Anders: Advent, Tree of Life

Anders: The Tree of Life

Guest Writer: Isabel Anders

“The tree of life, in God’s plan, is more than a figure of speech. It is a description of the physical branching out of families, one way through which God’s Word and his ways may be passed on. In this context, parenthood is both the most natural of callings and the most humbling privilege. It is important to remember how much God cares about physical life. For all my abstract thinking about images and ideas, my greatest task at the moment is to eat and drink properly to become a fit branch for the flowering of a new life. “It is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual,” Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15:46.   Isabel Anders, Awaiting the Child (Cowley, 1987, 2005).

As the foreshadowing of Jesus’ conception began with the first woman, and the promise was brought to fruition in Mary, so that tree, built through generations, out of the root of Jesse, is truly a Tree of Life, nurtured in the most human manner. Earthly lives and deaths are its tenuous branches, faithfulness and weakness are woven into its life, and God calls blessed those who choose to “abide” in him in order to bear the necessary fruit.

Human life, it seems, is never irrelevant to God’s plan. Instead, we are in the thick of it. We can enter into this design, this story, by accepting the joys and pains of our humanity and submitting them to the good of the kingdom. We can rejoice that participation in its growth is allowed, and cooperate by choosing those things that build and sustain life for our families, our communities, our world. As Moses urged his people Israel in the crucial early stages of the tree’s growth: “Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live” (Deut. 30: 19).

The tree has been a symbol of life from the very beginning. But we cannot forget that in the sweep of the continuing story, life and death converged on a tree—the cross of wood that both took Christ’s earthly life and won our redemption into ongoing life. As the seed for the tree begins as a very small entity, yet carries in it all the potential for the flowering of the whole tree, so Advent carries in it the seed of the whole drama of our salvation. The planting, the watering, the tending can be conscious acts in our lives, as we wait for God to give the increase, to bring about his purposes in the world and in our lives—in this place, in this hour.

Isabel Anders,  Awaiting the Child: An Advent Journal (Cowley, 1987, 2005). Managing Editor, Synthesis Publications, Synthesispub.com

Joanna  joannaseibert.com

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Richardson, Finley, Schaefer: Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

Guest Writer: Chris Schaefer

“Advent is a dance set to the rhythm of waiting. We wait for holy, we wait for birth, we wait for the light.  In our haste to make it to Christmas, we often fill our waiting with frantic steps…. In this season, Mary reminds us that Advent waiting is an intricate, intimate process of receiving and bringing forth, of movement and stillness, of pain and joy, of darkness and light, of solitude and community.” Jan L. Richardson, Birthing the Holy, Sacred Journeys, p. 19.

My grandson and his dog sat on the front porch of their home one morning and waited.  Quietly, patiently and together.  We weren’t sure what they were waiting for but the stillness, the peace and the comradery was beautiful. 

This picture of waiting has stuck with me for the many years since it has been taken.  I often think about the peace and contemplation that can come in waiting.  A gathering of your thoughts as you listen to your heart.  Waiting to hear the small voice with the ear of your heart.  Being still.

 That is so hard to do during this time of year but if we are to be born to ourselves at the birth of Christ we must take the time.  We must do as Dr. James Finley of the Center for Action and Contemplation describes, “ we have to leave the hurly-burly of the inn and the superficiality of it all and the chatter of it all, and find our way in the dark back to the stable. That is, we have to enter into the humility and the simplicity and the patience and the delicate nature of what's unfolding in our heart to discover where God's being born in our life. “

Waiting, waiting, waiting for a new birth in us, in our hearts. In waiting, we prepare that place in our heart to receive Christ being born in us.

Chris Schaefer

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Rohr: Blue Christmas

Rohr: Low Point, Blue Christmas

“At our low points, we are one step away from either enlightenment or despair. Without faith that there is a Bigger Pattern, and the grace to surrender to that Bigger Pattern, most people will move into despair, negativity, or cynicism. We need a promise, a hopeful direction, or it is very hard not to give up. When you have not yet learned what transformation feels or looks like, someone—perhaps some loving human or simply God’s own embrace—needs to hold you now because you cannot hold yourself. When we experience this radical holding, and even deep loving, this is salvation!” Richard Rohr, Adapted from Richard Rohr, Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation, disc 10 (Franciscan Media: 2002), CD.

The holidays are often the hardest for those who have experienced the death of a loved one. Several congregations have Blue Christmas services to let them know that the church recognizes their loss.

I have been involved as a facilitator with an eight-week grief recovery group, Walking the Mourner’s Path for over fifteen years. Here we experience people near their lowest point after the death of child, a spouse, a parent, a brother, a sister, a partner. We do see despair, especially after tragic deaths, especially after the death of the young, but it always does change. Sometimes it is only a small transformation, sometimes it is huge. By just coming to the group, the participants have made a positive commitment to look for transformation, so they have already made a step forward in a new direction before they come.  As facilitators, we are there to hold the group together, to encourage them, to listen to them, to hear them, to give them time to articulate where they are. We are vessels holding the group.

The healers are the participants themselves. They are the ones who know the most about despair. They are all at different stages of grief. They honor and embrace the stage of each other. They radically hold and support each other.  They have been there maybe a year ago, maybe three  months ago. They know the pain better than anyone else, and they can best talk about that road less traveled to recovery and resurrection, honoring the life of one they so loved. It is a privilege to be there seeing resurrection.

Each year I say less and less, for the wisdom comes from the group. This is just one more time that we see healing in community, and all we have to do is be present and look for and point out the God in each other.

Today I am having a Christmas lunch with a Mourner’s Path group who has still been meeting annually for over five years to continue to support and love each other especially during the holidays. They have seen Good Friday. They and I go this morning to hear their resurrection and incarnation stories.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com