Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.

“Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.”  This prayer is our Advent refrain each week as we invoke the Holy Spirit to “stir up” within us through the prayer of the day.  These ”stir up” prayers in Advent have always been my favorite, and every year I discover a new reason to fall in love with them all over again.

In a literal sense, I love the image of the Holy Spirit stirring things up.  My mind is filled with images of the Spirit swirling, much like a desert windstorm or a tidal pool with the waves crashing together.  During the holidays I am even reminded of the Spirit’s “stirring” when I fold flour or eggs into a good batter, or marshmallows in a cup of hot chocolate.

One of my favorite “stir up” prayers is on the third Sunday of Advent. On December 17, we’ll pray, “Stir up the wills of your faithful people, Lord God, and open our ears to the words of your prophets, that, anointed by your Spirit, we may testify to your light…” The power of the Spirit stirring up God’s people is empowering and exciting.  However, it is also downright terrifying.

There is a stereotype that Lutherans don’t like change. We’re often comfortable with our traditions and having “always done it that way.”  Whether that generalization is true or not is the topic of another time, but perhaps the same generalization could be made within our own lives.  How complacent can we become in our relationship with God?  How settled can we become in our faith?  How content can we become in our practices, traditions, rituals, and beliefs?  Are we truly ready or willing to be stirred up?

Willingly and knowingly invoking the Spirit to stir us up is a scary invitation.  After all, the Spirit has strong track recorded of stirring things up pretty well.  Off the top of my head I can think of a large ark, thousands of Israelites crossing the Red Sea, a whale’s belly, a wise judge, and of course a young woman named Mary.  The Spirit is always stirring and filling, empowering and challenging. 

One of the many joys of the Advent season is the invitation to begin again. To begin a new liturgical year.  To enter a new calendar year with excitement, goals, hopes, dreams, and ambitions.  To begin the story of Jesus, from birth and life to death and resurrection.  To be stirred up.  Advent invites us to have the settled, dusty, and stagnant parts of our lives stirred up by the Holy Spirit.

This year I am reminded of God’s promise in the Spirit to keep stirring.  I often want to condition my Advent prayer with “only if you want to” or “if you think I need it.”   But the question isn’t if the Spirit will stir, but when and how.  This Advent I am reminded that our prayer is not request or invitation as much as it is a proclamation of faith. 

From the beginning, God stirred up creation.  God stirred up love when Jesus, Emmanuel and Messiah, walked among God’s people in humble service— turning the world upside down in the death and resurrection.  And by God’s grace, God continues to stir things up for us in the most beautiful, challenging, and faithful ways.  How is the Spirit working in your life this Advent?  In what areas of your faith life might you find the Spirit stirring?

Originally Posted in the December, 2017 Messenger for St. Mark's Lutheran Church, Jacksonville, Florida.