I WONDER AS I WANDER. . . ADVENT: Season of the Ticking Clock and Beating Heart
Recently, at a gathering of over 100 people from the four Upper New York Area conferences, the Rev. Bill Gottschalk-Fielding was introduced as the convenor of the New ACT Team charged with coordinating the work of creating a new conference. As he spoke to the group, Rev. Gottschalk-Fielding described two images that had come to him as he was asked to pray about accepting this responsibility. The one metaphor was that of a ticking clock, representing the approximately 18 months remaining for much work to be done. For the other metaphor, he described his experience of his wife’s pregnancy with their first child. For his wife, there was no doubt that a new life was growing and developing within her. But it was not yet quite real for him – until he stood beside his wife as the technician did the ultrasound, and he heard the beating of the heart. That moment was profoundly moving for him. And he likened it to the beginning signs of new life of this new creation beginning to be formed, a new body whose purpose is to be faithful and fruitful in our witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That image of the ticking clock and ticking heartbeat reminded me of the season of Advent, and the pregnant waiting that it invites us to embrace. I pictured Joseph, from Matthew’s story. Can you imagine his disbelief when Mary told him she was pregnant? Can you picture his agony as he struggled to know how to respond? That was long before the days of ticking clocks, but can you feel the fear he felt for Mary and for himself and for the unborn child as the days and weeks passed, with less and less time? Can you sense his doubt about the future as he heard the angel’s words, intended to be encouraging, “Joseph, do not be afraid…”? Do you wonder if that time seemed to pass first quickly, and then to slow to a crawl, and eventually to all melt together as he and Mary were married?
And then I pictured Mary, from Luke’s gospel. Usually thought to be a very young woman, perhaps as young as thirteen, she also received a message from an angel that included those words, “Do not be afraid.” That message promised that she would conceive a child through the presence of God’s holy Spirit. Was it perhaps as Mary began to find her body changing shape that she really believed that God’s purpose was developing within her? Was that conviction confirmed as she traveled to visit her relative Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s unborn son moved within her at Mary’s greeting? There was no sonogram to amplify the heartbeats, but that beating was growing stronger and the unseen was growing to birthing time. There also is nothing that one can do to cause the unborn to grow faster. The birth comes in God’s time, and God is the one who has designed the growing.
Mary’s own heart was beating out its praise to God, rejoicing at what God was developing within her that was for the sake of the whole world. Her magnificent song describes how God will turn the world upside down with the life of the child growing within her. The proud will be brought down and the lowly will be lifted up. The hungry will have all the food they need and the rich will have empty hands. God’s justice for the poor would be carried out through that heart beginning to beat and that life growing within her.
In this Advent season, are you most caught up with the ticking clock or the beating heart of God? It’s so easy, with the hectic schedules of our lives and the seasons to focus on the clock. And we may find ourselves fearful about the demands that are placed upon us in our homes, our jobs, our churches, our communities. Will there be enough time, enough energy, enough wisdom to meet the needs, to do what is required? Will there be enough time to bring to life, to birth, that which we believe God desires for us and through us?
Can we find the “Mary time” to focus on the heartbeat of God within us, within those whom we love? Can we believe the message from God that God provides all that we need, and desires for us to live abundantly, even though that may not be an abundance of things? Can we find the time to share with an Elizabeth in our lives the hope that is growing within us? Can we allow the song God puts within us, a song of justice and peace, to ring out to a world around us that struggles with injustice and conflict?
This Advent, be aware of the ticking clock, and without becoming anxious about the time, believe that all time belongs to God. God will allow us to do what is necessary in God’s time. This Advent, be aware of the beating heart, and believe that God will bring to birth that which fulfills God’s purposes within us and within our churches.
The words to those who focus on the ticking clock and the beating heart are the same: “Do not be afraid! God has been gracious to you.”