We’re inundated with voices around us and within us trying to get us to believe things about ourselves. Advent turns our focus to another voice, one that invites us to respond with our own unique “let it be.”
Author Anne Lamott describes how she has inner voices, one of which she labels the bad voice. It regularly reminds her of many lifelong failings, causing renewed shame.
Most of us have that voice telling us: “There you go again.” This voice whispers that we’re not popular enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not funny enough, not successful enough, not good enough, not whatever enough.
We have voices all around us that reinforce the message that we don't measure up. We’re told nonstop in ways overt and subliminal that we’re not desirable unless we look a certain way, live a certain way, believe certain things, own certain things. Political and religious demagogues tell us that only certain types of people are acceptable. We internalize those many voices, and we set out to try to satisfy them. Worse, we echo them back into the world, making them stronger.
If you want a contemporary definition of sin, there you have it.
Advent reminds us there’s another voice, and this one calls us by name.
The Jesus story begins with a young woman who also hears many critical voices around her. Mary lives in a culture that tells women they’re more property than persons. Galilee is considered the armpit of her society. Her religion portrays God as mostly a distant and disinterested deity.
Then Mary is visited by a very different voice with a very different message. This voice calls her by name. It tells her that she’s favored. This voice says God is with her, not somewhere far off. She’s reminded that she is God’s beloved.
Only when Mary hears this voice again can she say, “let it be” to the Beloved. Only after we let the Beloved’s voice touch us can we follow it and speak it to our world.
Mary’s response isn’t submissive and docile. The gospels describe her as a strong woman. Her “let it be” is brave and fully engaged. She’s been invited to partner with God, and she’s all in. Let’s do this, she says. Let’s make this happen. Let it be.
Above all, Mary’s response is defiant. It’s spoken in defiance of all those other voices trying to lead her – and us – a different way. We are invited to respond with the same defiance.
READ: Embracing Darkness This Advent Season
As we go through the difficult times, we’re reassured that the Beloved is with us, holding us, leading us. It’s going to be OK. Love always wins in the end. Trust it. Say let it be.
As we go through each day, we’re challenged to pay closer attention to those who need us in some way, especially those who need to be reminded that they, too, are God’s beloved.
When we see someone treated as anything less, we ask the Beloved how we can bring justice into the moment.
All those other voices will never go away, but we can get turn down their volume and push them into the background a little more each day. We can focus on the voice that calls us beloved and follow it a little more closely. And this Advent, we can respond with our own firm, defiant and fully-engaged: Let it be.
Joe Kay is the associate minister at Nexus United Church of Christ, Butler County, Ohio. He also writes a weekly blog at https://joekay617.wordpress.com. His email address is listed on the blog, in case you care to contact him directly.
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