conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

the christmas lobster (dec. 26 lynchburg, va)

Have any of you seen the movie, Love Actually? It is one of my favorite movies. We watch it every Christmas. It's become a bit of a tradition with me and Trish. One of my favorite little story lines in the film is about the nativity play. You see, there was a lobster in the manger with Jesus. Didn't you know? It's from one of the Gnostic gospels, I'm sure. This may explain some of the general awe expressed by shepherds and magi alike. The Christmas Lobsters...there was more than one...were a revelation for Biblical scholars everywhere! What a great film. We have made a tradition of watching it.

Another holiday tradition that has come and gone a couple of times, but seems to have returned again for us is lobster for dinner on Christmas night. My mother was born in Maine. Thus, lobster is quite a treat...good eats and sentimentality rolled into one seafoody package. And this year we had king crab legs thrown in the mix as well. Dinner was incredible. There is indeed a Christmas Lobster. Lovely.

Backtracking a bit, the flight in was fine. I left O'Hare as scheduled at 11:30. I arrived in Roanoke at 2:15 local time. That makes for all of eighty minutes flight time. Easy. Flying on Christmas day has always been stress free for me. The weather has yet to shut me out, and one day it might. But so far, so good. But the airports are easy to manage. And that matters a great deal to me.

Trish managed to get sick on Christmas Eve. Yes, three days of fighting to get home to see family only to get sick. Oh, and the airline lost her bags. They arrived with me on the 25th. That's something to celebrate, I guess. At least they arrived. Right? Oy. All our carefully orchestrated plans laid to waste. What a ride that was. At least Trish managed to feel well enough to nibble on some lobster. Misery.

Santa, however, stepped up. We both were treated wonderfully. And since the bags arrived with me at the Roanoke Airport, I was able to a part of the gift giving. And that was nice.

Wow, my time line is all out of wack, kids. I am sorry. Though dated the 25th, I am writing this post on January 2nd. I'm not being clear...I know. Shocking.

So, here's the order of things as they happened.

I flew. It was lovely.
The lost bags, surprisingly, arrived with me.
Trish and her father picked me up at the Roanoke airport. Convenient as that is where I had landed!
We went to Huddleston, frantically wrapped her parents' presents and then exchanged gifts.
We visited Trish' grandmother and uncle. Again, gifts were exchanged.
Trish and I went to Lynchburg to celebrate Christmas with my mother and my brother, Chuck. He lives in Salt Lake.
Much lobster (and crab) was consumed.
Awe was expressed by one and all.
Trish and I spent two nights at my mother's house before returning to Huddleston, the land of country ham, coconut creame pie, and macaroni and cheese.

Okay. That clears things up a little, I hope. It was a really good time. I'll post some pictures as the are uploaded to Flickr.

Peace to you all.

hay futures (huddleston, va)

Note: This is the first of three posts written in Virginia while we were away for the Christmas holidays. I'll upload them to the blog and post date them as appropriate. Christmas ain't over till Epiphany. Merry Christmas, everyone!

I had breakfast this morning with my father-in-law, Jerry. We always go to the same place. Ella B's is a combination convenience store, gas station and short order diner. The food is great as long as you like breakfast meats and friendly banter. You always get both. Well, maybe they would let you order an egg biscuit. But they may look at you a little funny when you turn down the country ham. That's all I'm sayin'.

The food is great. I know that vegetarianism has a great attraction. I spent four or five years of my life living as a veg. But country ham has ever been my weakness. Mmm. Wow (An aside: Trish and I are contemplating going veg again. She read Skinny Bitch. More on that later.).

Ella was glad to see me. She keeps nagging me for pictures of the church. I need to send her something. She's lovely.

Jerry and the other men who gather in the morning at Ella's talk about farming and anything related to farming. Most have other jobs to supplement their incomes. Jerry has worked at the local plant for thirty years and has a couple hundred acres that he farms. That's just how you make ends meet in Huddleston.

This morning the talk was about hay. Many of these guys raise beef cattle. Jerry has about 100 head. Well, with the drought and all this summer, the hay harvest was terrible. Jerry usually gets three cuttings. This year he only managed one. The same is true all around. Jerry has supplemented the winter hay with grain feed, but he's not happy about it. It's expensive. But if you did get an extra cutting of hay this year, you may have hit a gold mine. It's hard to say.

There's a guy up the road a piece selling his rolls of hay for $80 each. This is highway robbery. And much of that hay is rotten and black. Well, this is the speculation at least. It's probably old soy hay ("Bovine tofu?" I ask myself.). They cut down the soy plants and roll it up and sell it as feed. Not a bad notion, but it seems that it's not all that popular with the locals. I have no idea why not.

There's a lot of speculation about hay right now.

Country ham, biscuits and gravy, hash browns and two eggs sunny side up...oh, and hay futures. Pray for rain, people.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone. I am headed off to the airport in a few minutes. I am hopeful that it won't take me three days to get home. Heh.

Last night's service was wonderful. We had about 150 in attendance (almost three times our norm). But the best part was this...Isabella was to be our baby Jesus. She's the youngest in our church at about ten months. Well there she was sitting in Mary's lap and she got fussy. All these people were singing around her and she got cranky. So, to keep the fussiness to a minimum, her father, Matt, came down from the choir loft to comfort "Jesus." He picked up his little girl and the pageant director motioned for him to sit. So...heh...Mary got up, Matt sat in her place and in a fit of inspiration our Mary took off her blue veil and placed it on Matt's head. He made a lovely Mary. He fluttered his eyes demurely and played peek-a-boo with his daughter throughout the rest of the pageant. Lovely! The congregation laughed out loud. This was indeed Holy Chaos, a little divine frivolity.

It was a good night.

Peace to you!

sermon: snow angels

Follow the extended link for the Christmas Eve meditation.

Peace and all good things to you this night...and always.

Snow Angels

I was twelve when
I first noticed the difference
between what we wish for
and what is good for us.

(Please understand
this is something that
I still wrestle with.)

There was no flash of
inspiration,
no muse;
there was only a song.

"I'm dreaming of a
white Christmas...
Just like the ones
I used to know."

I would walk down the
street we lived on
or walk home from school
singing this song.

I was twelve.
I was living in Florida with my mother
my brother, our step-father
and his two boys...
Mark and Lance
"Where the tree tops glisten
and children listen..."

I'm not sure if this is true
but as best I recall
I had not yet seen
a white Christmas.
Sure. There were postcards
and Christmas specials on TV.
But actual snow?
On Christmas?

And there I was - singing
"To hear sleigh bells
in the snow..."

One time a woman actually peeked
out her front door to ask,
"Aren't you a little young for that song?"
She was smiling.
And I sang all the louder.
Precocious twelve year old.

You see, I was wishing for a
white Christmas.
I really wanted one. I had
convinced myself that snow on Christmas
would repair all
that was broken in my
twelve year old world.

"I'm dreaming of a
white Christmas
with every Christmas card
I write."

Even in those moments
of singing on suburban streets
I would understand the disconnect
joy
happiness
Christmas
snow
or no snow - all my troubles
my longing
in one song.

It began to be clear...
as I sang
and pondered...
Snow or no snow
the life that I had
was - and still is-
the life that I've been given.
The best thing I can do
is embrace this life.
But that's not always easy,
now is it?

There are things standing in our way
things as insurmountable
as the
warm Florida sun
as I wished for snow.

There's another song that I sing, however,
and I sing it with you tonight.
A song about angels
and glory to God
peace on earth
shepherds abiding
and a child in the manger...

As I look back on being twelve
and wishing for snow
I see now that the song
my heart was singing
(though there were other
words on my lips)
was a Christmas hymn.

"Gloria in excelsis Deo!"
Glory to God in the highest
and Peace to God's people on earth.
I was wishing for snow
and what I needed
what was good for me
was God.

God comes into our lives in
surprising ways.
God will sneak in sometimes.
In the voice of Bing Crosby
and even David Bowie...
one unexpected pairing after another
simply to reach us
as a child in the night.

God's grace is like
making snow angels
in the desert with shepherds
as angels sing in the heavens,

"May your days be Merry and Bright,
and may all your Christmases
be White."

Amen.

monday videoblog: the night before christmas

Monday December 24



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flying...

And she's finally flying...Beginning at noon on Saturday we have trekked back and forth to the airport, struggled with airlines and taxi drivers, and now she is finally flying.

Now, if we only knew where her bags were.

third time's a charm?

We'll try one more time. Trish has a new flight tomorrow morning. Oy. Will the third time be the charm? It has not been the weather after all. It's been all sorts of "airline shenanigans." Air traffic control, pilots unions, labor hoo haa. Yep. Schedule more flights than you will allow up in the air. That's good for business, I guess.

Again, I say "thipppt."

5:41pm and Trish's flight is canceled. Yep. Flight two, canceled. Argh!

5:01 and Trish is still at the airport. Thipppppt!

flight? what flight?

Windy. Light snow this morning will give way to a few snow showers this afternoon. High around 25F. Winds WSW at 25 to 35 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph.
- www.weather.com

What a night. I dropped Trish off at the airport yesterday around 5:00pm and spent the rest of the time waiting at the house in case they canceled her flight...which they did. At 1:00am. So, at 1:00am I got in the car and picked up my lovely wife from the airport. She is scheduled to try again today at about 2:30-ish. But the weather gurus are saying that today will also be a horrible day for travel. Anything east of us will be struggling to get off the ground. And with 50-mph wind gusts here, airplanes will be grounded.

Well, it looks like my wife and I will see more of each other for the holiday than I thought. That's a great thing and a horrible thing. Trish's bags are still at the airport. If this second flight is canceled, we'll ask for the bags back. There are Christmas gifts in them.

What a mess. The snow is just starting to fall a little. They don't think we'll get much at all. But it does make for miserable travel.

Traveling mercies to all!

sermon: what's in a name

Here is my offering on the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Enjoy. The Christmas Eve sermon will follow soon.

Today I have a great deal on my docket. I am doing a little pre-marital counseling at the church and then cleaning the parsonage. Trish is flying out this evening to Virginia. I'll follow on the 25th. I am still finalizing my Christmas Eve plans, but I may be in Syycamore for mass.

Silly post-modernism.

Sermon: Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A 2007
Community Church of Wilmette
December 23, 2007

What's in a Name?

J. Barrie Shepherd, poet and preacher, writes:
(Shepherd, J. Barrie. Faces at the Manger. Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1992.)

"The hardest task
The most difficult role of all
That of just being there
And Joseph, dearest Joseph, stands for that.
Don't you see?

It is important,
crucially important,
that he stand there by that manger,
as he does,
In all his silent misery
Of doubt concern and fear.
If Joseph were not there
There might be no place for us,
For those of us at least-
So many- who recognize and know-
That heartache, for our own,
Who share that helpless sense
Of lost-ness, of impotence
In our own lives, our families, our jobs
In our fearful threatened world this night.
Yes, in Joseph's look of anguish
We find our place;
We discover that we too
Belong beside the manger:
This manger in which are met
God's peace and all our wars and fears....
Let us be there,
Simply be there just as Joseph was,
With nothing we can do now,
Nothing we can bring-
It's far too late for that-
Nothing even to be said
Except, 'Behold- be blessed,
Be silent, be at peace.'

Joseph, son of David,
'Do not fear,' the angel said.
And Jim and Alice, Fred and Sue,
Bob and Tom and Jean and Betty too,
The word to you, to all of us
Here at the manger side,
The word is also, 'do not fear.'
Our God, the Lord and Sovereign,
Maker of heaven and earth,
Time and eternity,
Of life and death and all that is
And shall be,
Has joined us in this moment…,"

I have found again and again that the role of Joseph in the story we tell this time of year to be the most troublesome. One might think that I would have qualms about angels and three wise men. Or perhaps the fact that we proclaim a virgin birth would be enough to stump me. There is so much to get tripped up by in the story, but every year I find myself with Joseph.

I don't know as much about theater as I should. But it's as if Joseph is the straight man in a comedy of errors. Or he's the great "legitamizer" in an absurdist farce. Joseph seems to be the only one of the people in this nativity play who maintains a recognizable humanity. Everyone else becomes larger than life.

A virgin gives birth.
She gives birth to God no less!
Shepherds recognize the holy and stop everything.
Animals kneel.
Wise men trek across the desert following a star.
The whole tale is larger than life. The whole tale is untenable.

But those who remembered this story for us so long ago were wise. You see, they remembered Joseph. And they included him in the story.

Joseph…
Well Joseph was left with all of the mundane and real tasks that make up a life. We hear in this morning's scripture that Joseph is struggling with a choice. The young woman to whom he is betrothed is pregnant. He had several options before him and many of them were unkind. He could have exposed her. That would have been within his rights. There were legal and economic realities at stake. Not to mention reputation…and "righteousness." Some may have even understood sending Mary back to her parents as a righteous thing to do. Joseph was in quite a bind.

Joseph's concerns were ultimately practical. Almost everything (There is one very obvious exception here.), almost everything that was practical, earthy, about the birth of the boy child was in Joseph's hands. The ramifications of wedding a pregnant woman, providing for that child, dealing with social fall-out, and then having to flee the occupying powers…Joseph's lot was difficult. His challenges were unimaginable.

But he had a dream.

And in the dream he met an angel.

The angel reminded him of a Prophesy. The Prophesy we heard from Isaiah this morning was given voice in the dream. "[The] young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel."

The child that Mary carried within herself was God. And the angel asked Joseph to name the child. That's all. He was to name the child. He was to name him "Jesus, the savior of nations." And of all the monumental tasks that Joseph faced in this story, this is perhaps the greatest.

You see, there was another man in the scriptures given the task of naming. I don't know if you remember this or not, but Adam was given the very practical task of naming everything God had made in the Garden of Eden. And it was the defining work of Adam's life in the Garden. Adam named.

Adam named the trees and their fruit. He named the animals. The sky he named "sky." Adam, the creature created in God's own image, named creation. Naming, brothers and sisters, is the thing that God made us to do.

And so, in a dream, Joseph was given Adam's task. Joseph is asked to name. But this time the basic task was a little different. The basic task became the most profound task.

Through the aid of the angels, Joseph was to name God. The child in Mary's womb, the divine spark of the universe born into the world, was given a name.

    What was Nameless…
        …Unknowable,
                Unspeakable,
                    Is given a name.
                        Joseph named God!

And he named God, "Jesus" which means "salvation."

God has such a dream for all of us. God has such a dream for this church. Angels descend upon us. It is Christmas.

Thus was the place of Joseph. And thus is the power of a dream. The ancient writers wanted us to remember Joseph. They wanted us to remember the practical, hands-on realities of bringing God into the world. They wanted us to remember what it means to do the hard things…the things that have no immediate reward, the things that might cause us to be shunned, to be run out of town, or to be lost to the others we know…They wanted us to know that by proclaiming salvation, the truth, by bringing God into the world, our fate might be that of Joseph's.

This is what it means to dream. This is what it means to hope.

To hope and to dream is to be given the task of naming God in the world.

To follow the leading of dreams like Joseph is to proclaim Salvation born in the world.

"The hardest task
The most difficult role of all
That of just being there
And Joseph, dearest Joseph, stands for that.
Don't you see?

Amen.

for christmas eve

I'll be singing this. Ah...Bing and Bowie...

an article

The Associated Baptist Press had this article:

Responding to those he has offended, Bell said he has one question: “What are you scared of?”

“If you trust somebody who died and was resurrected, you’re trusting in somebody who doesn’t fear death,” he declared. “There are no questions that you need to be scared of. There are no new ideas that you need to be fearful of. … There is no fear.”

Rob Bell is an interesting personality in the mega church/emergent conversation.

rebel jesus and reindeer

Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.
- Eugene V. Debs

I am going to be all over the map today. I have some visits to make (poinsettias to deliver) and two bulletins to finish up at the church. Oh, and there is an article to write for the January newsletter. I have no idea what to write at this point. Oy. Veh.

Trish and I are finished with our shopping, I think. There's always one last gift to get, you know? But I think we're done. And that's a good thing. Last year was so much more stressful than this year has been. I am grateful that things are relatively easier this year. I ended up with strep during my Christmas "break." Yay.

Below is a video of the Chieftains and Jackson Browne playing "The Rebel Jesus." The video is uninteresting. I am not sure it strays from simply showing the cover of the Chieftains Christmas album. But the song is amazing. I have posted the lyrics before. I think Jackson gets Christmas. He's a relentless personality and it really works here. Take a listen when you have the chance.

This evening Trish and I are meeting some newer folk at CCW for dinner and a show. We are going to see Rudolph the Red Hosed Reindeer. Oh yeah. It's Christmas and Hell in a Handbag Productions are celebrating ten years with the transvestite reindeer. It should be a great time. Trish has made an appearance or two in this show over the years. It is a historic occasion. This is the first year that a woman has played the role of Mrs. Claus. Monumental, I tell you! The world has changed. Can you feel it?

Enjoy your day, folks.

and again

The sermon is complete. YAY! Now I need to work on the one for Christmas Eve.

Oy.

a day in the life of this pastor

5:45am: The alarm did not go off. So, we were up 45 minutes late.
6:00am: Coffee...and von Balthazar's Truth is Symphonic. I am reading this as my private devotional at this time. Wow. Trish was working on some of her sewing projects for Christmas. She leaves on Saturday for the east.
7:00am: Get ready for the work day
8:00am: Drop Trish off at the train
8:15am: Sort through my mail; salt sidewalks for the mom and tots program at the church; go upstairs to check e-mail
9:00am: greet mom and tot teachers; greet social worker for our other "momcare" program
9:30am: Discuss future of MomCare with a church member working with the program and the social worker.
10:30am: e-mailing about programs at the church; other stuff that shall remain confidential
11:30am: bulletin for this Sunday
12:00pm: chat with music director at the church
1:30pm: go home for lunch; get keys to "loaner car" and prep for mandolin lesson
2:30pm: mandolin lesson
3:30pm: drive to other neighborhood for hospital visit
4:30pm: thought member was to be discharged on Friday. Happily incorrect in this assumption
4:45pm: at coffee shop in same neighborhood working on sermon (much accomplished) and posting this

This is anticipated...UPDATED!

6:00pm: drive to other neighborhood across town for some premarital counseling with congregation members
7:00pm: said dinner/meeting
8:30pm: drive to Cafe Bong to hang with a friend and toast the life of another.
10:30pm: meet Trish at local restaurant/bar to "canoodle" with friends from monologue workshop. The guest teacher is Jeffrey Carlson.
2:00am: arrive at home, unload stuff from my pockets, go to bed

Yeah, that about sums up the day. These days are becoming more and more normative. Huh. (Re: update - the 2am bedtime is far from usual. But, um, otherwise this is what most days look like.)

wednesday linkage: get some religion, people!

Last minute Christmas gifts?
Guaranteed to get there by Epiphany!

It is time for another edition of Wednesday Linkage. Yes, you too can come here only to be sent elsewhere. Reassure yourself that I have read all most some one or two of the posts I am sending you to. Yes, I am one informed meta-minister! Rock on with my bad self. That's all I'm saying.

Take a look at this stuff. Honestly, I have read them all and would not lead you astray...too often...Well, not intentionally at least. Give a guy a break.

Chuck Warnock has posted on pastoral confidentiality. It's an interesting line of thinking. When do we break a vow? And is there a legal obligation to uphold confidentiality? HIPAA anyone?

Get Religion linked to these two articles. I have really enjoyed GR lately.

First, there seems to be a return to tradition in some, well, traditions.

And, second, the Boomers will likely always be seekers. Always. Yes, even when they are supposed to be old and intellectually sedentary. Whatever will the church do?!

GR's thinking and rumblings about the articles are helpful as well. Essentially, the two seemingly differing movements suggest that people are actually digging into what they know and are not changing so much. How is this news? I don't know. I do know that much of my own thinking is about how things are changing...how the anthropological/sociological landscape is shifting. And it may be. But these so-called sea changes are slow in developing. Boomers will remain Boomers. Traditionalists will remain traditionalists. What they leave behind is where the change may (or may not) be manifested. Does any of this make sense to anyone but me? Ah well...

Here are some sermon links for you. Enjoy! The Third Sunday of Advent was fun.

Earthchick: The Turning
Rev Ref+: putting hope into practice
Cheesehead in Paradise: Dancing Wet, The Water Always Wins
Chuck Warnock: A Highway for God's People

The The Young Fogey pointed this out to me. It's not often that YF hits the Christian Century before I do. Huh...And he pulled out this quotation. Well.

Some conservative wags like to say that liberalism is a mental disease. But the mental disease isn't liberalism and it isn't conservatism, it's utopianism—and the antidote to utopianism isn't apathy, it is faith. Faith isn't a fix. Faith isn't sure it knows in detail what's wrong with the world and how to repair it. Faith doesn't drive out doubt, but sits well with honest ignorance as to how hunger and poverty and war and prejudice and disease and ugliness and cultural degeneration are to be eliminated. Faith helps us discern the limits of what any government can do to improve our fallen human condition. Faith saves us from being seduced by totalistic schemes. Faith teaches us that politics is not the only way to serve the polis. Faith enables us to make prudential judgments with a measure of humility and realistic sangfroid. The bumper sticker says, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention," but faith would have us pay attention to the world's ills without outrage. Commitment with detachment—it's a difficult road to walk, and only faith makes it possible.

And, finally, here's an editorial from Associated Baptist Press. Beth Newman writes about the "difference" Christmas can make...at the intersection of the Baptist Tradition and the Orthodox. Yeah, I had to link to it.

more on the compass

Cathleen Falsani has posted her thoughts on The Golden Compass. I encourage you all to take a moment and read the whole post. She questions the seeming paranoia that appears at this time of year. Some of us Christians spend our time hunting down detractors and not actually celebrating the season. It's a denial of the time, a role reversal in the story of Christmas. We become Herod and ignore the mother who needs a place at the inn.

Here's a particularly powerful quotation:

Christians would be better served telling and retelling the real Christmas story, without wasting time on brickbats and boycotts. Make big-budget films about it, write powerful books, make beautiful music and create enduring artwork that reflects the spirit of that story, the greatest ever told.

Jesus didn't get defensive about ideas and stories that paled in comparison to the one he was telling. His followers shouldn't be, either.

And there you have it. Give it a read.

tuesday at the office

Though it hardly seems possible now, we cling to the hope that God’s City will be established in the gift of the new heavens and the new earth. Our work is to live by the customs of the new City before it has fully come to be. In this way, the church draws the world to God. We hold forth not a condemning, but a welcoming word. All nations are invited to come to this City. And the quality of our interactions as a community will be a stronger witness than our words. The vibrancy of our worship will be a beacon of light that draws people home from the long darkness they have endured.
- Gerrit Scott Dawson
Called by a New Name

Hello there. I am in the office working through my weekly schedule. I have a ton of "bulletin work" before me. I am preparing the bulletin for this Sunday, Christmas Eve, and the following Sunday. I will be away from the church for a week or so. We'll have a guest preacher on the first Sunday of Christmas. So, I'll have the bulletin ready as soon as possible. That way all we have to do is throw something in the blanks for scripture and sermon title.

The Christmas Eve service is the bear, however. We are working on a new bulletin format for that service. We have a lot of visitors...family, old friends etc...who come in for the service. And last year I sat up in the pulpit and marveled at how difficult it was for many to manage even just the one hymnal. You know, if you come to church once a year, even Christmas Carols are hard to find. It's just how it is. So, this year we are scanning all the hymns into the bulletin and crafting a "booklet" in lieu of a little bulletin. All that the attendees will need will be right there in the larger bulletin format...scripture readings, everything. I hope it helps and does not simply overwhelm.

Christmas is a stressful time to me. I mean, it's good and all, but this is the time of year (along with Easter) when the worship life of the church becomes the most public. Theoretically, it is always the public face of the church. But in practice, it is at Christmas and Easter that this is most true. So, I just want things to speak well. I want to make as much room for people, to be as hospitable as I can be. And I want people to hear The Gospel. The quotation this morning sums up the whole experience for me.

I want to say it like this: "This is the City of God. Did you know? And you are welcome in it. Did you know? Here it is for you. We offer it to you. God offers it to you. Come. Enter. You are welcome."

Well, that's where I have been living lately.

How go your holiday preparations?

monday videoblog: monday night football

This week I'm a little long. Sorry about that. I ramble a bit. I know. Shocking.

Monday December, 17



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Here is the link to Let's Keep Christmas. Enjoy!

sunday morning...

This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
There'd have been no room for the child.
- Madeleine L'Engle

Good morning. Our world is covered in snow again. We received about 6" last night. Right now the wind is blowing. Snow will drift. I know it makes for lousy travel, but it is beautiful to behold.

Church will likely be lightly attended this morning. And our event (Quest is coming! Quest is coming!) may suffer in the same way. I hope that I am wrong. I hope that by noon, the roads will be opened up and people will come to see Blue Nativity. Our church brunch follows the show. All are invited. So, come on up to Wilmette this morning. We'd love to see you.

Now I am going to make some coffee. The sermon is ready. The tangerines are ripe. The mandolin is tuned. I think I'm ready for church. We'll see how this plays out!

“Reason is like an officer when the king appears. The officer then loses his power and hides himself. Reason is the shadow cast by God; God is the sun.” - Rumi

I've been thinking about reason. Why would I spend so much time on that with which I am so unfamiliar? Well, so I could write that very sentence of course! No. I see competition everywhere I see it in my own attitudes and preaching. I see it in what I read. It is in contemporary. Reason or Something Else. Reason or Mystery. Reason or Obedience. Reason or Faith. Reason or Love. Reason is set apart. It is set in a competitive posture. I am beginning to see that this is a rhetorical mistake. Reason is part and parcel of human experience, as essential as mystery, faith, obedience, and Love. One cannot have any of these without the other.

Okay. That is my musing for the morning.

See ya.

room in the inn?

Finally, there's a room for Mary and Joseph. Heh. I love it.

sermon: joyful prophets

Here's the sermon for tomorrow. Enjoy.

a sermon run through



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If you don't feel like watching, here's the text.

Sermon: The Third Sunday of Advent, Year A 2007
Community Church of Wilmette
December 16, 2007
Readings: Isaiah 35:1-10, Matthew 11:2-11, The Magnificat

Joyful Prophets

Christmas time is not always a time of joy…not for everyone.

“Joy to the World!” proclaims the great hymn. And yet some of us are burdened. Some of us find this time of year to be one emotional and spiritual challenge after another. I hear people speak of this all the time. It’s in the papers. It’s on the television. I read about it on-line. I hear it in our own halls.

I find these same struggles within my own heart every year. Yes, even those of us standing in pulpits and at altars are not necessarily immune. Today we prepare to enjoy Quest’s Blue Nativity. Well, I have been celebrating my own “Blue Funk” for days.

There is a certain kind of darkness that can permeate this winter holiday. The darkness comes for any number of reasons. There are reasons from our past. There are family stories, world events, or the weather (Are there grayer skies than the skies of Chicago in December?). It can be anything, really. There’s no rule, rhyme or reason.

It’s not about cynicism. Sure, we may find a cynical word rising from our lips as we wrestle with the dark.

We might bemoan the horrid secularization
or commercialization of the holiday.
We might bemoan the fact that Christmas decorations adorn store windows as early as late September.
And perhaps…perhaps, we are right to point these things out. Perhaps we are right to bear some vaguely prophetic witness to the world and write a letter to the editor that begins “I remember a time when…”

But in the end, the darkness remains.
The unsettled sense we encounter at this time of year remains.
Our hearts are still burdened.

Yes, we can, at times, distract ourselves from our own darkness, the true darkness, with these “little darknesses” and cynicism. But in the end, all they are is a distraction, a way to cope. There has to be a better way to understand all of this darkness, a better way to cope.

In our scripture passages this morning we encounter prophets. We hear Isaiah’s familiar words about blossoming deserts and sacred highways. Jesus speaks of the prophet, John the Baptist. And as is tradition in Advent, we encounter Mary’s song, the Magnificat. Prophet upon prophet. Welcome to Advent. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.

The passage from Isaiah is addressed to those in Exile. If we are in exile, what shall lead us back to Zion, the City of God, and a place of growth, nurture, and joy? Where is hope? Where is redemption? Isaiah sees a future where even the desert blooms. The dry places are watered with unending springs. The weak are emboldened. The blind shall see. The deaf shall hear. And, perhaps the greatest of all promises “no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.” I find this to be very good news indeed. There is room enough in the Kingdom for fools. Thanks be to God!

John the Baptist is languishing in prison. He hears that Jesus is up to something and he wants to know what is going on. Are the rumors true? Have there been healings? Has death been conquered? Are the poor being cared for? John wants to know if his long stand in the desert has come to fruition. Have the words he has spoken for so long come to pass? Is there truly a light shining in the darkness? Jesus’ response is “Yes. Come and see what I have done.”

We are asked to have hope.
We are promised redemption.

Redemption is the fruition of hope.
It is spiritual.
It is physical.
It is political.
It is economic.
It is familial.
It is wrought in every facet of our lives.

God does not pretend that our inner darkness is imagined or that our pain is not real, and that our fear is false. No, God’s presence brings a light into real darkness. God enters our darkest nights. God desires to relieve our secret burdens.

God offers new ways to respond to the Holiday Malaise…mental health physicians, phone calls to loved ones who understand us and know how to reciprocate our love, finding ways of breaking cycles of isolation…Have dinner with your best friend…
…worship and prayer, a healthy spirituality…a spirituality that encourages us to open our souls to God. God is in love with us, and wants to know us…each and every part of us. God wants to venture into our dark places.

God’s love is a star in the sky, an angelic visitor proclaiming the impossible in the darkest hours of the night.

Suffering persists in the world. There is still exile. There is still imprisonment, physical, psychological, and spiritual.

We have to have hope, and find ourselves responding with Mary:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit exults in God my savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed.
The Almighty has done great things for me,
and Holy is His Name.

Mary gives birth to the Word of God, the living Word of God who was present at the beginning of all things…Jesus the Christ. Her life is the life of a prophet. She bears God into the world. Mary is the Joyful Prophet. The joy she proclaims is not a denial of the dark. Instead it comes from the night reaches. It comes from those wounded places, the places of real despair, pain, and frustration. It comes out of poverty. It comes out of loneliness. It comes out of abandonment. It comes out of destructive political systems.

He has shown the strength of his am,
He has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
And has lifted up the lowly.

Mary sees the darkness.
And instead of sinking into cynicism she offers hope.
She offers herself to God.
And through her faith God enters the world as one of us.

This is the power and the wisdom of the incarnation.

The incarnation defines God’s presence as tangible and ultimately real.
This is the wisdom offered to us in the coming of Christ, Immanuel; “God is with us.”
Our relationship with God, our expressions of faith are not to be relegated to some “spiritual” or “disembodied” place in our lives.

Our faith is the faith of Mary.
Our faith bears God’s living presence into a world
in need of grace, love, transformation and joy.

We are called to break the cycles that bring darkness and suffering.

We are all called to be joyful prophets. We are called to bear a Word of light into a world of darkness…our own and the stranger’s darkness…in Wilmette or in a far off land. Every prophetic act, every prophetic word offered is an echo of the first Word spoken at Creation…for God moved over the abyss, spoke a word and there was light…

…and, behold, it was good. Amen.

tuning up...

The organ tuner is here. This is great news! For the last 11 weeks the basement has been under construction. This has meant no organ at all here at CCW. The blower for the 1924 beaut is in the basement. No sense in pulling particulates into the machine. Piano is lovely, but I miss the organ.

The tuners are here. Quarter-tones (and smaller increments) abound! To honor them, I offer this from You-Tube.

friday mumblings: mandodoxy

What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?
-Elvis Costello

I have a candle lit on the mantle again. The icon of St. Benedict is standing next to it, leaning against the brickwork. I am trying to get into a rhythm of prayer again. I go in and out of it. I've always struggled to maintain a rule when on my own. The structure of a community rule makes it easier of course. Everyone stops to pray, not just you. But when I am all alone in it...Well, that's just a different story.

There are so many distractions. Advent is a distracting time in the life of most churches. There are special services and events to take care of. Everyone pitches in and it can be a great time, but it is not "waiting in quiet expectation." And I have let this dynamic run amok in my prayer life. I am sure I am not alone in this at all.

So, I do what I always have done. I come back to the beginning of my prayer discipline. I light a candle and I stand quietly before the icons. I pray "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world..." It's a beginning. I breathe. This does not take much time. It is a beginning.

Lot's of things have this ebb and flow in my life. Music. Prayer. Marriage. There are so many ways to become distracted in life. There are so many demands on our time. And to pay attention to one thing is to not pay attention to the others. Simultaneous attention is something I have not yet mastered. I am not sure that I want to...but there are days.

I missed my mandolin lesson this week. I needed to go downtown for something else that came up. It was a worthwhile trade of time. Trish was not feeling well and needed a ride home. She will always win out over the mandolin lesson. The Mandoguru understands this. Plus, I surprised him last week with an unexpected skill. He even said the words "Very good, Tripp. I'm surprised!" So, maybe that took the edge off the disapproval. I don't know. Surprising the Mandoguru is not an easy thing to do. And it is fun when it happens.

He was going to teach me a Christmas carol. I think it was "Joy to the World" or something. So, he assumed that it would take the whole lesson to get me around the fretboard. A fair assumption. Even when I know the jig or reel it takes a lesson to get me around the fretboard. Last week we went through five tunes in our thirty-minute lesson. There was no sheet music. There were only the tunes. That is all. And that, my friends, was a first.

I play the mandolin very well by ear. I can think through a tune and intuit my way around the mandolin much faster than I can sightread a new jig or reel. It's just been that way. My whole life is that way. I intuit my way through something successfully well before I begin to consciously use the tools. I learned to sightread music in as a choral singer well after I was being paid for it. I listen and memorize. I intuit the next interval. Playing the mandolin is no different in this respect than using my voice.

The instrument is tuned in open fifths. This is the most "primitive" tuning I can imagine. It is basic. It is primeval. The mando lends itself to the pentatonic scale. The "innovations" of the fourth and seventh intervals can be ignored. It's easy to invent a tune from the very beginning. The instrument wants you to play it. Does this make sense? Again, intuitively I just know how to play this thing. Now, if I could only get the rule, the rhythm of reading a tune to be so easy. But that takes discipline.

And here we are back at disciplines. Rules. Regula. Standing before an icon and mumbling old words does not make one a Benedictine. That is for certain. Some days I wish it were that easy. I do. But it is not so simple. One cannot simply intuit a way into a Religious vocation. Such a life is a life of discipline, of obedience, of commitment.

Intuition helps, though. It does. It helps me navigate the waters of prayer. It helps me to navigate the fretboard of the mandolin. But at some point I have to begin to name the things that I am doing. I have to learn the language of a tradition. Terce. Sext. None. Jig. Reel. Scale after litany after fret after service...

This is working the warp and the woof of a life...planing the grain of the universe.

golden compass

strange sensation

I'm done with the sermon for this Sunday.

So strange.

junior high school never ends!!!

Well, I took the test...actually, the blog took the test. Huh. This is the rating for www.anglobaptist.org/blog...

Perhaps this is a compliment. Is there a certain universality to my blog? I reach out to all kinds! Anyone can find a home here. Yeah. Something like that.

Now for www.anglobaptist.org alone sans "/blog" I get another result.

Yeah. It seems that the less I say, the smarter I appear. Nice. Good lesson in there somewhere. Whatever! Sha! Like I care? As if!

Heh.

a quotation for your afternoon pleasure

I am getting ready to go grocery shopping for a dinner at church tonight. We are watching a video of a play inspired by Feiler's Abraham, A Journey of Three Faiths. The play is called Abraham's Calling. Trish appeared in the play and served as dramaturg. If you are going to be near CCW at, say, 6:30...then swing on by.

Anyway, here's a quotation to keep you busy for a bit. Be well!

Though it hardly seems possible now, we cling to the hope that
God's City will be established in the gift of the new heavens
and the new earth. Our work is to live by the customs of the new
City before it has fully come to be. In this way, the church
draws the world to God. We hold forth not a condemning, but a
welcoming word. All nations are invited to come to this City.
And the quality of our interactions as a community will be a
stronger witness than our words. The vibrancy of our worship
will be a beacon of light that draws people home from the long
darkness they have endured.

--Gerrit Scott Dawson

wednesday linkage: insomniac edition

Good (very early) morning to everyone. Here are some links for you. I'm up. Have been for an hour. I am not particularly creative this time of day. So, please forgive me if this post seems terse.

Amy has shared a reflection about change and worship, and how people may or may not invest. Powerful stuff. I enjoy her blog.

The Mainstream Baptist has posted on the Death of Democracy. Well, at least now we know.

In Defense of Subversiveness...what an army chaplain thinks.

Sr. Julie was interviewed by Dark Party. That there was an interview at all is interesting.

Larry finished an icon for Wicker Park Grace.

And there we have it...It is the second week of Advent. I am working up a sermon entitled "Joyful Prophets." This is the crux of faithful thought and action to me. The proclamation of joy and the fruition of God's Kingdom, however, does not always make it so. Nor is it meant to. And yet, proclaim joy and the Kingdom we must. This is what is often so strange about Christianity to me. We proclaim what is not yet. We are in the midst of God's redemptive work through Christ. Then again, Paul had something to say about that.

God is Truth, and God is alive and working in the world and in our hearts. It is just that sometimes, sometimes, the darkness is so great and our hearts so heavy that we cannot see...We cannot chose the light.

And that is why we must proclaim with Mary "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit exults in God..."

Laura said it well:

We’re called to stand in this gap, between hope and fear. Not swinging between one pole or the other, in a manic depressive sway. We’re called to stay awake. Be alert. And alertness presents us from between unrealistic optimism and naivete, on the one hand, and doom and gloom despair on the other.

I'm going to try to go back to sleep.

Something to chew on...

People cannot bear to have a unity that is above them and of which, with their particular tasks and graces, they are only a part. They shift unity from the whole into the part. They do not want symphony, but rather unison. In Platonic terms, this is the tyrannis; in modern terms it is totalitarianism, the inner contradiction of the one-party system and the arrogant claim to infallibility.

I am reading Hans Urs von Balthazar's Truth is Symphonic right now. This guy rocked.

tuesday musings

Ice is falling off the roof of the church. It slides down the slate roof and crashes to the ground. This morning the meteorologist said the words "31 degrees and rain." Ugly. It's just ugly weather. It's dangerous for driving. And the once lovely snow is now mush on the streets. It's sad.

I have been trying to catch up on e-mails. It's been a busy morning. I'm going to the hardware store in a moment to get some more salt for the walks. We are out. I salted and shoveled on Sunday. It needs it again.

This coming Sunday we have the Quest Ensemble coming to join us for the afternoon. Once again they will share their production "Blue Nativity" with us. If you are in the area, you really should try to catch this show. It's outstanding theater. Here are some details for you.

monday videoblog: not much to say

Monday, December 10



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the final stages: breadstuffs

Here are the rest of the steps to making the dinner rolls. Trish had a baking day scheduled with Kathleen from CCW. So, I took the rising bread over to her place and hung out while Trish and Kathleen made cookies for the progressive dinner.

Here are the final steps. You let the bread rise till doubled in bulk. Punch it down. Do it again. Punch it down and then you can pull off pieces of the dough to roll into dinner rolls.

So, you can see what you're doing somewhat. Cup your hands gently as you roll the dough. As you can see from my hand, the dough is still sticky. You don't want to mash these things up into bits.






Arrange the small balls of dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. This recipe makes two dozen rolls or so. Go ahead and let them touch one another. As they bake they'll rise into one another. Yum.






Mmm.






Have a great holiday!

Well, there you have it. Rolls. Pull them apart and put them in a basket or a bowl. Enjoy. I enjoyed making them. And people enjoyed eating them! That makes me happy.

Ministry is all about bread. Heh.

progressing with the progressives: bready satredays

I am making bread. Yes, bread. It's Saturday morning and the smells of breakfast (cast iron is our friend) and the "proof" for my rolls are wafting about the kitchen. Life is good. CCW has a progressive dinner scheduled for tonight. So, I am making some bread for the entre portion of the evening. There are three stages of the dinner each hosted by a family in the church. It's a lovely tradition.

So, I like to add molasses to the proof when I make wheat rolls. I like the color. You can see here in the photo that it's an interesting shade. It lightens up considerably when you add it to the rest of the flour. It's ugly now, but it's damn fine when everything gets rolling. I'll add pictures as the morning goes on. I'm having fun using this part of my brain.

Grow something. That's the ticket to a Happy Christmas. Oh! Do you like the tree? We had a very small gathering for tree trimming on the Feast of St. Nicholas. I think we'll make a bigger do of it next year. What fun.

Okay, time to mix and knead. I'll add photos in the extended section of the entry. Here's the recipe. It's pretty basic bread.

The proof:
1 c. wheat flour
1 T. rapid rise yeast
1 c. WARM whole milk
2 T. molasses

The dry:
1 c. wheat flour
3 c. white unbleached bread flour (I like whole grain.)
3/4 c. sugar
2 T. salt (Maybe a little more?)

After the proof rises add to dry...

1 egg
1 c. WARM whole milk
the proof

Mix together till it begins to adhere in the bowl. Add more flour as needed. Dough will be wet! Turn out on to floured surface. Knead till squeaky. Let rise covered in a warm place till it doubles in size. Punch down. Let rise again. Punch down. Form into small balls. Arrange on a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Let bake at 350 degrees until done...about 30 minutes. They will be brown and sound like a drum when you tap them. That's how you know they are done.

Let them cool completely before you pull them apart. They grow together. It's kind of neat, really. Tah dah!

Again follow the extended link for more pictures and instructions.

For a recipe this large, I cut a stick of butter into the flour. Smaller recipe, use less butter. Again, it's about adding protein to your bread. It will help the yeast out. And, honestly, butter is better...it just tastes good. Cut it in like you would for biscuits or a pie crust.


I'm a dork...but you'll want/need an egg anyway.


Wisking one egg into your dough is a nice touch. It adds just a little protein to keep things happy.


Add one cup of WARM milk. I use whole milk. More fat = better bread. Don't tell your doctor.


The proof...This is THE INGREDIENT.


Add your proof. Be gentle here.


This is proto-bread...once you have added all your wet ingredients to the dry, give it a good mix. You will have to get your hands in this at some point.


So, you want to knead on a floured surface. I use wheat flour when I am making wheat bread. It's a nice way to add a little more of your "special" ingredient.


Get your hands in it. Kneading is your friend. Huh...and I need to shed a few pounds.


See, now that's a pretty ball of dough. It started to squeak a little before I was done. Oh, an it's still a little wet, tacky like almost-dry paint.


A little olive oil in the bottom of the bowl keeps the rising dough from sticking.


Let your dough rest and rise until doubled in size.


Okay...So, now we wait for a while. Trish and I are going to a friend's house to bake before we go to a choir rehearsal (The church choir needed an extra rehearsal for the Christmas holiday concert tomorrow morning.). I'll finish up the bread there. You'll have to wait to see the rest of the pictures.

I know. But expectation is an aspect of Advent. You'll just have to wait. ;-)

cnn: freedom requires religion

Romney: 'Freedom requires religion'

By Kristi Keck
CNN

(CNN) -- White House hopeful Mitt Romney said religious liberty "is fundamental to America's greatness," in his Thursday address on faith in America.

Romney, seeking to become the first Mormon president, explained how his faith would affect his presidency in his speechat former President George H. W. Bush's presidential library at Texas A&M University.

"There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us. If so, they are at odds with the nation's founders," Romney said.

"Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone," he said.

The former Massachusetts governor delivered the speech to address religion's role in government as well as concerns voters might have about the Mormon religion.

CNN contributor Bill Bennett said he wasn't sure that Romney addressed those concerns, "but I don't think he had to."

"I can see this speech he just gave being given by any of the Republican candidates and most of the Democratic candidates, frankly. I'm not sure he was responding to the concern 'what about this Mormon thing?' " Bennett said. "I think he will probably get more questions on it, not fewer."

Another CNN contributor, Roland Martin, said the setting for the speech was a good one -- "in the heart of the Bible Belt."

Romney spoke before a crowd of about 300 people: a combination of friends, family and religious and conservative leaders.

"What he is trying to say is 'I am a person of faith. Forget the fact what my faith is, that I am a Mormon. You might be Christian. You might be Jewish. I'm a person of faith. I believe in God,' " Martin said.

The GOP contender, who had brushed off comparisons to John F. Kennedy's famous address, didn't hesitate to mention the 1960 speech.

"Almost 50 years ago another candidate from Massachusetts explained that he was an American running for president, not a Catholic running for president," Romney said.

"Like him, I am an American running for president. I do not define my candidacy by my religion. A person should not be elected because of his faith nor should he be rejected because of his faith."

Kennedy took the stage in Houston, Texas, and addressed concerns that the Vatican would influence his policies.

Like Kennedy, Romney told the audience that his church would not influence his presidential decisions. Romney said he did not "confuse" religion and politics as governor and he would not do it as president.

"If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause, and no one interest. A president must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States," he said.

Romney, however, said he would not distance himself from his religion.

"I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers -- I will be true to them and to my beliefs," he said, adding that if his faith hurts his candidacy, "so be it."

Romney avoided explaining differences in his church's beliefs and other faiths.

"Each religion has its own unique doctrines and history. These are not bases for criticism but rather a test of our tolerance. Religious tolerance would be a shallow principle indeed if it were reserved only for faiths with which we agree," he said.

"No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes president he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths," he said.

Romney instead pointed to similarities between churches in America, saying they share a "common creed of moral convictions."

Romney said he thought some have taken the idea of separation of church and state beyond its original meaning by trying to remove any acknowledgment of God from the public arena.

"It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America -- the religion of secularism. They are wrong," he said.

Nearly 77 percent of those questioned in an October CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll said the fact that a candidate is a Mormon would not be a factor in the way they vote for president. But a significant portion -- 19 percent -- said they are less likely to vote for a Mormon.

"Those who have the biggest problem supporting a Mormon are churchgoing and evangelical Christians -- particularly those who believe that Mormonism is not a Christian religion," Schneider said, citing the October poll. What do Mormons believe? »

And that also represents a large portion of the Republican base.

Brushing off differences between Mormons and other Christians is not the best campaign strategy, religion reporter Dick Ostling said in an interview with ReligionWriter.

"Better to candidly admit there are differences but these should not affect voting decisions," Ostling told RW. "The more effective plea is tolerance, asking voters to follow the spirit of the Constitution's ban on any 'religious test' to hold public office."

Romney is trying to win over conservative Christians as rival Republican Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, makes gains in the polls.

The former Arkansas governor is touted in one of his television ads as the "Christian leader."

"Understand, Mike Huckabee is rising because he is speaking to those social conservatives, these evangelicals. So Mitt Romney needs to identify with them saying, 'You're a person of faith, I'm a person of faith, let's break bread together, and let's agree to agree or agree to disagree,' " Martin said.

st nicholas

Almighty God, lover of souls,
who chose your servant Nicholas
to be a bishop in the Church,
that he might give freely out of the treasures of your grace:
make us mindful of the needs of others
and, as we have received, so teach us also to give;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Once, in seminary, I was speaking to a friend about that classic old issue of when to set up the Christmas tree. Do you set it up at Thanksgiving? On Christmas Eve? There are, it would seem, as many practices as there are days in the year. I thought that I might fall into the Christmas Eve category. I like the idea of 12 days and only 12 days of Christmas. Alas, it was not to be. But a lovely suggestion was given to me by this friend. He and his family set up the tree at the Feast of St. Nicholas. Today is that feast. Wikipedia also has a lot to share. Give it a read if you are so inclined.

Trish and I will set up the tree tonight. I'm spending the day away from the office. I'll be at the seminary library working on the thesis. I was supposed to be there yesterday, but I allowed myself to get sucked in over at the church. Oy, but there is a lot going on. At any rate, I'm looking forward to tonight. There will be the St Nicholas pizza (toppings vary) and other random goodies. Swing on by if you like! The tree is huge and we would love to see you.

wednesday linkage

WIt has been a while since I managed to put together a good wednesday linkage post. But I have run into several good articles and blog posts of late and it seemed appropriate to share them with you all at once than to write several posts. This is all just too much to examine. Feel free to linger on these sites. I think that they are all good.

And to start you off, read this sermon by mompriest.

Today's reading reminds us that although we do not know when, we do know something about how Christ will come again into the world. It will be like it was in the days of Noah with everyone caught up in the affairs of everyday life – nothing wrong with that except that they are all consuming.

worship:

Here's a review of Wired for Worship. It looks to be an interesting "emergent" take on von Balthazar. But we'll see.
Here's a post on clergy singing.

AKMA shares this preaching resource.

Sr. Julie shares an online resource for praying the Ignatian way. "Some find God at church on Sundays, but where does God bubble up in our lives the "Other6" days of the week?"

baptist and ecumenical hoo haa

The conservatives are targeting the Calvinists. Yeah. That makes sense. So, here's an opinion piece about how to make bridges with Calvinists from the Associated Baptist Press. I'm still befuddled by the whole conversation.

Avery Cardinal Douglas wrote an interesting article on the lack or progress in ecumenical dialogue. It is worth your time. He's on to something, I think. But then again, I am biased.

True progress in ecumenism requires obedience to the Holy Spirit. Vatican II rightly identified spiritual ecumenism as the soul of the ecumenical movement. It defined spiritual ecumenism as a change of heart and holiness of life, together with public and private prayer for the unity of Christians. We must pray to God to overcome our deafness and open our ears to what the Spirit is saying to the churches, including our own.

politics

Get Religion has this article about how newspapers are covering Romney. His campaign is an interesting test of American belief in the "freedom of religion" versus the American belief of "your religion is crap" "freedom from religion."

A little dialogue and growing. That's the Christian Century for you. And they have this as well:

"Blessed are the peacemakers," Jesus once said. "For they are the children of God." Every human being is a child of God. Perhaps it is up to those of us who know this to shout it loudly in our world. Ultimately the world will reject our call for peace—another inconvenient truth. Ours is a broken world, and part of our brokenness is not understanding the value of the human soul. But even in this world of sin, it should be said that those who claim the name of Christ love others more deeply and with a greater passion than any other people this world has ever seen.

And with that, I bid you adieu.

ya gotta see it

Trish and I went with a couple of folks from CCW. It's a riot. You can enjoy the "Mary, Holy Mother of God" call-in show. Oy. Veh! This is good humor, spending more time making fun of the people practicing Christianity (point the finger at oneself) than the faith itself. It's a Life of Brian meets Laugh In moment.

If your religious sensibilities are easily offended, then don't go. Otherwise do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Go directly to Mary's Attic in Andersonville. You'll love it.

By the way, I won the Bible Bee. Yep. I did.

something clever here

Blessed are you, loving God,
ever faithful to your promises
and ever close to your church.
The earth rejoices in hope of the Savior's coming
and looks forward with longing
to his return at the end of time.
You call us to prepare our hearts
and remove that which hinders us
from the joy and hope his presence will bestow.

We are expecting a little bit of a snow tonight. Estimates range from 1" to 6". The north shore should expect more snow and not less. I love the snow. It encourages a certain kind of introspection that I usually enjoy. Snowfall can be graceful and peaceful. But this morning, I seem to have gotten up on the wrong side of the beg again. I don't know what that's about. I think I need a break from introspection...or some kinds of introspection. It's tricky. That's for sure. And I don't know why.

Ever have one of those days? You know, when that general malaise is front and center? Yeah. It's one of those. Life is good. I like my life. But I need some sunshine...and some of those fancy bulbs. Maybe that's it. There's just been a little too much cloud cover of late. Heck, I dunno.

Well, there you have it. I am still praying. It's Advent and God is on the way. Maybe grace and relief will follow, but something tells me that's just not what Jesus was saying. Heh.

Y'all be well.

monday videoblog: show and tell edition

Monday, December 3



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sermon: first sunday of advent

Come to the Mountain

The God who loves and redeems us also cares enough to hold us to judgment.
A.K.M. Adam

Have you ever found yourself surprised by sitting still? I mean, really still, and honestly surprised? I went through this phase for a while where I would come home, park my car and just sit there for a moment. I would just sit there in the car.

The first couple of times I did this were almost involuntary. I’d discover that I was sitting quietly…and the sensation was so strange to me. But I’d just sit there. I’d take notice of my breathing…not to control it but to simply notice it.

In

Out

There would be sunlight coming in through the windshield. Even today I can remember a sweatshirt I wore one time as I sat there in my car. I remember how it felt against my skin. The days were cool. I remember that as well.

I would sit there. Still.

Everything was so vivid…colors in the leaves and grass, the feel of my clothing, and the sounds of the city all around me. In those small moments everything found a place. They were holy moments. And wholly unexpected. They were little trips to the mountaintop.

Those days were very busy days for me. I was working two jobs and not making enough money. I was drowning in my own life. Every day my mind was racing, obsessing on something. Activity led to activity led to activity.

Then these moments came like some divine intervention.
And their gentle stillness was a surprise;
a welcome and much needed gift.

Gradually, they showed me how the life I was leading was unmanageable, incapable of leading me to God’s peace. I learned to cultivate these times. I learned to find other moments to be still and aware. I learned to find holy moments for myself…to pack my own bags and journey to the mountaintop. When you hear me talk about Christian discipline, liturgy, prayer…This is what I’m talking about.
This is the first Sunday of Advent. This is the day when we come together and mark our calendars. We begin a countdown to the Birth of Christ. It is a season set aside so that we might make ourselves ready for the coming Christ.

We still ourselves.
We sit quietly.
We wait.
We have come together to begin a spiritual journey, a shared journey, of waiting for God.

We are being taught to expect the miraculous through the Advent discipline waiting for the birth of God in the world and in our hearts. It’s a beautiful time in the life of the church.

But the scriptures we encounter this morning push us around. If you are visiting with us this morning for the first time, maybe you find these scriptures surprising…Matthew especially…But we are talking about the birth of God in the world…and such an encounter is often disruptive life changing. In their wisdom, Isaiah and Jesus understand that the encounter with God is always the encounter with God’s judgment.

“The God who loves and redeems us,” says theologian A.K.M. Adam “also cares enough to hold us to judgment.”

So now we have to ask ourselves a difficult question. Are we here this morning to be comforted or to be made comfortable?

This is the First Sunday of Advent,
the first Sunday of the season where we once again prepare for God’s arrival.
We are asked to slow down,
to find moments of gentleness,
to find moments of peace.

Sometimes, however, I have to stop and ask myself if this search is a search for what will make me comfortable or if it is a search for what will comfort me. Because there is a difference.

Do you understand what I am getting at? I find it difficult to explain.

The Laz-y Boy chair is comfortable. But does it really comfort? Perhaps. Perhaps it can assuage that part of our soul that bears wounds. But I doubt it. Then, I’m not sure that this metaphor really works.

I once heard this little saying in relation to chocolate chip cookies: “Bad for you, but good to you!” Somewhere in there is the truth I’m getting at. Do we know what is good to us? Do we know what is good for us? Can we tell the difference? It’s hard to say.

Life with God is a little more complicated than a chocolate chip cookie or a a Laz-y Boy recliner.

Sometimes we come to church in Advent looking to be comforted. We come looking for hope. What is startling, perhaps, is that the hope that God offers is not always what we think it should be. It does not come in packages that we always recognize. It does not come in what makes us comfortable.

It may not be found in the familiar carols and hymns,
or in children’s pageants,
or in lights and greenery.

Instead it will be found in the millennia old prophetic words of Isaiah.
It will be found in words like “arbitrator.”

The mystery of God’s coming, God’s living with us, might indeed be comforting. But it is never comfortable because the encounter with God changes who we are. It asks us to change how we live in even the most simple of ways.

This is the Good News of the Gospel. We will all be changed.

To come to the Mountain, to stand before Isaiah’s “arbitrator” is to be changed…to be judged, found wanting, and to be transformed. We will turn our swords into ploughshares, our spears into pruning hooks. Weapons become gardening tools. What destroys is transformed into what nurtures into what brings growth. We will study war no more.

God transforms us into peacemakers. In the end, this is God’s desire.
The promise is for all nations. The promise is for all people.

The messiah that is to come is the messiah to all people. The arbitration God offers that results in peace is for all people. This is true. This is absolute. But we cannot know the time. We cannot know the hour. We must be ready for such a decision, for such judgment. We must search our own souls for the things within us that make for peace and nurture those things.

We must make time to be still.
We must make time to be gentle.
We must make time to step away from our scheduled, regimented lives, and step into the unknown, the unscheduled, and the seemingly arbitrary work of God. This is Advent.

Ask yourself. What in your life is a sword? What is a spear? What in your life does not make for peace? Take time during Advent. Lift those things up to God. Give those things over to God’s judgment. Let God transform those things into something new. Let God undo what has been done, and turn your life into what makes for peace.

This is what the mountaintop is all about. God is a God of mountaintops. The mountain of the Lord…Mt. Harmon, Mt. Tabor, Mt. Sainai…God is a God of heights, of mountaintops. The scriptures beg us to come to the mountain and stand on the edge of some high precipice. We have to look out into a future that we cannot control, that we cannot dictate. This is life. There are ways we can pitch in, align ourselves.

Matthew makes it very clear that our present participation in God's future is essential to Christian identity. The hour is "unexpected." So we must be ready. There are no signs or portents. There are no tealeaves to read. There is only our work and our prayer.

This is the first Sunday of Advent. And here the prophet’s words meet us. Here Jesus’ own words challenge us. But they beg of us the same thing: Come to the Mountain.

Come to the Mountain.
Encounter God’s truth.
Proclaim, “God is with us!”
Be willing to be uncomfortable
to sit still
to be surprised..to be judged.
to be changed.
And in this, you may find comfort.

Come to the mountain.

Amen.

Here is a link to the lectionary.

power outtage

The power went out.

Yeah.

The ice on the trees. That's just the way things happen sometimes. Fortunately I set the alarm on my cell phone.

Gotta get the sermon right. You know, preaching in Advent is so hard!

satreday morning pages

Art is not about thinking something up. It is the opposite -- getting something down.
-The Artist's Way

Do you all know anything about The Artist's Way? Once upon a time I got into it. It helped me, I think. But that was fifteen years ago. A lot of what I do here on this blog is just an extension of the discipline of "morning pages." The blog is a way to share what's rambling about in my head, maybe get some feedback, or just practice writing for the sake of writing. I'm not sure why I'm sharing this particular this morning. It just seems the thing to do.

So, what are you all up to today? I've got a full docket. I'll fix breakfast here in a minute or two. We have a yoga class at the church at 10:00am. Trish and I are going this morning. We don't make it every Saturday. But we go when we can.

At 11:00am we are greening the church. There will be nog and cider and some fruit, nuts and cookies. I don't know how many people will be coming. I hope a few. We'll see. A couple of the larger wreaths are hung up already. They take the 30' ladder. So, the maintenance man helps us with those two.

I'll work on my sermon for a while. Then at 3:00 (3:30?) we are interviewing a candidate to be our new organist. It should be good. I'm looking forward to speaking with him. I've heard him play. So, that's a done deal. But I want to know how he will be to work with.

It's a full day here in Wilmette. I'm looking forward to this one. I hope your day is what you need!

Peace.