Stir It Up!

Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come
among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins,
let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver
us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and
the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

What a time to encounter the message of "stir up your power, O Lord"!
I have been sensing deep within me that we are in a time of much stirring and shifting in ways I don't recall feeling at Advents past. All the commotion in the Anglican Communion (as "Anglican" and "communal" as it is at this point), and the elections of many bishops, some thought to be long shots, are just a small example of the stirring that I am sensing as the "great might" of God comes in to save us from the sins of exclusion, division, pride, and greed.
I keep thinking the waters that God is troubling at this time run much deeper than what splashes on the pages of major newspapers. And the waters are moving, the current is swift, and the ice that we have been standing on for decades is beginning to thin and crack and break. Beware to those who believe that they can "ice" the fire of God! God's bountiful grace and mercy will overtake you.
I suppose the image of water is an appropriate one as we prepare the way for the birth of God as Jesus Christ. One of the amazing parts of this entry of God into the world is that he comes to us the same way most of us came into the world ourselves: through the water of our mother's birth canal. And in a way that speaks to the mystery of God, this appearance to us comes in the innocence of a baby boy, born in an unsanitary stable and dependent upon a young teen-aged mother Mary and her not-really-the-father husband, a carpenter named Joseph, to keep him alive. This whole plot seems like risky business! But God was determined. There were sheep that were lost, a nation scattered, depressed and broken. People were needing to be ransomed, reclaimed, reconciled, redeemed. And thus, the mission to rescue these lost and lonely ones began in a barn in Bethlehem.
The feeling that I've been having, the odd rumbling of a timpani drum in the back of my brain, is that this is a mission God has been on, is on, and will be on, always keeping the waters moving beneath the icy surface so that it can never totally freeze God out. I have been surprised, in my own community, to encounter more and more LGBT people who hunger and thirst for something that is bigger than themselves. I got a sense of that this past summer when, during our Queer As Faust cabaret, my parody video of the Mac vs. PC ads called "Queer vs. Christian" garnered not only loud applause from the audience, but a number of people cornered me afterward to tell me they really appreciated an affirming message about queers and Christianity. I sense a growing desire for some who have found themselves estranged from their faith communities to feel welcomed back into those places again. This longing I see as a people who are hearing the call to "come home" amidst the static that attempts to disrupt that call. Or perhaps, these are the people who have grown tired of the cold and icy place where they stand, and long to be closer to the hearth.
I would say now, even amidst what appears to be the chaotic upheaval in many parts of mainstream Christendom, this is as good a time as any to respond to that stirring power that is beckoning to us. Prepare the way, indeed! Come into meeting and welcoming this "new thing" that promises to intervene in the chaos, and break-up the ice. Know that it is good, and it's for you always.