An Irish Christmas Prayer

Thanks to Alan Creech for this!

Incarnation by Denise Day Spencer

He stands,
poised on the brink of two worlds:
One, land of eternal day,
the other, earth of mire and clay.

Behind Him,
legions of heavenly host,
bright faces covered, praising,
all chanting, voices raising.

Before Him,
chaos yawning, swift and deep,
known, yet unknown. Fear unfurling,
death and darkness churning, swirling.

He turns.
One last look at golden glory.
The Three part; He is now One.
The Father’s voice says, “Go well, my Son.”

He leaps
into the abyss.

His next memory will be a Mother’s kiss.

~ Denise Day Spencer, January 1999

Thanks to internet monk for this.

Happy Christmas They Say in the UK

This is a beautiful graphic. The quote is from John 1. Thanks to Mark Berry for this!
Click on the image to see it full size!

Different Reasons

Great Christmas post from Fernando Gros:

What If There Is More Than One Reason For The Season?

Imagine Christmas as being like a giant bookstore, with a range of books; some serious, some populist, some trashy, some noble. Every book is a “Christmas” book though, of course, not every book is equal. People are browsing and choosing, talking and comparing. It’s an active and buzzing place - most people are not sure why they are there, but they are trying to make sense of it and trying to have a little fun. Do we really want to be hanging out in the comics section, chugging a slurpy and passing judgment on the people who “don’t get it?”

Thanks to Bob Carlton for this.

The key word here is "judgment".

Advent with Ted the Loser

I saw this on the internet monk site (a blog I follow) and I thought it was right on target both with the essence of Christianity and the Gospel, and with our failed perspectives in American Christianity. Yeah, and it was right on target with me and my experiences, too.

Here is the intro: "This post is inspired by a FoxNews piece updating the situation of disgraced megachurch pastor Ted Haggard. Haggard was a major leader in evangelicalism until he was brought down by evidence of sexual sin and drug use."

Read the post. Please.

Cornerstone CD Ready for Download

You can get a hard copy of the Cornerstone CD at The Refuge, or you can download it from:
Digstation
CDBaby
CDUniverse
iTunes

These Advent Days by Brett McCracken

It’s a cold December night, less than a week from Christmas. The third Friday of Advent, to be exact. In two days, I’m going home. Home to Kansas for the holidays.

This is a season that swings from joy to sadness rather quickly and unexpectedly, but I’m on the joy side of it these days. I’ve been seeing depressing movies like they’re going out of style, reading depressing books, and watching the news (more depressing than usual it seems). But in spite of my best efforts to wallow in midwinter moodiness, I’ve been overwhelmed with happiness and cheer. Overwhelmed to the point of tears (of joy).

Joy to the world. The Lord is come. Let every heart prepare him room.

It’s a joy, I think, of recognizing the smallness of oneself, while at the same time noticing the ways in which God seems to pay attention to you. That’s when the joy weighs heaviest, when we see that it has absolutely nothing to do with what we’ve done, but everything to do with who we are. That is: who God is making us and shaping us to be.

This realization typically happens around this time of year for me, when I survey the year, write my little Christmas update letter (yeah, I still do that), and think about what I’ve done, who I’ve met, where I’ve gone, etc. As I was driving into L.A. last night for a Christmas party with some church friends, I had one of those “wow, I have been so blessed,” moments when all the faces of the people I’d shared my year with came parading into my head, not in a random montage of unrelated images, but in a sort of kaleidoscope of linkage and interconnectedness. It was one of those moments when I could vaguely, powerfully glimpse a little of the divine orchestration that is at work behind all of this mad, beautiful mess.

Because I do believe that this is the case. I’m convinced that this all makes sense—my part in it, your part in it, the fires and snow and cherry pies. It makes sense on a level of sense-making that is only graspable in the way that the universe is graspable through telescopes. We can see parts of it, and in that we can infer the greatness of the whole and feel the surrogate wonder.

So it was in my car, driving on the 10 through downtown L.A., listening to my “80s heroin shoegazer” Christmas mix. I was overwhelmed by the realization that so much was so clearly happening for a reason. My job, my house, my friends, my car, the things I hear and say, write and read, fear and love… It all fits into the stories and people and places that precede it. It is all very messy and imperfect and frequently painful, but it ultimately isn’t about me or my comfort.

As a Christian, I believe that I am part of God’s church—that is, his extension of himself (via the Holy Spirit) on earth, a mission-minded body of humans that are the hands and feet of a much larger force, working in and for the world. I also believe that this happens largely in spite of ourselves, and that left to our own devices we would probably just constantly be f-ing things up.

God sent Jesus to earth to start something new. And start something new he did. But the new world that began with baby Jesus in a manger is now a world that a wider body of mortals is asked to participate in, to develop more fully and to expand, looking towards the time when all will be redeemed, made right, and reconciled. It will be God who brings this about. Only he can make things as they should be. But he asks his people—the church—to live in such a way that aspires to and expects this glory.

And in that, we sometimes see glimpses of things we can barely understand. We taste the powers of the age to come (Hebrews 6:5). I think we all can experience this. I think it’s what I’ve been experiencing these Advent days.

This is a really good Advent post. It can be found at http://stillsearching.wordpress.com/

Sunday December 21, 2008

This Sunday, December 21, is the final Sunday in Advent. That means that Christmas is almost here. That means that 2008 is almost over. As we all say in unison "Where did the year go?", lets think about that. Why does time fly? Where does the time go? Our lives flow past us like a river as we sit on the bank watching. How do we slow it down? We can't. But we can jump in. I encourage you to jump in and really be present and mindful. Check out this article: The Art of Now (Psychology Today).
I think this is much more of a spiritual issue than we think. Living in the present, being present to our lives and souls, being mindful (all mean the same thing), is a key to our spiritual formation. This is a little preview of our December 28 study. So, why did I get on this subject now? I know. More later.

This Sunday, the theme for Advent is LOVE. I encourage you to check out three articles by Julie Clawson about the LOVE week in Advent. They are here and here and here. In her tradition, love is week 3, not week 4, but we will not let this sidetrack us and we will get the message. Just a short thought: God is love, and God asks us to love. That sums it up. This week's worship bulletin is here.

Advent Poem Day 18

This advent poem is from a blog I follow: Everyday Liturgy.

Advent Poem Day 18
December 17, 2008 - 3:19pm by Thomas

The shepherds, tucked beneath
Trees sans leaves, sans shelter—
Not one leafe to share for cover—
Look up into skies void of hope.

The young man, walking slowly
Back to his lover, his dearest,
Whom he loves in such duress,
Says that no room can be found.

The young woman, tucked beneath
Blankets with holes, with stains—
Not one fit for royalty or queens—
Looks up into skies for the answer.

The new born, breathing slowly
And searching—pasty arms reaching
For a mother fatigued from pain, reeling—
Cries out the groan of creation.

Old School Contemporary Service

Matt Zamora posted this video of our service in the hall from 2002. This was before I was preaching. It's funny that I don't know a couple of the people in the band...
Follow the link!
http://64.156.56.12/fs/v.aspx?v=896c668b61606e79a16c

Stand By Me

I was made aware of this video through Tony Jones' blog. Jones says this about the video: A note about the creator of this short music video: Filmmaker Mark Johnson traveled around the globe getting street musicians and others to record part of the track for Stand By Me. Using battery powered equipment and a pocket full of Frequent Flyer miles he got tracks from dozens of performers. Each one was able to wear headphones and hear what the other performers had done.

Sunday December 14, 2008

This Sunday is the third Sunday of Advent, and the theme is JOY! The worship bulletin for Sunday is here. The Scriptures for Sunday are:
Isaiah 35.1-2, 8-10
Luke 2.1-20
Matthew 1.18-23

Our study will focus on the truth that joy comes from redemption. And this is the whole point of this Advent/Christmas story and season. God was not content to let us suffer; to leave us in our mess. God intervened in our story to deliver us--to redeem us. And that is what Advent is about. We have God's redemption, God's deliverance. But we wait. We wait for the full consummation of God's redemption and deliverance in the day of the Lord. We wait for the world to change--and for US to step up and change it--as the body of Christ. We symbolically wait for Christmas, for the re-telling of the birth of the Christ Child, which not only is the centerpiece of our hope for redemption, but is the centerpiece of all cosmic history.

Other Scriptures on redemption are: (read them with interest!)
Colossians 1.13,14
Ephesians 1.7
Romans 3.23,24
Titus 2.13,14
Galatians 4.4,5

Isn't Mother's Day in May?

Mindy also sent me this video, which you will probably see in worship in May. Very funny.

Did You Get the Recall Notice?

Mindy sent me this. Change your Christmas list to just say "Bicycle".

The Second Sunday of Advent December 7, 2008

The worship bulletin for this Sunday is here. The theme for this week is peace. I have recycled my Scriptures and some of the prayers from last year. But I have come up with new/different thoughts.

Isaiah 2.1-5
Isaiah 9.2-7
Luke 1.67-79
Isaiah 32.16-17

Peace is such a deep, elusive, and almost trendy subject. There are a lot of people talking about peace in a lot of different contexts. Framing it in advent terminology, there are a lot of people WAITING for peace. I think about us--the people in America--waiting for peace. We long for peace in Iraq. In Afghanistan. But why? Just so our soldiers can come home? That's a good enough reason, but how about the suffering of the people in those countries? And we wait for peace in Sudan (and the rest of Africa). But why? Because the thoughts of the suffering bother us? Because we watched Hotel Rwanda and were moved by it?
God's heart breaks with the conflict and suffering of the world. Ours should, too, because we are called to follow the words of Jesus: "Love your neighbor as yourself". And because we are all part of each other; we are all connected.
And we wait for peace in America. In the richest country in the world, our souls are empty and in perpetual turmoil. Let us pray Psalm 80.1-3:

¹Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth

²before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!

³Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.

Saved. Saved from ourselves, saved from the things we have created, saved from the things we love.

Sacred Space for Advent

Sacred Space for Advent contains several helps for our spiritual journey. Especially helpful may be the Advent Retreat, which is set up in three sessions, which may be done all in one day of retreat or in three separate sessions on different days. I appreciate Lilly Lewin pointing out these resources.

Why We Are Waiting

This is a website that offers a good spiritual explanation of the pilgrimage we call Advent. There are links to other audio selections as well.

Advent Poem Day 2

This poem is from Everyday Liturgy and I find it a meaningful prayer for Advent. The poem is credited to Thomas.

We are weary Lord of life
Lived for survival and not joy.
Take our cares and worries;
Come and bless us,
Change us,
Rearrange us.
May our house be filled with
The aroma of your presence,
And the cold drafts of
A wintry world that seeks and devours
Be stopped up
That we joyfully relax in
Our vocations, renewed by
The scent of unceasing divinity.

Always May God's Love Be with You

This video is of a song called "In the Sun". It was written by Joseph Arthur, but this cover is performed by Michael Stipe (REM) and Coldplay. It is part of a benefit EP that Stipe put together for Gulf Coast Hurricane Relief. I saw this performance on Austin City Limits this weekend. It is moving. And a great song.

Advent Hope

This is a really good article on hope during the season of Advent. It is written by Mike DeVries. Take time to read it.