Midweek Faith Lift
“The Energy of Love- Advent”
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
December 14, 2022
Daily Reflections
12/1/2022
Something Divine is Afoot
Scott Clyne’s planned proposal to his sweetheart, Suzie Tucker, didn’t go like he had envisioned. They were on their boat in Sarasota Bay when he brought Suzie to the bow to re-create the famous “Titanic” scene. But he dropped the engagement ring in the water, then plunged in after it. He somehow found it and climbed back aboard ship, sopping wet, and popped the question. Suzie couldn’t stop laughing, and said she couldn’t wait to marry the “smoothest guy in the world!”
“Life often does not proceed according to our plans, but this does not have to leave us crestfallen. It can make us excited that something divine may be afoot.” – David Richo, Five True Things
Affirmative prayer: Today, I give thanks to know that my plans, dreams, and visions always carry the seed of possibility, and that by showing up and believing in all Good, I place myself in the realm of answered prayer. All things are possible. Thank you, God, forever. Amen.
What a story! What a hilariously perfect example of the energy of human love in action. Love is our theme for today and this story is truly an example of what the energy of our human experience of love can push us to do. When it comes to love, most of us relate to love in terms of how the actions of others, of our pets, our friends and family have impacted or affected us. This human experience of love gets mixed reviews for sure, because it can be unpredictable, unclear and painful! In the words of Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it? …Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?” And yet we love again and again and again because we are eternally filled with hope, which keeps us going on this human journey and quest for love.
One of my favorite stories that is part of the narrative of the Advent season and the birth of Jesus is about Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary. We heard on the first Sunday of Advent that she is also pregnant even at an advanced age. Poor Zechariah cannot believe his ears when he learns of this but his doubt is met with an interesting outcome! Here is how it goes down in Luke:
Luke 1:18-20
18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I know that this will happen? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” 19 The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.”
Wow! That is a significant consequence because in those days, people did not read and write, so Zechariah’s only way to communicate his love and support to Elizabeth during her pregnancy was through his behavior! In this situation, love truly is a verb, not just a word!
Let’s explore this response in contrast with Mary’s response when she heard the news of her pregnancy from the Angel Gabriel. Her response was “How can this be?” when she learned she, a virgin, would bear a child. And the Angel Gabriel went on to tell her how it would come about. Her response from the heart was to say “Let it be with me according to your word.” We have a distinct contrast here between the head and the heart, the masculine thinking nature of Zechariah and the feminine feeling nature of Mary. She wants to know how this will happen and Zechariah want to know how he will know that it will happen. The clear message is to us is to lead with the heart, lead with love and let the “over-thinking” responses in us to go dumb and be quiet in the face of love!
That is quite a message, isn’t it? When I am caught up in the very human mode of “over-thinking” matters of the heart rather than listening to my heart, I need to let the critical voices that have a lot of conditions and limitations to just go dumb and be silent! So often I want to weigh in on what I think is right and wrong about a situation when I really don’t have all the information, all the facts, all the data to really grasp with my heart the true energy of it. Better to be dumbstruck that to say something really dumb, right!? I think that is the message, here.
We may think we know what someone is experiencing or feeling, but the truth is that the only way we can understand is to ask what the person is feeling or experiencing. That is the language of love, of compassion, to ask and then listen! When our buttons get pushed, we forget to ask and even when they tell us, we are not able to really listen! Our head gets in the way of our heart, just like Zechariah. Time to be quiet and just listen and see what gets birthed in our hearts, in our greater awareness! I came across a quotation in the December 6, 2022 Daily Good from philosopher Byung-Chul Han as he is talking about what information does to us:
Information puts the cognitive system itself into a state of anxiety. We encounter information with the suspicion that it could just as easily be something else. It is accompanied by basic distrust. It strengthens the contingency experience…. Only in lingering contemplation, even an ascetic restraint, do things unveil their beauty, their fragrant essence.
When we lead with the heart in the space of contemplation, we can engage the deeper beauty of the world and of one another that is beyond words, beyond reason.
We can approach the true energy of love, which is way beyond our human experience of it. That happens when we move beyond being “rational” about love and leaning into the greater, more spiritual and mature understanding of love. Minister and author Brian McClaren calls this “revolutionary love” and it is the kind of love that Jesus is teaching and asking of us. He writes in Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation for December 6, 2022:
In short, revolutionary love means loving as God would love: infinitely, graciously, extravagantly. To put it in more mystical terms, it means loving with God, letting divine love fill me and flow through me, without discrimination or limit, as an expression of the heart of the lover, not the merit of the beloved, including the correctness of the beloved’s beliefs.
It is this kind of “revolutionary love” that is the essence of the Jesus message. It asks us to love as God loves, even when it is unearned and makes no sense. It is a love that is at times beyond our human comprehension….and it is the God Love that also embraces and includes each one of us, leaving no one out! It is akin to the power of gravity, which holds us all together on this earth, no exception.
Realizing that God’s love is for you, in you and always with you no matter what you do and that you can do nothing to earn it is life changing. I love the quotation by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King about his choice to love. Our dear friend, John Lewis paraphrases it in his book, Carry On in the chapter entitled “On Love” on pg. 104 where he is speaking about the energy of the Civil Rights marches of the 1960’s. He writes:
We cared not only about those who were marching with us but those who opposed us. Every human being is deserving and worthy of being loved. Our goal was to achieve unity. There’s a quote of Dr. King’s that I use from time to time, which I rephrase: “To be bold, to be creative, to never give up, and never to hate-- for hate is too big a burden to bear. I have decided to love.”
We are not born with hate in our hearts, we are taught to hate. Likewise, we are born with inherent goodness but we must be taught how that can be experienced and expressed. We also learn to love and we deepen our capacity to love as we mature emotionally and spiritually so that we can love those who persecute and hate us, for that is the message of Jesus.
I take true delight in the opening story today of Scott Clyne, who really wanted to make a powerful statement about how much he loved his future spouse! We make plans and they often fall overboard and go off the rails. However, the energy of love always prevails when we keep showing up for it. In the midst of what seems like “Divine Chaos” we know with our hearts that the power and presence of love will prevail, we just don’t know how or when! Like Zechariah, we are sometimes dumbstruck in awe of just how marvelously things work out when we least expect it! We are not in charge, not in control, not omniscient….so we let go and we let God and let the miracle birth of love in our hearts unfold over and over and over again!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb