Sunday-Ps.72 is a good psalm to read at this time of year as it added to the view we have of the three kings/magi. I would think it is in this week’s readings to emphasize other readings on the responsibility of rulers. Once again, it points us toward social justice as the foundation of political authority. Where have we moved forward in political soical justice and where do we fall short?
Monday- from Kent ira Groff-"Life must be lived forwards, but it can only be understood backwards,"wrote Søren Kierkegaard. Is this not the message of Advent?Sankofa, a primal Adinkra symbol from Ghana, provides a graphic image of Kierkegaard's thought. Sankofa portrays a bird with its feet facing forward and its head looking back, usually with an egg in its mouth.” In a way this is the image of janus-faced january that looks with one face backward and another forward, no?
Tuesday-We went to see the famed violinist Joshua Bell in concert. The program featured music inspired by natural objects. One of the pieces was classic program music as it followed the course of a river’s wanderings through a part of the now Czech republic. We even had not one but two harp players open the program. The great theologian Barth thought Mozart would be played in heaven. We often associate angels with harps. What sort of music do you think is played in heaven.
Wednesday-from John Philip Newell-” “You have taught us, O Christ, to love our neighbor as our self.You have taught us to see our neighbor as part of our self.Let us see ourselves in those who are hungry.Let us see ourselves in those who are frightened.Let us see ourselves in one another and in every creature.For you have taught us that we are one body.” I like how he extends the mirror of Christ notion to our emotional states. Where is it diffiuclt, but helpful, to see the christ in someone else?
Thursday- From the fine writer Connie Shultz-”Once again, I offer my mom's take: "Being a Christian means fixing yourself and helping others, not the other way around." Ot os much more fun to dix others than oneself, but to expect others to help us out. It is one of the great temptations of trying to live a Christian life to try to fix others, but isn;t that placing oneself in place of God, or not? How od you react when someone tries to fix you?
Friday-In the silence of a midwinter dusk there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen. You walk up the steps to the front door... For a second you catch a whiff in the air of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you’ve never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart. The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.72 (From Frederick Buechner posting on facebook)
Saturday-In our search for the holy, there are times when our restless preparations smother the very truth for which are searching. We decorate our rooms and make elaborate preparations for our prayer, when a single flower and a moment of waiting are all we need to meet the One Who Comes.-Macrina Wiederkehr, Seasons of Your Heart-where do all of our christmas decorations encounter this warning? On the other hand, what christmas decorations bring you closerot the meaning of the season?
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