Advent Calendar 25 December 2009 - Christmas Day

Merry Christmas.

We pray, O Lord, for refugees and exiles (as we recall the Holy Family fleeing into Egypt) that they may one day return to enjoy the blessings of peace and justice. Amen.

When the song of angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

to find the lost,

to heal the broken,

to feed the hungry,

to release the prisoner,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among the brothers [and sisters],

to make music in the heart.

~ Howard Thurman

Advent Calendar 24 December 2009 - Christmas Eve

A Christmas Eve Service of Light and Carols can be found at last years entry titled: December 24th’s: Christmas Eve.

God of hope, we rejoice in your presence and live in hope because you are with us. We thank you because you gave Mary the courage to accept the mystery of her vision. Often we do not understand – how can we understand the mystery of Jesus, the Messiah? Give us courage to live in the light of hope. Let us share the joy of the mystery of God with us. Amen.

~ Thomas McNair, Taiwan

The Mother of God

The threefold terror of love; a fallen flare

Through the hollow of an ear;

Wings beating about the room;

The terror of all terrors that I bore

The Heavens in my womb.

Had I not found content among the shows

Every common woman knows,

Chimney corner, garden walk,

Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes

And gather all the talk?

What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,

This fallen star my milk sustains,

This love that makes my heart's blood stop

Or strikes a Sudden chill into my bones

And bids my hair stand up?

~ W.B. Yeats

Advent Calendar 23 December 2009

Today we pray for those who are pregnant in their older age (like Elizabeth): May we as a community, ever mindful of the awe, surprise and mystery of God’s purpose, be a refuge of support.

For those who are filled with fear: May their anxiety yield to trust in God’s saving purpose.

For those parents (in our community) who are awaiting the birth of a child: May they find God’s presence in the wonder of childbirth.

Amen.

We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all eternity…But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that is should take place in me.

~ Meister Eckhart

You may call God love, your may call God goodness, But the best name for God is compassion.

~ Meister Eckhart

Advent Calendar 22 December 2009

In these final days of Advent, leading up to the Incarnation, I offer prayers with our quotes. Today, we pray for Single Mothers and Fathers (like Mary and Joseph): May these men and women be strengthened with courage and compassion, and supported by a larger community of love, that their children may grow up to be prophets for the betterment of the world. Amen.

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

~ Kahil Gabran

If the grandfather of the grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, he would have stood humble and awe-struck before his soul.

~ Kahil Gibran

Advent Calendar 21 December 2009

Winter Solstice.

It is pouring rain today; a good day to make the Northern Hemisphere's shortest day of the year feel even shorter; a good day to celebrate light and the Light coming into the world.

You can try to strangle light:

use your hands and think

you’ve found the throat of it,

but you haven’t.

You could use a rope or a garrote

or a telephone cord,

but the light, amorphous, implacable

will make a fool of you in the end.

You could make it your mission

to shut it out forever,

to crouch in the dark,

the blinds pulled tight –

still, in the morning,

a gleaming little ray will betray you, poking

its optimistic finger

through a corner of the blind,

and then more light,

clever, nervy, impossible,

spilling out from the crevices

warming the shade.

This is the stubborn sun,

choosing to rise,

like it did yesterday,

like it will tomorrow.

You have nothing to do with it.

The sun makes its own history;

Light has it way.

~ Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno

Advent Calendar 20 December 2009

4th Sunday in Advent

Common Lectionary Readings: Micah 5:2-5a, Luke 1:46b-55, Hebrews 10:5-10, Luke 1:39-45

As I’m looking at talking about the Mary’s Magnificat – here is the version that is found in the United Methodist Hymnal. This text takes the place of the Psalter today, and so is presented here in a call and response formate (one side/person can read the normal, (an)other read the italic).

CANTILE OF MARY (MAGNIFICAT)

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, who has looked with favor on me, a lowly servant.

From this day all generations shall call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is the name of the Lord, whose mercy is on those who fear God from generation to generation.

The arm of the Lord is strong, and has scattered the proud in their conceit.

God has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.

God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich empty away.

God has come to the aid of Israel, the chosen servant, remembering the promise of mercy, the promise made to our forebears, to Abraham and his children for ever.

I wonder how often I, myself, have overlooked the latter part of the magnificat in the excitement of the first section. But, when slowing down and reading, or even speaking, the second section I realize just how politically charged, prophetically challenging to the powers that be Mary is. Mary stands in the long line of prophets that her Jewish culture has produced through all the years. In the midst of our consumer culture (especially during this season of celebrating Christ’s birth) Mary is calling for no less than a total reversal of the way we have structured our society. Our society, too, is built upon power and violence and greed.

Mary calls us to be prophets of the kingdom. To envision a new way of living that is based on justice, mercy and peace. Mary stands alongside John the Baptist.

Does this call mean that we should be standing up and protesting? Perhaps. But there are other ways to protest. How we live our very lives can send messages of how we envision the world to truly be organized. Look at the difference normal, everyday people have made to the grocery industry by demanding organic food. Or what about the difference that is made when everyday people insist on buying local products, or fair-trade items? While the UN Summit in Copenhagen is important, I am reminded that the power really is still with the decisions every day people make. How far am I willing to drive? How often will I use public transportation? What will I support with my purchases and from where will these products come from and what conditions of production are acceptable to me?

Scott and Helen Nearing come to mind as a couple who decided that there was an alternative way to live their lives, and then spent 30 + years living out their “experiment.” (See Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life.)

I conclude with a story that Wendell Barry relates in which a nuclear power plant was proposed to be put across the river from where many of the community was farming. There was a large protest action organized, carried out, and in the end “successful” as the power plant was “cancelled.” But Barry looked across the river to one of the farmsteads and is disappointed that the couple has not participated in the protest marches and picketing. As dusk comes, Barry realized that this couple still lights with kerosene, and protests the electrical needs at a more basic and daily level than he was.

Mary’s Magnificat is a powerful reminder that Christ’s birth changes the world. This birth changes the world, and invites changes in you and me. Changes that take courage. For seeking to live out justly and peacefully is a courageous activity. But a blessed one, too.

Advent Calendar 19 December 2009

A reading for the end of Hanukkah:

We gather in the chill of winter solstice, finding warmth from each other, nourishing hope where reason fails.

Grateful for small miracles, we rejoice in the wonder of light and darkness and the daring of hope.

Holy One of Blessing

Your Presence

fills creation.

You made us holy with Your commandments and called us to kindle the Hanukkah lights.

Holy One of Blessing

Your Presence

fills creation.

You performed miracles for our ancestors in days of old at this season.

Holy One of Blessing

Your Presence

fills creation.

You have kept us alive

You have sustained us

You have brought us

to this moment.

~Congregation Beth El, Sudbury, MA

Advent Calendar 18 December 2009

As we continue to pray for one another, those calling out in the prophetic tradition, and the Copenhagen summit (as it comes to a close) I share this words that Alan Jones relates in Soul Making: The Desert Way of Spirituality.

It is said that during on uprising in India late in the last century when British service families had to be evacuated, the road was strewn with such things as stuffed owls and victorian bric-a-brac. I have no idea what the late twentieth century equivalent of a stuffed owl is, but no doubt our path will be just as littered with "necessities." We will have to learn to travel light.

Advent Calendar 17 December 2009

Continuing to pray alongside those who cry out in the wilderness like John the Baptist, Isaiah, and Mary (as we’ll see on Sunday)…

“The key to changing the world and pursuing justice and disarmament is to allow the God of peace to disarm our hearts, make us instruments of peace, and lead us together on the road to peace.” Fr. John Dear, SJ

Advent Calendar 16 December 2009

Let us pray for alongside those like John the Baptist and Isaiah, crying out in the wilderness …

Thomas Merton wrote to Daniel Berrigan in 1962, "If one reads the prophets with ears and eyes open then you cannot help recognizing our obligation to shout very loud about God's will, God's truth, and God's justice."

Advent Calendar 15 December 2009

Let us continue to pray for the United Nations Convention on Climate Change – Copenhagen.

“People say, what is the sense of our small effort. They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There’s too much work to do.” ~ Dorothy Day

Advent Calendar 14 December 2009

The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. it needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it. ~ David Orr

Advent Calendar 13 December 2009

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for the 3^rd Sunday in Advent

Zephaniah 3: 14-20, Isaiah 12: 2-6, Philippians 4: 4-7, Luke 3: 7-18

Today’s texts remind us to celebrate, rejoice, be joyful (not necessarily happy) while being reminded by John the Baptist to seek pathways of justice through not hording or extorting the gifts of Grace from others. A powerful reminder amidst the cultural imperatives to spend, buy and purchase “gifts” so that others will know we “love” them. As a side note, I find it odd that the USA’s economy is set up in such a way that the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas determine whether a merchant/retailer/etc. will come out in the “black” or end up in the “red” by the end of the year.

A friend of mine mentioned seeing the following sweatshirt on a teenager while in the mall this past week. There is the face of Jesus. Below are the words: “I didn’t come down here for you to buy this junk.”

And John the Baptist reminds us that true repentance is seen in how we live out our lives.

"Repentance is not just saying you're sorry, nor is it merely a change in your head or even your heart. Gospel repentance involves a change in your behavior, in the way you live your life. Most people likely see John's call to a transformed life as an indictment, and his mandate for treating the poor justly as, at best, an unpleasant chore. But John's call to repentance should be seen for what it is: an invitation to salvation, the fruit of relationship with the Holy One coming into our midst. When we respond to this invitation in a joyful spirit, we may help to contribute not only to a transformed world but to our own liberation. That, indeed, is call for exuberant rejoicing."

~ Jim Rice, “Rejoice in the Lord,” December 14, 1997 Living the Word

Advent Calendar 12 December 2009

“[Justice is] knowing that there can never really be peace and joy for any until there is peace and joy for all.”

~ Frederick Buechner

Advent Calendar 11 December 2009

Happy Start of Hanukah (Dec 11 - 19, 2009).

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

~ Nelson Mandela

Advent Calendar 10 December 2009

Human Rights Day

In honor of Human Rights Day and our topic of where we are finding Grace and un-graced places, I have enclosed the following poem by Martin Niemöller (1892-1984). This poem has been quite popular, often substituting differing groups, but this is the version Niemöller preferred. Which groups are used doesn’t really matter; it is the last line that caries the punch. For Human Rights depend upon all of us taking action on behalf of one another.

First they came for the communists,

and I did not speak out – because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews,

and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me –

and there was no one left to speak out for me.

~ Martin Niemöller

Amnesty International is a human rights watch group. You can find out more by following the link to their home page.

Advent Calendar 9 December 2009

As you continuing to write down where you see God’s grace, do you find areas that seem to be lacking in grace? Are there places you are noticing where God’s grace may be hard to see? Are you noticing places where the “covenant” is broken between people and God, people and people, or people and creation?

Three examples that have been in the news, and continue to be in the news include: those suffering from AIDS (especially in Africa), those who have undergone torture as a part of war, and the United Nations Convention on Climate Change - Copenhagen.

While continuing to celebrate encounters with God’s Grace, let us also pray not only with our words, but also our actions for these and other areas of brokenness.

Advent Calendar 8 December 2009

Every time I go sailing, I find myself praying. Sailing is one of those places where I find myself in tune with God, others and the world around me. It is a place full of grace. As such, I present the links to two videos below in honor of those places and times.

Where are you finding God's grace naturally occurring in your life? How are you celebrating these encounters?

Blessings during this Advent.

Joel

(Here's the link to Open Boat, a New Zealand Small Boat Site)

And a kite-camera video

Advent Calendar 7 December 2009

Write down five (5) places of Grace today, and each day through Advent. See if it forms a habit of looking for God’s Grace.

A scientific study was done looking at the effects of gratitude, or thankfulness. It found that there was a direct correlation in feeling good about one's life (i.e. living well) and writing down five (5) thing people were thankful for throughout the week.

My suspicion, is that it also works for becoming aware of God's grace.

The article can be found at the following site:

Research Project on Gratitude and Thankfulness

Advent Calendar 6 December 2009

Second Sunday of Advent: Feast of St. Nicolas, patron of children and sailors

Revised Common Lectionary Readings: Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 1:68-79; Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6

This week, the concept of covenant caught my eye while studying today’s readings. Indeed we are in covenant with one another and the world around us, not to mention in covenant with God. Although we hope for peace on earth during the Christmas season – or at least a lull in the violence – today’s passages remind us that we are to live in peace and justice, indeed in righteousness with God, one another, and creation. Challenging lessons when what we read in the newspapers, hear on the radio and see on TV are but invitations to buy, purchase and spend money on Christmas gifts. Yet today’s scripture invites us to ask, who are making the products we purchase? Under what conditions do they toil? And in a world that is becoming increasing aware of limited oil resources, how far did these items travel to get to us? Tough questions without easy answers. But there is hope. God continues to invite all of to re-enter the covenant. Again and again, the invitation beckons forth. How do we respond?

Advent Calendar 5 December 2009

In talks with many of you on the docks, you are already aware of needs and helping those around you through participating in various things like Toys for Tots. In fact, one of you was mentioning that from Thanksgiving through the Saturday prior to Christmas your division at work often pitches in to collect around $10,000 to be used for such organizations. Here are two more that you might not be aware of but continue to provide needed services for those in other countries.

www.heifer.org Heifer Project International Through their work increasing sustainable development and partnership within communities, Heifer International works to end poverty and hunger. Check out their website to see how a gift of a pig, chicken, bees, a cow or goat can help to end poverty and hunger for a family.

www.nothingbutnets.net Nothing But Nets is a partnership between the NBA, the United Methodist Church, United Nations Foundation, and Sports Illustrated to help end malaria. $10 buys an insecticide-treated net to help prevent the spreading of malaria, which is the number one killer of children in Africa.

Advent Calendar 4 December 2009

"Advent is the beginning

of the end

of all in us

that is not yet Christ."

~ Thomas Merton

Advent Calendar 3 December 2009

“Make ready for the Christ,

whose smile – like lightning –

sets free the song of everlasting glory

that now sleeps, in your paper flesh

– like dynamite.”

~ Thomas Merton

Advent Calendar 2 December 2009

“… the season of Advent invites us to be watchful for those places in the world where God's Grace seems so very apparent, as well as those places where there is a distinct "groaning" for Grace. It invites us to look for those places in which Christ already seems radically present and those places that hunger for Christ's presence and coming again. Advent offers us a time to hone the sort of watchfulness that undergirds every act that we call "stewardship" -- every act that rejoices in Grace and helps unveil it to all of God's beloved.”

~ Tanya Barnett & Tom Wilson Radical Gratitude 30 November 2009

Advent Calendar 1 December 2009

No act of love, however small, is ever wasted.

~ Aesop