How does a weary world rejoice? We acknowledge our weariness

Luke 1

On Thanksgiving Eve, I went to worship at a neighboring congregation and the pastors reminded us that gratitude is not necessarily a feeling but a practice. Sometimes feelings of thanks well up within us—like those who met around this week’s Gratitude feast hosted by Daily Work and Shobi’s Table. But sometimes, gratitude doesn’t come as easily. In tough times, it’s the discipline of practicing that carries us through. You may have read Kate Bowler—she’s a survivor of stage four cancer—and ever since she made it through that experience, she’s written a lot and hosts a podcast about the authentic experiences of life. This week, she wrote a thanksgiving blessing for when you don’t feel terribly thankful.

 

Kate Bowler wrote—

God, I am struggling to find my way toward gratitude this thanksgiving. 

Help my heart find joy, for you know how much I need it.

Come meet us in our needs that weigh so heavily upon us.

Blessed are we who come to you just as we are, with our loneliness and loss,

Our scarcity and sorrow, and say God, there is just not enough 

Though we’re not even supposed to say [that] today, there is just not enough to go on:

Not enough money to pay bills, not enough jobs, nor safety for those who have them,

Not enough wisdom to find solutions, not enough strength or comfort or connection.

Things are just harder now.

Blessed are we who say, God, could you come meet us here, in this place?

This place of need where our feelings don’t match the day?

Blessed are we who hear You saying: “come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

And we come. And somehow there is rest, and gladness for tiny, tiny graces.

Blessed are we, the truly thankful.

Settle. Place before your mind one gift of God. And say thanks.

 

How does a weary world rejoice? This is an Advent and Christmas question that we’ll be exploring over the month to come. Today’s response is just the first—How does a weary world rejoice? We acknowledge our weariness. 

 

At our Thanksgiving table, the one who shared the prayer got tears in his eyes as he contemplated the pain of the world. Still, there is reason for hope, he said. We know, we know…  but maybe it is good to practice this month first the truth-telling, with Kate Bowler, with the writers of this beautiful devotional from A Sanctified Art, with the biblical characters—that there are very many hard things in life and that we are weary.
Christ was born into a weary world.

So, they invite us to look closely at the details in the opening stories of the Gospel of Luke. They invite us to discover where joy is sprinkled throughout the narrative and identify the moments when joy arrives—despite anxiety, fear or grief. And they invite us to consider how joy can be a companion to you this season, the joy that is rooted in the truth that you belong to God. 

Imagine this—you deserve to feel joy—fully. The world needs your joy, even if you are weary and all the resources of this month are to help you hold space for weariness and joy. All the resources of this month are to help us practice joy in a weary world.

 

This first story—Zechariah—is a good example.

It is completely understandable why Zechariah would be weary from waiting and full of doubt. He’s offered his whole life to serving in God’s presence, but has he been rewarded for that in the ways his culture would understand? No, in fact childlessness in his culture signified God’s contempt. Zechariah and Elizabeth are childless and old—so when Gabriel appears in a vision in the temple, it makes perfect sense that Zechariah would question that incredible message. “How will I know that this is true?” I’m well past my prime. I doubt it.

But with Gabriel’s joy-filled response, we learn that God’s promises are more powerful than our doubt, weariness and despair. “I am Gabriel… “ Zechariah’s ability to speak is taken away for awhile—maybe for both himself and for the community—so that God’s power can do it’s good work and bring into being not only the baby who would become the prophet John the Baptist… but the transformative future that he would proclaim.

 

Rev. Cecelia D. Armstrong writes in our devotions this week--

We can be weary in various ways. We can be weary because of our age. We can be weary because of our waiting. We can be weary because we have faced the same routine for years and seemingly watched nothing change. We can be weary for various reasons, but must we stay weary? Can we exchange our weariness for hope? Is there a way to experience weariness and insist on the blessed hope that is to come?

 

I love that idea of “insisting on the blessed hope that is to come.”

 

And Rev. Lauren Wright Pittman, the artist who made this beautiful image—Annunciation to Zechariah—wrote these reflections:

 

I often try to neglect my weariness by putting on a veneer of unwavering trust in God---while feeling like I may suddenly unravel…

 

Do you bind up your weariness in a neat and tidy bow, put your head down, and project okay-ness like me? What would it look like to acknowledge our weariness, quit powering through, and open ourselves up to what God might have in store for us? Perhaps we’ll meet an angel.

 

Breathe deep as you gaze upon the image on the left.

What do you see? 

One hand is over his mouth in disbelief, the other hand cradles the notion—not yet hope—of the new one being born.

 

We are that same mix—of weary doubt, of the possibility of joy—and God comes among us, a companion to us this season, to help us remember the truth that we belong to God. May that belonging be the first new spark of joy this season as we begin practices together to grow in love, comfort and joy for the sake of a weary world.  

Invitation to Anticipation

Bega Kwa Bega Partnership Sunday              Matthew 5:1-12

Jesus said to the disciples: Then the kingdom of heaven will e like this. Ten bridesmaids… 

And Jesus goes on to tell a story that goes against most everything we’ve ever been told about who God is and who Jesus invites us to be…

We hear that half of the bridesmaids have enough oil and half do not – but do they share? No.

We hear that the five without oil go to get some – but are they let in the door? No. (in spite of other scriptures that reassure that when we knock, the door will be opened to us).

We hear that all these tired bridesmaids have to wait so long that they fall asleep – but what’s the message? Stay awake. Even in spite of everything you know in your body about humans’ need for rest and for all the many invitations God makes to enjoy Sabbath rest.

So what do we make of this parable? It is certainly not an allegory—a story where there’s a one-to-one match with Christ as the bridegroom, the church as the absent bride, and all of us trying how to be wise, have enough oil, stay awake… It is certainly not an allegory but what are we supposed to do with this story anyway? This story meant to invite, confuse, exaggerate, make curious… 

 

In her commentary about this strange, familiar parable, Susan Hylen invites this perspective—that followers of Jesus are shaped by the unknown timing of Jesus’ return.

However, she says, “the point of the parable is not constant readiness. “Keep awake” does not imply that the disciples should never sleep, standing vigil through the ages for Christ’s imminent return. In fact, all of the bridesmaids, wise and foolish, are asleep when the shout announces the groom’s approach.”

 

Then, she notices - 

It is difficult for many of today’s disciples to be anything like the bridesmaids, wise or foolish, because we have stopped waiting. We give little thought to Christ’s return, let alone what we should do to prepare for it. If we were to contemplate ourselves in relation to the end time, it might be easier to imagine ourselves as the slaves who work diligently while the master is away than as the bridesmaids whose primary job is to await the groom’s return

 

I mean who can blame us? Given what seems like such an absence, such a long wait, who can blame us for just moving into a sense that the world will never be right… that the kind of kingdom that Jesus is calling into being, the kingdom of heaven… will never exist.

Nevertheless, there may be something we can gain from the parable’s perspective.

The parable asks us to imagine ourselves as those who wait for the groom’s return. It invites us to imagine—however long the delay—that God’s good reign of justice and peace is just around the corner, that Jesus is about to enter, and to wait for it with eager anticipation. The parable invites us to prepare for the day, not as exhausted slaves, but knowing that because God’s promises are true, we can keep encouraging each other to eager, hopeful waiting.  

 

This is so much what I saw as I traveled with our partners in Masimike—a rural farming community in the Iringa Diocese in Tanzania. As we traveled by bus in the rainy season, there was excessive water and abundant green crops—corn and the wide-leaved false banana—there were abundant chickens and fruits growing on trees. And in each place we stopped, there were people gathered in eager anticipation to welcome us—strangers—who they treated as honored, eagerly anticipated guests. 

Our Tanzanian partners sang and waved branches as we got off the bus. They danced and invited us into the dancing. They helped us learn the steps and the tunes to the songs. They fed us and thanked us for all that we’ve accomplished together. In preaching point after preaching point, they pointed to a roofs that have been put up because of our shared support. Students and their parents came to me and thanked me, a representative of this congregation, for how much our support has meant to their families.

Now, you might be asking, how much do we send?
And the true answer is that there used to be members of this congregation who individually supported students. Also, the children’s jar offerings have been designated to go to support these students. But for many years, the funds kind of mysteriously made their way to the partnership accounts and there was always enough for all. Every specific request that came over time, we could always say, “Yes, the money is there. Please go ahead and use the money as you see fit.” Then in 2023, the money in the partnership accounts simply did not flow in its usual way. It might be that individual supporters have died or changed their designations… but for whatever reason, we find ourselves with an opportunity. The opportunity is to come together to fill those accounts once again so that our modest gifts can go and do such important, life-giving work. And all I can say is that I cannot adequately express to you how very well our modest gifts are used and multiplied by our partners in Masimike and now, by the second congregation that has been created as our Masimike constellation of preaching points grew so big that a new congregation was needed to organize all the gatherings. 

The kingdom of heaven is like this—and we have the opportunity today to contribute to give in a spirit of anticipation not only for all that God is doing and about to do in Tanzania, but for the ways that God is creating a culture of generosity right here.

There are so many things in our lives that make us cry with Amos—“let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

There are so many things in our lives where we are wishing for the presence of wisdom… “who is easily discerned by those who love her, who is found by those who seek her, who makes herself known, who appears, who meets them in every thought.”

Today, we are invited by Jesus to hopeful anticipation—whether our lamps feel full or empty, that we might become ready, hopeful, eagerly waiting for the light we need. Today, we are invited by Jesus to awaken to the needs of others. Today, we are invited to know that even though we do not know the arrival time of Jesus showing up among us, that God’s promises, justice and peace are true… and we are invited to live with hearts, minds, whole selves awake to all that God is still bringing into the world.

Remembering, letting go, healing with the saints

All Saints’ Sunday - Revelation and Matthew           

Blessed are you when you mourn, for you shall be comforted…

Those of you who feel the lowest of the low—Jesus says: I see you, I honor you, you are part of God’s dream, God’s family, God’s circle of love and support

 

Some of you know that I celebrated a milestone birthday recently and with that milestone, I have been cleaning—filling bins and bins of recycling with those things I no longer need from the first 50 years, making open space for what is to come. One of my inspirations in this process has been the little series (inspired by the book with the same name) The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.[1]

In each of the 8 episodes, a team of death cleaners – an organizer, a designer, a psychologist – they go into a person’s home to help them deal with their stuff (something that they want to do and need help to do because someone in their life has died and left them too much stuff to deal with… or because they are facing their own death and want to live more freely and comfortably in the time they have left).

This show is funny, at times gently poking fun at things that Americans keep, and a source of so many heart-expanding moments. At least once every episode, they remind the people that they are helping that their loved ones are present with them. There is a saying goodbye that is involved but getting rid of excess stuff is not getting rid of the beautiful memories and experiences, or their love for their person. 
What I’ve been learning more deeply as I watch it is that Americans apologize constantly for crying… every single person has deep wells of grief but doesn’t feel permission to cry.

When they get permission to cry, you can see the healing that takes place.

 

Good tears—Research has found that in addition to being self-soothing, shedding emotional tears releases oxytocin and endorphins. These chemicals help people feel good and may also ease both physical and emotional pain. In this way, crying can help reduce pain and promote a sense of well-being. It also can help you get support from others.[2]

 

Another thing I’ve learned – “You need to be supported to let go. When we have support, we are able to go so much farther than on our own.”

Kat, the psychologist on the show, is so kind and gentle and when she met with a woman, Shana, who was both keeping her friends at a distance and trying to find a way to talk with her close friends about her cancer, Kat showed her two acro yoga poses – one called the Titanic pose where she leaned far forward with the person holding her so she would not fall. The second looks like an airplane pose—the teacher holding the other on her feet like Shana is flying, a pose she describes as “super scary yet kind of freeing.” They have a conversation about how Shana wants to develop trust, courage… and Kat shares how that’s possible when there is that high level of support. “You need to be supported to let go. When we have support, we are able to go so much farther than on our own.”

 

A third learning—what’s loved has to be released. When we try to hold on to everything, we lose what matters. Family after family featured in this little series learns that their lives are the gift from relatives—not the stuff—and they can love items enough to let them go so that they can have a new use in another way. 

There are so many practices of self-compassion that go right alongside the letting go – here’s one exercise for us to try in community today.

1) Take a deep breath and recognize the pain you are carrying. You really tried your best and it still wasn’t possible to save these loved ones from death.

 

2) Having these painful experiences is part of being human. Let yourself know that you are seen and understood and cared for.

 

3) As scary as it was, put your hand on your heart and remember - 

I am here for you. 

I know what you’ve been through.

I will listen.

I will make space.

Because you are very important to me.

 

In the context of the show—these are words that in self-compassion, you say them to yourself.

In the context of Christian community—these are words that God (within and around us) says to us, that we say to one another and yes, that we can say to ourselves.

I am here for you. I know what you’ve been through.

I will listen. I will make space. Because you are very important to me.

 

For the past five years, since our 150^th Anniversary, our congregation has had many losses. In your own circles of love and connection, you all have had even more losses, and part of the practice of this day is not only to remember and acknowledge out loud that we remember, that we are sad and miss them but to not get stuck here.

 

Jesus looks at those who are grieving, who are outsiders, who are marginalized and suffering, and Jesus reminds them how they are also blessed. It’s not only a future prediction but it’s to bring new life in the present.

If we are stuck beneath a mountain of stuff (literally or emotionally or spiritually) that represent our unprocessed grief—because our life has changed and we just haven’t had the support to deal with it—how can we invite in a circle of friends to help us?

 

For me, it has been an incredibly freeing thing not only to see how they transform spaces together but how they are working on the inner spaces… and how at the end of every episode, there is a celebration. Often, it’s a dinner with candles and loved ones, good food and stories, and together we remember again that this is a vision of the life that God dreams for us. 

 

Today, we too have candles… and we will light more. We remember and cry healing tears. We gather around a table where Jesus is the host, sharing who God is in the bread and cup, making us into a circle of friends who are here to help and support. And today we especially remember that those gathering with us include the whole communion of saints, a cloud of witnesses, with Christ as the center who guides them to springs of the water of life, and who with gentle compassion, when healing is complete, wipes away every tear from their eyes.

---

[1] The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, https://www.peacocktv.com/

[2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319631#benefits-of-crying