Advent is near, and hope, peace, joy, and love are eager to
be born in us. We live our lives in a
holy rhythm, often unknowingly, and this season is about seeing the world with
less fear and suspicion, like newborn innocence. Once again, it is time to savor shorter days
and longer nights, which make the lights of the season an added blessing.
As we enter Year B in the
lectionary, I have chosen to use the selected Psalms for this year’s
reflection. The refrain of Psalm 80 is:
“Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.” A psalm of lament, it recounts Israel’s sense
of desolation, being fed with “the bread of tears,” and having “tears to drink
in full measure” (v. 5). Could they be
restored?
The metaphor of the “shining face
of God” weaves its way throughout Scripture.
It is ancient wording, perhaps found first in the Aaronic benediction
and later used in the temple worship in Jerusalem. It means presence, signifying that the holy
God turns toward the people in concern and favor.
We hear echoes of this
representation of holy presence in the New Testament as Paul describes the
“light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2
Corinthians 4:6b). Followers of Jesus
are meant to shine, also, as we reflect divine glory. It is because of concern and favor that God
comes and shows us how to be born anew.
How can we grasp the idea that
God’s face is turned toward us, indeed shines upon us? I recall Roberta Bondi’s struggle to feel
beloved of God. She had felt that she
had disappointed her father as a child and that, somehow, she was responsible
for his disappearance from her family.
It was not until she was an adult that she learned to think of God in a
new way, a vision she derived from the Ammas and Abbas of the desert monastic
tradition.
The weakness and ineptitude of a
little one does not draw forth wrath, but compassion, and surely God is as
patient and tender as a parent beholding the child in love. God beams
forgiveness and mercy, a shining presence.
In mature adulthood, she was able to make welcome the child, “little
Roberta,” that she had so long blamed.
In this hopeful season of keeping
vigil, may we be receptive to God’s shining presence. Surely our dark world needs illumining, but
so does the human heart, especially the shadows of remembered sin and
shame. Many of us carry heavy burdens
from our past that God would be delighted to remove. And so we pray: “let your face shine so that
we may be saved.”
Molly T. Marshall
Central prepares women and men
for seeking God, shaping church, and serving humanity.
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