Advent Week 1 – 10,000 Places

Take a close read of the quotes and poem on the previous journal post. They point to, in a profound way, the “from his fullness” reality of God. As we started throwing this idea around for the season of Advent, I remembered an experience I had a few years ago. I was on a study week on Flathead Lake in Montana. I was there with a group of pastors who were studying and gathering around the pastoral imagination of Eugene Peterson. Eugene and Jan Peterson had a life long connection to “the Flathead” and we went there to experience a little bit of the geography that shaped and formed them. One morning I woke up incredibly early, not because I wanted to, but my father-of-young-children internal clock woke me up compounded by being two time zones west than normal. I decided to embrace it. The day before I had written out the poem “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” in my journal for the joy of learning it and memorizing it. So I grabbed my journal, walked down to the lake, grabbed a kayak and went for a pre-dawn paddle.

As I floated along the calm, cold water, I got stuck (in a good way) on Hopkins’ line: “Christ plays in ten-thousand places.” It brought to mind so many things. First, it reminded me of my daughter. One of the reasons we named her Lila is based on an ancient meaning of the word: the play and creativity of God. It reminded me of my younger son Charlie, who plays in such a way that you viscerally feel his sense of freedom. And then my mind really started going, how could you even number the ways and places that Christ plays? Could I record 10,000 places that I have personally seen and experienced Christ playing? I’m always on the lookout for a new project, so the game was afoot.

I opened to a blank page in my journal and I started a list.
1. Mist rolling over the Flathead in the morning
2. Singing the Doxology with some close friends before dinner
3. Charlie laughing under the rain dripping off our roof
4. The smell of corn in the air during a warm Fall day in Iowa
5. Honest conversation at book club
6. Reading books to Lila before bed

For about 5 days, I kept adding to the list. Thinking, “Hey, if I keep this up maybe I can write out 10,000 things.” I wasn’t sure how long it would take or what the practice could look like, but it seemed like an interesting endeavor of prayer and reflection.

I go to 27. I completed .0027% of my project. And then I promptly forgot about it for approximately 2.5 years. That is where “From his fullness” comes in. As this gathering energy emerged for our Advent season at Pillar I thought of the Hopkins poem, I thought of Flathead Lake, and I thought of my quickly conceived and quickly abandoned grand scheme. It is out of the fullness of God we receive grace upon grace. It is from the fullness of God that we could even have the capacity to notice, discern, or discover all the places Christ plays in the world, in our lives.

And then at the Doxology Conference this Fall, hosted by the Eugene Peterson Center and held at Pillar, Chris Green shared that this phrase from Hopkins is in some ways borrowed from a much older text. Namely, a sermon from St. Gregory where we says, “The high Word plays in every kind of form, mixing, as he wills, with his world here and there.” And from there, later, Maximus the Confessor offers commentary on Gregory’s words with, “For with us foolishness, weakness and play are privations, of wisdom, power and prudence, respectively, but when they are attributed to God they clearly mean excess of wisdom, power and prudence.”

Of course. Of course, these words that I were offered to me by trusted teachers and friends, words that have captured my imagination for years, that captured the imagination of Eugene Peterson enough to title a book after them would have resonance far beyond what I even knew or could imagine. Which, to me, points toward the truth, depth, and necessity that Christ plays all around, and ours is the task to notice.

“The High Word” as Gregory said, is the Word made flesh, the light of the world, Jesus. This High Word has been “at play” for eternity with the Father and the Spirit, and because of his Incarnation, we have the capacity to see it and know it. So this Advent, we prepare for Christ’s first coming, and we wait until that great and glorious day when he comes again to make all things new. And as we prepare and wait, I want to invite you into this same act of prayer and reflection that I quickly conceived and quickly abandoned. You’re invited to contribute a “place that Christ plays” in the hope that we could accumulate 10,000 places from the Pillar community throughout the Advent and Christmas seasons. There will be multiple ways to contribute your places so be on the lookout for that. And part of the joy is that 10,000 is sort of a placeholder for “as many as you could imagine.” So be generous with yourself. What physical place have you seen Christ at play? What conversation? What friend, sibling, parent, stranger? What word of literature or poetry? What Scripture? All of it is fair game. The high Word plays in every kind of form, mixing, as he wills, with his world here and there. From his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace.

Conversation Question for Children and Families:

• The Bible says Jesus gives us grace upon grace that means lots and lots of love and kindness!
  Can you think of something kind Jesus has done for you?

WEEK 1 INTERIORIZATION

Read it over and over again. Make notes. Write it out. Draw Pictures. Get it inside.

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through him,
and without him not one thing came into being.
What has come into being in him was life,
and the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not overcome it.

Written by Jonathan Gabhart