An Advent Meditation

First Presbyterian Church, Kalamazoo, MI

Last night I was fortunate to attend a Candlelight Vespers service held in a beautiful stone church. The church (First Presbyterian in downtown Kalamazoo) looks more like a cathedral. Immensely high ceilings, iron chandeliers, big oak beams. Everything about the place speaks of permanence.

As the prelude gave way to the Processional Carol ("Once in Royal David's City") I slowly began to stop focusing on the setting and started to meditate on the reason we were gathered.

The carol speaks of the lowly setting of Jesus' birth and begins:

"Once in royal David's city
stood a lowly cattle shed
where a mother laid her baby
in a manger for His bed.
Mary was that mother mild;
Jesus Christ her little child.

He came down to earth from Heaven,
who is God and Lord of all;
and His shelter was a stable,
and His cradle was a stall.
With the poor and mean and lowly
lived on earth our Savior holy..."

Well before the end of the fifth stanza, my mind was transported back to Bethlehem's fragrance. Of what a cattle shed, complete with livestock, must have looked like. Smelled like. Wondering what Mary must have felt, giving birth in a place where she and her newborn were one step away from being homeless under the open sky.

MercyHomeForBoysandGirls

Soon another song was sung, "Breath of Heaven," which focuses on Mary's experience on the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

"I have traveled many moonless nights
Cold and weary with a babe inside
and I wonder what I've done.
Holy Father, you have come
and chosen me now
to carry your Son.

I am waiting in a silent prayer.
I am frightened by the load I bear.
In a world as cold as stone,
must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now.
Be with me now..."

I cannot imagine what Mary was facing. Especially in a male-dominated culture.

Barely a teen.
Unmarried.
And pregnant.

Three huge additional strikes against her. In essence Mary as far as her hometown of Nazareth was concerned, was alone. Immaculate conception? No one had ever heard of such a thing. Even Joseph initially doubted her story.

Mid-way through the service, "The Dream Isaiah Saw" spoke to the miracle of a humble and meek baby, giving way to a savior.

"Little child whose bed is straw,
take new lodging in my heart.
Bring the dream that Isiah saw;
life redeemed from fang and claw.

Peace will pervade more than forest and field;
God will transfigure the Violence concealed
deep in the heart and in systems of gain,
ripe for the judgment the Lord will ordain.

Little child whose bed is straw,
take new lodgings in my heart.
Bring the dream that Isiah saw:
justice purifying law..."

iBelieve

What a beautiful transition!

And the reality behind the lyrics and music.

That the saving ultimately involves our human systems of government.

A profound, life-changing call to renewal.

Full of hope!

Consequentially, the candle lit on the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, is pink. Gaudete is Latin for "joy," and pink is seen as its symbol. Especially to differentiate this particular week from the other three weeks of Advent, in which purple candles (symbolizing fasting) are lit.

All-in-all the Candlelight Vespers was a fitting reminder that, although we are still in the season of longing for the savior, there is light, joy, hope soon coming!