"The glory of God shone round them, and the Spirit of God was upon them."
Those words wandered through my mind and heart very early this morning as I sat on my balcony and gazed at the sky. I am at a resort in Sedona for my brother's wedding and being so far away from the light pollution of the city, the glory of multitudes of pinpricks of light shining through deep darkness is astonishing - in fact, my view from the balcony was remarkably similar to this photograph.
The beauty of Sedona is stunning, so unusual are the rock formations striated with all shades of red it is difficult to take in the expansiveness of the beauty. Add the experience of an unpolluted early morning sky where the expanse of both darkness and piercings of light allowed a glimpse of infinity of glory and, to it was not easy to remain completely present. Besides, 5:30 in the morning in the high desert is very cold so I found myself wandering between glory and warm comfort.
It is not easy for we humans to remain long with glory. Glory is extreme joy - so overwhelming, and generally so unexpected, that our tendency is to retreat as the experience penetrates our shell of normalcy.
I laughed when I realized that scripture backed up my words about how we humans tend to react to God gifting us with glory. I came indoors to write this post and began by looking up where in scripture the words I heard in my mind and heart are located, When I discovered the scripture story they came from I was tickled by the graciousness of God.
The gospel of Luke 2:8 tells us 'there were shepherds in the field keeping watch over their flocks. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of God shone round them and the Spirit of God came upon them.' Most of us are very familiar with this part of the nativity narrative as we've not only heard it over and over, many of us have dressed as shepherds for the Christmas play and settled the figurines of shepherds with Mary and Joseph in the stable we set up on a table in our home.
I don't know about you, but I've heard this story for so long that if asked to describe the shepherd's role in the story I'd probably say: 'an angel appeared telling of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem and they were so excited they left their flocks and went to see the newly born Christ child.' My remembered version however leaves out one very important piece of how we humans tend to react to experiencing the glory of God.
"And they were terrified."
Those are the words describing the shepherds experience of the glory of God shining around them in the form of angels. Terror - the shepherds were frightened by the presence of God. I love that when read carefully, scripture very much acknowledges human response: in real life we human beings do not tend to enjoy experiences that blindside our preconceived ideas and take us out of our comfort zone of how - we believe - life is supposed to behave.
"How can this be?" When I began these Advent reflections several days ago I stated my belief that 'how can this be?' is a prayer of faith. "How can this be?" means I am aware something unusual has happened within my living. "How can this be?" may keep me present to my experience long enough to hear the next words of the story:
"But the angel said to them, 'do not be afraid. I bring you news of great joy ...'
Earlier in this post I told you I laughed at the graciousness of God when I discovered the where the words I heard in my heart early this morning came from. I laughed because driving up here yesterday I was unsure how in the midst of all the wedding activities and being in a strange environment I would manage to find the space and inner quiet I need to write these posts. Aware of my thoughts, I said to God, 'if you want me to do the post then I'll leave the how up to you.'
God is gracious. When I awakened a bit after 5 am today I was not entirely believing in God's graciousness as I felt the nudge to leave the warmth of bed and room and go outside where it was 20 degrees. Yet,if I had given in to the temptation to remain comfortable I would not have seen the unusual spectacle of the stars nor would I have heard the words springing unbidden from my mind and heart. If I had remained comfortable I would have missed God's response to my request.
May you be blessed with the awareness of God's graciousness to you and your life today.
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