Advent Luncheon St. Mark’s December 7, 2019
Past Advent Gatherings of St. Mark's Women."
Thank you so much for inviting me to be a part of your Advent program. I first spoke at this amazing Advent gathering of St. Mark’s women probably around 40 years ago when we met at night in homes. How exciting that we are now too large a group for most homes. I don’t remember what I talked about, but I do remember one thing about it. As I was holding my plate in line to get dinner, Margarite Metcalf, whom a few will remember, pulled me aside and quietly whispered with a bright twinkle in our eyes, “I didn’t know you were a mystic.” I thanked her. I had no idea what she meant, but I knew that I had been anointed a mystic that night by one who was.
So, 40 years later I would like to pass that torch on to each of you from Mrs. Metcalf for this Advent season and anoint each of you a mystic just for Advent. If you like the anointing, see if you would like to try it on for Christmas and Epiphany and Lent and Easter and Pentecost and then Advent again next year.
First let’s describe who you now are. A mystic is someone who can see and carry mystery. For Christians that means we can see the mystery of God’s presence above us, in our neighbor, around us and within us. For Advent, we mystics are waiting, looking for the Christ child within the world, within us and around us. We are looking for the Christ in ourselves and the Christ in our neighbor. We are seeking that connection within us from which we came.//
About that same time as my encounter with Mrs. Metcalf, another St. Mark parishioner, Dean McMillin, whom some of you may know, told me a story about the mystery of finding Christ that has become a part of my being. The story goes that God wanted God’s love to be more related to the world God had made. AS God is thinking about this, God looks into a very very large mirror. Suddenly God decides to break the mirror with God’s reflection within it into millions and billions of very tiny pieces that then fall to earth and became a part of each being in the world. Part of this tiny piece of God within each of us is that yearning that is constantly calling us to a relationship with the God of love. It is God’s own GPS embedded in each of us. Our spiritual journey: following spiritual practices such as prayer, silence, the Anglican rosary, centering prayer, fasting, journaling, gathering in community, worshipping, reading scripture and other spiritual sources is what we are doing to make and keep that connection. When we each do find that relationship, that piece of God within us, we are sooo excited. I have found God!! We have found God!!!
That, however, is where many people stop and get stuck on this spiritual journey. They believe that this very tiny piece of God that they have found within themselves is the ONLY image or likeness or portrait of God. They cannot relate to any other idea or picture of God that anyone else might have. Theirs is the only understanding of God. But we mystics know that the great mystery of God is much bigger than any one person’s relationship with God. Our job as mystics on this spiritual journey is to try to connect our piece of God to the many other pieces of God that each person in our community, each person in our world now also has embedded within them. Each of us has been given a small image, a small understanding of God. As we listen to others, we learn to connect our piece of the mirror of the image of God with the piece of God in our neighbor. Consequently, our God becomes much larger and larger as we make more connections. Sometimes we talk to people as they describe their understanding of God, their piece of God, and we think, “This cannot possibly be God.” Sometimes this especially happens when we are talking with our children. However, as we continue to connect our piece of the mirror of God to the relationship others have with the God of their understanding, we start to connect now to that piece from our children or our neighbor whose understanding is distant from ours. Eventually we learn to see God in that neighbor or child which we could not see before. Our image of God keeps growing and becoming larger and larger. //
You are especially looking this Advent for the Christ in yourself. For this Advent, also keep looking for the Christ in your neighbor. Often as you see Christ in your neighbor, that piece of God in your neighbor reflects back to you the Christ within you./ After all it is a piece of a mirror!//
I promise you that as you continue to make connections, your understanding and your relationship with God will keep growing. It is a mystery, just as mysterious as the birth of Jesus. But this is the path of a mystic, searching for the presence of God in ourselves and in the world. I welcome you to walk this mystical journey of mystery with me and so many others this Advent. Joanna. Joannaseibert.com