “sword piercing her heart”as she watched her precious firstborn court danger and ultimately face a brutal death? Who must have returned again and again to these words of prophecy when it looked like power and evil were winning and the hungry continued to lose out to the well-fed?

I’ve never thought of Mary as a heroine – but I’m seeing her anew. I’m heeding her call to justice, only partially achieved 2000 years later. Every time we stand with her and bring justice into being, we join her song and make it truer. (Here is a rousing hymnic version of the Magnificat).

In the fullness of time, this is the song all the universe will sing, as God's justice comes to all at last.

12-16-21 - Magnified

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

There are moments when we are filled with gratitude and grace, aware that God is real and has acted in our lives. Those are the times when our spirits swell and words of praise burst forth from us. One of the biggest such moments in human history may have been Mary’s, when Elizabeth delivered confirmation that the baby she was carrying was indeed the Lord of heaven and earth.

Who knows what she actually said – Luke was not there, after all. But he gave beautiful shape to the words she may have said, words that are both humble and grand, personal and global, rooted in Israel’s past and the glorious promise of deliverance to come, proclaiming justice and mercy:

And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

The word “magnified” here puzzles me. I think of magnifying as something you do to make something appear bigger than it is, and God needs no magnification. If anything, God needs to be brought down to a scale we can reckon with (one way of thinking about the Incarnation…). It’s not Mary’s soul that magnifies God, but the Spirit that magnified Mary’s spirit, expanded it, filled it.

Sometimes our spirits feel very small and pinched, like a tire without air. We need that breath of life that comes from realizing – again – how very great God is, and how very near God’s love is; to refill our spirits and make them bigger than they were. Not for nothing are the words "pneuma," or spirit, and "pneumatic" related.

Events can happen which magnify our spirits. At other times we need to rely on our memory of how God has acted in the past, and our faith in the promise of restoration to come. That’s why we pray, setting aside time to remember and claim God’s promises and allow that remembering and claiming to lead to proclaiming the Good News.

How about this for a spiritual exercise, today or this weekend: Write your own hymn of praise, your Magnificat. What would you say in praise? What great things has the Mighty One done for you? Where has God shown the strength of his arm? Where do you want to see justice break forth?

What a wonderful way to prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth, and to honor the woman who bore him into the world, in whom God was truly magnified in every possible way.

12-15-21 - Believing

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted from trying to “do ministry,” especially at this time of year. Getting Christmas together for two churches, not to mention myself. Writing sermons and press releases, posting events and hosting meetings. Seeking discernment. The list is endless.

And all God really wants from me, and from you, is that we believe. That we believe his promises. That we rely on her power. That we trust their presence and goodness and gifts.

One of the most powerful parts of the story of Mary and Elizabeth’s encounter that we explore this week is Elizabeth’s simple statement about what makes Mary blessed: “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

Simply taking God at God’s word is all we really need to do. That’s what garnered Abraham righteousness in God’s sight, according to St. Paul; not the things he did or said, but his believing God’s crazy promise about a son. Mary received a pretty crazy promise about a son too – even more outrageous than Abraham’s. But she said “Yes,” and she took action on that promise. Her coming to see Elizabeth was one of the ways she put believing into action.

What promises has God made to us? There are general promises we can find in Scripture – like the promise of peace in the midst of anxiety (Philippians 4), the promise of Christ’s presence always (Matthew 28), the promise of the Holy Spirit (Luke 11). Peace, presence, power – not a bad start.

And sometimes we discern specific promises. Perhaps you’ve sensed God inviting you into a particular ministry, with some clarity about what will unfold. If the Bible is any indication, these sorts of callings can often seem far-fetched. It might be easy to dismiss them, or try to ignore them, especially in an age when we are not surrounded by people of faith who can help us confirm them spiritually. If you do feel a nudging from the Spirit toward some ministry or expression of your gifts, start to explore that; ask others what they think; take one step and then another and see where you end up. As they say, it's easier to steer a car when it's moving.

When we don’t really believe that God will do what God has promised, God cannot work through us. It’s tricky like that. Acting in faith in such a way that our lives and priorities actually begin to be transformed is a matter of believing that what the Lord has spoken, the Lord will bring into being.

And sometimes we become the means through which God brings his promises to fulfillment. Blessed are we.

12-14-21 - The Kick Felt Round the World

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

What must it have been like for a post-menopausal woman to be pregnant for the first time? Perhaps now, reproductive technology being what it is, some women have experienced that. But in the hill country of Judea in the waning days of BCE, it must have been a challenge for Elizabeth, so long childless and now suddenly, wondrously, filled with new life.

And here comes Mary, herself mysteriously, wondrously with child, and the unborn one inside Elizabeth begins to do somersaults: In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb.

And now another life stirs within her, more familiar than the one in her womb. The Holy Spirit of God fills her and she gives full voice to her praise:

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy."

If Mary came seeking confirmation of the angel’s message, God delivered that in abundance. And if Elizabeth had any doubts about God’s purposes in her own unlikely pregnancy, these too were laid to rest. Now she knew for certain that the child she was carrying had a holy destiny. With great humility and gratitude, she praises the Holy One and confirms that the child in Mary’s womb is her Lord. What a moment. No wonder this encounter is among the most frequently painted of Biblical scenes.

Yesterday I asked us to consider what new life might be stirring inside us, new purposes, plans, projects, passions. If we want these to grow and develop, we have to nurture them along, not ignore them until the time comes for them to be born. We have to feed them, and make room for them to kick, even leap and do backflips.

I wish I knew better how to make that room. Partly it means insisting on time for quiet and inactivity, as challenging as that can be in our 24/7 world. It means taking walks, and tea breaks, writing in a journal, and yes, committing to quiet prayer time each day, a spiritual discipline that so often eludes me. God may be speaking volumes, but if we never check in, how are we going to know? It's pre-natal care for the spirit.

And when we do feel the kicks? When we feel ourselves filled with the Holy Spirit? Give voice with a loud cry and proclaim your blessedness!