Hello again friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs,
And we are on day 19 of Towards the Light,
An Advent journey.
And today,
I want us to reflect a little bit on the idea of unexpected light.
Now,
Advent should be a season of surprises.
It's a time when,
Because of the mindfulness and reflection we place on it,
The ordinary becomes extraordinary,
When the mundane and the profane become sacred.
And sometimes,
In fact a lot of the time,
God's light doesn't always show up where we expect it.
It often breaks into our lives in the most surprising ways.
Think for example of that first Christmas night.
You have shepherds keeping watch over their flocks,
And these were the first to hear the good news.
Now think about what that might be telling us for a moment.
Matthew has shepherds,
Outcasts of society,
Doing a menial,
Very lowly,
Abased task in terms of the scheme of things for their society and their day.
A smelly job,
An uncomfortable job,
A job that you were pretty much born into because no one else wanted to do it.
And yet,
It is to their ears that the announcement comes from an angel who appeared for them.
And this angel proclaims to them,
Today in the town of David,
A saviour has been born to you.
He is the Messiah,
The Lord.
Imagine the astonishment of that announcement being made to them,
Of all people,
Us.
Why are we hearing this?
Why are we the first to know?
And yet,
God's light breaks into their darkness in a way that they could never have imagined.
And what a difference that breaking in made for them and for the world.
Again,
The wonderful Rachel Held Evans captured the wonder of this truth when she wrote,
And I quote,
The God of the universe came to us as one of the most vulnerable creatures imaginable,
A human infant,
End quote.
Every year,
I post the same post on Instagram for Christmas,
And you'll see it again this year on Christmas Day.
And the image that I use has some words that I wrote and reflected on a while ago that say that in the midst of wars and persecution and oppressive rulers,
In a system that had the rich getting richer and the powerful getting more powerful,
How does God decide to change things around?
He sends a baby.
How unexpected is that?
But it's not just any baby.
It's a baby that's not born to a king and not born to a priest,
But born to a simple couple of all places in a barn.
And the baby's first crib is a feed trough.
God's light entered the world,
Not in grandeur,
But in humility,
Not in strength,
But in vulnerability.
And today,
That light continues to appear in unexpected places through the kind word of a stranger,
A moment of stillness in a busy day,
Or even in the midst of pains and struggles of life.
John's gospel reminds us that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
We reflected on that verse back near the start of Advent.
The light of Christ is persistent and unyielding,
Always finding a way to pierce through the shadows even when we're not looking for it.
And the darkness,
The darkness can never,
Ever overcome it.
As you reflect today,
Consider who or what has been an unexpected source of light in your life.
Maybe it's a person who encouraged you at just the right moment or an experience that reminded you of God's presence in a profound way.
And may that memory open your heart,
Your mind and your eyes to the other places where every day in those unexpected spots,
God's light shines through.
So may you open your heart to the ways God's light is breaking through in the unexpected corners of your life.
May you be attentive to the ordinary moments,
Trusting that they may hold an extraordinary grace.
May you find comfort in knowing that God's light shines even in your darkest places,
Never failing to reach you.
And may you carry that light to others,
Becoming an unexpected source of grace for someone you need.
As you think about those times,
Those places,
Those people through whom God's light has shone on you recently,
Let gratitude fill your heart.
And if someone has been that light for you,
Maybe send them a note and thank them and let them know that they blessed your life in that moment.
And may grace,
Peace and love go with you as you receive that blessing and as your gratitude bubbles up today and every day.
Until tomorrow,
Amen.
