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Into this world, this demented inn
in which there is absolutely no room for him at all,
Christ comes uninvited.
But because he cannot be at home in it,
because he is out of place in it,
and yet he must be in it,
his place is with the others for whom
there is no room.
His place is with those who do not belong,
who are rejected by power, because
they are regarded as weak,
those who are discredited,
who are denied status of persons,
who are tortured, bombed and exterminated.
With those for whom there is no room,
Christ is present in this world.
Thomas Merton.
Lately I’ve been baking a lot of bread, trying out new varieties and techniques, with the goal of creating something delicious. Paradoxically when I bake, my goal is to create a lot of nothing, that is, copious amounts of tiny bubbles within a mixture of flour, water, salt and yeast. When I put those four simple ingredients together, they become something far greater than the sum of its parts, but not without bubbles of air, bubbles of nothing, inside. With time and technique, the ingredients are brought together to form a structure, the gluten, that encapsulates the bubbles. A nicely baked loaf of sourdough bread is filled with large irregular bubbles. In regular sandwich type breads there are tiny bubbles of fairly consistent size and distribution that aerate the bread and give it its lovely almost moist crumb texture. Well baked bread is soft - even spongey - and delicious because of the thousands upon thousands of tiny bubbles held within the confines of the golden crust. Bubbles form as the yeast digests the flour and expels gas. The dough is worked by kneading it, to form gluten. The gluten is stretchy and acts like a little balloon which expands as it fills with gas and puffs up the bread. As I bake, as I measure ingredients and mix them together, as I check in with my rising dough and spend time kneading and shaping I have a lot of time to think. And at this time of year I can’t help thinking of the coming of Jesus who is the very bread of heaven. We are in the season of Advent which helps us prepare for Christmas, prepare to once again find Jesus, Jesus the bread of heaven, as a tiny infant in a manger. As a baker I have always loved the fact that the word Bethlehem means ‘house of bread’, and that Christ, who first appeared in Bethlehem, is bread for the world. Advent is a time when we can intentionally make space in our lives to open, and expand, in the love of God for us in Jesus, and in God’s love for the whole world.
At St. John’s Convent we keep the seasons of the church year including Advent. Advent is a holy space and time to prepare a way in our lives for the Christ child. We do not decorate for Christmas at the Convent until December 23rd and we consider ourselves fortunate that we can avoid the commercialization of Christmas. Although the world races ahead to the commercial opportunities of Christmas shortly after Halloween, here at the convent we are able to keep the season of Advent. Taking time to observe Advent holds open that space within that we need to prepare in our hearts a home. The structure of our lives of prayer and service is like the gluten in bread which creates space, the space which seems to be nothing but is filled with something. If we didn’t make space in our lives and prayer to prepare for Christmas, then there would be little room for Christ’s love to grow within. We would instead be like a loaf of bread which hasn’t expanded or puffed up and results in an inedible brick. Making room in our hearts for God, for others, for ourselves, is a gift that Advent offers. As our hearts expand and grow like the bubbles in bread, we share Christ with others. What kind of bread will you be for others this Christmas?
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