“God will make a house for you” comes the Advent promise of 2 Samuel 7. I try to rein in my fantasies about architecture and clean, lighted spaces. Instead I remember Jesus’ promise in John 15: 1-8, “Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.”
It’s such a natural metaphor, easy to imagine. Home is where we cook, eat, relax, eagerly return when it’s cold or rainy, cry, read, invite friends and family, sleep and laugh: the shelter of our truest self. In The Reed of God, a book I’ve read many Advents since high school, Caryll Houselander says, “It’s as if the human race were a little dark house, without light or air, locked and latched.” When Mary says “Yes” to Gabriel, she opens the door to a clean wind and light, “and in that little house a child was born.”
The shared belief of Christians is that Jesus has become one with humans, indeed has pitched his tent within us. None of us deserves this, so we celebrate God’s lavish abandon, the scandalous gratuity of God’s gift.
If this seems a tall order, if we’re too tired or depressed to rejoice, we can take heart from the ambiguity of the feast. Mary’s reaction to the angel is to be “much perplexed.” Indeed, the whole experience is for her a two-edged sword: joy tempered by natural, human fear.
Notice the angel Gabriel’s first word to Mary: “Rejoice.” Let’s remember it this week, which can be one of the most hectic in the year. The angel says, “rejoice.” Not “spend. Clean. Cook. Decorate. Shop. Bake. Wrap. Shop again. Create the perfect holiday ambiance. Work to exhaustion. Make everyone in the family sublimely happy.”
Oh Mary, if you could see us now. Trying to evade the relentless cheer of holiday songs repeated so often we could scream, figuring out how we’ll “get it all done,” buzzing with details. You created a balance between anticipation and confusion. You focused on the important thing: making a home in yourself where the small and vulnerable could shelter. Bring us home to ourselves, to our creative calling.
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Kathy Coffey 