Dear Friends,
You know those weeks when there’s just something in the air in your classroom or in your house? The days when everyone is just feeling silly?
We had one of those in my classroom on Sunday as I attempted to get us through the first three weeks of the Godly Play advent story. Even in the best of years, it’s a story that often gets condensed either due to Thanksgiving travel or pageant rehearsals, and this year’s overlap of Advent IV and Christmas Eve is its own iteration of that. And so, as I tried to center the circle, tried to set my own attention on the story, the giggles kept interrupting.
We paused. We took some deep breaths. We stretched up high. We took a very quiet walk around the chapel. We returned to the story. We made slightly more successful progress with the third card. And then the best part.
We must just be confused, one of my third graders offered. We must be so giggly because we thought it was the third Sunday in Advent, for joy and celebration, instead of the second one for peace.
Oh, is that what’s happening? I see…
I don’t remember most Gaudete Sundays being particularly giggly in years past, but when I think about some of the peculiar things people in the Bible and in early church history are described as saying, this excuse doesn’t seem especially outlandish. (If anything, I’m pretty impressed by the quick associative leap!) A little part of me might even hope that energy carries over into next Sunday. Children delighting in each other’s company, in a community they trust, with an eagerness to participate but also to distract a bit (“what was Mary’s favorite color?”), is certainly a reason to rejoice.
Another Week, Another Season
This may or may not be the last newsletter of 2023 (wild to think I started writing this thing in 2020), depending on how Christmas prep is going alongside all of those personal life management pieces, but it’s notable that Advent is only four weeks at its longest. It’s a series of quick turnovers, from one season into the next, from Ordinary Time into Advent into the 12 Days of Christmas – did you see this video about how ALL of the gifts in that song are birds, not just the obvious ones?! And there’s the start of a new liturgical year followed just a few weeks later by a new “regular” calendar year. Academic semesters end and new ones begin (don’t ask me about my wife’s current run of finals). The wheel seems to turn too quickly in these weeks.
Luckily, amidst all of these ways of marking time invented by us as humans, plenty else carries on more slowly. The light continues to fade toward the Winter Solstice on the 21st. Animals settle into hibernation or migrate from one place to another. The tides slip in and out, nature in its steady thrum.
Other things progress much less evenly. As is fitting, this Sunday many of us will turn to the Magnificat, Mary’s song of God’s great works in and through her, and this text is a favorite among many Episcopalians and our friends. We delight in Mary’s delight, overjoyed with her joy, yes, but also alight at heart with her declarations of God’s justice. As I wrote last week, this great story isn’t just about a baby or about a king or “just” about anything, but rather about everything being transformed all at once, through the miracle of the Incarnation.
(Also: If you haven’t looked at the Miriam/Mary, Mother of God materials from Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints, you’re missing out.)
I was not saying these things about the incarnation, at least not in nearly so many words, to my circle of giggling children on Sunday, but I wonder where Jesus was in that joy? We always say that it’s vital that we invite God into the work, but trusting that God will show up, where is that subtle hand, that still or booming or mysterious voice? Remembering the lens that understands children as an oppressed group in need of liberation, God is in the disruption brought by their joy at least as much as any quiet circle full of reflection.
As adults, we know how hard it is to slow down and for those of us who aren’t the most festive (I’m historically a bit of a bah humbug), it’s easy to know that there’s joy in Christmas without actually feeling it. We’re preoccupied by the planning, the details, the demands on our time. And thinking about the emphasis the Godly Play Advent story places on remembering to slow down, to pay attention to the mystery, it’s easy to swing too far in one direction rather than the other, too serious instead of so joyful. For those of us with that sort of temperament, that giggling circle is a good reminder.
Rejoice, Rejoice
This Sunday, as we sing with Mary in her joy that God has chosen her to be the mother of God – and that she has, with her whole heart, said YES! – may we rejoice as well.
For now, though, I know it’s only Tuesday as you receive this. The second Tuesday in an Advent that only actually has 3, so I think it’s fitting that we get a little ahead with our joy (if only to leave room for that last week of love). And, what’s more, because while we can theme things, we cannot control the coming or joy or sorrow, much as we can’t control the days that dwindle on the calendar.
So, I wonder, what brought you joy in your ministry or in cultivating your faith at home in this past calendar year? What joy awaits you looking ahead?
My great joy: the new faces in my church school classroom in the last few months.
I delight in singing with Music That Makes Community on Monday mornings.
Right now my heart is light with the work of hand crafting my Christmas cards, knowing the smiles they will bring to friends.
I rejoice in the surprises that my work has brought me, particularly seeing my coaching clients, fellow neurodivergent ministry professionals, thrive with new strategies.
I invite your family or community to list some of their joys of this past year. Get out the pink pens or paper and add them to your altar. You might even add these items to the pews and invite people to place their joys in the offering plate. We give to God from what we have been given, and God is with us in these joys.
What will you offer up to God in God’s goodness, magnifying the Lord alongside Mary?
Advent is both beginning and dwindling – in each ending is a beginning – and the calendar year is closing with the next one is nearly upon us. Let us prepare for good things, as we prepare for the coming Christ.
How can this space serve you in 2024?
Peace,
Bird