Today, August 15, marks the day that the church commemorates the feast of Mary, the Mother of our Lord. We know Mary best from her powerful song, the Magnificat: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spiOn Sunday, Pastor Amy shared a new book she’s reading as her Advent devotional this year. It’s called All Creation Waits by Gayle Boss and each day she writes about a creature – painted turtle, common loon, whitetail deer, black bear.

In her book, Boss devotes each day to one of God’s beloved creatures and describes what that critter has to reveal to us about life . . . and death . . . and new beginnings. By writing so clearly about creatures, Boss helps us to know ourselves better and understand more deeply the wisdom our ancient ancestors ascribed to the Messiah for whom they waited.

We meet John the Baptist in a prison cell this week. Instead of proclaiming a message of repentance and hurling insults at the religious elite of his day, we find him today sending his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” 

Are you the one? In his question John is taking all of the wisdom he has received from his religious tradition – from the law and the prophets, from the poets and the historians – to discern whether the long-awaited one has come.

This Advent, the wisdom we are seeking is the wisdom that is present in Christ.

But also, we long for wisdom in our own lives. The wisdom to acknowledge Christ’s presence in our world – in bread and wine, word and sacrament, and also in surprising acts of restoration, wholeness, life-giving grace and healing. The wisdom to trust that our baptism into Christ’s body means that our eternal future is secure and so we can give up the hustle to earn our place. The wisdom to see that the life Christ offers us is forever linked to a cross and the death that it brings.

O come, O Wisdom from on high

Embracing all things far and nigh:

In strength and beauty come and stay;

Teach us your will and guide our way.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O people of God at Bethlehem.

P.S. Would you like to reflect more deeply on the aspects of God for whom we wait? Share in conversation after worship at 10:15 in the sanctuary with a Pastor during the weeks of Advent.

rit rejoices in God, my Savior . . .” (Luke 1:46). Lutherans haven’t traditionally paid much attention to Mary apart from Advent and Christmas, which is unfortunate. She is part of the “great cloud of witnesses” that surrounds us and she has lots to teach us!

As Pastor Amy reminded us in her sermon on Sunday, Jesus grew up in a household where the song his mother was known for also included the words: “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1.52-53). Jesus’ faith formation took place in an environment where resistance to the status quo, a willingness to challenge power, and an understanding of God’s longing for justice was part of the music of daily life. (Imagine dinner around that table!)

Knowing this helps us make sense of Jesus’ hard words in Sunday’s gospel: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled. . . . Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” In his words, Jesus isn’t advocating for division in and of itself. Jesus knows that living into God’s vision of justice and embracing God’s reign does not just happen. It takes questioning the ways things are. It requires challenging assumptions. And none of that happens without some disruption of peace . . . or even more.

Conflict is part of the life of faith. People won’t always agree with the stances we take in the name of extending God’s grace and mercy. Yet even there, Jesus is with us, helping us interpret the times and walking with us through the heat.