Message from the Transitional Synod Leader: Anticipating God
“Blessings in this season of waiting and anticipation” has been my closing remark this Advent season. It is the anticipation part of this that has captured my attention. It is my prayer in an unusual way. I am praying for the spiritual ability to anticipate miraculous things. I expect that at every corner, there is a possibility that I might meet God and experience Emmanuel, God with us.
These days when so much hints that God is absent, living in anticipation takes faith. Every moment from when we wake until we sleep at night is filled with the reality of the Holy (Psalm 139:7-10). What I am suggesting is countercultural to human nature because what is most natural is our visceral responses to the moments of our days. To remind ourselves that there is more here than what meets the eye is a spiritual discipline.
In Black culture, these words are often recited in prayer, “Lord, keep us from seen and unseen dangers.” Culturally, these words reflect the theological belief in the two dimensions of life, the physical and the spiritual. Scripture supports this theological framework with stories of thin spaces and mountaintop experiences where, amid the ordinary, there are God moments. These moments fill us with awe. They build our spiritual muscles for anticipation.
How do we position ourselves for these experiences? Cole Arthur Riley, author of “This Here Flesh,” wrote, “My faith is held together by wonder—by every defiant commitment to presence and paying attention.” He further states: “Wonder includes the capacity to be in awe of humanity, even your own. It allows us to jettison the dangerous belief that things worthy of wonder can only be located on nature hikes and scenic overlooks. This can distract us from the beauty flowing through us daily. Every second that our organs and bones sustain us is a miracle. When those bones heal, when our wounds scab over, this is our call to marvel at our bodies—their regeneration, their stability or frailty. This grows our sense of dignity. To be able to marvel at the face of our neighbor with the same awe we have for the mountaintop, the sunlight refracting—this manner of vision is what will keep us from destroying each other. Wonder requires a person not to forget themselves but to feel themselves so acutely that their connectedness to every created thing comes into focus. In sacred awe, we are a part of the story.” (Cole Arthur Riley, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make US, New York: Convergent, 2022).
You can tie this all together in a big bow. Waiting, anticipating, and awe together places us in a hopeful posture. All the decorating, the lights, the concerts, the festivities, and the special meals are signs of resistance…we refuse to be convinced that God is not among us. Saying so feels like a defiant moment, especially when the shadows of hate and warring seem to have the upper hand. I am convinced our struggle is not unique to our era. The Christian proclamation amid troubled times is historic. Read again Hebrews 12, the stories of the Great Cloud of Witnesses.
As we recount the Christmas story, we hear about the resiliency in faith; Mary, a young girl in her teens saying "Yes, I will be a vessel to carry the Almighty." It is Joseph changing his course of action because of a dream. Elizabeth who was barren but now with child, upon hearing Mary’s greeting the child leaped in her womb. It is the Magi following a star and journeying home another way. It is the world changed by a baby that causes us to live in faith.
From the Ashley home to yours, may you see God Emmanuel everywhere. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!