Mt. 2 2011

The visit of the Magi is a story of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons and the wrong thing for the right reason. It shows that in spiritual matters one needs careful discernment. Even knowing the Bible is insufficient. God can use us when we are unwitting or if we are clear about what we must do.Matthew even plays with the ambiguity as the word can mean either homage or worship. We are not sure if they were of this feared group Parthians, or if they were representatives of the dualism of Persian religion with Zoroaster  Daniel was called chief magi. The Magi themselves occupied religious positions but were actively involved in counselling the rich and members of government. For those of a certain age, think of Jafar in the Aladdin moves. Their gifts were appropriate for a king, but all of them appear at the altar in Exodus. All of the gifts have both a secular and religious character. Gold is obvious, both as a gift for a king but also in its use in the Temple.  frankincense was prized for its aroma and expense, but recall that it was an important par of the worship in the temple. Not only is the odor pleasing but its slow rise to the sky makes one think about prayers ascending. Myrrh is bitter, as life itself can be. It also heals and smells good, It was an item for worship. It was also used to make anointing oils for important events during life and in anointing a body at death. In other words, we can read much significance into the gifts of the sages, far beyond their capacity to realize what and to whom they were giving them. They followed the starlight as gentiles. Maybe it was out of astrology or some tenet of their religious beliefs, but they went to Bethlehem. In doing the right thing for the wrong reason, they then did the proper thing: to visit Herod the king of the region.  Now this gesture would turn murderous as we were so terribly reminded last week. They were right that Jesus was to be a king, but wrong about the type of kingdom his would demonstrate. Even though they we sages, it was but a partial epiphany.

 

Matthew ends his gospel with end time, apocalyptic signs at the crucifixion and of course the resurrection itself. He starts with it too, in a world of dreams and heavenly bodies changing course. Celestial bodies don't move about like the star of the Magi.  The ancients thought that celestial objects were connected to the earth. In the time of Jesus a lot of emphasis was placed on the  star of Jacob. they Magi may have believed that the object in the sky had a human counterpart. they would be joined only at death.

Matthew's story is journalistic in a way, as it asks basic questions such as,where.Mic. 5 and 2 S 5:2 give the Scriptural expectation for the birthplace of the Davidic messiah. The religious experts knew the right passages and could cite them. They did not apply it to their life and times. Even though the passage from Micah was messianic at this time but they missed the messiah.

It speaks of when and how.The dream motif In this early part of Matthew have dreams as vehicles of direct revelation. Both Joseph and the Wise Men have them and heed them.  

 

Isaiah speaks of the light rising on us.That light shines on everyone. What attracts me about our passage is that it speaks of lifting up the head, opening the eyes, and embracing the light. When we are downcast we don;t notice the light shining thorough. Think of the old charlie Chaplin song smile, smile and maybe tomorrow, you'll see the sun coming shining through." Even if we do not perceive the light fully, we open our eyes and see more clearly. We enter into the new year clear-eyed after New Year's Eve revels: cleared eyed because we enter the year with worship.

Heb.2

 

 

I heard folks complaining that all of the work for getting ready for Christmas goes by too quickly. So much work flies by in an instant. Perfection in setting up may have been missed by this much. Some folks are ready to burn the tree and take down the decorations. After all, some of them have been up before Thanksgiving. On December 26th the baby Jesus has been fed and changed and slept. As the sermon in Hebrews emphasizes, Jesus is a human being.

Some folks have Christmas blue or a blue Christmas or post-holiday blues. The Christmas season saturates the senses/We've been hearing Christmas music for a long time in stores, now we will hear it until next month in church. We touch fur-lined collars and give hugs to aunts and uncles. Oh, the good smells, of cookies and meat roasting in the oven and scented candles, and running into bath and body works for a stocking stuffer. The tastes of good chocolates and all those foods, and the crunch of a pastry.

 

What gifts are in the wrapping. how we tear it off to get at the treasure inside. My mother was always a bit hurt at seeing the wrapping job and the pretty paper dispensed so casually.What a gift was wrapped in swaddling in Bethlehem.Paul calls us temples of the Holy spirit. In other words we are wrappers with a treasure beneath.

 

The girls' Grandpa McKinnon died this year. He wore a stocking cap during the holidays. He kept a pile of Chicago Tribunes in the basement, because he was going to get to them; because he paid for them. He knew that there were treasures inside. In one of those was an article about a rash of baby Jesus statues stolen from Nativity sets all over a neighborhood, and 32 were dumped in a woman's backyard. She placed them all in front of a church to be picked up and called the cops. The cops let them stay, as the officer said, "baby Jesus should be in the manger, not in the evidence lock-up.

 

The place for baby Jesus was an unlikely place, a feeding stall. It was not to be running for his life as an infant. As an adult, it was not the manger, but where people needed him, and I assume that would be a police station too. After all, angels don;t need much help. Mt.'s quote of Rachel not in pretty church pageants. Mt. alters his citation formula here. Even though this is a horrible story, it  is still a story of escape, like Moses and his little ark. Legends have sprung up about the travel to Egypt. Part of me dismisses them, but I must admit I like that here a tree gave shade to the family. Now they are even farther away from home. They have no idea how long they will have to be refugees. The first Christmas season was on the run, fleeing from a death sentence.

 

Death surely was still in force in Bethlehem.The author/pioneer/leader  of salvation broke through the barrier of death. The Easter moment of new life was an ultimate present, so the fear of death is no longer an ultimate barrier. The preacher in Hebrews goes on to say that Christ was made complete in suffering. The same phrase, made complete,  used of a consecration for a priest, includes intercession, the work of the priest. The shared humanity of Christ also unwraps the character of God for us all.That same pioneer surely faced suffering when tested/tempted/tried, but he made it throurgh, like the pioneers of the West.

 

I usually had to serve Mass the day after Christmas. It was hard for me to understand why the martyrdom of St. Stephen was the day after Christmas. suffering of the innocents then and now Death and its brother, Trouble, don;t take holidays off. After all, the Savior saves us from a world of hurt.

 

.

 

Xmas Eve 2010

Ann Weems wrote:"we wait in December darkness." the wait is over for Christmas Eve this year.Many of us have ambivalent feelings at Christmas. Try as we might, we keep looking for more in the season than anything is capable of giving. Were the shepherds intrusive?did they feel as intrusive as the new companion a child brings home, or advice from new in-laws?e Did angels sing at the manger as they did for the shepherds. What helped the Grinch who stole Christmas was the realization that Christmas was not wrapped up in the tinsel, but that the tinsel was a shining symbol of people able to celebrate the season of love and giving.

John has no patience for trying to figure out the  biology for the identity of Jesus. No manger, no shepherds, no Wise men populate his beginning of the story. He echoes genesis and goes back to the beginning of , well, everything.He says that the wisdom, the plan, the vision of God for creation is present in this Jesus born on some long ago far away day we designate as Christmas John uses the great Christmas image of darkness that fits us perfectly as the days are just starting to grow longer now in the bleak winter. Bill Adams told a story years ago about a Christmas pageant where the shepherds processed, elegantly clad in flannel bathrobes and towel headdress. One move dot Joseph and said, well Joe when do you pass out the cigars. People tried to stifle their laughter but that only made it worse. The angel above the scene fell off her chair and took all of the sets with her.The only thing of the pageant that survived was the light bulb placed in the manger to represent the light of the world.

 

God chooses to make a dwelling, a place to stay, to rest, inside a human being named Jesus, one of us. God works from the inside out. God dwelt among us, not far off, but within our condition. Ann Weems also wrote: 'in each human heart lies a Bethlehem." In being born in Bethlehem, Christ allows Bethlehem, as the hymn says, to be born in us this day.

Almost ten years, with more or less avidity, we have been in Afghanistan, so Lord knows we need to hear again peace on earth goodwill to all. Our commitments to war mock the easy Merry Christmas, the easy reference to the Prince of Peace. So too does all of the attendant anxiety at family gatherings, where we walk on eggs shells to keep at least the veneer of civility shiny. It is hard to fathom the effort people make to be together for something they dread.

Yet, those soldiers in harm's way miss the home fires of simple family gatherings and traditions and conjure up the memories frame by frame in their minds. they think of the two year old who gets an expensive present and then plays with the box.

 

Andy Rooney said that one of the most glorious messes ever made is on the living room floor on Christmas...don't clean it up too quickly.

God bless the singing and playing of Silent  Night by candlelight. No matter how cold the evening, it warms the heart. We all live within a manger of grace, of god's good gifts to us. All of us are shepherds who witness to the miracle once more.Cynthia Rigby  said "in particular moments finite creatures realize their participation in the artistry of God." Lots of folks perform artistry at the table, with decorations, with wrappings of presents.We speak easily of Christ in our hearts. The incarnation is not about feelings alone but the very matrix of life. Auden wrote remember in a stable, for once in our lives, everyone became a You and no one an it. May all of us honor the Christ within, the God with us, in this season.

Jer. 31:7-14

We may have worked with this previously.

1)in v.7 I picture a scene such as Spartacus.

2) Instead of survival of the fittest, look who comes back in v. 8.Why?

3)  Again what do you make of a young mother and a woman in labor returning?

4)Is the return tears of joy, sorrow, or both?

5) What kind of consolations or supplication will lead them back?

6)The highway is an easy one to return, like when on a trip the return seems faster than the first leg to the destination.

7) What do you make of God as father here in v. 9? then we have shepherd language

8)Ransom and redemption language buys someone back. I like the line hands too strong for him.

9)I like the abundance language and the great phrase, watered garden.

10)When does it feel right for mourning to turn to joy and dancing?

 

Is. 60:1-6

1)  Is this where rise and shine came from?

2)the light image is a good one for the time of year when the days start to grow longer. glory in my view is well thought of as God's presence.

3)Notice that instead of exile, people will be coming to them. We could use the image of all the family gatherings at this time of year.

4) What do you make of daughters being carried? Is it an image of safety v. being carried off?

 

5) wealth of nations in v. 5 is the tile of Adam Smith's capitalist/free enterprise book of 1776.Wealth is moving in instead of moving out. One could refer to our national debt here, or our balance of trade problems.

6) camels got connected to the Magi. So too did their ethnic heritage refer to the locations here. 2 of the 3 gifts are mentioned here.

 

Ps. 147:12-20

1) This psalm starts with a city/temple and moves to nature. When we read of John 1 and the word, this is an interesting counterpoint.

2) I am compelled to go back and note that President Bush II quoted this at v. 4 and notice the ravens. i would think that they were unclean animals, yet within this abundance.

3)What impact would this image of cold have on desert people?

4) At the end notice that God does deal with other nations but not the same way as Israel.

 

Ps. 72:1-7,10-14. notice it is of Solomon

1)v.10,15 gets gold and again the ethnicity of the kings/magi/sages with gifts, including gold.

2)v.3 prosperity is shalom.

3)Don;t the verses sound like the old Indian treaties?

4) Again, LOOK AT THE TESTS FOR A LEADER CONCERN THE POOR.

5) v.15 speaks of prayer for the leader. Do you pray for our leaders?

 

Is. 63:7-9

1) NIB (p.526) says that "God's attributes of holiness, love, and mercy were fully intermingled and fully present."

2) "Carrying us" is resisted by all of us who are independent, or like to care for others but hate being cared for.

3) Carrying also brings up the frequent image of the child in Isaiah. Patricia Tull has her Smith and Helwys commentary on Isaiah published,(see its web site),  and she alerted me to this motif. It is perfect for the Christmas season. Maybe you have some good children stories from this holiday season.

4) The passage insists that it is the presence of God, one that dwells in Jesus, that is the saving agent. (This is an insuperable textual issue here, apparently). How to speak of Emmanuel the day after Christmas?

5) How does this passage address the thoughts and feelings of the day after Christmas?

Emmanuel 12/19

Most of you recall that I was raised Catholic. Mary's image is deep with my religious core. A certain color of blue reminds me immediatley of her pictures. We sing of the virgin birth in Christmas hymns. When I was little and we sang round yon virgin, I imagined Mary having roughly the shape of Big Boy at the restaurants.The name Emmanuel ( God with us) does not appear as much. (OK, It is in O Little Town and Hark the Herald Angels). Emmanuel brackets the entire gospel of Matthew as a kind of shorthand gospel. At the close of the gospel Jesus will say, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age." God is present but God is still God, elusive and ineffable. Where is Emmanuel present is easier to imagine than how is Emmanuel present. Does it have a sense of God being for us, not against us? This Jesus is GOD with us. What kind of picture God do we carry at this time of year? Douglas John Hall writes of Emmanuel: "ultimate power can only intimidate the ultimately powerless." Luther kniew ell that feeling and counselled us to look upon the baby Jesus. "Divinity may terrify. Inexpressible Majesty will crush us...with love and favor Christ will console and confirm." God moved toward us in the manger and at Golgotha, a few miles away. Emmanuel is God with us in everything. At Christmas we can emphasize the with us, along with the word God alone. (24,000 children die every day, but  we have the Chips program for children's health).

 

When Joseph learns that Mary is expecting, he must have been thunderstruck. the child was a symbol of shame, not hope. Joseph is given the divine information in Matthew's gospel through a dream. In a way the Isaiah passage has a dream like quality, as it is hard to pin down. The name Jesus is given specific meaning by saying that he will save the people from their sins. In both readings, we look into the face of a child. that's a good image for hope. The child and hope both take shape into the future. Emmanuel's vaguefuture birth in Isaiah acquires another name, Jesus.

 

At first it seemed that life was plotting against him. What should he do, engaged to a pregnant wife? Right away his mercy kicks in and he decides not to make her a public spectacle. Still, doing the proper thing has consequences too, for how would Mary and the child make it on their own? Every new father gets slapped upside the head by the enormity of responsibility for helping to bring a new life into the world. I wonder how he started to wrap his mind around the notion that he was to help raise and provide for the Messiah? How did he grasp that he would be raising God with us? Last week we sang "Mary Did You Know".  We could ask the same question of Joseph. Joseph needed to know that God would be with him, as the rush of inadequacy and humility poured over him. He had God's message with him in a dream. Over the years God worked with and through him when he had an insight and wondered where it came from. Matthew's birth story is so matter of fact for the Nativity, no angels, no shepherds, no gifts, yet... God is with us in the miracle of conception and birth, and the perhaps greater miracle of raising a child.. God is with us in the matter of fact movement of life between a husband and wife. God's hand may well lie behind seeming disturbances to the order of things as they are or should. No one raises a child alone. God accompanies us. God is there to help guide us to discern between good and evil, and when the proper thing is not the right thing to do. God is there to help us move toward good when faced with a tough situation. God is with us; God is there, as Jesus was here and is now in heaven, in the church, and carried within the womb our our lives.

Second Cut- for all of these options we do well to ask how the text fits or does not fit Christmas realities and hopes.

Is. 9:2-7

1) Again, this passage is a political passage. What is your opinion of spiritualizing it as we have?

2) v.2's darkness is a broad image. List at least three ways to work with the image of darkness and light in Advent.

3) What are some contemporary yokes/bars that oppress us socially, physically, spiritually. What does it feel like to be released from them?

4) How does this passage fit lighting a Christ Candle in the Advent wreath?

5) is V. 5 an image of peace or not?

6) we hear Handel in v. 6 of course.How do these titles work or not for Jesus? Most think that this passage is some sort of enthronement liturgy, or at least contains elements of them.

7) How is David's throne one of justice and righteousness in the reign of Christ? Note that only v. 7 is properly in the future tense.

80 Again, we do well to see that god's future or advent more properly is intersecting with a human future.

 

Is.62:6-12 thsi may be referring back to Is 40.

 1) This is a wonderful evocation of persistent prayer:give no rest until the new Jerusalem is established. Where do we need to give heaven no rest in 2010? Are the watchman announces the advent of a new day to come, or are they still warning of something? Are the watchmen informing god?

2)Notice here that God makes an oath for security.

3)Now an army comes, but it is an army of the return of the glory of Israel. It's a parade or maybe better, a procession.

4)  With Jesus at Christmas, how do you interpret v. 11?

5) Instead of rejected or abandoned, the people are called sought after. What does it feel like to be pursued romantically? How doe it make you feel to be pursued by God?

 

Is. 52:7-10 Is God acting as Moses for the return? How much do you read this as introduction to the final servant hymn that is upcoming? Is it right to place the cross in the manger?

1) The angels being news of peace in Bethlehem. Is this a liturgy?How do you handle the clean/unclean issue?

2) Again watchmen, who see relief, salvation, reinforcements, victory, not cries of alarm or defeat.

3) Ruins can burst into song here. What bursts into song, or needs to, on Christmas 2010? How does God comfort us?

4) Notice that they are waiting for divine power to reveal itself again, even after defeat. instead of Egypt, the whole world will see the sight.

5) In what ways does Christmas bring peace?

Advent Week Three 2010

 

Sunday- It took me a while to realize that 2 different hymns were buzzing around in my head: All Things Bright and Beautiful and We Plow the Fields. both sound like James 1:17 where he sees God as a fountain of good. In his way, James imagines God as a Santa Claus of heavenly goods being thrown about us not just on Christmas but every day of the year. They'd be good to sing in a long line: "all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above/then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all his love." 

 

Monday-St. Nicholas found a legend starting around a good man in modern day Turkey. As a young man, he gave away his possessions. Eventually, he became a Bishop and attended the council of Nicaea and faced persecution as well. Stories grew up around him such as the famous story of throwing money down a chimney or through a window into a shoe. It was said that he appeared to a boy who was captured into slavery and deposited at the feet of his mother on his feast day, Dec. 6th.

 

Tuesday- Advent as a time of remembering and letting go One of our life tasks is learning to say goodbye and when to hold on. Santa is a piece of learning of the source of presents but holding on to the symbol of this season, as in the famous editorial, yes, Virginia. What parts of the Nativity story do you particularly hold on to? Where would it be wise to let go of things, thoughts, feelings?

 

Wednesday Light is an image that accords well with the life of the spirit. In this time of short days, but the ancients soon learned that the light would start to return toward the end of this month. Light dispels darkness, as John says, the darkness does not overcome it. Quakers have long spoken of an inner light. I find sometimes that the light of a candle helps me to focus when I pray. When i was a kid, I liked science and was fascinated that the different segments of the light were different temperatures. A candle is near me as I ponder this week's devotional material.

 

Thursday-Luke mentions no animals in Bethlehem's manger. We do hear of sheep in the fields. A manger means animal s feeding at a station, so ingenuity has filled in the gaps. Many children's books add an animal at the manger scene.Consider making up a Nativity story with an animal or plant that you could draw some meaning from. the robin's red breast comes from flapping its wings to help keep Mary and Jesus warm when the other animals did not respond to her discomfort. Some believe that the same donkey that carried Mary to Bethlehem had a cross on its back and it carried Jesus on Palm Sunday. Some say we put tinsel on the tree because angel hair was caught in a tree Jesus decorated as a child.

 

Friday -Spiritual practice of forgiveness is always a good program. One of the stresses of the holidays is seeing people whom we have hurt or have hurt us. It fits with the season: a season of peace should stop revenge; a season of peace should have us define a person beyond the hurt they caused us. perhaps, like scrooge, we could learn to be reconciled to our past and let go of the hurts that we fan the flames for, even during the holidays. forgiveness is not only a gift of reconciliation, but it is a gift to one's own self, one's own good cheer.

 

Saturday-I wrote a note on holiday grief for the Springhill newsletter, but I always include a note on it for Advent devotionals too. I went to a good session at CTS, led by a retired pastor and teacher, Dan Moseley. we emphasized the expectations that we all hold for the season, and a loss always feels as if it it spoils the picture in our heads. Second, we emphasize togetherness, and togetherness will always be different after a death in the family. Instead of rendering them only absent, it may be wise to memorialize them in a toast, a present, a story, a favorite food.

-

Sermon Is. 35:1-10 Lk. 1:47-55

Advent is a time of waiting to see real change, a transformation, and preparing for it. In passing, I mentioned how depressing it is to see the ruins of industrial plants. it is uplifting to see restoration of the beautiful buildings like the IRT or Hilbert theater in Indianapolis.  People who have visited Israel will remark on seeing row after row of fruit crops in the formerly barren desert. In our own country, California is an agricultural giant for one reason:water for irrigation. Up at Trinity Pres in Rushville, the basement was in poor shape. They cleaned up one room and use it as a warehouse to give away shoes to the needy. They gave away almost 100 pairs of shoes last week. I love seeing abandoned lots in cities become community gardens for the poor. One day schools will look like palaces and hospitals will be converted into amusement parks.

life from destruction goes back and forth from nature to us a massive renewal project of all Creation-far to exceed the miracles of the exodus of water from the rock, it imagines a world that looks like a water park.

 

We read the Magnifcat often in Advent, so it has lost the edge of the revolutionary thought of Mary. She sees her pregnancy as vindication of the poor, with her as the representative. If God selects a humble girl such as Mary to be the instrument of a new world order, then anything can happen. Just as the wilderness is imagined as a garden, so will social life be changed. The poor will be safe form the rich; the mighty will no longer have a throne to lord it over others. MLK spoke of the content of our character, not the color of our skin. in a similar way, Mary says that leadership will emerge from a boatload of talent, not just a fat wallet. 

 

Everybody faces emotional and spiritual dry places. It is a mistake to think that somehow we will avoid them. They are part of the course. With all of the frenzied preparations,drooping hands are a common feature of trudging through the holidays. Drooping hands to me signal exhaustion. Even when we feel as if we wander in unfamiliar  wastelands, No human heart can ever dry up. All it needs is a little tending, like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. It may seem as if our very souls have shriveled to the point of being unrecognizable even to ourselves. Every human spirit can flower. You're sick and have a hard time remembering feeling really good. Our passages look toward health, well being and restoration. One day we will not hear the word cancer, just as we no longer hear small pox or polio.

 

Weak knees could come from fear or love, or both, remember how seeing a special someone can get you weak in the knees. . For a while the Christmas landscape seeks to replicate the hope of Is. 35. People actually do sing. We, at least for a moment, obtain joy and gladness in the season. Even for a bit when people sing silent Night by candlelight, sorrow and sighing flee away as fast as any reindeer on a flying sleigh. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas fits the cards in the mailbox, the candles in the windows, but it can live inside us and be glimpsed in our institutions too. I like hearing the bell ringers for the salvation Army. I like that offices have Christmas parties, and that the children get a long break for Christmas. those all light of candle of joy down the line that makes the holiday, the holy day blaze with light.

Is.7:10-16

Few passages divide wings of Christianity more than v.14. Liberals emphasize that virgin is from Greek, and the Hebrew means young woman. Matthew uses the Greek translation of the passage, as does most of the NT, and we have spilled ink on how literally one should take this word in the gospel. Still, words do not exist encased in amber, but they move and grow with time and use.If memory serves, Barth plays games with the passage calling us to take it very seriously but will not go to the level of accuracy. It is similar to his parsing of words to speak of resurrection.(see IV/1 in a section like Lord of Time and a new book by Dawson)). We may be around 742 BCE.

1) A recent Interpretation on the Gospel of Matthew emphasizes not the virgin birth, but the name Emmanuel (God with us). How does Jesus add meaning to that name? Could Emmanuel mean god with us, as in on our side, or as companion? See Douglas John Hall 's professing the faith for a good discussion of Emmanuel. I am not sure the degree to which 1st century messianic thught looked toward this passage. OK, the Septuagint's translation of young woman into virgin (parthenos) may be a move in that direction,k but maybe not, especially if one considers the political expectations of the Messiah of David's line.

2) Ahaz does well with the question of the sign-he will not put God to the test (trial). I sometimes think that this is the meaning in the Lord's Prayer, we are not to test/try/tempt God.

3) In this passage, the sign son will bring a big change and soon. It is a symbolic sign of impending rescue from military threat. See ch. 9 on a child. Sign="ot", as in signs and wonders.

4) Is the king being addressed here? Isn't the symbol enacted in ch 8?  Mt.'s appropriation of this could be as simple as the surprise that the birth of a child presaged a major event. Still, is the child a symbol, or the actual deliverer/redeemer/messiah?
5) in 13, what would now exhaust the patience of humans or God?

6) IB (219) has a nice quote from Blake "for mercy has a human heart/pity, a human face/and love the human form divine/and peace the human dress."

Second Week of Advent 2010

 

Sunday Dec. Ps. 72 contains material from which we draw traditions about the Three Kings of Matthew 2's visit. what I notice is how socially concerned the king should be. This psalm, along with many other passages, regards justice and help for the poor as the great responsibility of the king. We do well to act out Mt. 25's concern for the least of these in the Holiday season, as we still the Salvation Army bell of conscience by dropping in some coins, we are not only called to charity but to promoting social justice, where the structure of society work to lessen the plight and the numbers of the least of these.

 

Monday Here's another quote from O'Donahue's book, Beauty: "to participate in beauty is to come in the presence of the Holy...spirituality  has to do with the transfiguration of distance, to come near ourselves, beauty, and our God." (121-2) the oft-repeated sense of encountering god in a sunset finds some resonance here. Recall thought, God's beauty resides within human beings too. Where can we discern beauty inside of another?

what does it mean to do a beautiful thing? With the movie, what does it mean to catch sight of a beautiful mind? How do all of these bring us 'near to the heart of god?"

 

Tuesday since Advent starts the church year, it is wise to look at quotes from the secular new year's day. Lamb: Advent "starts a day when it is everyone birthday."Tennyson:"the year is going, let it go/ring out the false, ring in the true; Eliot:"next year's words await another voice/to make an end is to make a beginning; Atkinson:"drop last year into some silent limbo of the past/let it go...and thank God we can let it go."

 

Wednesday-Barth burst on the scene in the early 20th Century to remind us that God is more than humanity to a higher degree. god's way is usually in a disjunction with the way things are. With Scripture's spectacles, we can catch a glimpse of the "strange new world of god" moving into our own. Advent has us look again at the radical reversal of the birth in Bethlehem. it also has us look at the inbreaking of god's way in the world in the apocalyptic sense of god's unveiling of a new way in the world, where god has marched non-violently into enemy territory, into the realm of darkness, to bring light. A good sense of this can be found in Christopher Morse's new book, the difference Heaven Makes.

 

Thursday-Christmas Kid's books sometimes capture the spirit of the season without the treacle of popular adult books for the season. they may not be religious in the sense of replaying the stories from Matthew or Luke. Often, they are profoundly religious as they tie us into the the meaning for the season in some fresh, moving ways, when our ears have been dulled by repetition of the Nativity story too many times. Pick some up and read them aloud, and you may well find yourself in the mood for the season all over again.

 

Friday-Since this is a season here we look toward peace. consider these quotes as part of a long stream that link inner peace with peacemaking. Muste:'When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace." Fulghum:"Peace is not something to wish for. It's something you make;something you do, something you are, something you give away."

 

Saturday-Around 490, the bishop of Tours started a tradition of preparing for Christmas. In many churches, but not all. it was a penitential season of fasting and prayer. Advent customs, such as the calendar and the Advent wreath seem to come from Germany. traditions help to coalesce our memories into symbols. Perhaps no season has as many symbols as moving into Christmas. they can push space for us to live into the season as we practice them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I was young, most houses had a welcome mat at the front door. We all know what it feels like to be welcomed by someone and welcoming others. It's a feeling of a good fit to hear-welcome home. Welcome is determined to make you feel at home. It is an ancient way of saying that I am so glad you came.

 

Welcome extends the family metaphor to surprising extent toward 1 voice and indeed one common mind. In politics an administration seeks to speak with one voice, even if the path toward a policy has been contentious. The new Christian Century notes the musical allusions of the peace of welcome. (Here demonstrate harmony and dissonance).Just as Israel's history meets at a point in Christ, now that pivot point will open a door to all. Paul uses a dense interplay of scripture here,as he arranges a string of quotations to tell the Jewish Christians that an advent moment had arrived with Jesus Christ and the church. A door had been opened through little Israel to welcome the whole world in.

 

This section closes a long discussion by Paul on judging others as the opposite of welcoming them. Instead of acceptance , we close off welcome with walls when we judge them harshly, and what other kind of judgement is there? So we make people feel unwelcome. Both groups thought they were being better Christians than the other, and they looked askance at the other group. I'm not sure if it is arrogance or defensiveness that brings us to such a point.I remember going to a church and hearing that the contemporary worship folks blamed the traditional worship folks over a pastoral dispute, but it had nothing at all to do with that issue. Judgement leaps to conclusions. Judgement links points that are not necessarily linked. it makes untested assumptions about people, and untested assumptions usually end up with poor decisions.

 

Isaiah imagines a peaceable kingdom in nature, so maybe even in church. Gen 1 seems to indicate carnivores came after the fall. It is a vision of no more predators, of safety and security. Secure in welcome, we can let our guard down. That's why church is a place where tears flow when they don't normally. It is the one place where we can admit that everything is not up to us. In church we glimpse a God who stands with arms wide open to us. For me, the liturgy offers a secure place to stand, so that we can feel that divine welcome.Emily Dickinson-the soul should stand ajar,ready to welcome ecstatic experience. I heard a complaint about a pastor that the new folks who were visiting were Not our kind of people. People will often welcome newcomers only if they pledge fealty to doing things exactly the way they have been done before. Who are the predatory folks in church, and who are the lambs? Margaret Wheatley says a circle tells the shyest person that their voice is welcome 

 

Welcome as Christ as welcomed you. We see what that looks like in baptism. We don't run a litmus test on age or any demographic factor. Jesus Christ accepts those who heed god's equal call to baptism. In communion it is a wide open spiritual buffet line. Scratch that as usually we get served family style. Paul Tillich famously preached: you are accepted. That phrase continues in the short statement of faith of the reunited North and South of our own denomination. The NIV translates welcome as accept. I will say this, even though it may be going to far. Welcome is an example of unconditional love, love with no strings attached.

Is.35 (Second Cut) Contrary to the older view, many see this chapter as postdating 1st Isaiah and that it serves as a sort of bridge to ch.40, after the material in 36-39. fro instance, the theme is exilic in the end, but yes, maybe it alone was tacked on.

 

1) Verses.3,4 hit me hard this year. What puts us in these postures.  What changes our posture?

2)The desert looks like a garden, but without irrigation.

3)the abundance of nature then becomes healing in vv.5.6. One could say that the glory/presence of the temple radiates outward to heal. Jesus may be referring to this passage in Mt. 11:15.

 4) I would think that streams in the desert makes at least some allusion to Ex.15,17's water. What does it mean to you to say that nature will rejoice?

5) Notice the movement verbs at the end of the passage. Instead of a king's highway,we have a holy highway.

6) Anticipating his discussions with Renowned Theologian of Rush County Mick Saunders, Breuggemann looks at the alternative world of this passage (TOT,209) and speaks of ordered life, v. deathly chaos, possibility of a new future, v. despair,dancing freedom v. oppression,viable community v.absolutizing autonomy,nourishment and care v.wretched abandonment.