We have spoken often this year of the old that is passing. We know that some way we have lived in the world is no longer working. Our last Pentecost reading from Mark ends with Jesus’s words: “The end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation; there will be earthquakes and famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.”
Jesus is talking about the end times, which we all feel acutely these days, but the last image we are left with is pregnancy. The end of a pregnancy, and the beginning labor pains of delivery. The threshold of birth.
Dr. Ann Holmes Redding, a biblical scholar who regularly attends our Friday morning Zoom prayer gathering, recently gave us a short teaching about an evocative translation of the word “Yahweh.” We ordinarily translate this word, as “YHWH” or “Adonai,” which means “Lord.” But Dr. Redding translates this word for God as “Cherisher and Sustainer.” This opened up whole new vistas for us.
This translation greatly helps me as a mother to relate to being Christ in the world. When I was pregnant with my children, my goal was to cherish the growing life, and to do all I could to sustain it. This is how I see Mary, as the prototype of cherishing and sustaining Love.
In small group listening projects, we refer to the role of listener as a form of standing in for God. We listen with compassion, generosity, and love, so that a speaker can pour out their heart to God. We try to be Christ’s hands and feet and ears in the world when we listen in this way.
This Advent and Christmas season, moving out of the old year and into the new, what if we were to cherish all those who come to us, friends and family and strangers? What if we were to do all we could to sustain all aspects of creation in our day-to-day lives?
May we be active in the birth of the new life that God is bringing forth. Questions? Email: christine@saint-marys.org
