Advent vulnerability
Advent is an intentional season of preparedness. We think of advent as a journey, however hackneyed or cliched. We think of advent as a progressive path we take in order to arrive at a destination — the sleepy village of Bethlehem.
Preparing. Making plans. Charting a way. Scouting and scoping the landscape. Assessing and foreseeing obstacles to avoid or override. Sounds like life as usual. Sounds like something we can get our heads and hands and hearts around. Sounds like something we can get down and get done.
But wait a minute! Advent is not our journey. We are not in charge. Advent is not a journey we make, a journey we prepare for, a road that we navigate. No, advent is the journey God makes. advent isn’t a trip we prepare to go on. Advent is the time we prepare for God’s trip to us. Advent is the time we ready ourselves to receive God afresh. The God who, against all reason and for our redemption, is making a journey towards us.
Advent is when we prepare by unpacking and letting our baggage go — let go of the freight that weighs life down: let go of safety, let go of structures, let go of certainty, let go of control. We can only “prepare the way of the Lord” by preparing an environment that encourages our own openness and our own vulnerability.
Brene Brown has made the study of vulnerability, or its rejection is her life’s work. Surprise! No one likes feeling vulnerable. We fight against it with every fibre of our being. After all, to be “vulnerable” is to be “weak,” right? If you are someone who is “vulnerable” you suffer from fear, from anxiety, from shame. Being “vulnerable” is an utterly negative label in our contemporary culture. Just as we don’t want our electronic lives “vulnerable” to viruses that might threaten our identity, so we don’t want our physical, emotional, spiritual lives to be vulnerable to any unauthorized access. Unless we say so, and unless we are in control…
No one gets close. No one comes near. No one is let in.
Brown believes that an intolerance for vulnerability yields a devastating harvest. For vulnerability is the incubator of almost all the good things of life. To be invulnerable is to be incapable of joy, of love, of belonging, of creativity. The paradox of life is this: a perfect immune system is a disaster. You can’t grow with a perfect immune system. You need to be vulnerable and to be open to viruses to grow and mature.
Whatever it is you have faith in, when you subtract the human factor of vulnerability, you subtract the possibility of failure, yes, but also of joy, of anxiety and of creativity, of fear and of love. Subtracting vulnerability subtracts the part of the human being that is capable of “preparing the way” for God’s influence and participation in human life. In Jesus’ day, “preparing the way” for the arrival of a King didn’t mean adding things to the road, but clearing away the dross and rubble that litter the way, and the overhanging branches that snag and impede the coming of the King.
The good news is that while Adam and Eve tried to subtract their vulnerability in the shrubbery of Eden, hiding their nakedness from God, God came looking for them. Just like God comes looking for us every year during the Season of advent. When God saw Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes, God didn’t turn away in disgust and abandon them. God didn’t throw them away and start over. When Adam and Eve were at their most vulnerable, when they were naked and they knew they were naked, that is exactly when God came walking in the garden looking for them, seeking them out, bringing the divine into their midst. When we mess up, God doesn't throw us away & start again. God comes looking for us: "Where are you?"
Every year during advent we need to rediscover our nakedness. Advent season is an invitation into vulnerability. For it is our nakedness, our openness, our exposure, our vulnerability—getting rid of the baggage and clutter -that “prepares the way of the Lord.” Only when you are open can you be fully alive. Only when you risk a broken heart can you truly love.
We are being charged during advent: charged and prepared for the greatest act of love the world has ever known. But to receive it we need to have the courage to make ourselves vulnerable, as vulnerable as a baby in a stable. What will you receive this Advent-time? You want to prepare the way of the Lord? How vulnerable are you?