On my walk this morning, I saw a sign that begged folks to resolve to go to Sunday school every week in 2012. I was in the senior citizens wellness center , and people were there trying to get a head start on their promise to themselves of trying to work off some of the weight they gained during Christmas season.
Those two examples set me to thinking about resolutions for the New Year. I bet most of us resolve to try to clean up our diets, exercise more, and try to lose some weight. We may try to deal with a difficult habit that impedes our physical health. We do not seem as quick as to work on a virtue as we are to try to eliminate a vice. Our spiritual health certainly seems to take a decidedly second place behind our concern for physical health. (By the way, I need to explore at some point why I so consistently mistype spiritual when I am at a keyboard).
I was asked to officiate at a funeral this week. In my search for appropriate Scriptural material, I went back to the book of wisdom, Ecclesiastes. Some see it as a depressive work, as it consigns most of the things to which we aspire as being in vain, as meaningless, as futile. Actually, it looks at the big promises as futile dreams. Instead of looking for big answers to big questions, it commends keeping an eye on what is within our capacity. It commends working as fully as we can at whatever task is at hand, to enjoy our food and drink, to relish companionship, to dress as if we are going to a formal party.
One reason some of our resolutions for 2012 seem doomed to failure is that we try to take on too much in number or in size. Our wills are weak and prone to slip. Then we tend to beat ourselves up for our wills not being up to the goals we set before us. May I suggest that we lessen the chance of failure in resolve by limiting our resolutions a bit in the scope of their ambition? Let me further suggest that we do well to follow the advice of Ecclesiastes who has taken on the persona of Solomon in a “been there, done that” fashion. Instead of new deprivations, consider ways for you to enjoy your life more fully every day. I suggest to people who suffer with depression that they should have a list handy of ten easy to do things that give them pleasure as a way of short-circuiting the coming cloud.
I’m going to a conference in Indianapolis, the reformed roundtable, at the start of 2012. I have been assigned a book, Life in God, by the new president of Christian theological Seminary, Matthew Boulton. The thrust of the book is Calvin’s insistence that all of life is a training ground, a school, or our learning to live, not only with god but within the very life of God. For Calvin, our basic problem is blindness, being oblivious to the nature and work of God in everyday life. To cure this lack of spiritual sight, he commended Bible reading and regular worship. Both demonstrate God more clearly to us. I realize that both of these items may seem to contradict what I just said about finding things ot enjoy in life. To tell the truth, if they are viewed as duties, the contention would hold. If they are seen as practice toward advancing our spiritual well-being and happiness, as aids to a better life, then the objection loses force. If Christmas teaches us anything, it is that God holds body and soul together. We are of a piece, so what lifts one part of life affects the whole. May you have yes to see many blessings in 2012.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Sermon Notes for Jan 1/12 Lk.2;22-40, Is. 61:10-62:3
Anna and Simeon.we say that Christmas is for children. This wonderful story makes it clear it includes all ages, including the elderly. Ana is elderly, and I picture Simeon as elderly as well, so this story frames the season well. we picture the new year coming in as an happy infant and the old year tottering away on a cane. they both are inspired with a sense that a new Spirit was to blow through, but they had no idea where or when. They live as the perfect Advent characters alert, eyes wide open to the answer to their prayers. They lived in hope, even though day after day the fulfillment of that hope had not appeared. had they missed it? they did not make a resolution as much as one was made for them.
Jesus goes through the ancient ritual of circumcision. We claim infant baptism in part though this act. Our New year’s Day as Christians is the day of our baptism, our initiation into the christian community, our citizenship papers for the kingdom of God, our passport into the reaches of heaven.
While many have taken down their decorations to keep up with the stores, our reading from Isaiah is filled with decorations. Life with god is a decorated life. The decorative elements and the need for salvation show a decorate lie with real pain. How could Simeon’s words not come back to haunt Mary in the days before Easter. What sharper sword could have pierced her own heart, even as he echos her own prophecy about the rising and falling of many.
As we start another calendar year, I do admit that I love the idea that Anna is constantly in prayer. As we grow older, time changes its aspect. when we are younger, especially now it seems to me, we are in such a hurry, trying to keep all the plates spinning,as those of us old enough to remember Ed Sullivan would remember. Especially for people in nursing homes, time becomes a burden, something that begs to be filled, that weighs down on them. When time seems to stretch endlessly but mercilessly, of crushing boredom, pray. Take a newspaper and pray for the articles on the front page. Pray the TV news. Better grab a Bible and pray it. I found it hard ot believe that we were asked to read sections of the book of Order this way, but the method for bible reading is called holy reading, lectio divina. Read a passage through three times and note what strikes you each time you go through it. As our liturgy for funerals says, God is always more willing to hear us praying, than we are to pray.
Anna and Simeon may have been old, but a new day dawned for them there in the temple. One or two of us are getting a tiny bit older, and today a new year dawns for us. In Jesus Christ, through the Spirit’s breath of new life, every day is open to being fresh and new, limitations and energy deficits can flee away. As we were reminded some weeks ago. January is Janus faced, two-faced, one to the future, one to the past. As we look at First Presbyterian Church of Alton, we do well to be Janus-faced this month: to look ot the past at what we treasure and toward a new future that may well transform us.with God’s help and the discernment processes of the spirit, where do we want to go from here? What do we need to do for a new future? I do know this. For a while let’s put the business plans on the back burner and follow the path of prayer of Anna and Simeon, answered prayers that allowed them see the newborn Light of the world come into being. Know this. That same newborn light shines for each one of us.
Jesus goes through the ancient ritual of circumcision. We claim infant baptism in part though this act. Our New year’s Day as Christians is the day of our baptism, our initiation into the christian community, our citizenship papers for the kingdom of God, our passport into the reaches of heaven.
While many have taken down their decorations to keep up with the stores, our reading from Isaiah is filled with decorations. Life with god is a decorated life. The decorative elements and the need for salvation show a decorate lie with real pain. How could Simeon’s words not come back to haunt Mary in the days before Easter. What sharper sword could have pierced her own heart, even as he echos her own prophecy about the rising and falling of many.
As we start another calendar year, I do admit that I love the idea that Anna is constantly in prayer. As we grow older, time changes its aspect. when we are younger, especially now it seems to me, we are in such a hurry, trying to keep all the plates spinning,as those of us old enough to remember Ed Sullivan would remember. Especially for people in nursing homes, time becomes a burden, something that begs to be filled, that weighs down on them. When time seems to stretch endlessly but mercilessly, of crushing boredom, pray. Take a newspaper and pray for the articles on the front page. Pray the TV news. Better grab a Bible and pray it. I found it hard ot believe that we were asked to read sections of the book of Order this way, but the method for bible reading is called holy reading, lectio divina. Read a passage through three times and note what strikes you each time you go through it. As our liturgy for funerals says, God is always more willing to hear us praying, than we are to pray.
Anna and Simeon may have been old, but a new day dawned for them there in the temple. One or two of us are getting a tiny bit older, and today a new year dawns for us. In Jesus Christ, through the Spirit’s breath of new life, every day is open to being fresh and new, limitations and energy deficits can flee away. As we were reminded some weeks ago. January is Janus faced, two-faced, one to the future, one to the past. As we look at First Presbyterian Church of Alton, we do well to be Janus-faced this month: to look ot the past at what we treasure and toward a new future that may well transform us.with God’s help and the discernment processes of the spirit, where do we want to go from here? What do we need to do for a new future? I do know this. For a while let’s put the business plans on the back burner and follow the path of prayer of Anna and Simeon, answered prayers that allowed them see the newborn Light of the world come into being. Know this. That same newborn light shines for each one of us.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Notes for Wednesday Dec.28
1) Read Mt. 2:1-12 for tomorrow.
2) Look at Is. 60
3)Look at Ps. 72.What led the early church to link these passages with the story of the Magi?
4) Why do you think the Magi-wise men in the gospel but the singular is a magician is Acts?
5) Is the story against, or in favor of, astrology?
6) Herod did kill his own children if he felt that they threatened his power.
7) What does it tell about Herod that he would use such a wide age range to murder?
8) Is he being compared to the Egyptian ruler of the Exodus?
9) The star may refer to the star of Jacob in Num 24:7, 17-19.
10) Bethlehem falls back to the quoted Micah 5:2 and Jer. 23:5. We have a negative referral to Galilee in John 7:42 that the messiah arises from a different quarter.
11) I have heard the gifts refer to royalty, worship, and anointing for death. They appear together in Ex. 30:5, ,7 and 34, 23 and 34. Notice a registration is mentioned at 11.
2) Look at Is. 60
3)Look at Ps. 72.What led the early church to link these passages with the story of the Magi?
4) Why do you think the Magi-wise men in the gospel but the singular is a magician is Acts?
5) Is the story against, or in favor of, astrology?
6) Herod did kill his own children if he felt that they threatened his power.
7) What does it tell about Herod that he would use such a wide age range to murder?
8) Is he being compared to the Egyptian ruler of the Exodus?
9) The star may refer to the star of Jacob in Num 24:7, 17-19.
10) Bethlehem falls back to the quoted Micah 5:2 and Jer. 23:5. We have a negative referral to Galilee in John 7:42 that the messiah arises from a different quarter.
11) I have heard the gifts refer to royalty, worship, and anointing for death. They appear together in Ex. 30:5, ,7 and 34, 23 and 34. Notice a registration is mentioned at 11.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Notes for Is. 61:10-62:3
Is. 61:10-62:3
1) The decorations are coming down, but not in churches. Isaiah uses decoration language to capture a sense of promise and a new future, wedding imagery.
2) The earth itself is decorated with new growth, perhaps like the image of the lilies of the field.
3) 62: starts with a challenge, by the prophet or the servant (or even god??) that the coming vindication will indeed come, with the insistence and maybe annoyance of a car alarm.
4) The promise includes a new name. Sometimes what we are called or call something is so worn or distorted that it needs a new sew name. Look at how liberal has been distorted in how time, or how tea Party arose to give new impetus to the alienated, radical right wing. Think of the change of biblical names of Abram, Saul, Simon Peter, and Jacob as well.
5) We close with emblems fit for Cinderella, I imagine a diadem as bejeweled but it doesn’t have to be.
6) Some good children’s Christmas stories involve decoration such as the spider’s gift or Gift of the traveler.
1) The decorations are coming down, but not in churches. Isaiah uses decoration language to capture a sense of promise and a new future, wedding imagery.
2) The earth itself is decorated with new growth, perhaps like the image of the lilies of the field.
3) 62: starts with a challenge, by the prophet or the servant (or even god??) that the coming vindication will indeed come, with the insistence and maybe annoyance of a car alarm.
4) The promise includes a new name. Sometimes what we are called or call something is so worn or distorted that it needs a new sew name. Look at how liberal has been distorted in how time, or how tea Party arose to give new impetus to the alienated, radical right wing. Think of the change of biblical names of Abram, Saul, Simon Peter, and Jacob as well.
5) We close with emblems fit for Cinderella, I imagine a diadem as bejeweled but it doesn’t have to be.
6) Some good children’s Christmas stories involve decoration such as the spider’s gift or Gift of the traveler.
christmas Column 2011
American like to prattle on about being religious or spiritual, but less than half of us go to church on Christmas. For those who do deign to enter the doors for worship, we can almost be guaranteed that we will hear the Luke’s Christmas story with the shepherds. If you miss it at church, you may have heard it read by Linus in a Charlie Brown Christmas. We don’t really hear it, as we often know it almost by heart. So, let’s slow it down a bit today.
Luke had a decided, subtle political agenda in the birth story. he starts out by listing the political powers of the world of Jesus. None are aware of his birth. By the time of the gospels, Roman emperors had adopted a variety of titles. The angels take those very titles and apply them to Jesus. Even the angel chorus has political overtones. The host of heaven was usually God’s military arm. Now they have been transformed into a choir for peace.
Shepherds could have been the last people who many would imagine being the only witnesses to the birth of Jesus, as they had approval rating roughly at the level of the current U. S. Congress. Under the nose of the “1%” the representatives of the bottom of the “99%’ get the word. What wonders lie at our feet unnoticed? What Christmas miracles are implanted within us and are nurtured or left to wither?
Incarnation then takes place in good walk away from Jerusalem’s temple and palace. Instead of a royal robe, the baby is laid in a manger. A feeding trough would hold the one called the Bread of Life. At First Presbyterian, the stained glass interpretation of Christmas has a manger superimposed over Bethlehem, so it connects earth and heaven.
We just read a children’s book in church, father and son. It’s set on Christmas night with Joseph looking over the sleeping baby and worrying, like any new father, but with the questions taking on special enormity. How will he teach the alphabet to a child who also is of the Creator who “whispered words to millions.” How could he tell a joke to someone who knew them all? Admittedly, it’s putting theology and poetic language in the mouth of Joseph, but he serves as a good mouthpiece for our quandaries in considering how the “fullness of God” could dwell in a baby who would grow, develop, and learn just as any baby would. How could we speak of the Creator of all, the divine Word/Plan/Logos of John 1 be a creature as well? Surely the Incarnation means God with us, Emmanuel. the astonishment is that it is more than saying Yes to us, as Paul said, but that that God is present in the human condition in Jesus.
For Luke, Mary, not Joseph is center-stage. At the end, she takes in what the shepherds say to her and treasures them, she who sang of great reversals of rich and poor in her Magnificat in the previous chapter. Again, we hear that she pondered words in her heart. The word in Greek is closer to an internal debate or discussion, with a sense of sifting evidence, of shuttling ideas back and forth. I wonder if she pondered why no choir was there at the manger. Did she have a notion that her son would call himself the Good Shepherd?
My prayer is that our eyes are open to some of the hidden wonders of life here. May we take those and connect to Christmas miracle. May the Christmas spirit live and develop within us, as did the babe of Bethlehem.
Luke had a decided, subtle political agenda in the birth story. he starts out by listing the political powers of the world of Jesus. None are aware of his birth. By the time of the gospels, Roman emperors had adopted a variety of titles. The angels take those very titles and apply them to Jesus. Even the angel chorus has political overtones. The host of heaven was usually God’s military arm. Now they have been transformed into a choir for peace.
Shepherds could have been the last people who many would imagine being the only witnesses to the birth of Jesus, as they had approval rating roughly at the level of the current U. S. Congress. Under the nose of the “1%” the representatives of the bottom of the “99%’ get the word. What wonders lie at our feet unnoticed? What Christmas miracles are implanted within us and are nurtured or left to wither?
Incarnation then takes place in good walk away from Jerusalem’s temple and palace. Instead of a royal robe, the baby is laid in a manger. A feeding trough would hold the one called the Bread of Life. At First Presbyterian, the stained glass interpretation of Christmas has a manger superimposed over Bethlehem, so it connects earth and heaven.
We just read a children’s book in church, father and son. It’s set on Christmas night with Joseph looking over the sleeping baby and worrying, like any new father, but with the questions taking on special enormity. How will he teach the alphabet to a child who also is of the Creator who “whispered words to millions.” How could he tell a joke to someone who knew them all? Admittedly, it’s putting theology and poetic language in the mouth of Joseph, but he serves as a good mouthpiece for our quandaries in considering how the “fullness of God” could dwell in a baby who would grow, develop, and learn just as any baby would. How could we speak of the Creator of all, the divine Word/Plan/Logos of John 1 be a creature as well? Surely the Incarnation means God with us, Emmanuel. the astonishment is that it is more than saying Yes to us, as Paul said, but that that God is present in the human condition in Jesus.
For Luke, Mary, not Joseph is center-stage. At the end, she takes in what the shepherds say to her and treasures them, she who sang of great reversals of rich and poor in her Magnificat in the previous chapter. Again, we hear that she pondered words in her heart. The word in Greek is closer to an internal debate or discussion, with a sense of sifting evidence, of shuttling ideas back and forth. I wonder if she pondered why no choir was there at the manger. Did she have a notion that her son would call himself the Good Shepherd?
My prayer is that our eyes are open to some of the hidden wonders of life here. May we take those and connect to Christmas miracle. May the Christmas spirit live and develop within us, as did the babe of Bethlehem.
christmas Column 2011
American like to prattle on about being religious or spiritual, but less than half of us go to church on Christmas. For those who do deign to enter the doors for worship, we can almost be guaranteed that we will hear the Luke’s Christmas story with the shepherds. If you miss it at church, you may have heard it read by Linus in a Charlie Brown Christmas. We don’t really hear it, as we often know it almost by heart. So, let’s slow it down a bit today.
Luke had a decided, subtle political agenda in the birth story. he starts out by listing the political powers of the world of Jesus. None are aware of his birth. By the time of the gospels, Roman emperors had adopted a variety of titles. The angels take those very titles and apply them to Jesus. Even the angel chorus has political overtones. The host of heaven was usually God’s military arm. Now they have been transformed into a choir for peace.
Shepherds could have been the last people who many would imagine being the only witnesses to the birth of Jesus, as they had approval rating roughly at the level of the current U. S. Congress. Under the nose of the “1%” the representatives of the bottom of the “99%’ get the word. What wonders lie at our feet unnoticed? What Christmas miracles are implanted within us and are nurtured or left to wither?
Incarnation then takes place in good walk away from Jerusalem’s temple and palace. Instead of a royal robe, the baby is laid in a manger. A feeding trough would hold the one called the Bread of Life. At First Presbyterian, the stained glass interpretation of Christmas has a manger superimposed over Bethlehem, so it connects earth and heaven.
We just read a children’s book in church, father and son. It’s set on Christmas night with Joseph looking over the sleeping baby and worrying, like any new father, but with the questions taking on special enormity. How will he teach the alphabet to a child who also is of the Creator who “whispered words to millions.” How could he tell a joke to someone who knew them all? Admittedly, it’s putting theology and poetic language in the mouth of Joseph, but he serves as a good mouthpiece for our quandaries in considering how the “fullness of God” could dwell in a baby who would grow, develop, and learn just as any baby would. How could we speak of the Creator of all, the divine Word/Plan/Logos of John 1 be a creature as well? Surely the Incarnation means God with us, Emmanuel. the astonishment is that it is more than saying Yes to us, as Paul said, but that that God is present in the human condition in Jesus.
For Luke, Mary, not Joseph is center-stage. At the end, she takes in what the shepherds say to her and treasures them, she who sang of great reversals of rich and poor in her Magnificat in the previous chapter. Again, we hear that she pondered words in her heart. The word in Greek is closer to an internal debate or discussion, with a sense of sifting evidence, of shuttling ideas back and forth. I wonder if she pondered why no choir was there at the manger. Did she have a notion that her son would call himself the Good Shepherd?
My prayer is that our eyes are open to some of the hidden wonders of life here. May we take those and connect to Christmas miracle. May the Christmas spirit live and develop within us, as did the babe of Bethlehem.
Luke had a decided, subtle political agenda in the birth story. he starts out by listing the political powers of the world of Jesus. None are aware of his birth. By the time of the gospels, Roman emperors had adopted a variety of titles. The angels take those very titles and apply them to Jesus. Even the angel chorus has political overtones. The host of heaven was usually God’s military arm. Now they have been transformed into a choir for peace.
Shepherds could have been the last people who many would imagine being the only witnesses to the birth of Jesus, as they had approval rating roughly at the level of the current U. S. Congress. Under the nose of the “1%” the representatives of the bottom of the “99%’ get the word. What wonders lie at our feet unnoticed? What Christmas miracles are implanted within us and are nurtured or left to wither?
Incarnation then takes place in good walk away from Jerusalem’s temple and palace. Instead of a royal robe, the baby is laid in a manger. A feeding trough would hold the one called the Bread of Life. At First Presbyterian, the stained glass interpretation of Christmas has a manger superimposed over Bethlehem, so it connects earth and heaven.
We just read a children’s book in church, father and son. It’s set on Christmas night with Joseph looking over the sleeping baby and worrying, like any new father, but with the questions taking on special enormity. How will he teach the alphabet to a child who also is of the Creator who “whispered words to millions.” How could he tell a joke to someone who knew them all? Admittedly, it’s putting theology and poetic language in the mouth of Joseph, but he serves as a good mouthpiece for our quandaries in considering how the “fullness of God” could dwell in a baby who would grow, develop, and learn just as any baby would. How could we speak of the Creator of all, the divine Word/Plan/Logos of John 1 be a creature as well? Surely the Incarnation means God with us, Emmanuel. the astonishment is that it is more than saying Yes to us, as Paul said, but that that God is present in the human condition in Jesus.
For Luke, Mary, not Joseph is center-stage. At the end, she takes in what the shepherds say to her and treasures them, she who sang of great reversals of rich and poor in her Magnificat in the previous chapter. Again, we hear that she pondered words in her heart. The word in Greek is closer to an internal debate or discussion, with a sense of sifting evidence, of shuttling ideas back and forth. I wonder if she pondered why no choir was there at the manger. Did she have a notion that her son would call himself the Good Shepherd?
My prayer is that our eyes are open to some of the hidden wonders of life here. May we take those and connect to Christmas miracle. May the Christmas spirit live and develop within us, as did the babe of Bethlehem.
Christmas Sermon Notes 2011 Luke 2;1-20
Under the nose of the 1% Jesus Christ was born for the 100%. That’s why Luke starts out with the parade of political figures to start the story. Under the hegemony of Roman officials, a divine intrusion by the downtrodden happened on Christmas. In Luke’s story, the only people who hear about it are some downtrodden shepherds. Remember that shepherds were not the romantic figures of our imagination from movies and Christmas pageants. Instead of occupying Rome or Jerusalem, Jesus was born a maybe a good 2 hour walk away from the temple, but it was still the city of David.
Luke places the story amid the power of the occupying Roman authority. The angels use names applied to the emperor and apply them to this baby born in an out of the way place. Even the appearance of the angels is ironic. In the OT, the angelic host were the fearsome troops of God. Now they have been transformed here into a choir. Only the rough shepherds heard songs of Christmas that evening, a small audience for the heralds of a miracle, a miracle of the Incarnation, where the very self of the Creator God, the omnipresent one, squeezed into a baby;s life in all of the divine fullness in that very human baby. When I am in a Grinch mood, I wonder if Christ is being squeezed out of Christmas. Then I remember that the incarnation has God hallowing all of creation, as the Book of Order says. Many things can point sacramentally to Emmanuel, God with us. Hear that phrase carefully this morning. God with us, connected to us, relating to us, not against us, not over us, with us. If we have eyes to see, if we have Christmas eyes, we can look beneath the tinsel to find the real treasures that lie beneath.
We place so much weight on this day. we imagine that life can look like a Hallmark card, just for today. we have been inundated with Christmas songs and decorations for weeks now, as the secular calendar collides with the sacred calendar. No holiday could come close to trying to fill the expectations and dreams we heap on this holiday. No gift, no gifts, are capable of of carrying the freight we place on them. We arrive at this day worn out from a frenzy of preparation and wearied by the constant crush of gatherings. Mary and Joseph and the babe heard no hymns. their first Christmas was away from home, in a rude shelter at best. That’s one reason our thoughts move so easily to the poor, why Dickens’ Christmas Carol has such resonance with us over the years.
Luther was impressed with the divine psychology at work in this birth. He saw God as fearsome, so we can all be brave enough to come near a baby, as he said, God became small for us. Instead of a shock and awe campaign, God chose a hidden approach, to make the work of salvation an inside job. God works from within as well as without, from the inside out. I bet the malls are already busy taking down Christmas decorations, and here is the church just starting the season. there’s the church behind again. Dig beneath the tinsel and the lights being packed away and the trees already getting dry and brittle. Beneath the glitz, the fading decorations, the self-same miracle is celebrated today. the Christmas season is just starting. May we have plenty of room in the inn of our lives, to invite the dear child to enter in. 100% of us are mangers to support the Christ child.
Luke places the story amid the power of the occupying Roman authority. The angels use names applied to the emperor and apply them to this baby born in an out of the way place. Even the appearance of the angels is ironic. In the OT, the angelic host were the fearsome troops of God. Now they have been transformed here into a choir. Only the rough shepherds heard songs of Christmas that evening, a small audience for the heralds of a miracle, a miracle of the Incarnation, where the very self of the Creator God, the omnipresent one, squeezed into a baby;s life in all of the divine fullness in that very human baby. When I am in a Grinch mood, I wonder if Christ is being squeezed out of Christmas. Then I remember that the incarnation has God hallowing all of creation, as the Book of Order says. Many things can point sacramentally to Emmanuel, God with us. Hear that phrase carefully this morning. God with us, connected to us, relating to us, not against us, not over us, with us. If we have eyes to see, if we have Christmas eyes, we can look beneath the tinsel to find the real treasures that lie beneath.
We place so much weight on this day. we imagine that life can look like a Hallmark card, just for today. we have been inundated with Christmas songs and decorations for weeks now, as the secular calendar collides with the sacred calendar. No holiday could come close to trying to fill the expectations and dreams we heap on this holiday. No gift, no gifts, are capable of of carrying the freight we place on them. We arrive at this day worn out from a frenzy of preparation and wearied by the constant crush of gatherings. Mary and Joseph and the babe heard no hymns. their first Christmas was away from home, in a rude shelter at best. That’s one reason our thoughts move so easily to the poor, why Dickens’ Christmas Carol has such resonance with us over the years.
Luther was impressed with the divine psychology at work in this birth. He saw God as fearsome, so we can all be brave enough to come near a baby, as he said, God became small for us. Instead of a shock and awe campaign, God chose a hidden approach, to make the work of salvation an inside job. God works from within as well as without, from the inside out. I bet the malls are already busy taking down Christmas decorations, and here is the church just starting the season. there’s the church behind again. Dig beneath the tinsel and the lights being packed away and the trees already getting dry and brittle. Beneath the glitz, the fading decorations, the self-same miracle is celebrated today. the Christmas season is just starting. May we have plenty of room in the inn of our lives, to invite the dear child to enter in. 100% of us are mangers to support the Christ child.
Devotions for christmas Week 2011
Christmas on a Sunday feels like cheating a bit. It eliminates the need for a special Christmas service during the week. On the other hand, I can think of few things to get at the depth of sabbath more than celebrating Christmas at the same time. Just as the shepherds came to honor Jesus, so do we when we come to church, especially on this day, where the church acts as a manger. It makes it easier to keep god in Christmas this day.
Monday We have a bit of a letdown after Christmas. The compartment of peace where we place Christmas is over. Some much time preparing seem to flee at the flick of an eye. I remember my mother getting upset that her two greedy sons could make short work of her careful wrapping.Take an imaginative moment and consider what the day after would be for Mary and Joseph on the day after the Nativity. What were their hopes and fears? Now they started to get adjusted to having a baby with them. What adjustments do you think a newborn brings?
Tuesday-I want to reflect a bit more on the miracle of the Incarnation. God is invisible, so to have the fullness of God take shape and form in a baby is all the more astounding. When we say that the fullness of God was present in Jesus, what do we mean? At the same time, we say Jesus emptied himself of power. What power, do you think? Where do you think the most tension existed in the divine and human “natures.?” What allowed Jesus to hold them together? Paul says that Jesus emptied himself of equality with God. How did that work, do you think?
Wednesday-Maybe by now you are growing weary of parties. It seems that we can take only so much celebration. I resist forced celebration as much as a sense of being forced to do most anything, I suppose. I often think of the line that art invites us to a response, and propaganda tells us what to feel. What are your favorite and less-favored elements of parties? How do you approach them, and with what expectations? To what degree should worship resemble a party?
Thursday- Christmas season can be a series of tests for love. “If you love me, you would get me this.” Worse, if you love me you would have known what I want.” Can I measure your love by the type of present I received? Do we put the love of God to similar tests? If love is given and accepted, does it require tests? If so, could we ever pass them all? Christmas then stands for the unconditional giving nature of God.
Friday -We move to have some time to think of the Wise men/Kings of song and story.The basic story has been blurred as the early church linked the gifts to Ps. 72 and Is. 60, so the Magi become kings. The early church blended the accounts with their mention of bringing gifts from afar. We attach various meanings to the gifts, but Exodus and the building of the tabernacle would suggest that they were all fitting for the presence of God.
Saturday, New Years Eve-I always liked the standard, What Are You Doin’ New Year’s Eve.” Other than Valentine's day, I don;t know if any day has the social pressures of this one. with some trepidation, I ask us to consider adding a spiritual request. Please consider making a spiritual resolution, after examining the assets and weaknesses in the spiritual quest. Indeed this is a good time of year to go over the past year and note its dimensions.
Monday We have a bit of a letdown after Christmas. The compartment of peace where we place Christmas is over. Some much time preparing seem to flee at the flick of an eye. I remember my mother getting upset that her two greedy sons could make short work of her careful wrapping.Take an imaginative moment and consider what the day after would be for Mary and Joseph on the day after the Nativity. What were their hopes and fears? Now they started to get adjusted to having a baby with them. What adjustments do you think a newborn brings?
Tuesday-I want to reflect a bit more on the miracle of the Incarnation. God is invisible, so to have the fullness of God take shape and form in a baby is all the more astounding. When we say that the fullness of God was present in Jesus, what do we mean? At the same time, we say Jesus emptied himself of power. What power, do you think? Where do you think the most tension existed in the divine and human “natures.?” What allowed Jesus to hold them together? Paul says that Jesus emptied himself of equality with God. How did that work, do you think?
Wednesday-Maybe by now you are growing weary of parties. It seems that we can take only so much celebration. I resist forced celebration as much as a sense of being forced to do most anything, I suppose. I often think of the line that art invites us to a response, and propaganda tells us what to feel. What are your favorite and less-favored elements of parties? How do you approach them, and with what expectations? To what degree should worship resemble a party?
Thursday- Christmas season can be a series of tests for love. “If you love me, you would get me this.” Worse, if you love me you would have known what I want.” Can I measure your love by the type of present I received? Do we put the love of God to similar tests? If love is given and accepted, does it require tests? If so, could we ever pass them all? Christmas then stands for the unconditional giving nature of God.
Friday -We move to have some time to think of the Wise men/Kings of song and story.The basic story has been blurred as the early church linked the gifts to Ps. 72 and Is. 60, so the Magi become kings. The early church blended the accounts with their mention of bringing gifts from afar. We attach various meanings to the gifts, but Exodus and the building of the tabernacle would suggest that they were all fitting for the presence of God.
Saturday, New Years Eve-I always liked the standard, What Are You Doin’ New Year’s Eve.” Other than Valentine's day, I don;t know if any day has the social pressures of this one. with some trepidation, I ask us to consider adding a spiritual request. Please consider making a spiritual resolution, after examining the assets and weaknesses in the spiritual quest. Indeed this is a good time of year to go over the past year and note its dimensions.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Notes for 2 Sam. 7:1-11, 16
1) we are in a crucial section of Zion ideology. My suspicious side sees this as a legitimation tool for a new political regime.the temple would be allied to the regime.
2) Note that this is an unconditional pledge. Yes, god will be angry at royal transgression, but ti does not affect the faithfulness of God. The conditional and unconditional nature of divine promise is a real tension.
3) So, when the kingship is destroyed, to protect the faithful promise, it get reworked into a messianic one.
4) House is played around as a structure, a temple, a palace, a dynasty.
5) One could do some good work on Nathan's mind changing.this adds to his appearance after Bathsheba in a few chapters.
6) What do you think of the divine preference for the outdoors. is this an indication that God realizes we are trying to contain the divine?
7) One can notice some real affinity, even dependence, on Ps. 89
2) Note that this is an unconditional pledge. Yes, god will be angry at royal transgression, but ti does not affect the faithfulness of God. The conditional and unconditional nature of divine promise is a real tension.
3) So, when the kingship is destroyed, to protect the faithful promise, it get reworked into a messianic one.
4) House is played around as a structure, a temple, a palace, a dynasty.
5) One could do some good work on Nathan's mind changing.this adds to his appearance after Bathsheba in a few chapters.
6) What do you think of the divine preference for the outdoors. is this an indication that God realizes we are trying to contain the divine?
7) One can notice some real affinity, even dependence, on Ps. 89
Sermon Notes Dec. 18-Lk.1:26-55
I was raised Roman Catholic in the old days. Part of our devotion was to Mary, where her statue was in church with candles we could light for special prayers. We had a beautiful grotto next to our little church for prayer, where we could ask for our protection of her robe flung over us for ourselves or people in our family. When my then-spouse was in law school at Notre Dame (Our Lady) students and alumni flocked to visit a gorgeous grotto on that model of a campus. I fully grasp why Protestants shy away from devotion to Mary, but I do fear that we do not pay her the Biblical respect she is clearly given, especially in the gospel of Luke. I think that we transferred some Marian devotion to Jesus, but I fear that we have neglected her words and spiritual power.
Mary could well have been very young by our standards; we are not given her age.I wonder how the angel would have reacted if Mary did not consent to the announcement made to her. I think the angel rightly has a male name as the angle seems to misread her feelings. Luke says that Mary is perplexed, not afraid. Mary is a thinker. What we say is ponder is more like tossing it back and forth, considering angles. She does not have a blind faith but she works through the meaning of events, processes them. Maybe Mary was an introvert who needed time and space to work things out on her own. She does the same pondering in her heart after the shepherds see her at the manger scene and when they found young Jesus in the temple at 12. Oh to be hospitable and open to the presence of god in ourselves and others as was mary.
Mary travels, while she is expecting, to go see Elizabeth who is also expecting by a miracle. The child in her womb reacts, actually responds in joy, when Mary greets her. Mary has been doing some deep thinking on the way. This prayer is based on Hannah's prayer, she too has a miraculous birth. More than that, Mary places herself with a list of Biblical women who have the miracle of giving life become possible for them. Then she sees herself as a representative of the poor as well. this birth is the start of a new age. This will be the start of the great reversal by and of, God. Now things will be different.
Her prayers sends chills down our spines because it could well be directed at us an individuals and certainly as members of a nation possessed of extraordinary power. When we are at the top, it is so tempting to treat those beneath with sneers and scorn. I got to see the restored silent classic, Metropolis, a couple of weeks ago. In it the people who live in a veritable Eden on the surface do so on the backs of the proles beneath. when the leader is asked about this arrangement, he replies that they are where they belong.So we treat people without the dignity and respect they deserve, as if they are the help, servants, in our own personal movie. At the same time, we have gotten so touchy, on the lookout for any grievance, any slip that may threaten our sense of self and proper position and status. People gather at holiday gatherings on edge, just waiting to judge and be judged.
The angel tells Mary that nothing is impossible with God. So much social progress has been made since she uttered ti so many years ago. Today’s young people seem to be a more tolerant lot, understanding of human imperfections, yet they retain some measure of idealism for common aims.That may well work for congregations and denominations too. One day the story of Scrooge or the Grinch may well have a social counterpart, where a village discovers Christmas generosity of spirit and peace.
Mary could well have been very young by our standards; we are not given her age.I wonder how the angel would have reacted if Mary did not consent to the announcement made to her. I think the angel rightly has a male name as the angle seems to misread her feelings. Luke says that Mary is perplexed, not afraid. Mary is a thinker. What we say is ponder is more like tossing it back and forth, considering angles. She does not have a blind faith but she works through the meaning of events, processes them. Maybe Mary was an introvert who needed time and space to work things out on her own. She does the same pondering in her heart after the shepherds see her at the manger scene and when they found young Jesus in the temple at 12. Oh to be hospitable and open to the presence of god in ourselves and others as was mary.
Mary travels, while she is expecting, to go see Elizabeth who is also expecting by a miracle. The child in her womb reacts, actually responds in joy, when Mary greets her. Mary has been doing some deep thinking on the way. This prayer is based on Hannah's prayer, she too has a miraculous birth. More than that, Mary places herself with a list of Biblical women who have the miracle of giving life become possible for them. Then she sees herself as a representative of the poor as well. this birth is the start of a new age. This will be the start of the great reversal by and of, God. Now things will be different.
Her prayers sends chills down our spines because it could well be directed at us an individuals and certainly as members of a nation possessed of extraordinary power. When we are at the top, it is so tempting to treat those beneath with sneers and scorn. I got to see the restored silent classic, Metropolis, a couple of weeks ago. In it the people who live in a veritable Eden on the surface do so on the backs of the proles beneath. when the leader is asked about this arrangement, he replies that they are where they belong.So we treat people without the dignity and respect they deserve, as if they are the help, servants, in our own personal movie. At the same time, we have gotten so touchy, on the lookout for any grievance, any slip that may threaten our sense of self and proper position and status. People gather at holiday gatherings on edge, just waiting to judge and be judged.
The angel tells Mary that nothing is impossible with God. So much social progress has been made since she uttered ti so many years ago. Today’s young people seem to be a more tolerant lot, understanding of human imperfections, yet they retain some measure of idealism for common aims.That may well work for congregations and denominations too. One day the story of Scrooge or the Grinch may well have a social counterpart, where a village discovers Christmas generosity of spirit and peace.
Dec. 18 Week devotions
Dec. 18-We had a choice of a psalm today or Mary’s great hymn of justice, in Latin, the Magnificat. From Christmas cards, we usually picture a sweet adoring mother. The Mary of the Magnificat is a firebrand. We hear a lot about keeping Christ in Christmas, Mary here wants to keep justice in Christmas. where do you see things as upside down at this time of year? How would it appear if the situations were suddenly reversed?
Monday-Many of us recall the phrase no room for them in the inn in Lk. 2:7. It is the same word we translate as guest room, for the Last Supper in Lk. 22:11. Jesus’s life was framed by seeking shelter in guest rooms. He was even buried in a borrowed grave. Jesus continues to seek a place to dwell within each one of us and in our congregations and communites. How welcoming are we to the presence of Christ? Inside, are we willing to make room for christ in the packed inns of our own selves?
Tuesday-Maybe some of you haven’t brought all your present yet. Maybe some of you are still doing menu planning. This is a generous time of year. I wish to make a brief plea for a form of frugality. please consider buying one less thing or saving some money on some items and give the money to the poor or to an organization that does work near and dear to your values. I get annoyed, too, at the constant drumbeat of charities looking for help at this time of year. Scrooge rejected their entreaties too. His Christmas miracle was in discovering generosity again.
Wednesday-We maintain continuing bonds with our loved ones, even when they have passed away. Perhaps you can compose a special toast to them. Maybe you could gather stories by or about them and place them in a stocking. Maybe you could even set out a place for them. You may find that admitting that you miss them drains some of the pain away more readily than repress all of the feelings in the name of holiday cheer. May you enjoy the communion of saints as you know that love bursts even the boundaries of death.
Thursday- I’m learning more about our blue hymnbook as time goes on. some of its carols are new to me.We sang #61, Twas in the Moon, in choir but it wasn’t in our hymnbook. The french missionary wanted the Native Americans to relate to the story, so the birth is in a rude lodging of twigs, and the baby is wrapped in rabbit skins. If you were retelling the story for 2011, what details would you make to conform to the present day?
Friday-We sing songs of peace on earth. how I crave that. the news is drenched in blood. Christmas peace get driven out of too many hearts out of anxiety, expectations, and sheer cussedness that we are determined to make as a stocking stuffer every single year. Perhaps if we are less alert for slights and more alert ot a chance at calm or reconciling we coudl come closer to the peace we crave.
Christmas Eve-I always picture this night as quiet, probably because of Silent Night. maybe it’s because I would walk through quiet streets on the way to Midnight mass. Maybe we can turn the carols off for a while, and hear the tune of our inner being. then we can hear the echo of that angelic chorus of long ago. What song do you long to hear as you practice some quiet time?
Monday-Many of us recall the phrase no room for them in the inn in Lk. 2:7. It is the same word we translate as guest room, for the Last Supper in Lk. 22:11. Jesus’s life was framed by seeking shelter in guest rooms. He was even buried in a borrowed grave. Jesus continues to seek a place to dwell within each one of us and in our congregations and communites. How welcoming are we to the presence of Christ? Inside, are we willing to make room for christ in the packed inns of our own selves?
Tuesday-Maybe some of you haven’t brought all your present yet. Maybe some of you are still doing menu planning. This is a generous time of year. I wish to make a brief plea for a form of frugality. please consider buying one less thing or saving some money on some items and give the money to the poor or to an organization that does work near and dear to your values. I get annoyed, too, at the constant drumbeat of charities looking for help at this time of year. Scrooge rejected their entreaties too. His Christmas miracle was in discovering generosity again.
Wednesday-We maintain continuing bonds with our loved ones, even when they have passed away. Perhaps you can compose a special toast to them. Maybe you could gather stories by or about them and place them in a stocking. Maybe you could even set out a place for them. You may find that admitting that you miss them drains some of the pain away more readily than repress all of the feelings in the name of holiday cheer. May you enjoy the communion of saints as you know that love bursts even the boundaries of death.
Thursday- I’m learning more about our blue hymnbook as time goes on. some of its carols are new to me.We sang #61, Twas in the Moon, in choir but it wasn’t in our hymnbook. The french missionary wanted the Native Americans to relate to the story, so the birth is in a rude lodging of twigs, and the baby is wrapped in rabbit skins. If you were retelling the story for 2011, what details would you make to conform to the present day?
Friday-We sing songs of peace on earth. how I crave that. the news is drenched in blood. Christmas peace get driven out of too many hearts out of anxiety, expectations, and sheer cussedness that we are determined to make as a stocking stuffer every single year. Perhaps if we are less alert for slights and more alert ot a chance at calm or reconciling we coudl come closer to the peace we crave.
Christmas Eve-I always picture this night as quiet, probably because of Silent Night. maybe it’s because I would walk through quiet streets on the way to Midnight mass. Maybe we can turn the carols off for a while, and hear the tune of our inner being. then we can hear the echo of that angelic chorus of long ago. What song do you long to hear as you practice some quiet time?
OT readings for chritmas continued
Is. 52;7-10
1) We are in a realm where the gods are engaged in conflict of nations. Now the people wait to hear news.In this martial context, i would think shalom means more that things have gone well more than peace. Of course, victory can and does bring peace. I think of David waiting to hearing news of his son, or the Psalmist speaking of those who watch for the morning.
2) If one sticks with peace, we can celebrate the end of the Iraq war.
3) With word of victory comes the promised comfort and redemption.It is difficult for me to see how to spiritualize this section, but one could try.]
4) Baring the arm again is a martial image. so the nonviolent baring of the arm in Bethlehem is striking.]
Is. 62:6-12- Many scholars see Is. 56-66 as a frequently frustrated prayer from a disappointed people who expected good times and found hardship on the return to Judah. One could allude to disappointments with family gatherings and presents.
1) My study bible says the sentinels are prophets announcing salvation, but I don;t see why they are not ordinary sentinels. (Matrix fans will have trouble with the word sentinels)
2) If I read this correctly the sentinels stay as reminders to god to take action, an enacted, demonstrated prayer.
3) God promises that people will enjoy the fruit of their labor, not others. OWS analogy here for those so inclined.Note though it is a liturgical celebration at v. 9
4) Now the way is prepared for home, not the way home. “Miles to go before we sleep” would be the watchword. God continues to work through us, not only in miracle.
5) Of all the titles at the end, I love the idea that they are not forsaken. Indeed they are sought out. Christmas has God seeking us out on our turf. the lonely birth in Bethlehem promises divine companionship for us all.
1) We are in a realm where the gods are engaged in conflict of nations. Now the people wait to hear news.In this martial context, i would think shalom means more that things have gone well more than peace. Of course, victory can and does bring peace. I think of David waiting to hearing news of his son, or the Psalmist speaking of those who watch for the morning.
2) If one sticks with peace, we can celebrate the end of the Iraq war.
3) With word of victory comes the promised comfort and redemption.It is difficult for me to see how to spiritualize this section, but one could try.]
4) Baring the arm again is a martial image. so the nonviolent baring of the arm in Bethlehem is striking.]
Is. 62:6-12- Many scholars see Is. 56-66 as a frequently frustrated prayer from a disappointed people who expected good times and found hardship on the return to Judah. One could allude to disappointments with family gatherings and presents.
1) My study bible says the sentinels are prophets announcing salvation, but I don;t see why they are not ordinary sentinels. (Matrix fans will have trouble with the word sentinels)
2) If I read this correctly the sentinels stay as reminders to god to take action, an enacted, demonstrated prayer.
3) God promises that people will enjoy the fruit of their labor, not others. OWS analogy here for those so inclined.Note though it is a liturgical celebration at v. 9
4) Now the way is prepared for home, not the way home. “Miles to go before we sleep” would be the watchword. God continues to work through us, not only in miracle.
5) Of all the titles at the end, I love the idea that they are not forsaken. Indeed they are sought out. Christmas has God seeking us out on our turf. the lonely birth in Bethlehem promises divine companionship for us all.
OT Notes for christmas Is. 9:2-7
Is. 9:2-7
10 Using images that fit the reading from john, the passage moves from darkness to light.
2) Words of ingathering and harvest also appear, so htis fits all of our travels this season.
3) Just as Jesus was born under oppression, all of the material on yoke refers to domination by Assyria, or other regimes as Isaiah moves through a good deal of time through different editorial hands.
4) Notice the pronoun us for the sign child of victory.
5) So instead of oppression the hope is for good governance.
6) the names are tricky the first set could be wonder, planner/counsellor, even planner of wonders (Tull,299) Might One=gibbor, a familiar designation. Everlasting Father is fine/Eternal One works too., and Prince of peace/well-being is well known.They could refer to the child or as divine attributes.
7) i would think that justice and righteous/right relations are twinned here.
10 Using images that fit the reading from john, the passage moves from darkness to light.
2) Words of ingathering and harvest also appear, so htis fits all of our travels this season.
3) Just as Jesus was born under oppression, all of the material on yoke refers to domination by Assyria, or other regimes as Isaiah moves through a good deal of time through different editorial hands.
4) Notice the pronoun us for the sign child of victory.
5) So instead of oppression the hope is for good governance.
6) the names are tricky the first set could be wonder, planner/counsellor, even planner of wonders (Tull,299) Might One=gibbor, a familiar designation. Everlasting Father is fine/Eternal One works too., and Prince of peace/well-being is well known.They could refer to the child or as divine attributes.
7) i would think that justice and righteous/right relations are twinned here.
Monday, December 12, 2011
sermon Notes 12/11 Is. 61, Ps. 126
The alarm goes off. You murmur to yourself, but I was having such a good dream. (I won’t dream of going into any detail about the content of an especially good dream for some of us) Ps. 126 imagines what it would be if life could look like a Christmas dream. We try to decorate or lives now with so much tinsel, to act as a cover for troubles. Sometimes I think we want a white Christmas to cover over our sins and disappointments with a holiday that cannot bear the weight we place on it. This is a dream not only of the future but one that would make up for a missed past, for the hurts, wrongs, pain of the past. It imagines a great reversal where tears are replaced by laughter. Instead of being paralyzed by fear, they act to do one of the great acts of confidence in a future go out and sow seed.It imagines the answered prayer, almost as if calling God on it. I served in a rural area and was always astonished how farmers could go out spending a fortune on weed killer and pesticide and fertilizer before they could even sow a single seed, not knowing what sort of return they could expect on the crop, barring of course any natural disaster of drought or flood or hail. I learned to see it as a prayer in action.
Is. 61 is the mission statement of Jesus in the gospel of Luke, the gospel from which we will read of the Annunciation and the Magnificat of Mary there and there alone. I do notice that this doesn’t say much about marketing the church. In our time, it does not say Christmas is for children; Christmas is for those in trouble. It speaks of helping people in need. It is not a listing of the economically needy alone. It mention those who are hurting in their hearts, mourners and bind up the brokenhearted. We leave the latter to alcohol with friends and the words and music of songwriters. We react to mourners by hoping that they well get back to work as soon as possible and not burden us with a repetition of some facet of their loss. That’s especially true this time of year, so we warn folks not to ruin Christmas. Of course we are called to do charitable things at this time of year, and an astounding generosity pours out of people, hard economic times or flush ones.
I am drawn today to the emotional side of the passage, of binding up different sorts of wounds, maybe even seemingly incurable ones of abuse such as the innocents taken at Penn State. What sort of oil of gladness could heal their mourning? Maybe in our time it would be going out somewhere we we splash on good cologne, (or in my case the only bottle of cologne I own, but it is good, after all I got it at Macy’s.) What difference would it make to us to wear a mantle of praise instead of the finest cloak of a faint spirit? When we are in grief, we wonder if we will ever laugh again. If we do, then we feel guilty about it, as if it were improper, inappropriate to use the baby Boomer words for forbidden).
We had a wedding here yesterday, and the passage concludes with the decorated life of a wedding, of bride and groom at their best. It uses what is on the outside to be a sign of the inside, of being placed on good terms with God, each other, and maybe hardest of all, ourselves. It imagines an Advent garden, where what we call the Christmas spirit springs up and is evergreen,just like a Christmas tree.
Is. 61 is the mission statement of Jesus in the gospel of Luke, the gospel from which we will read of the Annunciation and the Magnificat of Mary there and there alone. I do notice that this doesn’t say much about marketing the church. In our time, it does not say Christmas is for children; Christmas is for those in trouble. It speaks of helping people in need. It is not a listing of the economically needy alone. It mention those who are hurting in their hearts, mourners and bind up the brokenhearted. We leave the latter to alcohol with friends and the words and music of songwriters. We react to mourners by hoping that they well get back to work as soon as possible and not burden us with a repetition of some facet of their loss. That’s especially true this time of year, so we warn folks not to ruin Christmas. Of course we are called to do charitable things at this time of year, and an astounding generosity pours out of people, hard economic times or flush ones.
I am drawn today to the emotional side of the passage, of binding up different sorts of wounds, maybe even seemingly incurable ones of abuse such as the innocents taken at Penn State. What sort of oil of gladness could heal their mourning? Maybe in our time it would be going out somewhere we we splash on good cologne, (or in my case the only bottle of cologne I own, but it is good, after all I got it at Macy’s.) What difference would it make to us to wear a mantle of praise instead of the finest cloak of a faint spirit? When we are in grief, we wonder if we will ever laugh again. If we do, then we feel guilty about it, as if it were improper, inappropriate to use the baby Boomer words for forbidden).
We had a wedding here yesterday, and the passage concludes with the decorated life of a wedding, of bride and groom at their best. It uses what is on the outside to be a sign of the inside, of being placed on good terms with God, each other, and maybe hardest of all, ourselves. It imagines an Advent garden, where what we call the Christmas spirit springs up and is evergreen,just like a Christmas tree.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Column for Dec. 9
This Sunday, in churches that have Advent candles, we light a pink candle. Tradition indicates it stands for joy. We move from some of the frightening specters of the readings of the end times that presage the Second Advent, the return of Christ. Now the readings in church shift toward the first Advent, Christmas. Forms of the word are in the early portions of Luke for the birth of John the Baptist, the reaction in the womb of Elizabeth in Elizabeth’s greeting of Mary, and the words of the angel to the shepherds of Bethlehem.
We hear the word, enjoy, far more than we hear, or use ourselves, the word joy. It is one element of the fruit of the spirit listed by Paul in Ga. 5:22. For many of us, it is a distant dream or hope. Surely at times, we may feel a trace of it. My grandmother saw life as a vale of tears. She feared anything approaching a feeling of joy as surely that would be an indicator of harder times to come. For some of us, a sense of joy and our interior lives are born strangers. I don’t think that joy can be imposed, as in the demands of a praise song. I do believe it is best shared. Mark Twain said “grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you need someone to divide it with.”
It may well be a good emotional and spiritual practice to make a chart of some of the events or times in life when you have felt, experienced joy. Who are people in your life who embody joy? Do they share any characteristics in common?
In examining yourself, do you sense or notice obstacles toward your feeling joy? What role do expectations play in your feeling or not feeling joy? For instance, we can set our sight so high that no human experience could ever reach them. We may not expect to feel joy, or even fear it, as did my grandmother. The sheer weight of this season on us can be burdensome. Few families resemble the glowing reports on Christmas letters or in commercials. The dramas often hit the mark of family life more closely, and there joy is often discovered through reconciliation.
In the Old Testament, joy often appears with a group of people, a nation, in the face of a great event. In the Christian faith virtues may be private treasure, but they are also shared treasures, ones enjoyed in concert with one another, and indeed with God.
Hymns are meant to be sung together in the congregation. Many Christmas services start with “O come all ye faithful/ joyful and triumphant.” So, Joy to World is especially appropriate then for Christmas. Isaac Watts wanted to move away from a psalms only style of congregational singing, and we sing his words from Handel’s musical arrangements. Not only do we sing of joy to the world, but ‘heaven and nature sings. Fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.” In Hark, the Herald Angels sing, whose title conveys its age, Charles Wesley intones: “joyful, all ye nations rise/join the triumph of the skies.” We sing Good Christian Men (Friends) Rejoice, why? “Now we hear of endless bliss/Jesus Christ was born for this…calls you one and calls you all/to gain the everlasting hall.”
My prayer for our Christmas season is one where we would feel compelled to sing out of the sheer joy of being together, in the face of our limitations. After all, Jesus did not come into a Christmas card world, but in makeshift shelter. There, in a rough manger, we see the joy of heaven in treasuring each one of us.
We hear the word, enjoy, far more than we hear, or use ourselves, the word joy. It is one element of the fruit of the spirit listed by Paul in Ga. 5:22. For many of us, it is a distant dream or hope. Surely at times, we may feel a trace of it. My grandmother saw life as a vale of tears. She feared anything approaching a feeling of joy as surely that would be an indicator of harder times to come. For some of us, a sense of joy and our interior lives are born strangers. I don’t think that joy can be imposed, as in the demands of a praise song. I do believe it is best shared. Mark Twain said “grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you need someone to divide it with.”
It may well be a good emotional and spiritual practice to make a chart of some of the events or times in life when you have felt, experienced joy. Who are people in your life who embody joy? Do they share any characteristics in common?
In examining yourself, do you sense or notice obstacles toward your feeling joy? What role do expectations play in your feeling or not feeling joy? For instance, we can set our sight so high that no human experience could ever reach them. We may not expect to feel joy, or even fear it, as did my grandmother. The sheer weight of this season on us can be burdensome. Few families resemble the glowing reports on Christmas letters or in commercials. The dramas often hit the mark of family life more closely, and there joy is often discovered through reconciliation.
In the Old Testament, joy often appears with a group of people, a nation, in the face of a great event. In the Christian faith virtues may be private treasure, but they are also shared treasures, ones enjoyed in concert with one another, and indeed with God.
Hymns are meant to be sung together in the congregation. Many Christmas services start with “O come all ye faithful/ joyful and triumphant.” So, Joy to World is especially appropriate then for Christmas. Isaac Watts wanted to move away from a psalms only style of congregational singing, and we sing his words from Handel’s musical arrangements. Not only do we sing of joy to the world, but ‘heaven and nature sings. Fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.” In Hark, the Herald Angels sing, whose title conveys its age, Charles Wesley intones: “joyful, all ye nations rise/join the triumph of the skies.” We sing Good Christian Men (Friends) Rejoice, why? “Now we hear of endless bliss/Jesus Christ was born for this…calls you one and calls you all/to gain the everlasting hall.”
My prayer for our Christmas season is one where we would feel compelled to sing out of the sheer joy of being together, in the face of our limitations. After all, Jesus did not come into a Christmas card world, but in makeshift shelter. There, in a rough manger, we see the joy of heaven in treasuring each one of us.
Week of Dec. 11 Devotions
Sunday Dec. 11 I Thes. 5:21 says in older language: “hold fast to what is good.” When have you let the good slip through your fingers? When do you not hold out your hands to cup the good but instead clench them into fists? What good do you manage to grasp with both hands no matter what? What part of Advent virtue do you most need to hold on to right now?
Monday-Shepherds are romanticized in our time by pageants and picture books. In the time of Jesus shepherds were not considered very highly, say at the approval level of the current U.S. Congress.In other words, they would be the last group of people invited to witness the miracle at Bethlehem. In our time, President Obama invited two disputants to have a beer at the White House and is offering an ordinary couple a chance to dine there next year, what an honor. Now consider: the King of Kings invites us to join him in heaven every time we celebrate Communion.
Tuesday-Christian Science emphasizes mind over matter, indeed they deny that matter truly exists. Nothing could be further from this season that looks toward the first Advent, the Incarnation of the logos, the very vision, plan, ideas, logic of God (John 1:1, 14). Incarnation hallows, makes holy, this material world. After all, God called creation good. Christians are not called to rise above the physical, we are instead to see the physical as an intimation of the spiritual; they work together, body and soul.
Wednesday-Decorated your life. Even before thanksgiving the decorations were going up. I think the Alton mall had a visit from Santa in mid November. An old song from Kenny Rogers has been running on the tape in my mind, You Decorated My Life. Decorations try to make things prettier and maybe even cover up some flaws. They announce celebration. The culture has us set up decorations for Christmas early, and the church wants us set up for the 12 days of Christmas.
Thursday-Hymns of Christmas carry depth of meaning, partly by the union of lyrics and music.What are your favorite Christmas songs? If any of them are hymns, what are they? I love O Little Town of Bethlehem, in part, as my mother seemed to like it. I love the third verse: “how silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given/so god imparts to human hearts, the blessings of his heaven/no ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin/where meek souls will receive him still, the dear child enters in.”
Friday-The manger is in every creche. When young, we looked forward to setting up the scene. Consider: the bread of Life in a feeding stall. today, work with the image that your life, your heart, your very being is a manger, a resting place for the Christ Child. Where in your life would Jesus be comfortable residing? what would make Jesus uncomfortable in your life? How does it make you look at your own life as each of us temples, mangers, for the presence of God?
Saturday-Holiday blues afflict many of us. I’ve been writing these devotions for years and always include this. Is it possible that your holiday expectations cannot be matched in this world? Do we put too much stock in decorations and gifts to carry more freight than they possibly can? Some people suggest that a good response is to go out and do something for someone else, especially the needy. it moves us out of our focus on self and expands the diameter of our hearts.
Monday-Shepherds are romanticized in our time by pageants and picture books. In the time of Jesus shepherds were not considered very highly, say at the approval level of the current U.S. Congress.In other words, they would be the last group of people invited to witness the miracle at Bethlehem. In our time, President Obama invited two disputants to have a beer at the White House and is offering an ordinary couple a chance to dine there next year, what an honor. Now consider: the King of Kings invites us to join him in heaven every time we celebrate Communion.
Tuesday-Christian Science emphasizes mind over matter, indeed they deny that matter truly exists. Nothing could be further from this season that looks toward the first Advent, the Incarnation of the logos, the very vision, plan, ideas, logic of God (John 1:1, 14). Incarnation hallows, makes holy, this material world. After all, God called creation good. Christians are not called to rise above the physical, we are instead to see the physical as an intimation of the spiritual; they work together, body and soul.
Wednesday-Decorated your life. Even before thanksgiving the decorations were going up. I think the Alton mall had a visit from Santa in mid November. An old song from Kenny Rogers has been running on the tape in my mind, You Decorated My Life. Decorations try to make things prettier and maybe even cover up some flaws. They announce celebration. The culture has us set up decorations for Christmas early, and the church wants us set up for the 12 days of Christmas.
Thursday-Hymns of Christmas carry depth of meaning, partly by the union of lyrics and music.What are your favorite Christmas songs? If any of them are hymns, what are they? I love O Little Town of Bethlehem, in part, as my mother seemed to like it. I love the third verse: “how silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given/so god imparts to human hearts, the blessings of his heaven/no ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin/where meek souls will receive him still, the dear child enters in.”
Friday-The manger is in every creche. When young, we looked forward to setting up the scene. Consider: the bread of Life in a feeding stall. today, work with the image that your life, your heart, your very being is a manger, a resting place for the Christ Child. Where in your life would Jesus be comfortable residing? what would make Jesus uncomfortable in your life? How does it make you look at your own life as each of us temples, mangers, for the presence of God?
Saturday-Holiday blues afflict many of us. I’ve been writing these devotions for years and always include this. Is it possible that your holiday expectations cannot be matched in this world? Do we put too much stock in decorations and gifts to carry more freight than they possibly can? Some people suggest that a good response is to go out and do something for someone else, especially the needy. it moves us out of our focus on self and expands the diameter of our hearts.
Friday, December 9, 2011
First Cut Is. 61:1-4, 8-11
1) Hanson sees these words as reworking servant material from ch.42. Jesus uses some of this as a “mission statement” for his work in Luke 4:16-20.
2) anoint is related to the noun, messiah/christ/anointed one
3) good news=gospel, glad tidings, favorable message
4) all of the recipients are in trouble.
5) most of them are political/governmental victims, but brokenhearted stands out to me
6) the year of the Lord’s favor could be jubilee. the word vengeance could also be rescue perhaps???
7)We want the holidays to be free from trouble and grief, a vagrant hope certainly. Notice how mourning takes up vv 2,3
8) v. 3 and 10 have decorations of the heart and spirit for the season don;’t they.
9)repair and restoration key words at v. 4. this is a joint project. they act because they are empowered by the spirit.
10) now we have a great reversal. I am not sure who the object of derision is foreign oppressors alone or maybe internal tricksters. Notice the character of God here loving justice, hating wrongdoing.
11) this clothing image in v. ten is often picked in the NT as baptismal imagery. this reflect bridal imagery of ch. 52.
12) we have a natural image of new growth, a victory garden (see William brown in his cosmos book)
13 We may be unfaithful. god remains faithful. The God of creation is continuing to be creative and will continue to pay attention to getting people back on their feet to exercise power for themselves.Is. 61 OT lewctionary notes
1) Hanson sees these words as reworking servant material from ch.42. Jesus uses some of this as a “mission statement” for his work in Luke 4:16-20.
2) anoint is related to the noun, messiah/christ/anointed one
3) good news=gospel, glad tidings, favorable message
4) all of the recipients are in trouble.
5) most of them are political/governmental victims, but brokenhearted stands out to me
6) the year of the Lord’s favor could be jubilee. the word vengeance could also be rescue perhaps???
7)We want the holidays to be free from trouble and grief, a vagrant hope certainly. Notice how mourning takes up vv 2,3
8) v. 3 and 10 have decorations of the heart and spirit for the season don;’t they.
9)repair and restoration key words at v. 4. this is a joint project. they act because they are empowered by the spirit.
10) now we have a great reversal. I am not sure who the object of derision is foreign oppressors alone or maybe internal tricksters. Notice the character of God here loving justice, hating wrongdoing.
11) this clothing image in v. ten is often picked in the NT as baptismal imagery. this reflect bridal imagery of ch. 52.
12) we have a natural image of new growth, a victory garden (see William brown in his cosmos book)
13 We may be unfaithful. god remains faithful. The God of creation is continuing to be creative and will continue to pay attention to getting people back on their feet to exercise power for themselves.Is. 61 OT lewctionary notes
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Sermon Notes Dec. 4 Is. 40:1-11, Ps. 85
I remember in English class teacher said that religion was a crutch. So, I responded, people need all the help they can get in a hard world.Comfort (where? in the signs of good, new medicines, fall of dictators,in signs of improvement, in education, in technology mapquest or GPS for those of us who get lost or the many men who can;t bear to admit it- in religious seeking,)-Here God turns a page. To the heavenly beings, God says enough of punishment, it is time for you to comfort my people.- In the midst of the transient, God’s word/message endures: do not fear. Perhaps few things require comfort as much as fear. My mother found comfort in the good shepherd image-Calvin said this passage comprehends the gospel in a few words. Comfort food-comfortable shoes-southern comfort-comfort stations-comfort zone-giving comfort (root deals with strength greatly ) Comfort is physical and emotional but it has a sense that when weakened we are strengthened to face tomorrow. Instead of nagging or warning like a prophet, now one is told to speak tenderly, like a parent to a hurt child, like a spouse to another needing some attention and affection.
2 Peter-God’s patience with us for righteousness to be present, to be at home, to be welcomed by us- Bible envisions images to touch on the end times: images not future facts, a way to peer into the future without a crystal ball. this letter finds comfort in God;’s patience, in hope that the world will turn out better than before. Veterans Day was not long ago and Christmas approaches. the Prince of peace must weep at what we do to each other in the name of security and yes, even god. How long must it seem to God that we continue to rely on force and violence to achieve our ends.Ps. 85 righteousness/right relations and peace shall kiss I have long loved this image. As I think about it, it describes the meeting of family long-separated, just as the return from exile. Maybe it describes two lovers seeing each other after a long absence, like the Warren Beatty-Diane Keaton scene in Reds or that wonderful embrace in The Best Years of our Lives. Too long have these good hopes been strangers.they are made for each other, as we used to say of couples.the end of our passage from Isaiah points us to why this psalm has an important ending. Life is too transient, too short, too fragile to waste in “fussing and fightings my friend” as the Beatles sang so long ago. In Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut wrote that on the 11th hour when the guns fell silent, and the butchery had ceased it was in the silence that men rose form the trenches and heard the voice of God.
As I was working on this, I got a rare thing, an important note on facebook. A woman from one of the churches I previously served wrote for prayer for her relative now in hospice care. She was afraid that since he was usually did not darken the door of a church that God would slam the door of heaven. I told her that Jesus came to save the lost, not the found, to save the one, not the 99 in the flock, to heal the sick, not the well. Her relative had her enough condemnation in life, and like so many addicts had condemned himself in the mirror, only to go to the bar and drink the evening meal. If anyone should hear the words of Isaiah to comfort, comfort, to speak tenderly at long last, it was her uncle and a family locked in fear and guilt and grief. In so doing we arrive at long last to the root meaning of comfort to strengthen powerfully to face the next day.
2 Peter-God’s patience with us for righteousness to be present, to be at home, to be welcomed by us- Bible envisions images to touch on the end times: images not future facts, a way to peer into the future without a crystal ball. this letter finds comfort in God;’s patience, in hope that the world will turn out better than before. Veterans Day was not long ago and Christmas approaches. the Prince of peace must weep at what we do to each other in the name of security and yes, even god. How long must it seem to God that we continue to rely on force and violence to achieve our ends.Ps. 85 righteousness/right relations and peace shall kiss I have long loved this image. As I think about it, it describes the meeting of family long-separated, just as the return from exile. Maybe it describes two lovers seeing each other after a long absence, like the Warren Beatty-Diane Keaton scene in Reds or that wonderful embrace in The Best Years of our Lives. Too long have these good hopes been strangers.they are made for each other, as we used to say of couples.the end of our passage from Isaiah points us to why this psalm has an important ending. Life is too transient, too short, too fragile to waste in “fussing and fightings my friend” as the Beatles sang so long ago. In Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut wrote that on the 11th hour when the guns fell silent, and the butchery had ceased it was in the silence that men rose form the trenches and heard the voice of God.
As I was working on this, I got a rare thing, an important note on facebook. A woman from one of the churches I previously served wrote for prayer for her relative now in hospice care. She was afraid that since he was usually did not darken the door of a church that God would slam the door of heaven. I told her that Jesus came to save the lost, not the found, to save the one, not the 99 in the flock, to heal the sick, not the well. Her relative had her enough condemnation in life, and like so many addicts had condemned himself in the mirror, only to go to the bar and drink the evening meal. If anyone should hear the words of Isaiah to comfort, comfort, to speak tenderly at long last, it was her uncle and a family locked in fear and guilt and grief. In so doing we arrive at long last to the root meaning of comfort to strengthen powerfully to face the next day.
Dec. 4 Devotions
Sunday Dec. 4 -Ps. 85 has long been a favorite of mine, especially its tender ending. I picture the ending verses as righteousness (right relations) and peace as separated lovers who see each other again after a long absence, like the reunion scene in Russia in Reds. They are intertwined concepts. They should not be strangers. When have you seen them come together in your life? Where do you wish so much for them to come together?
Monday -Carly Simon sang that anticipation is keeping me waiting.” Another word for anticipation could be expectancy. I'm doing an on-line Advent series through the Upper Room of Nashville, and they are stressing this aspect of Advent. What are you anticipating in your life? What can you hardly wait for? What do you crave in your spiritual life? Are you half afraid of desiring some virtue, some change, some dream?
Tuesday-Pause. In the midst of all of the expectations, pause. Take a little break. Breathe deeply and fully for a bit. Pray a quick prayer: breathe on me breath of God. Take a moment and examine your to do list. What could be eliminated, not lessened, eliminated? All during Advent, consider taking a mini Sabbath, a pause to collect and refresh.
Wednesday-Different virtues abound as celebrating Advent has expanded. I have seen peace, purity,joy, or consolation among others as the Second Sunday's virtues. We, through
Christian Ed’s good offices, have selected peace as the theme for the candle.Open a newspaper and pray for peace in the troubled lands. Pray for peace in communities ripped by violence. Consider praying for inner peace in oneself. Pray for inner peace to enter those whose hearts and minds are filled with rage and hate, even of themselves.
Thursday-The New York Times always asks its readers to consider the neediest at the time of year. Notice: not the needy, the neediest. Yes, we are right in helping out those in need of financial assistance. In this rich country, my mind goes toward a different definition of the neediest: maybe the mentally ill, or the heartbroken and the lonely. They too require Christmas gifts, but they are far different than what can be placed in the red buckets at WalMart.
Friday- Joseph gets short shrift. After all, he is the main character in Matthew’s Christmas story. When i was a child, we were taught that Joseph was very old. (Only later, did I figure out that they could protect Mary’s status as virgin that way). We imagine him as a carpenter, but the Greek word could cover any manual craftsman. In children’s stories, Joseph is usually pictured as an extraordinarily kind and wise father, an exemplar. maybe he was, so Jesus could use paternal language so easily in addressing God, his heavenly Father.
Saturday-This is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Its careful cadence and tone equals Scripture for many people. Here’s a little project. Compare the KJV to other Bible versions and set out your likes and dislikes. Pick a passage at random, or compare some favorites to different translations. Do different insights or interpretations emerge as you compare them? Read with a literary eye too. What is appealing about the form, movement, and word choice in different translations?
Monday -Carly Simon sang that anticipation is keeping me waiting.” Another word for anticipation could be expectancy. I'm doing an on-line Advent series through the Upper Room of Nashville, and they are stressing this aspect of Advent. What are you anticipating in your life? What can you hardly wait for? What do you crave in your spiritual life? Are you half afraid of desiring some virtue, some change, some dream?
Tuesday-Pause. In the midst of all of the expectations, pause. Take a little break. Breathe deeply and fully for a bit. Pray a quick prayer: breathe on me breath of God. Take a moment and examine your to do list. What could be eliminated, not lessened, eliminated? All during Advent, consider taking a mini Sabbath, a pause to collect and refresh.
Wednesday-Different virtues abound as celebrating Advent has expanded. I have seen peace, purity,joy, or consolation among others as the Second Sunday's virtues. We, through
Christian Ed’s good offices, have selected peace as the theme for the candle.Open a newspaper and pray for peace in the troubled lands. Pray for peace in communities ripped by violence. Consider praying for inner peace in oneself. Pray for inner peace to enter those whose hearts and minds are filled with rage and hate, even of themselves.
Thursday-The New York Times always asks its readers to consider the neediest at the time of year. Notice: not the needy, the neediest. Yes, we are right in helping out those in need of financial assistance. In this rich country, my mind goes toward a different definition of the neediest: maybe the mentally ill, or the heartbroken and the lonely. They too require Christmas gifts, but they are far different than what can be placed in the red buckets at WalMart.
Friday- Joseph gets short shrift. After all, he is the main character in Matthew’s Christmas story. When i was a child, we were taught that Joseph was very old. (Only later, did I figure out that they could protect Mary’s status as virgin that way). We imagine him as a carpenter, but the Greek word could cover any manual craftsman. In children’s stories, Joseph is usually pictured as an extraordinarily kind and wise father, an exemplar. maybe he was, so Jesus could use paternal language so easily in addressing God, his heavenly Father.
Saturday-This is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Its careful cadence and tone equals Scripture for many people. Here’s a little project. Compare the KJV to other Bible versions and set out your likes and dislikes. Pick a passage at random, or compare some favorites to different translations. Do different insights or interpretations emerge as you compare them? Read with a literary eye too. What is appealing about the form, movement, and word choice in different translations?
First Cut Is. 61:1-4, 8-11
1) Hanson sees these words as reworking servant material from ch.42. Jesus uses some of this as a “mission statement” for his work in Luke 4:16-20.
2) anoint is related to the noun, messiah/christ/anointed one
3) good news=gospel, glad tidings, favorable message
4) all of the recipients are in trouble.
5) most of them are political/governmental victims, but brokenhearted stands out to me
6) the year of the Lord’s favor could be jubilee. the word vengeance is striking. Against whom will the vengeance turn?
7)We want the holidays to be free from trouble and grief, a vagrant hope certainly. Notice how mourning takes up vv 2,3
8) v. 3 and 10 have decorations of the heart and spirit for the season don;’t they.
9)repair and restoration key words at v. 4. this is a joint project. they act because they are empowered by the spirit.
10) now we have a great reversal. I am not sure who the object of derision is foreign oppressors alone or maybe internal tricksters. Notice the character of God here loving justice, hating wrongdoing.
11) this clothing image in v. ten is often picked in the NT as baptismal imagery. this reflect bridal imagery of ch. 52.
12) we have a natural image of new growth, a victory garden (see William Brown in his Ethos of the cosmos book)
13 We may be unfaithful. god remains faithful. The God of creation is continuing to be creative and will continue to pay attention to getting people back on their feet to exercise power for themselves.
1) Hanson sees these words as reworking servant material from ch.42. Jesus uses some of this as a “mission statement” for his work in Luke 4:16-20.
2) anoint is related to the noun, messiah/christ/anointed one
3) good news=gospel, glad tidings, favorable message
4) all of the recipients are in trouble.
5) most of them are political/governmental victims, but brokenhearted stands out to me
6) the year of the Lord’s favor could be jubilee. the word vengeance is striking. Against whom will the vengeance turn?
7)We want the holidays to be free from trouble and grief, a vagrant hope certainly. Notice how mourning takes up vv 2,3
8) v. 3 and 10 have decorations of the heart and spirit for the season don;’t they.
9)repair and restoration key words at v. 4. this is a joint project. they act because they are empowered by the spirit.
10) now we have a great reversal. I am not sure who the object of derision is foreign oppressors alone or maybe internal tricksters. Notice the character of God here loving justice, hating wrongdoing.
11) this clothing image in v. ten is often picked in the NT as baptismal imagery. this reflect bridal imagery of ch. 52.
12) we have a natural image of new growth, a victory garden (see William Brown in his Ethos of the cosmos book)
13 We may be unfaithful. god remains faithful. The God of creation is continuing to be creative and will continue to pay attention to getting people back on their feet to exercise power for themselves.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Column for Friday Dec. 2
For many Christians this is the season of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. For churches that note Advent, we get caught in a bit of a cultural bind. I think Santa appeared at the Alton mall in mid November, and the twinkling lights of Christmas cheer are already decorating houses. When do we decorate the church? When do we start singing Christmas songs? Actually, some hold that we should not sing Christmas songs until Christmas Eve and then sing then until or past Epiphany, the feast of the Magi on Jan. 6th. Yet, the radio stations stop playing round the clock Christmas music stop right after Christmas to coincide with the stores tearing down Christmas decorations on the 26th often. I remember a lady at one of the churches I served saying that I must hate Christmas songs because I insisted that we sing songs of Advent into the second Sunday before Christmas.
Hymns touch us deeply. Their merger of lyric and tune burrow deep within our consciousness. I have been touched when visiting a nursing home or a hospital bed, and people will request or hum softly a favored hymn. They enter so deeply into our memories that they seem to emerge unbidden, or you find yourself singing along to the music of a hymn in a shopping center or at home buying presents from the internet.
I suggest that we not only listen to favorite or even unknown Christmas hymns, but that we look at the lyrics in our hymnbooks and read them as religious poetry. Yes, I realize lyrics are not poems as they are tied to the music, but nonetheless, they offer us a window in the Yuletide world.
For instance, I love O Little Child of Bethlehem. the great Phillips Brooks. He had visited the Holy Land and wrote the words for a Christmas program and induced his organist to write the tune for it. How are the hopes and fears of all the years met in the child (v.1)? Notice in v. 2 how he makes all nature sing for the birth, as if he is not satisfied, or nature is left unsatisfied, by the angel chorus. The last two verses are wonders. Amid all of the noise of Christmas celebration, he now emphasizes silence. Meek souls, like Tiny Tim receive Jesus. That manger image continues, as he asserts that we all act as manger for the baby Jesus. Our lives are the birthing room of the spirit in his view of the Incarnation. From silence, we now hear the good news, the glad tidings of Christmas. He ends with the phrase Emmanuel. In Hebrew it means God with us. How that comes to new life and meaning when we claim the Incarnation of God’s own vision, God’s logos, message (John 1:1, 14) into “world of sin.” I would argue that we have a whole theological world summoned by these four verses, an entry point into a much deeper awareness of the depth of Christmas than greeting card could hope to convey.
Augustine famously said that singing a hymn is praying twice. I suggest that praying them again with attention to the words is an excellent spiritual practice for Advent to prepare our hearts and minds for Christmas. It’s easy to do, but you will note that a meditative air will come over you as you pause to work with the hymns and take a break from the frenzied rush of the holidays. after all, holiday comes from Old English for a holy day. Hymns provide a portal into the holy in the middle of everyday life.
Hymns touch us deeply. Their merger of lyric and tune burrow deep within our consciousness. I have been touched when visiting a nursing home or a hospital bed, and people will request or hum softly a favored hymn. They enter so deeply into our memories that they seem to emerge unbidden, or you find yourself singing along to the music of a hymn in a shopping center or at home buying presents from the internet.
I suggest that we not only listen to favorite or even unknown Christmas hymns, but that we look at the lyrics in our hymnbooks and read them as religious poetry. Yes, I realize lyrics are not poems as they are tied to the music, but nonetheless, they offer us a window in the Yuletide world.
For instance, I love O Little Child of Bethlehem. the great Phillips Brooks. He had visited the Holy Land and wrote the words for a Christmas program and induced his organist to write the tune for it. How are the hopes and fears of all the years met in the child (v.1)? Notice in v. 2 how he makes all nature sing for the birth, as if he is not satisfied, or nature is left unsatisfied, by the angel chorus. The last two verses are wonders. Amid all of the noise of Christmas celebration, he now emphasizes silence. Meek souls, like Tiny Tim receive Jesus. That manger image continues, as he asserts that we all act as manger for the baby Jesus. Our lives are the birthing room of the spirit in his view of the Incarnation. From silence, we now hear the good news, the glad tidings of Christmas. He ends with the phrase Emmanuel. In Hebrew it means God with us. How that comes to new life and meaning when we claim the Incarnation of God’s own vision, God’s logos, message (John 1:1, 14) into “world of sin.” I would argue that we have a whole theological world summoned by these four verses, an entry point into a much deeper awareness of the depth of Christmas than greeting card could hope to convey.
Augustine famously said that singing a hymn is praying twice. I suggest that praying them again with attention to the words is an excellent spiritual practice for Advent to prepare our hearts and minds for Christmas. It’s easy to do, but you will note that a meditative air will come over you as you pause to work with the hymns and take a break from the frenzied rush of the holidays. after all, holiday comes from Old English for a holy day. Hymns provide a portal into the holy in the middle of everyday life.
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