Are you Ready?

December 16, 2021

Dear Doubters of Great Faith,

It hardly seems possible, but the fourth Sunday of Advent has already arrived. The season of preparation, the journey into deeper, fuller expressions of love, joy, peace, and hope, the journey that draws us ever closer to the immanence of divine dwelling among us, is about to come to fruition, yet again.

I hear people ask, “Are you ready?”

Questions of readiness link so closely to worthiness. They really are questions of both/and. Am I ready for a savior? Yes. Am I worthy of this Savior? No. For if I were, completely ready, and worthy, I wouldn’t need the Savior, this Savior. Can I face this strange, twisted paradox of readiness and worth?

The answer, I believe, lies in Mary’s response. Let’s be clear – it’s easy to over-spiritualize Mary 2000 years later. “She was filled with the spirit, and knew this was what she was called to do, bear the Savior of the world.” But the real secret to her own preparedness for such a journey can be found in her song, Mary’s Song, the Magnificat. For it is in that song that Mary sings of her own struggle with readiness and worth in the face of God’s immanence. Courage, the courage that a seemingly unworthy peasant girl exhibits in taking on this arduous task is leveraged by the strength and might that she knows rests in her God, our God, who is the foundation, the well-spring of love, joy, peace, and hope.

No more than she, we cannot ever be fully ready or worthy, and yet, we summon the courage to be just that, in the face of all that we confront in our torn and broken world.

Part of our Advent preparation is intentionally confronting our own humanity, our own fragility within God’s creation. Confronting the things that Mary sings about in her song, the powers and principalities, the injustices, are part and parcel of the journey of our ready-making, and yet our ever-unworthiness. We need God to do these things, and yet, we summon our own courage to take on our individual parts of the redemption story. Finding ways to shine love, joy, peace, and hope into the world help us to touch our own worth/unworthiness.

The St. Thomas the Apostle community of faith has been so generous this Advent season in intentionally and courageously being that light of love, joy, peace, and hope. Through Community Partners of Dallas, you provided Christmas for 50 children. You have made Christmas meals and gifts possible for 70 – 100 families of the Dallas Champions Academy. You have provided food for the pantry at the Cathedral of Hope. In short, you have given of yourselves, so that others might have as well.

I would encourage your courageous generosity again as we look to our sisters and brothers throughout the tornado-ravaged central states of the United States. So many are now enduring hardship and devastation, loss due to unprecedented December storms. You can help by giving to the Episcopal Church’s mission for disaster assistance, Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD). It is the quickest, most direct way to share from what you have, to bring hope to those who, in this Advent (and soon to be Christmas) season, may have little or none. You can make a direct donation to ERD (https://www.episcopalrelief.org/), or place a check in the offering plate made out to St. Thomas the Apostle, with a memo “ERD.”

The way that we prepare the way for a savior, the Savior, our Savior, is by following in the courageous footsteps of Mary singing her song of unworthiness and great worth. We aren’t ready, and yet we are. We aren’t worthy, and yet we need God now more than ever!