Advent at FPC Boise

Friends, welcome to the first week of our Advent Devotion:

“The Faith We Await: the Word Made Flesh.” 

This season we are imaging how to bring fuzzy and amorphous ideas into a focus. Advent is about BIG ideas. It is about the incarnation of aspirational naivete—we actually hold have faith that impossible ideas can come true—can be made flesh and live among us. And so each week we will bring one such idea into focus through scripture, anthem, written reflections, artwork, poetry, and prayer. We begin this week with the prophetic imagination around messianic hope—HOPE made flesh, we will continue with JOYous witness, embracing LOVE, and PEACEful presence. Through this booklet or email we hope you will journey with us, write down your responses, re-visit them through the week and move from remote and conceptual to an articulated and concrete reality of the Word made flesh.

December 8th

Joy in Song

Our Cantata (Taylor Scott Davis’ Magnificat) is written in Latin... all but one song, “Shall I Rejoice.” We are so used to the well-worn combination of Mary’s innocent excitement and fear of what is to come, but the words from our Cantata somehow bring a new and unexpected depth to the way Mary might have been processing her situation.  

Engage with the lyrics and answer the questions thoughtfully! 

Shall I rejoice for Christ in me 

The first of such to say 

All that this child shall ever see or be 

Now lives and grows in me. 

You or I saying “Christ in me” is not truly the same as Mary saying, “Christ in me”. But perhaps Mary’s unfolding understanding of Jesus (not only as her child, but as a savior) grew with her along with the child Jesus. Do you remember the first time your heart warmed to Christ within you? If “all that YOU will ever see or be” is wrapped up in the Christ child and in what he became, what can you imagine for your own growth and becoming?  

Shall I rejoice, for Christ in me 

His name forever mine? 

I yield to him my life’s identity; 

Christ lives and grows in me.  

List the places, people, and things in which you find your identity. Are you proud of the list? What do you want to change?  

Shall I rejoice for Christ in me 

Both glory and disgrace? 

My song shall be both joy and agony 

Christ lives and grows in me.  

The deepest joys have a bittersweet ache underneath... the birth of a Child, an encounter with a loved one, a move across the country for a new beginning. Where are your deepest joys and deepest agonies colliding today?  

Shall I rejoice for Christ in me, 

As clouds and shadows rise 

I ponder scenes that I don’t want to see 

Christ lives and grows in me  

What difficult truth, memory, or reality are you resisting looking at — and what might happen if you allowed Christ to “grow in you” even in that place of shadow? 

December 9th

Reflecting on Joy Made Flesh

Personal Reflections on Joy, by Christine Caven

I have a running list on my phone of those visceral physical/mental/emotional moments when I suddenly remember why I do what I do... why I have chosen specific life paths and how they connect to my joy. This is my “Why I Exist” list, and it brings me back to the deep joy that I think is a gift straight from God to us. Among the 465 other notes in my phone’s Notes app, this one is one of my favorites. 

Today I remembered my vocation.  

Today I remembered how much I love preparation.  

Today I remembered the outdoors. 

Today I remembered that the only thing that matters is connection.  

Today I remembered the morning. 

Joy doesn’t exist without gratitude. And gratitude doesn’t exist without mapping where I’ve been and who I’ve been. I have been through times in my life where I had to count down every increment of 15 minutes just to get through the day. I would cross them off as they passed (there are about 70 of them, by the way). It was akin to that quote from the show, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, where she gets through the trials of her life by telling herself, over and over, “You can stand ANYTHING for 10 seconds!”  

Kimmy persevering, Season 2 | The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | markhunsaker.blogspot.com

Joy is a state of losing track of time because I’m living in a way that brings peace to my body, brain, and heart... like the “Flow State”, as named by Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in the 1970s, or the moment described in the 2020 Disney Pixar movie, Soul, where the character enters “The Zone”, a deep immersive state of focus and concentration... a mystical realm where their whole selves are so deeply engaged in their vocations that their souls enter a new dimension. I often don’t expect it to hit me... but then suddenly it does. Joy feels like a freight train, or like the softest sunrise sending a tiny beam of light into my face.  

Joe Gardner in "The Zone" | Soul | thegrio.com

In the darkest time of my life, someone told me that I was one of the most joyful people they’d ever met. I laughed in their face. “I don’t mean right now,” they told me. “But YOU are joy. I can sense that below this pain, your natural state is joy. You just need to remember and claim it again.” I disregarded that until it finally made sense when a spiritual guide suggested that I listen intently to my body, even though I often felt dead. “When your heart races one tiny beat, pay attention. That’s the Spirit, and that’s joy. Run toward it.”  

I did. Thank God. And every day I must. We must. 

An excerpt from Mary Oliver’s “Flare”:  

Rise up from the stump of sorrow, and be green also, 

like the diligent leaves. 

A lifetime isn't long enough for the beauty of this world 

and the responsibilities of your life. 

Scatter your flowers over the graves, and walk away. 

Be good-natured and untidy in your exuberance. 

In the glare of your mind, be modest. 

And beholden to what is tactile, and thrilling. 

Live with the beetle, and the wind. 

December 10th

Joy Made Flesh Imagined

by Mary Wylie

December 11th

Joy Made Flesh in Poetry

Just Like Job, by Maya Angelou

My Lord, my Lord,

Long have I cried out to Thee

In the heat of the sun,

The cool of the moon,

My screams searched the heavens for Thee.

My God,

When my blanket was nothing but dew,

Rags and bones

Were all I owned,

I chanted Your name

Just like Job.

Father, Father,

My life give I gladly to Thee

Deep rivers ahead

High mountains above

My soul wants only Your love

But fears gather round like wolves in the dark.

Have You forgotten my name?

O Lord, come to Your child.

O Lord, forget me not.

You said to lean on Your arm

And I'm leaning

You said to trust in Your love

And I'm trusting

You said to call on Your name

And I'm calling

I'm stepping out on Your word.

You said You'd be my

protection,

My only and glorious savior,

My beautiful Rose of Sharon,

And I'm stepping out on Your word.

Joy Joy

Your word.

Joy Joy

The wonderful word of the Son of God.

You said that You would take me to glory

To sit down at the welcome table

Rejoice with my mother in heaven

And I'm stepping out on Your word.

Into the alleys

Into the byways

Into the streets

And the roads

And the highways

Past rumor mongers

And midnight ramblers

Past the liars and the cheaters and the gamblers

On Your word

On Your word.

On the wonderful word of the Son of God.

I'm stepping out on Your word.

December 12th

Joy Made Flesh in Prayer

We turn from reflection to articulation. Fridays we will provide “prayer prompts” for you to write, or speak, a prayer that is emerging from a week of bringing hope into focus. Look back through the week’s reflections as inspiration for your prayer for a joy made flesh.

Prayer is radical and intentional presence, relational connection, and authentic conversation. Learning and practicing prayer is important in our journey because it is hard for someone else to do those things for you. Practice radical and intentional presence by trying not to be distracted (this is why we might close our eyes and hold our hands). Practice relational connection by trying to experience God in prayer and letting God experience you,. Practice authenticity by not pretending but being vulnerably and deeply real. 

We noted that joy often comes from an internal ache… the fruition of the impossible: For what are you aching.. Where are you hoping to experience such joy—even if you haven’t yet? Can you name that? Out loud? It takes courage—and I trust you have it in you!

Joy is about gratitude—today I read these words from Rabbit David Wolpe, “If you live in a house you didn’t build, eating food you didn’t grow and wearing clothes you didn’t sew and surrounded by conveniences dreamed of by other minds and built by other hands, and you are not grateful, then unshrivel your heart.“ What are you gratitude for… that you can express in joyous witness?

Joy made flesh… advent joy is also about imagination. It is about allowing our hope to open our eyes to that which we cannot believe—possibilities where none existed before! Mary proclaims joy for a lot of things that haven’t happened because when the first domino fell—by the word of the angel Gabriel– she KNEW the rest must come in due time and already she gives thanks for what hasn’t happened.. Our hope meets our joy as they are both made flesh and mingle together in an act of imagination sparked by words from God!  Here we might simply pray: “O God, I believe… help my unbelief.” As prayerful conversation we are asking… where am I missing joy God? And then our job is simply to listen… look… and experience. 

O God, my heart aches for...

And yet ache is not all I have, nor all I am, I also see light in the darkness and I am grateful for…

God, help me to trust that I am worthy of joy—and that you are indeed working joy into my life… speak to me, show me.. What am I missing out on?

O God—coming Immanuel; Word made flesh—grant that I experience Mary’s joy! Amen.

December 13th

Creating Joy

We hope we have helped bring joy into focus for you this week. As we close, we invite you to write your own poem, draw your own art, or imagine in an artistic space:

What does JOY made flesh look like for you?