Advent 2: Heart Songs

  The first Sunday of Advent we were presented with two practices for our journey through the season. Commended to us were the practice of attention and the practice of imagination. This morning we are offered two more practices to assist us in reflecting through the journey of Advent.

This past week I read the most beautiful line, written by Diana Gabaldon, in her book: “A Breath of Snow and Ashes;” Now’s the time we re-enter the womb of the world, dreaming the dreams of snow and silence. (REPEAT)

This word-thought has been zipping around my brain for days. When I read it I wrote it out immediately.  It sits well with me. It feels good to me.  It speaks deeply and resonates as truth to me. I can’t explain it in its entirety to you – I feel what it means, and it is wrapped up with the comfort of themes of hibernation, protection, warmth, purity, holiness, calm, peace, home.

Over the years, I have kept a journal book, wherein I write down lines that surprise me and fill me with ideas and thoughts; with phrases that gave -give- me something I didn’t even know I needed.

For Itty-Bitty Bible Study this past week I posted a verse, Isaiah 40: 8:

The grass withers and flower fades, but, the word of God stands forever. I chose this verse because it has meant something to me for a very long time. I put this verse to memory around the age of 15 – I liked the passage and it made me feel there was purpose and that things would be okay no matter what was going on.  The comments from others made on the post described how these words to them are comforting, give hope, help us imagine something far beyond our current state. 

The words resonate. The verse need not be explained (in fact it rings better when not exegeted to death or explained). It is the beauty, simplicity, and articulation of our own death – grass and flowers that pass away- and the promise of resurrection and continuance of the Great Spirit, God Present and Beyond.

Through Advent we hear the words of the prophets, the song of Mary, hymn texts rich in image – gems to hold onto.

Today we are being called to a practice of gathering Word.

Gathering Word is purposefully collecting words that resonate within us, touching those deep places where only the Holy Spirit can penetrate. Gathering Word is creating a compendium of words filled with hope, encouragement, comfort, and challenge -for you- as cache to support you, help you carry on, to assist you in living one day at a time.

Leah Pellegrini – on her blog “The Core Stories”, writes: the Cord Stories are tiny tales of human truth. They cut through the chaos of contemporary culture to find the sweet seeds of meaning at the center: the timelessness in timely trends, the heart in the hustle, and the magnificence in the mess. 

I have sat with many people over the years in their homes, at their bed sides, in times of stress, facing difficult circumstances, death, grief.  More often than not the person or family I am with share tiny tales of human truth, phrases that cut through the chaos, lines to offer meaning, and magnificence in the mess... yes, I hear the phrases - scripture, sayings,  hymn lyrics, lines of poetry  - in English, French, Dane, Estonian, Latvian, German... recited lines that have been taken to heart.  Such joy comes from these snippets because I hear them as the persons heart song. One’s heart song is that song that sings volumes of faith, hope, compassion, love – the centre of a person’s being.

Heart songs aren’t just there, heart songs are created through the journey of one’s life, and what one choses to gather to add to their song and their understanding of who they are and who they aim to be.

The practice of gathering Word is important – the Word gathered grounds us, supports us, feeds us in times of need, and is the wisdom we leave as we pass from this life to the next.

 

There is no better season to practice gathering the Word – rich as it is in the voices of the prophet, songs of the ages, the images of hope in sadness, peace in chaos, freedom in bondage, liberation in captivity.

And we are also given an additional option this year.

ELCIC Bishop Susan Johnson has called the church to a year of Scripture reading and Bible Study. Each month the ELCIC office sends out the book to be studied.  Readers read Genesis, then took on Deuteronomy and 1 Kings. For the month of December we are encouraged to read through the Psalms; wherein there are a plethora of text from which to gather Word.

The practice of gathering Word – through the rest of the season when you hear or read a phrase, line, image – in scripture or in hymn; write out the words. Place them in a journal where you can return to them again and again. Or write them on cue cards to read one a day. Perhaps put them on sticky notes and place them around your home. Commit the words to memory. Gather your texts on slips of paper and put them in an actual basket, where when you walk by you can pull a slip and read a snippet of Word.

 

There second part of the practice of gathering Word, is the Practice of sharing your heart song.

 

In 1946, Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, the psychiatrist who authored the book ‘On Death and Dying,’ visited the Maidanek concentration camp in Poland. In her memoirs she tells of her experience in the children’s barracks. Looking past the debris of little shoes and clothing left behind, she noticed that the walls were graffitied – using pebbles and finger nails children had carved hundreds of butterflies on the walls. Over the years, working with those who were terminally ill, Dr. Kubler-Ross reflected that the children must have known they were going to die. She wrote: “they knew that soon they would become butterflies.  Once dead, they would be out of that hellish place. Not tortured anymore. Not separated from their families. Not sent to gas chambers. None of this gruesome life mattered anymore.  Soon they would leave their bodies the way a butterfly leaves its cocoon. And I realized that was the message they wanted to leave for future generations ... It is also provided the imagery that I would use for the rest of my career to explain the process of death and dying.”   Rather than words, it was image, -imagination to dream, hope, and share – a word, an image- freedom amidst bondage; beauty amidst terror, life amidst death.

The little ones shared their heart songs for those who would be in that place after them. Their gathered Word – shared- was wisdom greater than themselves.

 

Is this not the practice and action of Advent? Gathering and sharing -hope, peace, joy, love.

 

The Spirit be with you on your journey, deeply planting the Word you gather, and emboldening you to share your heart song with others.