Category: Reflections
Lost Sheep
So I’m still in the same holding pattern healthwise… spending a lot of time on the couch. I wanted to post this story that we used in church this past week. We had a reflective worship service for the first Sunday of Lent which coincided with Luke 15 in our journey through the book of Luke. So we spent time reflecting on lost sheep, lost coins, and lost sons. I fully admit that this story is a rip-off. I had read this story over at Sarah Dylan Breuer’s lectionary blog. I loved it, but decided to tweak it for a more low church setting. So with my respects to Dylan – here’s my tweaked version of “The Story of the 99”
There once was a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One day one of those sheep went astray. This of course caused a big stir in the flock. The other 99 immediately sprang into action – or at least discussion.
The first question of the day involved what exactly does “astray” mean. Did this poor sheep lose its way. Was it too stupid to follow the other sheep back into the fold. Did it get lost by accident? Or did it deliberately and maliciously wander off? One, sheep, long with the flock, asked if this sheep had ever really been a sheep at all. If he wandered off, perhaps in reality he was a goat. Others immediately agreed that he had never really seemed like one of them in the first place. The suggestion was given that a message should be sent to the sheep that if he could stop being a goat, or at least start acting like a sheep then he could rejoin the flock. This of course caused various groups to splinter off in discussion as to what it really meant to be a sheep at all.
One group argued that the sheep must follow the historic practices of being a sheep. None of this new-fangled nonsense of progressive shearing techniques and electric fences. No sir. This stray must be willing to be a sheep in the way they have always been sheep if he wanted to return to the fold. Others argued that those cultural trappings of sheepness might have been what caused the sheep to stray in the first place. If they could just redefine sheepness in a language the sheep could understand, the language of the wilderness, then there would never have been an issue. A committee was formed to explore what language was actually being spoken out there in the wilderness (with strict instructions to be out there in the wilderness, but to never be of the wilderness).
All this talk of course upset the faction that didn’t believe in different forms of sheepness. They asserted that that lost sheep should just know how to be a sheep. A sheep exactly like them. In fact all animals should just know how to be a sheep. They decided the best course of action was to start a petition to make it a law that all animals become, or at least act like, sheep. But since they didn’t know any animals that weren’t sheep, they failed to collect the required number of signatures.
Another group found all that talk really missed the point of what sheep were created to be to begin with. They asked if it really was all that bad to be astray. The sheep was out there in the wilderness – out where it belonged. It was in its natural, authentic environment. Perhaps instead of being confined to the flock, they should go join the stray. Get back to what it really means to be a sheep and all that.
The discussion continued late into the night. At some point a few of the sheep, tired of the whole debate, noticed that the shepherd was missing. One lone sheep who had watched the shepherd hurry out in search of the stray sheep asked unheard amidst the chaos of the bleating – if we are in here and the shepherd is out there – who really are the sheep without a shepherd?
The Homework Myth
I see learning as a holistic experience. Engagement, imagination, creativity and critical thinking being far more important than memorization of facts or regurgitation of expected answers. The love of learning is something I value more than a test score or rank. So reading a book by someone who cares about those things and not just finding the best way to manage a failed system is refreshing. I plan to blog about some of the arguments presented in this book as I read through it. But I will start by quoting from the opening chapter. This quote is by Carlton Washburne from Parents magazines’ November 1937 issue (a magazine that today is full of tips on how to get your kid to do homework) –
If children are not required to learn useless and meaningless things, homework is entirely unnecessary for the learning of common school subjects. But when a school requires the amassing of many facts which have little or no significance to the child, learning is so slow and painful that the school is obliged to turn to the home for help out of the mess the school has created.
Fourth Sunday of Advent – Reflections
”And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. – Luke 2:8-12
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” – Luke 4:14-21
Good tidings of great joy. Born this day. Today this scripture is fulfilled.
As we light the Advent candle today we celebrate joy. Joy in the promises of a Messiah, joy in the waiting and longing, joy in the hope, and peace, and love. Good tiding of great joy. Joy is our response to Advent. To the hope that a better world is possible. To the promise of peace on earth. To the love we give and receive.
And this joy is a joy we can celebrate now. Christ is born. The promises of scripture have been fulfilled. The Kingdom is here and now. There is hope for the poor, there is freedom for the oppressed, there is sight for the blind. We can take joy that Christ has come and is at work in the world.
The past week I came upon a blog where the author was demanding that “Joy to the World” not be sung as Christmas. His reasoning was that it is not a song about Christ’s first advent (his birth), but a song about the second coming of Christ. He believes that none of the things celebrated in the song have happened or can happen until Christ returns, so there is no reason to ever sing the words “joy to the world.”
But we have the words of the Angels and Christ himself that we can have joy today. Christ has come – love dwelled among us, hope was born in a manger. And we who choose to follow in the way of Christ can proclaim that joy and work for that joy. We are called to share that joy. To be the ones giving hope. The ones bringing freedom from oppression. The ones making sure the words “joy to the world” are a reality. The ones making sure sins and sorrows do not grow. The ones working the wonders of his love.
So this Advent, this Christmas – let us not just “repeat the sounding joy,” but let us be the harbingers of that Joy.
For Joy to the world the Lord is come.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
The Light Returns
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Today we celebrate the return of the light. The longest night is passed and the light returns to our land. I never paid much attention to the Solstice until I moved up north. But the return of the light, so rich in symbolic and religious meaning, is a symbol and reality of hope. Even amidst the cold and the darkness the despair cannot win. The light shines forth, better days are ahead, life and light dwell upon the earth. Blessings and Joie this Solstice.
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
Mary
Mary seems to be in the spotlight this season. With the release of The Nativity Story movie (which I have not seen yet) and Scot McKnight’s book The Real Mary (which I did read), she has become the topic of numerous conversations and sermons. I preached a couple of weeks ago on Mary and what we must weigh in the balance if we desire to be used by God. Our Emergent Cohort up/rooted got to spend an evening with Scot McKnight discussing his book (read about it at Mike’s blog). The discussions have ranged from addressing the historical context for Mary, to the Catholic/Protestant controversies, to the implications for women in ministry.
What really intrigued me was the discussion of how Mary has been portrayed in art and how that has influenced our perceptions of her. Most depictions of Mary present her as emotionless, ageless, and weak in a pale blue dress. She is decorative, humble, and seemingly powerless. The picture to the left is the Mary from my Nativity set. I like that it has color on it and uses a verse from the Magnificat, but it still is a very traditional Mary. I had never been a fan of religious art mostly because of the way it portrays “holy” figures as disconnected from real life. The Marys in art obviously have not just given birth, finished a long journey, or had recently been on a roller-coaster emotional journey. They are not surprised by the appearance of an angel, are not phased by the request from God, and are not upset by a serious life change. And they are not the kind of women who could sing a politically revolutionary song like the Magnificat. Perhaps that is why when I first encountered Ecce Ancilla Domini by Dante Gabriel Rossetti I was drawn to it. 
But I’m not sure the portrayal is accurate. Yes, I believe there was surprise and fright involved in the encounter. But Rosetti’s Mary doesn’t look like she would willingly say “may it be to me as you have said” in response to this angel. This angel with the phallic symbol lily pointed at Mary’s womb seems to represent the worst form of male violence towards women. One is reminded of Yeat’s poem Leda and the Swan retelling the Greek myth of the maiden being raped by the god. But I can’t seem to figure rape into the Christmas story – the God I believe in (the God I want to believe in) is not like that. I have to think that Mary’s “may it be” was a true willingness. At up/rooted Nanette Sawyer commented on God waiting for that willingness from Mary. She suggested reading the poem Annunciation by Denise Levertov. I especially like this description of Mary from that poem – “She was free/to accept or to refuse, choice/integral to humanness.” Mary knew what she faced, she knew the dangers and she still willingly accepted to bear the Messiah. As Scot McKnight mentioned “may it be” might be better translated as “bring it on,” this was a women with fire in her eyes ready to serve and serve big.
I like that vision of Mary. I like finding strong women in the Bible who aren’t afraid to challenge tradition and cultural assumptions in order to work for a greater good. I like that – that’s the Bible I want to share with my daughter. But I have yet to find it in art. What will it take for the concept of a strong and revolutionary Mary to enter the religious consciousness? What will it take for the church to accept a woman with fire in her eyes? Will she (they) just continue to be shoved out of churches or subdued and tamed? What will it take for Mary to be re-imagined by the masses? Given the church’s track record with women, I’m not expecting much. But this is a story I will tell – a picture I will paint differently.
Third Sunday of Advent – Reflections
“Hallelujah. Holy shit. Where’s the Tylenol?” – Clark Griswold, Christmas Vacation
Earlier this month in South Carolina a mother had her 12 year old son arrested for finding and playing with a Christmas present early. The trappings and habits of Christmas were apparently more important that this child’s criminal record for life.
In Chappaqua, New York, a merchant put up blue-and white snowflake flags with the word “Welcome” printed on them. Apparently some in the town felt the flags were too reminiscent of traditional Hanukkah colors, were shaped like dreidels, and had Hebrew-style lettering, so they complained–vocally–to the woman who had purchased them. So much for her attempt to spiff up the shopping street.
A new poll out by Zogby International reported recently that 32 percent of Americans say they are offended when a store clerk wishes them “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Because being offended really helps spread the love and joy of Christmas.
This is the world we are celebrating Christmas in this year. A world where our personal rights and preferences are more important than the command to love our neighbor. A world where creating the perfect Martha Stewart Christmas is more important than spending time with our families. A world where trivia about Christmas becomes more important than the implications of incarnation.
This week, the third Sunday of Advent, we light the candle representing love (and yes, I know, in some traditions this week’s theme is joy, but traditions change – do you see anyone focusing on the traditional themes of death, judgment, heaven, and hell during advent?). This advent season we have focused on hope and peace – that we can have hope in God’s kingdom working in this world and that we can work for peace. But honestly, it is almost easier to have hope and be a peacemaker in the big things. We can care about stopping AIDS and violence, but are we really ready to love?
Are we ready to love those who are hurting? Those who are sick? Those who come from a different culture than us? Are we ready to love the person who just took our parking space at the mall? Our child who just broke another Christmas ornament? The secularist who is trying to get the Christmas Carols out of the public schools? The gay couple down the street? The illegal worker who picked the produce in our fridge? The boss who paid that worker far less than minimum wage to pick that produce? Are we ready to love not just children dying of AIDS in Africa, but the prostitute dying of AIDS in our community? Are we ready to love not just in a perfunctory Christiany “of course I love them” sort of way, but a way that actually lets them see that God loves them too?
Are we ready to be Christ’s hands and feet? Are we ready to really be the body of Christ? Are we ready to be the incarnation?
Christmas is the celebration of the incarnation. The indwelling of love on earth. Our hope in a better world and our longing for peace find their answer in this embodiment of love. “For God so loved the world that he sent his only son.” As the carol penned by Christina Rossetti proclaims –
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and to all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
And as the church, as the body of Christ, we now are the manifestation of that love. Love is our token – love for God and love for man. We talk about how we are blessed to be a blessing – and we are called to be that blessing (to love others) not just in Haiti, or Africa, or at the food pantry – but in our day to day lives. In our families, in our communities, and in our service encounters. It’s a lot easier to be selfish and petty and talk about love abstractly (like I’m doing now), but we are called to be living, breathing incarnations of love – even at Christmastime. Are we ready (and willing) to do that?
I want to close with a reading of a paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13 written especially for Christmas.
The Advent of Love
Set your feet on higher ground this year and I will show you the way to Bethlehem.
If I speak with the earthy language of Luke and also sing with the heavenly hosts, but share the Christmas story again without making it a love story, it becomes a noisy song and a tinseled symbol.
And if I have powers of imagination and pretend to understand the mystery of incarnation and know my theology cold; and if I have faith that’s been to the mountain, but let that theology remain outside the stable; and if I take a wiseman’s journey without love, I stay in the darkness.
If I offer rare and precious gifts in this season, and if I expend all my energy in pageants and parties, but make these offerings in order that others may love me, I gain nothing of the spirit of Christmas.
Love in this season is patient with those who think Christmas will never get here, and love keeps words kind in spite of the frantic pace which overtakes us. Love in our celebration rules out gift exchanges that are self-serving; questions valuing persons by the price of their gifts; avoids rudeness in the shopping place.
Love in December days is not irritated by the trite and the trivial nor resentful of demands others make of us. It does not dwell on the wrongs in the world, but finds joy in the truth of God’s gift.
Love in Advent bears the burden of history unfolding; believes in the reality of the Word made flesh; hopes for good will and enduring peace among all. …
From Love’s Letters: A Poetic Book of Confessions by George Gunn
(Library Lane Press / Copyright 2001)
Second Sunday of Advent – Reflections
Luke 2:13-14 “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Peace seems to be popular this time of year. It’s safe to talk about peace during advent. Bring it up during the rest of the year and you get labeled (dismissed) as a liberal hippie who hates America, but as Christmas nears peace becomes respectable again. We hear it in Linus telling us the real meaning of Christmas straight from the KJV. We see it embroidered on pillows, illuminated with lights and glitter, and flashed on the television screen. It is part of the warm fuzzies of Christmas – Peace on Earth.
But what do our words really mean? To quote the prophet Bono –
“You hear it every Christmastime
When hope and history won’t rhyme
So what’s it worth?
This peace on Earth”
What are our words worth. What are we asking for? What is it we are caring about?
This Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of Peace. Last week we talked about hope – hope that the light does shine in the darkness – that there is good in this world and it’s worth fighting for. It is hard to believe that another world is possible without that hope, but what is hope without action – what is faith without works?
If we do not work for peace then truly what are our words worth? It is ours to raise awareness, ours to sound the alarms, ours to push for change, ours to care for individual lives, ours to follow the way of Christ. Peace on earth requires action and awareness.
This weekend has been set aside as a Weekend of Prayer for Darfur. The violence continues to escalate there, women especially are targeted with violence and rape, and now aid workers are being killed. This is a genocide that is being likened to Rwanda and the Holocaust. If our words “peace on earth” mean anything we will care about peace in Darfur. We will care and take action.
During Advent we look to the incarnation of Christ Jesus. We long for his coming and rejoice in the new word, the new kingdom we ushers in. A Kingdom in which Hope and Peace are possible. Where the darkness does overcome the light and we are the ones working to dispel that darkness through peace. We sing at Advent –
O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
To remind us that Peace is not just a cute Christmas phrase, I want to share two prayers. The first is the prayer of a Darfuri woman. The second is the prayer of St. Francis, recalling to us that peace begins with our actions.
Prayer from a Darfuri Woman
“I want to join my prayers to many other voices. Every few months we are driven away from one refugee camp to the other, so far in the desert where nothing, nothing at all exists. This is no way for a human being to live. No way to live in such a shocking place – uncultivated, waterless, treeless and barren region…! Everything is burning, Lord, around me, around us … in me, in us … Everything is barren, hell, hell…! Yet, Lord, we believe you are there, beside us. We pray for all the Africans living now our same condition. Bring back peace and tranquility to our beloved country. Peace which is desired by everybody, the old and young, rich and poor, women and men. Amen…amen…Let it be so.”
— © Gloria Silvano, Sudan / CAFOD
The Prayer of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred … let me sow love
Where there is injury … pardon
Where there is doubt … faith
Where there is despair … hope
Where there is darkness … light
Where there is sadness … joy
Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled … as to console
To be understood … as to understand,
To be loved … as to love
For it is in giving … that we receive,
It is in pardoning … that we are pardoned,
It is in dying … that we are born to eternal life
Amen
If you want a reminder of what we need to work for, watch this.
U2 – Peace on Earth
Trimming the Tree
So we decorated the tree tonight. This was our first year ever to have a real tree (after our duct taped fake tree collapsed on Emma a couple of times last year, we decided to try the real thing). While Emma was a bit scared at the tree farm and clung to my pants the whole time, she hasn’t really seemed to notice that there is a tree in the house yet (granted we put her to bed before we actually started decorating it…).
We used colored lights this year. I have no clue where those lights even came from. I like the white lights, but behold we had half a dozen new boxes of colored lights in with the Christmas stuff. Mike pulled the “Emma would like the colored lights better” tricks and out voted me (plus he called me a tree light racist since I don’t like colored lights). So we have colored lights…
With Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Connick Jr., and Enya singing the sounds of the season in the background and fortified with spiced wine, we decorated the tree. Now some people have pretty trees – all decorative and coordinated. We have a memory tree. I have (almost) 29 years of ornaments (often multiple per year) as does Mike. So on the tree are “Baby’s First Christmas” ornaments from 1977, 1978, and 2005. I have at least 4 Texas shaped ornaments (Merry Christmas Y’all), Hallmark series from the 80’s and 90’s, and ornaments we picked up from our honeymoon in Europe. Then there is my Cathedrals of the World set – I can only put up the ones I’ve actually visited (7 out of 12 isn’t bad). And pop culture is fully represented as well. From our childhoods we have Snoopy, Strawberry Shortcake, the Muppets, and the Smurfs (that would be Mike’s given that the Smurfs were banned as New Age in my family). Of course the whole Hallmark Star Wars and Lord of the Rings series are there as well as a few Harry Potter, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Veggie Tales ornaments. And Emma got an Elmo one this year. So it is a memory tree – a tree that is about us, our stories, our lives.
So for a cultural tradition, we go all the way. The tree, the ornaments, the music, the TV shows (the Sesame Street Gift of the Magi with Bert, Ernie, and Mr. Hooper was on today – I had the record of that – fun memories) … Are we a product of our culture, sure. Do I think it cheapen or takes the meaning out of Christmas? Not at all. I embrace Christmas with all its cultural, pagan, and religious roots. It just adds to the richness of the celebration. To celebrate the return of the light, to give gifts, to tell cultural folk tales, to get to decorate with my favorite colors, to listen to happy music, to see family, to remember the birth of Jesus – it is all meaningful in its own way.
So Merry Christmas all. Have fun decorating your trees.
The Real Christmas?
So the Christmas season is officially upon us now that Thanksgiving is over and done with (not that stores haven’t been pushing it since July…). I did give in and listened to Christmas music last week, but just once, really. Well I was driving today and had the radio on one of those “we play anything” stations. I had stopped on it because they were playing Enya’s Silent Night – a beautiful, ethereal, gaelic version. It was very peaceful. Then this song come on immediately following –
Merry Christmas From the Family by Keen Robert Earl
Mom got drunk and Dad got drunk at our Christmas party
We were drinking champagne punch and homemade eggnog
Little sister brought her new boyfriend
He was a Mexican
We didn’t know what to think of him until he sang
Felis Navidad, Felis NavidadBrother Ken brought his kids with him
The three from his first wife Lynn
And the two identical twins from his second wife Mary Nell
Of course he brought his new wife Kay
Who talks all about AA
Chain smoking while the stereo plays Noel, Noel
The First NoelCarve the Turkey
Turn the ball game on
Mix margaritas when the eggnog’s gone
Send somebody to the Quickpak Store
We need some ice and an extension chord
A can of bean dip and some Diet Rites
A box of tampons, Marlboro Lights
Haleluja everybody say Cheese
Merry Christmas from the familyFred and Rita drove from Harlingen
I can’t remember how I’m kin to them
But when they tried to plug their motor home in
They blew our Christmas lights
Cousin David knew just what went wrong
So we all waited out on our front lawn
He threw a breaker and the lights came on
And we sang Silent Night, Oh Silent Night, Oh Holy NightCarve the turkey turn the ball game on
Make Bloody Mary’s
Cause We All Want One!
Send somebody to the Stop ‘N Go
We need some celery and a can of fake snow
A bag of lemons and some Diet Sprites
A box of tampons, some Salem Lights
Haleluja, everybody say cheese
Merry Christmas from the Family
At first I was annoyed. That’s the kind of thing that spoils Christmas, I thought. Cheap, cheesy crap that has nothing to do with joy and peace and all that. That is the real war on Christmas. But then I thought that no, this song represents the real Christmas for most Americans. An odd family gathering that is awfully real and mundane but is special because it is meant to be special. It’s not about the tinsel and the tree or whether or not the greeters at Walmart say “happy holidays” or “merry Christmas” (or even this year’s silly “be bright”) – what does any of that matter next to real people, real families, real hurts, real needs, real life?