A Fast and Slow Rescue
LETTER BY BRIAN MORYKON
Jesus, in the song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat…
Peace on earth
Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won’t rhyme
– U2, “Peace on earth”
Sometimes I wonder what the Incarnation changed.
I mean, I know — my head knows — it changed everything. It divided time. It brought the Kingdom close. It ripped open the portal to union with God.
But when I’m setting up ceramic Baby Jesus, knowing that somewhere someone is grieving a baby beheaded by a terrorist, I feel a temptation to despair.
Then this thought stabilizes my soul: God never pretended that the arrival of Jesus was a quick fix for humanity’s woes.
From day one, Jesus was swaddled in suffering.
Think of the stable. The long trip to Egypt. Herod’s Bethlehem massacre. Later, naked on a cross, suffering was his only covering.
But the suffering that surrounded Jesus throughout his life and the suffering he experienced firsthand did not suffocate him. Humanity’s hurt moved him; it did not overwhelm him. Sin broke his heart; it did not break his joy.
The birth and life of Jesus did change everything — I’m believing it again with fresh feeling as I write — but perhaps not in the way or on the timetable we had hoped.
In the Incarnation, God is saying…
Life on earth matters. People matter. Pain matters. When I made all I made in the way I made it, I knew what I was doing. I understood the cost of free will, which I know may seem hard to believe. So I’ll take on your frame. I’ll experience all you feel and more. I’ll show you how to live at peace in a troubled world, how to be an unhurried and healing presence. I’ll come in the flesh to be an example to you. Then I’ll come in the Spirit to be life in you. My rescue will be fast. Your adoption will be quick as a hammer’s swing. My rescue will be slow. Millenia will pass before the fullness of the Kingdom comes. My slowness is not cruelty or lack of care. On the contrary: I’m birthing a people of everlasting joy. That takes time.
* * *
aOne final thought. I’m experiencing déjà vu. When Advent was approaching last year, and I had to write one of these newsletter intros, I wasn’t feeling up to the task. Wonder was missing in action. But somewhere while reflecting, while remembering, while writing… wonder snuck in. And, along with it, worship. Today it was the same.
The selections below — like Monica and Jeremy Chambers’ encouragement to pray the hours—remind us of the need to continually come back to the Story of God, to hear it again even if we think we’ve heard it before. The rhythms of remembrance return us to hope and to reality, a reality that’s richer and truer and better than history suggests.
Brian Morykon
Director of Communications
The deadline to apply for the next cohort of the two-year Renovaré Institute is less than two months away. Want to learn more? Join Renovaré’s Carolyn Arends, Wendy Dean, and some special guests for a Renovaré Institute virtual “Open House” on Tuesday, December 5 at 10am Pacific (Noon Central/1pm Eastern). Register free here and bring your questions!
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LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
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1.
Advent is a time of longing for God’s nearness… There are many ways to mark the time, to make space for watching and waiting, to anticipate and look for Christ’s presence. This week’s List of Six offers a few ways to, as Jeremy and Monica Chambers put it, “structure the flow of our days around rhythmic and anticipated connection with the Lord.” –Grace
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2.
This excerpt from Jeremy and Monica Chambers’ new book, The Art of Missional Spirituality, invites readers into the historical Christian practice of praying the hours.
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3.
Lectio365 has a free resource for churches and groups to use in setting up an Advent Prayer Room — a space where people who want to pray can visit stations that help those praying to focus and engage in creative forms of prayer. Some groups have chosen to have a representative praying in the space at every hour of the day (and even night!) for a season.
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4.
The “game with minutes” was Frank Laubach’s playful name for the strategy he developed as a way to return his attention to God’s presence at least one second of each minute during his waking hours. A bit of his experiment is shared here on Conversatio, with a helpful introduction and suggested practices.
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5.
Earlier this year, Renovaré published True Impressions: Daily Prayers, a resource for developing a rhythm of morning, noon, and nighttime prayer. If you have True Impressions already and find it useful, you might consider giving it as a gift this Christmas (download and send the pdf free, or order printed copies for $8 each).
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6.
“I should like to bring the routine of my daily life before You, O Lord, to discuss the long days and tedious hours that are filled with everything else but You,” writes Karl Rahner here. (A personal favorite of mine from the Spiritual Classics collection.)
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7.
The Liturgy of the Hours is an ancient form of communal prayer that marks the passing of time — with services for morning, midday, evening, and night. The Community of Jesus at the Church of the Transfiguration in Cape Cod livestreams their Gregorian chant of the Liturgy of the Hours, which includes Psalms, prayers, hymns and readings (translations provided).
Grace Pouch
Content Manager