Welcome to week three of the Advent Series.
This week reading from Isaiah 61 and then a Lectio Divina on a poem called No Safe Place by Sheila Rosen.
As a way to prepare I invite you to take a breath,
To pause,
To allow yourself to be supported and held by the chair,
To let your shoulders sink and to let go of the day so far and of what's to come,
To welcome the grace to be present here and now.
Isaiah 61 1 to 4 and 8 to 11.
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
To bind up the broken hearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners,
To proclaim the year of the Lord's favour and the day of vengeance of our God,
To comfort all who mourn,
To provide for those who mourn in Zion,
To give them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord to display his glory.
They shall build up the ancient ruins,
They shall raise up the former devastations,
They shall repair the ruined cities,
The devastations of many generations.
For I the Lord love justice,
I hate robbery and wrongdoing,
I will faithfully give them their recompense and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants shall be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My whole being shall exalt in my God.
For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
And now moving on to the Lectio Divina.
I'm going to read this three times.
On the first reading allow the words to come as a rain,
Without attaching to them,
Simply receive them.
This is called No Safe Place by Sheila Rosen.
There's no safe place.
God,
It seems,
Might insert himself into any conversation,
Any century,
Might settle in any old place as he quintessentially did in the West Bank Palestine,
Small town called Bethlehem.
The story is,
God breathed himself into the womb of a woman,
Turning himself over to her umbilical care,
Folding himself into fetal position,
Pressing and turning inside Mary,
Till she,
Breathing hard,
Bore down.
Mary's womb turned inside out,
Amniotic water,
Gasping infant,
Placenta spilling into the night,
Messy and miraculous as any birth anywhere and not a safe place.
Did he know he must have when he took on flesh and fingernail and bone marrow,
He would be at our mercy.
For us too,
No safe place.
For you see what he's done,
Given notice how he at any time might break into our conversation.
West Bank,
West Coast,
Bethlehem,
Vancouver,
There's no place safe from his radical willingness to be among us.
And on this second reading,
I invite you to be aware of any words or phrases that stand out to you.
So there's no safe place.
God,
It seems,
Might insert himself into any conversation,
Any sanctuary,
Might settle in any old place as he quintessentially did in the West Bank,
Palestine,
Small town called Bethlehem.
The story is God breathed himself into the womb of a woman,
Turning himself over to her umbilical care,
Folding himself into fetal position,
Pressing and turning inside Mary,
Till she,
Breathing hard,
Bore down.
Mary's womb turned inside out,
Amniotic water,
Gasping infant,
Placenta spilling into the night,
Messy and miraculous,
As any birth anywhere and not a safe place.
Did he know he must have,
When he took on flesh and fingernail and bone marrow,
He would be at our mercy.
For us too,
No safe place.
For you see what he's done,
Given notice how he at any time might break into our conversation.
West Bank,
West Coast,
Bethlehem,
Vancouver.
There's no place safe from his radical willingness to be among us.
And on this third and final reading,
I invite you to welcome the words and phrases that stood out to you to go deeper,
To offer you what you need in this moment.
So there's no safe place.
God,
It seems,
Might insert himself into any conversation,
Any century,
Might settle in any old place as he quintessentially did in the West Bank,
Palestine,
Small town called Bethlehem.
The story is God breathed himself into the womb of a woman,
Turning himself over to her umbilical care,
Folding himself into fetal position,
Pressing and turning inside Mary,
Till she,
Breathing hard,
Bore down.
Mary's womb turned inside out,
Amniotic water,
Gasping infant placenta spilling into the night,
Messy and miraculous as any birth anywhere and not a safe place.
Did he know he must have when he took on flesh and fingernail and bone marrow,
He would be at our mercy.
For us too,
No safe place.
For you see what he's done,
Given notice how he at any time might break into our conversation.
West Bank,
West Coast,
Bethlehem,
Vancouver.
There's no place safe from his radical willingness to be among us.
May you be blessed and no hope and peace this Advent season.
Amen.
