Walking Through Advent

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• Publisher: Wild Goose Publications
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781849523141
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Mysticism

Advent is a time of wonder and waiting - but that's not a passive thing. We need to walk into Advent with our eyes open. We walk through a world where wars are being waged and babies are being born. We are humbled by our inability to do much about what is wrong. But we do our best: to be kind, caring, to understand the meaning of mercy. We do our best to be even-handed, to act justly. Words from the prophet Micah inspired this book. But it also reflects the words of a later prophet, George Fox: 'Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.' Join us on a cheerful, thoughtful, justice-seeking journey towards Bethlehem, a journey day by day through Advent.

 

December 1: The Visitation

Soon afterwards Mary set out and hurried away to a town in the uplands of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby stirred in her womb. Then Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed in a loud voice, ‘God’s blessing is on you above all women and his blessing is on the fruit of your womb. Who am I that the mother of my Lord should visit me? I tell you, when your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby in my womb leapt for joy.’ (Luke 1:39–44)

Mary, learning of her pregnancy, filled with the wonder of carrying God’s child, hurried to find someone in whom she could confide. Her much older cousin Elizabeth lived in the hills outside Jerusalem – a long journey from Nazareth for a young woman in the first trimester. Elizabeth was also expecting a baby – who would become John the Baptist.

Artists through the ages have tried to capture the intimacy and joy of this encounter between the two women. American artist Bill Viola works in photography and video. His installations have surprising spiritual power, combining the beauty of human beings doing down-to-earth things, with a sense of mystery. On YouTube there is a very short video of his called The Greeting. A tall young woman in a vivid red dress and sandals moves with swift steps toward an older woman, who is waiting for her. They stretch out arms to each other; they embrace.

The home of Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah (that is, the place traditionally associated with the birth of John the Baptist) is called Ein Kerem or Karem. It is just a few kilometres from the city of Jerusalem. Wooded hillsides rise above a village which was depopulated on the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. Unlike Deir Yassin, just two kilometres away, there was no massacre there, but the Palestinian population was evacuated. The old houses were not demolished but reoccupied by Jewish families, many of them artists. It is now a popular place for tourists and pilgrims to visit.

Christian pilgrims may pause at the Church of the Visitation, to recite the Magnificat – Mary’s response to Elizabeth’s greeting. Or they fill bottles with water believed to be holy, from the ancient spring welling up under an arch in the centre of the village – tradition says that the two women met here.

Waiting God, where will we find you?

Encouraged by your Spirit, hurrying, searching,

we meet you in other people.

Not knowing what the future will bring, may we continue on our journeys

surprised by joy, refreshed by your living water. Amen

 

 

 

 

December 2: Pink knitting

‘You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for you fill me with awe; wonderful you are and wonderful your works. You know me through and through. (Psalm 139:13)

References to knitting in the Bible are few! I’m not a biblical scholar, but I’m sure of that. My knitting is pretty basic too. My mother, on the other hand, produced beautiful garments for us as children, and then for her grandchildren – jerseys and gloves and tam-o’-shanters. She began learning Fair Isle patterns while staying with my father on that island (where I was conceived). She remembered women walking the island tracks and knitting as they went – and regretted that she never achieved that skill.

When I reached the age when she put her needles aside, I took mine up, as part of the project Wool Against Weapons. This year the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament encouraged people to knit or crochet lengths 60 cm wide and 100 cm long, in predominately pink yarn. These were joined together and the communal creation had its first outing at a demonstration on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. Then on 9 August (Nagasaki Day) 2014, with much more added, it was unrolled on the road between Burghfield and Aldermaston, to stretch for seven miles and make a strong (and colourful) point about opposition to the weapons of mass destruction produced there. By contrast knitting is a creative – and very peaceful – activity.

In the preceding months, I had the opportunity to be where knitting was happening – in people’s kitchens, on a train, in a café, with veteran peace activists Helen and Ellen, with absolute beginners, in the MacLeod Centre craft room, where I wrote:

Pink wool – everywhere –

dancing needles, strands of hope,

hands busy for peace.

By now the long scarf will have been unpicked and sewn into blankets for people who would otherwise be cold this winter. All this year, knitting companionably, people have been sharing with each other family news and discussing peace issues: weaving their lives, their personal hopes and fears for the world, into that foolish, inspired creation.

Creator God

you know us through and through:

you know what we fear, and what we hold most dear.

Where war is taken for granted, help us to make a stand:

making peace, while making things with our hands. Amen

 

 

 

 

December 3: On pilgrimage

I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’. Now we are standing within your gates … pray for the peace of Jerusalem: may those who love you prosper; peace be within your ramparts and prosperity in your palaces. For the sake of these my brothers and my friends, I shall say ‘Peace be within you.’ (Psalm 122:1,2,6–8)

What a mixture! The crowds who travelled to Jerusalem for festivals in Jesus’ time: everyone on foot, some travelling light; some bringing cooking pots and bed-rolls; some rich enough to have a donkey to carry their baggage, so you’d hear braying among the praying; some with pigeons or sheep to sacrifice, so there would be cooing and bleating and the smell of dung; serious pilgrims focused on their destination; large and cheerful family groups, where a twelve-year-old boy could get safely lost in the crowd for days on end; small children jumping up and down at the first view of the city; pilgrim songs being started by one group and picked up by those further down the line. This would have been part of the pattern of Mary and Joseph’s life, long before she travelled to see Elizabeth, before they went to Bethlehem for the census – they would have been on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. A long journey, a chosen journey full of meaning.

What a mixture! The folk coming off the Iona ferry: happy holidaymakers and tired travellers. Folk with rucksacks and roll-along suitcases. Some are stepping once again on familiar and well-loved ground. For others everything is new – crossing Mull, crossing the sea, seeing white beaches, green meadows, a little mountain, a big church. A small island – yet a place pregnant with possibilities. There are men with golf clubs, women with easels, children with surfboards, backpackers with guitars – each has high expectations. And there are pilgrims, in groups or on their own. They have come a long way for this, expecting to find God – or themselves.

Some people place a halo round Iona, responding to the idea of ‘a thin place’. Is this holy ground or just a down-to-earth Hebridean island, or both? What makes it special is what people – pilgrims – bring to it, not their roll-along suitcases, but the richness of the rest of their lives, their stories, their gifts and creativity, their willingness to take risks and enter into community, their hopes, their prayers.

Bless to us, O God,

the earth beneath our feet.

Bless to us, O God,

the path whereon we go.

Bless to us, O God,

the people whom we meet.

(Prayer from the Gaelic, used in the weekly pilgrimage round Iona)

 

 

 

December 4: ‘Yes, I sing to my sheep’

Like a shepherd he will tend his flock and with his arms keep them together; he will carry the lambs in his bosom and lead the ewes to water. (Isaiah 40:11)

High in the mountains overlooking the Jordan Valley is a small Palestinian village. Fo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• November 27: You trace my journeying
• November 28: Flying with crutches
• November 29: God who walks with us
• November 30: A child, bringing bread
• December 1: The Visitation
• December 2: Pink knitting
• December 3: On pilgrimage
• December 4: ‘Yes, I sing to my sheep’
• December 5: Learning to walk again
• December 6: On the shore
• December 7: At the Bethlehem checkpoint
• December 8: Beautiful feet
• December 9: Travels with a donkey
• December 10: At the roadside
• December 11: Zahra
• December 12: Feet on the ground
• December 13: Reflection in a garden
• December 14: Justice and peace embrace
• December 15: A highway … a causeway
• December 16: Wildflower wander
• December 17: Through the borderlands
• December 18: Stand fast
• December 19: Watchful waiting
• December 20: Under the tree
• December 21: Weeping for her children
• December 22: Called by name
• December 23: Advent expectancy
• December 24: Christmas Eve in the city
• Sources and Acknowledgements