the Fourth Tuesday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
Genesis 30:1-24
30 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” 2 Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” 3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.” 4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan. 7 Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali. 9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad. 12 Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher. 14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?” “Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night. 17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. 19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. 21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”
Psalm 113
1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, you his servants; praise the name of the Lord. 2 Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore. 3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised. 4 The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. 5 Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, 6 who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? 7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; 8 he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people. 9 He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord.
Romans 8:18-30
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
NIV
So Sings My Soul
Cathleen Getchell resides in Kitchener-Waterloo on the Haldimand Tract, within the territory of Neutral, Anishnaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Grounded in the belief that every person is created in God's image, Cathleen seeks to contribute to a world where justice, mercy, and humility form the foundation for inclusive and compassionate communities that contribute to the blessing and flourishing of all people.
She finds balance by going on boondocking and hiking adventures, capturing the beauty of creation with her camera, dancing like nobody's watching, cooking meals for friends, and pursuing artistic endeavours.
Through all her work and hobbies, Cathleen is driven by a deep sense of purpose and a desire to bring blessing and flourishing to all people.
22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. 26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Romans 8:22-28 The Message)
I am not sure when I first became aware of the way my subconscious converses with my conscious self through song. But in the same way you begin to see the same car you just purchased, around every corner, I notice it happening all the time now. The soundtrack of my spirit–the songs I catch myself singing in this season–have included Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” Dylan’s “The Times They are A Changin’,” The Five Stairsteps’ “Ooh Child,” and John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to Change.” It didn’t take long to discern what these songs were surfacing from deep within my spirit. They point to questions with which I have been wrestling–questions of why and when. Specifically: “Why the Wait?”, “When is a change gonna come?”, and “When are things going to get easier?”
Waves pull us from shore.
Tides of power, privilege,
Drown our common soul.
Perhaps it is COVID-related, or maybe it is because I am getting older, but I find myself increasingly tired of the tension and frustrated with the wait. My lament of late often presents the same way it did when I was eight years old, when my parents wouldn’t let me do what I wanted to do or told me I had to wait. “But why?”, I would ask in a whiny voice that made their eyes squint and scowl in annoyance. Rarely did I receive an answer that satisfied me.
Now here I am creeping up on 50, with my spirit whining to our divine parent – WHY? Why does shalom seem so far off? Why must we wait for the kingdom to come? How much longer must people suffer oppression, injustice, inequality, harm, and sickness? How much longer will we continue to pursue power and possessions at the expense of people and creation? How much longer must we cry, “Come. Lord Jesus. Come.”?
Longing for Kin-dom.
Frozen by culture’s cold clutch.
We lament the wait.
God has yet to provide me with a specific answer to “why the wait?” (I do have some theories). What God has offered, though, is perhaps even better: assurance. That assurance was strengthened as I read the New Testament text from today’s lectionary (Romans 8:18-30; particularly verses 22-28). Though I have not given birth to a child, the imagery of pregnancy and labour resonates. There is hopeful assurance in knowing that “the difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs” (vs. 22). They are symptoms of something beautiful being formed, not only around us, but also within us (vs. 23). There is a strange sort of comfort in knowing that none of us waits alone, singing our lament as a solo. Rather, this waiting is a communal experience; we are labouring together. Songs like the ones echoing in my spirit have been sung–and continue to be sung–by choruses of people longing for change, yearning for full deliverance, desiring to see Christ’s Kin-dom come, God’s will to be done on earth. As I consider our co-labouring, I find myself wondering if our waiting has reached the point where it is time for us to collectively push. I wonder if God is waiting on us.
God is longing, too,
A springtime of renewal.
Who’s waiting on who?
The times they are a changin’, the Holy Spirit is birthing something, the contractions are getting closer, the Kin-dom is crowning. God hears our aching groans, our wordless sighs - keep pushing. “God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along'' (vs. 26), partnered with us, strengthening, refreshing, and spurring us on. The sighs, the groans, the lament will transition to songs of joy. I don’t know when, and I don’t understand why it does not happen now. I am, however, assured that, as we actively wait for God to bring to glorious completion what Christ has begun in and among us, as we lean into our calling to bring blessings to the nations and flourishing to all people, as we partner with Christ in His mission of restoration and reconciliation, we will push back the darkness and silence the enemy. The soundtracks of our spirits will increasingly be songs of Joy. The hope, peace, joy, and love of Christ’s Kin-dom advent are waiting to be birthed.
Songs of lament yield
Like melting snow in springtime
Come. Christ Jesus. Come
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