{"id":1949,"date":"2010-12-11T10:15:27","date_gmt":"2010-12-11T15:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/?p=1949"},"modified":"2010-12-11T10:15:27","modified_gmt":"2010-12-11T15:15:27","slug":"2nd-sunday-in-advent-from-the-sunny-pew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/2010\/12\/2nd-sunday-in-advent-from-the-sunny-pew\/","title":{"rendered":"2nd Sunday in Advent (From the sunny pew)"},"content":{"rendered":"
sometimes the universes dispatches angelic ambassadors. \u00a0sometimes it provides signs that renew our strength and replenish the sense of endurance and fortitude we need to continue. \u00a0sometimes it sends assurance that the sense of salvation and redemption we are seeking is on its way. \u00a0just as there are forebodings, warnings, and omens,( that can seem almost diabolically , if not conspiratorally complicit with what may be happening in our lives, \u00a0so does the language of the Divine include prescient and symbolic harbingers of “things to come.” \u00a0It\u00a0is the second week of advent. \u00a0for some, it is still continuing to grow darker, colder, more barren – and more challenging. \u00a0hope diminishes. \u00a0belief grows anemic. \u00a0we can become gaunt. hunger deepens. \u00a0 death seems to prevail in the landscape – and in our own emotional, spiritual interiors<\/p>\n
in this weeks gospel reading we hear of the arrival of John The Baptist, announcing and assuring of us of the Lord’s Imminence. \u00a0As advent, we continue to wait in joyful anticipation, even though the dark elements seem to be combining and growing in strength around us – and now we have one arriving in advance to assure, with certitude, the arrival. \u00a0as spiritual beings, we are most happy and serene when we feel at one with God, when we feel God’s presence, inextricable from the rapture, sense of exultation, and tranquility in our hearts. \u00a0but we do not always feel the presence of God. \u00a0 sometimes we feel forsaken, abandoned, and are tempted by the sense of Doubt induced by logic and reason. \u00a0for faith and belief are always mystical and defiant in this regard. \u00a0neither faith nor belief are manufactured by the intellect. they are mystical, sacred, and mysterious. \u00a0our mental faculties are merely tools in service of a belief and faith that must be renewed in our hearts and souls. \u00a0sometimes we need what john the babtist symbolizes to assure us \u00a0with infallible certainty that the light and warmth we are seeking is on its way. \u00a0but we must never mistake the messenger with the messiah…he has come announce the forthcoming arrival, to assure us, and, as in the lenten period, prepare our souls to welcome the sacred guest…he baptises with water to clean us so that we may be prepared to receive the truth and the spirit, which will have the properties of fire. \u00a0it will bring light and warmth into the world, into our hearts, although outwardly the darkness and cold still threaten….<\/p>\n
we must prepare to receive god, just as martha prepares. \u00a0but we must not mistake those that precede – as the holy or the divine. \u00a0as christians we are asked to be like christ. \u00a0we are also asked to be like john, to announce and assure others, to carry the message, despite how forsaken or bereft. \u00a0the word precede is at the root of precedent. \u00a0john sets a precedent…sometimes what we have to offer to another, compassion, guidance, a kind word, a smile, is what offers an innuendo of divine love, \u00a0it can have the very qualities of mercy, tenderness, compassion and forgiveness that we ourselves seek, and have learned from our love for the divine.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What occurred to me while i sat here not doing the laundry is How John Himself Was Delivered. \u00a0What do we know about him, and his appearance in the mortal realm – how does he appear – announcing the pursuant deity?<\/p>\n

We are told that he arrives in wild garb, and eats of berries and nuts. \u00a0He exists outside the norm, hardly one of social convention. \u00a0His attire alone reinforces his “closeness to the elements.” \u00a0 There is something both Wild and Transient about him and his solitary travels \u00a0A primate, a neanderthal, a sort of sonni (of sonni and cher who i always remember wearing furry vests) and subsidized by raw nutrients that bear a direct affinity with nature and the wilderness. \u00a0While our education has trained us to Know and Approve of John, we must not forget (just as the controversial nature of Mary’s pregnancy) the Unexpected, Unconventional, Extraordinary, Means by which he introduces himself. \u00a0He could easily be perceived as a barbarian, an outcast, a renegade, a heathen. \u00a0 There is a spiritual primacy to all of us. \u00a0As christians we are reminded that Salvation will be born in a manger, remember – amid the lambs and goats and cows and ox, in hay, in a stable (or cave) – – but not in the Inn. \u00a0There is no room at the inn, which is a social, civilized construct. \u00a0 The Religious Experience occurs outside all civilized constructs. \u00a0This is why John – in not appearing like the others but bring testimony and assurance – must also chastise those who represent The Temple (or Organized Religion) \u00a0– The church can prepare us to recieve God, and its rites and rituals create a framework and Discipline (from the word Disciple) – but they are aids in our spiritual journey. \u00a0They are not necessarily the spiritual experience. \u00a0They prepare our souls to be transformed into mangers where salvation begins…Our souls are not artificial constructs. \u00a0They are not civilized (unnatural) man made fabrications. They are hidden within the trappings of experience, education, learning and all the things we acquire that are extraneously imposed. \u00a0Christ returns us to that spiritual primacy and infancy. \u00a0It is where the grotto, the cave, (and femininist doctrine would eagerly chime in “the womb”), where God originates and is both conceived and delivered – in the Soul.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

sometimes the universes dispatches angelic ambassadors. \u00a0sometimes it provides signs that renew our strength and replenish the sense of endurance and fortitude we need to continue. \u00a0sometimes it sends assurance that the sense of salvation and redemption we are seeking is on its way. \u00a0just as there are forebodings, warnings, and omens,( that can seem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories-from-our-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}