conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form: it's beginning to feel a lot like...

December 01, 2006

it's beginning to feel a lot like...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Ev'rywhere you go;
Take a look in the five and ten glistening once again
With candy canes and silver lanes aglow.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Toys in ev'ry store
But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be
On your own front door.

What is it with the eschatological mojo in the lectionary of late? Dylan has another lovely post about how to begin to understand the scripture regarding the end times. I posted my sermon outline about the Left Behind series a while ago. So, I won't be preaching about that this time. That would make no sense. But there is an aspect of what Advent suggests about the end times that I do want to focus upon. How do we proclaim God's presence in the midst of what we see in the world? I will likely get a little help from Bono.

Heaven on Earth, we need it now I'm sick of all of this hanging around Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain I'm sick of hearing again and again That there's gonna be peace on Earth
Where I grew up there weren't many trees
Where there was we'd tear them down
And use them on our enemies
They say that what you mock
Will surely overtake you

And you become a monster
So the monster will not break you
And it's already gone too far
You say that if you go in hard
You won't get hurt

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth

Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth

No whos or whys
No one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth

She never got to say goodbye
To see the colour in his eyes
Now he's in the dirt
Peace on Earth

They're reading names out over the radio
All the folks the rest of us won't get to know
Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda
Their lives are bigger than any big idea

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth

To tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth

Jesus and the song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth

Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So what's it worth
This peace on Earth
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth

I may even sing it as part of the sermon. I am working through the specifics.

And it looks like I may be working through those from home.

Posted by tripp at December 1, 2006 05:41 AM

Comments

Quit yer sermonizing!

Get out there and shovel yer snow!

Back in my day, pastors showed there mettle by going out and shoveling with their tongues!

Sermon writing, heh! . . .

Posted by: Jorge Sanchez at December 1, 2006 10:08 AM

I think I should just dress in black and sing "When the Man Comes Around"

And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder: One of the four beasts saying: "Come and see." And I saw. And behold, a white horse.

There's a man goin' 'round takin' names.
An' he decides who to free and who to blame.
Everybody won't be treated all the same.
There'll be a golden ladder reaching down.
When the man comes around.

The hairs on your arm will stand up.
At the terror in each sip and in each sup.
For you partake of that last offered cup,
Or disappear into the potter's ground.
When the man comes around.

Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin'.
Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum.
Voices callin', voices cryin'.
Some are born an' some are dyin'.
It's Alpha's and Omega's Kingdom come.

And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree.
The virgins are all trimming their wicks.
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree.
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

There's more, but you get the picture. The double meaning of the last line really grabs me. The song isn't in my belief system, but it has a ton of juice.

Posted by: Rich at December 1, 2006 10:46 AM

That's some scary radar! Did you get your supply of rock salt in before the weather closed on you?

Re eschatological focus -- might it be something as simple as "the year is coming to an end"? Or was the order of the readings established before the calendar we use now was established?

Posted by: Megan at December 1, 2006 11:35 AM