A Grassroots Faith

One aspect of Advent that really stands out to me (and simultaneously challenges me) is how ordinary all of the characters are. These were not the ‘movers and shakers’ of their time and they were not religious professionals. They were not highly educated folks, many were young people and they were not ‘sanctioned’ authorities on God (or how God works in the world).

These were everyday people who trusted their dreams, intuition and inner experience enough to do something new and unexpected. They did not know what their actions would mean in the big picture, yet their faith-response reshaped history.

Richard Rohr, OFM, in his wonderful book of Advent reflections called Preparing for Christmas asks, “Why do we love and admire people like Mary and Joseph, and then do not imitate their faith journey, their courage, their non-reassurance by the religious system?“

Part of this, I think, is that many of us have been taught – especially when it comes to religion and spirituality – that people who are trained, ordained or do this work professionally have something that everyone else doesn’t have or know this stuff better.

Rohr reminds us that folks like Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah, the shepherds and the visitors from the East, were “laypeople who totally trusted their inner experience of God.” He goes on to say that the Gospels don’t tell us that anyone checked out their inner experiences “with the high priests, the synagogue or event the Jewish scriptures.” They walked in faith that their experiences were true “with no one to reassure them they were right.”

This is a grassroots faith and a season of the year that highlights that God is engaging us in our lives. We are rarely given much reassurance that we’re ‘on the right track’ and oftentimes (if we are to trust these stories) are invited to make decisions based on dreams, intutions and hunches that may not fit with what we have come to expect as the status quo. Our faith journey is often a path into the unknown.

These Advent stories also remind us that God is likely moving in other ordinary places and everday people as well – people and places that are not ‘sanctioned’, are unrecognized by authorities, are generally unexpected and exist on the margins of power. This is the great upheaval of the gospel message – that the grassroots, ordinary people are the ones whom God chooses to do history-altering work and that this work is already happening in the world and in our lives. Our job is to trust it, align with it and give it space in our lives to grow. With that, God can do the rest.