Blogging Towards Sunday
December 9, 2007
The Second Sunday of Advent
FAITH




Isaiah 35:1-10
Luke 1:46-55
Matthew 11:2-11

At our church we're switching up things a bit for the Second Sunday of Advent, switching the readings for the 16th of December for the 9th.

POWER. Faith can change all things. I belive it even when I doubt it. What makes you get up out of bed in the morning? For me it's most of the responsibilities that await me. Getting our children ready and off for their day. Helping my wife in the limited ways that I do. Heading to another day of expectations and surprises at work. Some days it's great. Some days it isn't. But isn't that the mystery of life and life in community? It's all about the long-term perspective, about going the distance, about running the race and running well. How is it that Faith not just motivates us to say a sinner's prayer and come forward at the end of a meeting, but how does it empower, enable and embolden us to go the distance, to run with our eyes fixed on the prize?

For me in my most lucid and hope-full moments that's the case. But that's not every day. It's not every moment. It's not in everything. Yet it is underneath. Sometimes forgotten, oftentimes overlooked or overshadowded by my doubt, insecurities, fears, and fatigue...but it's there like a candle in a dark room, like a daffodil bulb buried underneath the frozen snow-covered ground, like hope. How do we tap into the power of faith in our daily life? How have others? What is faith? Sure Calvin says it's a gift. Sure we affirm that it's given to us. Yet we also choose it. We live into it. We live from it. We breath by it.

Hebrews 11 describes faith as "being sure of what we hope for and cretain of what we do not see." That's what this week's scriptures talk about. The prophet Isaiah lifts up words of hope - faith that God makes and has made us a promise of sight, vision, wholeness life in all it's fullness...and that God is the ultimate promise maker and promise keeper.

Matthew 11 tells the story of John the Baptist struggling to have hope-filled faith near the end of his days. In prison, suffering for his testimony, he second-guesses all his actions....Was he a fool? Was he wrong about this Jesus from Nazareth? Was it all in vain? So Jesus sends word. Tell John what you see. The Blind see. The deaf hear. The lame walk. Lepers are healed and whole. The dead live again. Believe. Trust. Live into hope. Live from faith.

Luke 1 is the song of Mary, the Magnificat. It's her response, song, rap, whatever - to what God has done. She visit her cousin Elizabeth, now pregnant with John the Baptist, and is overcome with the realization of what is happening all around her. God is on the move. God's word is true. God's promises are coming to pass. God has invited her to not just be part of it all, but to be God's partner. So she reponds with song, echoing the words of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:1-11. God is turning the world upside down, not just through the child growing in her womb...but also through Elizabeth, through her. The mighty will fall. The oppressed will be raised up. Justice will be the currency with which all transactions will be made. Peace will be the air that all will breath. Wholeness will be the reality that all will know.

Mary is the ultimate example of Faith-filled living. Trusting. Hoping. Believing. Acting from her faith. Listening and looking for God's leading. Responding. Participating. Loving recklessly. Following boldly. Hoping extravangantly. And she wasn't some carved in ivory saint statute? She was a young teacher, pregnant and unmarried, claiming that God impregnated her. The perfect target for ethnic cleansing, witch-hunting, and down-sizing. Yet she dared to not just believe, but to act upon her faith. No wonder God choose her to be the mother of Jesus.

So she had her place. We have ours. Different. Yet the same. How is God calling you to live faithfully today in your relationships, work, rest, faith community, civic engagements? How might your faith be filling you with hope to try again, to get up out of bed, to risk something reckless, radical, or extravagant? It's what faith did to the ancients (Hebrews 11). It's how we're invited to live today.

Here's some more online info to study more if you like:

The Song of Hannah - The Magnificat - These Scriptures on Textweek.com

I think the song "There's Hope" by India Arie says it better than I ever could. I can imagine Mary singing this herself. Thanks to Gary for sharing it with me!