+ Write thank-you notes
+ Pray at least one Psalm each day
+ Keep our bedroom straight; it is my "secular sanctuary"
+ Compliment my husband and son, and at least one other person, each day
+ Say "I can't take this" less and pray "Lord, help me" more
+ Go to the dentist for yearly visit
+ Write a short story
+ Actually take my recommended monthly day for "spiritual rest and renewal"
+ Put (small amount of) savings into high-yield account
+ Cook (really cook--from scratch) at least one meal a week
+ Read the newspaper (or at least skim it) each day
+ Observe Lent
+ Celebrate Easter
+ Take a real vacation again
+ Call friends regularly
+ Eat dark chocolate
+ Carry a canvas bag for minor shopping trips
+ Buy local produce whenever possible
+ Spend more money for organic or earth-friendly products
+ Make and use natural cleaners
+ Replace our lightbulbs with all CFL's
+ Make a scrapbook or two
+ Enjoy something about each day
+ Say "thank you" to God for something each day
+ Remember who and Whose I am all the time
+ And my perennial...seek to be faithful in all things
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Same Song, Different Tune
I am one of those strange pastors that likes to wait until LATE Advent and/or Christmas Eve to begin singing traditional Christmas carols, even though we're hearing them everywhere else. I do this because, when we wait until the very night of Christ's birth to raise our candles as we sing "Silent Night" in the darkenss, I think we feel the amazing gift of the promise's fulfillment more powerfully. If we wait to sing "Joy to the World" until the celebration of the Incarnation (or Jesus' birthday, however you like to think of it), then I believe we can feel the lament of the world, and thus our desperate need for the Savior to come, more fully. I can't tell you how fully I felt the Holy Spirit in our Christmas Eve services because of our faithful waiting. It was amazing. I don't tend to get emotional while I'm leading worship, but I can count on emotion each Christmas Eve at that point.
But this past Sunday, Christmas Eve Eve, I began to worship with traditional carols sung by a traditional congregation with its small choir. The songs we sang all told the story of Christmas: the longing for a savior that is met by the promise of God and fulfilled in the coming of Christ. Matthew's gospel told us how Jesus was born. Then I moved to the next service, where a traditional (and all women's) choir (directed by my husband, the music director of that church) made the beautiful offering of a Christmas Cantata that again told the story of Christ's coming for our salvation through music. All very traditional...powerful, but traditional.
After lunch with my sister and her fiancee and then dropping off our son with my husband's sister and brother-in-law (and their three children), my husband and I then went to experience the same Gospel in a much less traditional way. We went to hear the same song sung to a MUCH different tune.
It is something of a tradition, a tradition we share with my music director (and her husband) in the first church I worship with each Sunday. We all like a band known as the "Trans-Siberian Orchestra," and each year they come to Columbia. We missed last year, but this past Sunday was our third concert. The first part of the concert is the same (except for the lights, staging and pyrotechnics) each year. It's loud, and hard, and definitely a far cry from Bing Crosby. They call it a "Rock Opera," and it tells the story of an angel flying over earth on Christmas Eve to collect an offering for God. The story involves a bar and some clearly not-church folk. The presentation of the story involves some dancing girls in dresses and boots that would make many people in my pews suggest they put on a long coat. But the story is no doubt the story of Christ's coming and his continuing work in the world. I may blog another time about my take on the band's most famous work, called "Christmas Eve: Sarejevo." But for now...
It all has gotten me to thinking...the founder of Methodism John Wesley talked about "plain talk for plain folk", or something like that. The Apostle Paul spoke of becoming different things to different people. I believe the point both men were trying to make was: God has made clear that the divine will is for ALL persons to know the salvation of Christ. If that is so, and if people are so very different from one another, don't we need to tell the story of Christ to each group of humans in language they understand? Different generations have different ways of speaking. Different cultures relate to different imagery. Different groups can listen to different music. What is nonsense to one makes sense to another. What is noise to one is a melody to another. My husband and I seem to exist in more than one generation, language, culture...at least sometimes; maybe we're a bit "bilingual".
Maybe we all need to become "multilingual" in order to tell the story. It's always the same song we sing, with saints and angels. We just need to learn a few different tunes to tell the story of Christmas and Easter. The babe born in Bethlehem is counting on us to make sure the whole world, and all the children therein, hear of his love and his gift to us. Can we sing the song so that everyone will hear? Can we preach the gospel to everyone at all times, using words if necessary, as St. Francis said? The shepherds went to tell everyone everything they had seen and heard. I pray that we all can do the same.
But this past Sunday, Christmas Eve Eve, I began to worship with traditional carols sung by a traditional congregation with its small choir. The songs we sang all told the story of Christmas: the longing for a savior that is met by the promise of God and fulfilled in the coming of Christ. Matthew's gospel told us how Jesus was born. Then I moved to the next service, where a traditional (and all women's) choir (directed by my husband, the music director of that church) made the beautiful offering of a Christmas Cantata that again told the story of Christ's coming for our salvation through music. All very traditional...powerful, but traditional.
After lunch with my sister and her fiancee and then dropping off our son with my husband's sister and brother-in-law (and their three children), my husband and I then went to experience the same Gospel in a much less traditional way. We went to hear the same song sung to a MUCH different tune.
It is something of a tradition, a tradition we share with my music director (and her husband) in the first church I worship with each Sunday. We all like a band known as the "Trans-Siberian Orchestra," and each year they come to Columbia. We missed last year, but this past Sunday was our third concert. The first part of the concert is the same (except for the lights, staging and pyrotechnics) each year. It's loud, and hard, and definitely a far cry from Bing Crosby. They call it a "Rock Opera," and it tells the story of an angel flying over earth on Christmas Eve to collect an offering for God. The story involves a bar and some clearly not-church folk. The presentation of the story involves some dancing girls in dresses and boots that would make many people in my pews suggest they put on a long coat. But the story is no doubt the story of Christ's coming and his continuing work in the world. I may blog another time about my take on the band's most famous work, called "Christmas Eve: Sarejevo." But for now...
It all has gotten me to thinking...the founder of Methodism John Wesley talked about "plain talk for plain folk", or something like that. The Apostle Paul spoke of becoming different things to different people. I believe the point both men were trying to make was: God has made clear that the divine will is for ALL persons to know the salvation of Christ. If that is so, and if people are so very different from one another, don't we need to tell the story of Christ to each group of humans in language they understand? Different generations have different ways of speaking. Different cultures relate to different imagery. Different groups can listen to different music. What is nonsense to one makes sense to another. What is noise to one is a melody to another. My husband and I seem to exist in more than one generation, language, culture...at least sometimes; maybe we're a bit "bilingual".
Maybe we all need to become "multilingual" in order to tell the story. It's always the same song we sing, with saints and angels. We just need to learn a few different tunes to tell the story of Christmas and Easter. The babe born in Bethlehem is counting on us to make sure the whole world, and all the children therein, hear of his love and his gift to us. Can we sing the song so that everyone will hear? Can we preach the gospel to everyone at all times, using words if necessary, as St. Francis said? The shepherds went to tell everyone everything they had seen and heard. I pray that we all can do the same.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
If anyone's still reading...
You may want to know, if you didn't see it, that I wore ripped jeans and fuzzy red slippers with snowmen on them to host our "Annual Parsonage Christmas Drop-In" this past Thursday. I didn't do it to make a fashion statement; I did it because I ran out of time to get properly dressed. But the food was out, the fruit was sliced, and the cake was cut. And everyone had a good time (I think--we did), with one notable exception I'll talk about in a minute. THANK YOU if you were one of the ones that made my frantic run worth it by (1) coming and (2) enjoying watching my child (who by the way had on no shoes or socks but was still adorable--again, no time for shoes) and (3) eating the food and telling me it was good (even if it wasn't) and (4) telling me the house looked good (because it was indeed a miracle that you could even walk around in the living room--less than 1 1/2 hours before people arrived my son thought that a whole big box of packing peanuts needed to be dumped on the floor).
Anyway, two things I want to share about this drop-in.
One: The fact that I didn't have on proper clothes and my son had no shoes is symbolic of my life each Advent. Though my husband and I work "our fannies off" to get the necessities accomplished, there is never enough time to get to other important things (like blogs :-) or nice slacks or shoes). But if we're lucky, and if we're open to God's Spirit that always flows around us, we'll be able to simply enjoy the blessings of Christ's coming in the midst of fellowship with friends and family anyway. We'll also be able to stop and simply worship, and just enjoy the fact that our Lord is present among us because of the Incarnation that we celebrate in this season. So forget about the shoes and the ripped jeans--just enjoy Jesus and come as you are to the party of the kingdom of God, whether you're frantic or bored or whatever!
Two: God showed us yet again at our drop-in that the divine has a way of re-directing our attention to what's truly important in the midst of our frenzy to do what we think is essential. Don't get me wrong: God did not cause one of my elderly members to become ill enough for us to call 911 that evening, but when it happened, God certainly intruded and focused us on being there for him and his wife in their need. The Holy Spirit was there as I silently prayed with my hand on his knee. The Holy Spirit led several people to get wet cloths for him, to put their hand on his wife's back, to hold them up, to drive his wife to the hospital and stay with her until their daughter and granddaughter arrived. Don't worry, he is much better now, home from the hospital and re-hydrated and his old self. He told me in the hospital Friday that they had all decided I had put something in the cider...
Anyway, my prayer for all of us is that, in the midst of the Advent frenzy and the Christmas clean-up, we will let God stop us and focus us on what's most important: Christ our Lord and the salvation-gifts--of healing, hope, family, abundant & eternal life, and friendship & reconciliation with God and other humans--that he was born to offer us. And as we do so, I pray that we'll forget about the things that don't really matter in the kingdom of God (like what you wear or whether all the food is presented right...)
Merry Christmas!
Anyway, two things I want to share about this drop-in.
One: The fact that I didn't have on proper clothes and my son had no shoes is symbolic of my life each Advent. Though my husband and I work "our fannies off" to get the necessities accomplished, there is never enough time to get to other important things (like blogs :-) or nice slacks or shoes). But if we're lucky, and if we're open to God's Spirit that always flows around us, we'll be able to simply enjoy the blessings of Christ's coming in the midst of fellowship with friends and family anyway. We'll also be able to stop and simply worship, and just enjoy the fact that our Lord is present among us because of the Incarnation that we celebrate in this season. So forget about the shoes and the ripped jeans--just enjoy Jesus and come as you are to the party of the kingdom of God, whether you're frantic or bored or whatever!
Two: God showed us yet again at our drop-in that the divine has a way of re-directing our attention to what's truly important in the midst of our frenzy to do what we think is essential. Don't get me wrong: God did not cause one of my elderly members to become ill enough for us to call 911 that evening, but when it happened, God certainly intruded and focused us on being there for him and his wife in their need. The Holy Spirit was there as I silently prayed with my hand on his knee. The Holy Spirit led several people to get wet cloths for him, to put their hand on his wife's back, to hold them up, to drive his wife to the hospital and stay with her until their daughter and granddaughter arrived. Don't worry, he is much better now, home from the hospital and re-hydrated and his old self. He told me in the hospital Friday that they had all decided I had put something in the cider...
Anyway, my prayer for all of us is that, in the midst of the Advent frenzy and the Christmas clean-up, we will let God stop us and focus us on what's most important: Christ our Lord and the salvation-gifts--of healing, hope, family, abundant & eternal life, and friendship & reconciliation with God and other humans--that he was born to offer us. And as we do so, I pray that we'll forget about the things that don't really matter in the kingdom of God (like what you wear or whether all the food is presented right...)
Merry Christmas!
Monday, December 3, 2007
Advent 1
I was exhausted last night. After two worship services I'll tell you about in a minute, then a coaching session, then cheering for our kids from one church riding our float in the town Christmas parade, then going to that same town's Christmas tree lighting service sponsored by our Ministerial Association, then rushing down the road 18 miles to the other church (which I live beside) to eat soup, fellowship, and "prepare" the greens (since we cannot be in the sanctuary to actually HANG them), I was tired.
I think waiting in felt silence (see post "The Sound of Silence" below), and exhausted, are good stances to assume at the beginning of the season of Advent. Only when we're waiting in silence and exhausted are we in a position fully to acknowledge that we're helpless to save, control, or help ourselves. Only when we're waiting in the silence, and exhausted, are we needy enough to ask Christ to "come" for us again to save and help and heal us, and then to embrace him truly when he arrives, letting him change us.
Our worship yesterday took a very different form from your typical Sunday service. We began it by adopting a spirit of worship before the God who has promised to come and be present with us. We then acknowledged just how desperately we need what only a Savior can provide by praying for the needs of the world, as individuals led us in prayer for those suffering from HIV/AIDS and other diseases, for victims of violence and natural disasters, those in military service, the leaders of nations, and others.
Then we heard the promise of God, through the Prophet Isaiah, that a Savior will come to bring healing and peace. We celebrated that promise in song and prayer. Only then could we "hang the greens" and thank God for the first fulfillment of that promise in the coming of Christ into the world, remembering with each "green" an aspect of Christ and his kingdom. Celebrating his first coming, and the beginning of God's promise being fulfilled, led us then to hear from Christ himself (in Matthew's Gospel) about the day of his second "advent", or coming, on which the promised day of peace will finally fully come.
At that, we heard from Paul's letter to the Romans how we are to prepare for that day by "living in the light," and we committed ourselves through song-prayer to being people of the light. Finally, through sharing at Christ's table of sacrifice and victory, we were empowered to live as people of the light, prepared for Christ's return, acting as his body until he comes again. We were sent forth to live that reality.
Maybe because I didn't preach (trust me, this was just as much work :-)),this service for me was a beautiful remembrance of God's promise, and the fulfillment of that promise, that we celebrate and await in this season. I hope I wasn't the only one who was touched by God in the sharing. And by the way, if you were one of the people who led a prayer or read a scripture in that service, THANK YOU for helping me to pray to God and hear the Lord's Word.
I think waiting in felt silence (see post "The Sound of Silence" below), and exhausted, are good stances to assume at the beginning of the season of Advent. Only when we're waiting in silence and exhausted are we in a position fully to acknowledge that we're helpless to save, control, or help ourselves. Only when we're waiting in the silence, and exhausted, are we needy enough to ask Christ to "come" for us again to save and help and heal us, and then to embrace him truly when he arrives, letting him change us.
Our worship yesterday took a very different form from your typical Sunday service. We began it by adopting a spirit of worship before the God who has promised to come and be present with us. We then acknowledged just how desperately we need what only a Savior can provide by praying for the needs of the world, as individuals led us in prayer for those suffering from HIV/AIDS and other diseases, for victims of violence and natural disasters, those in military service, the leaders of nations, and others.
Then we heard the promise of God, through the Prophet Isaiah, that a Savior will come to bring healing and peace. We celebrated that promise in song and prayer. Only then could we "hang the greens" and thank God for the first fulfillment of that promise in the coming of Christ into the world, remembering with each "green" an aspect of Christ and his kingdom. Celebrating his first coming, and the beginning of God's promise being fulfilled, led us then to hear from Christ himself (in Matthew's Gospel) about the day of his second "advent", or coming, on which the promised day of peace will finally fully come.
At that, we heard from Paul's letter to the Romans how we are to prepare for that day by "living in the light," and we committed ourselves through song-prayer to being people of the light. Finally, through sharing at Christ's table of sacrifice and victory, we were empowered to live as people of the light, prepared for Christ's return, acting as his body until he comes again. We were sent forth to live that reality.
Maybe because I didn't preach (trust me, this was just as much work :-)),this service for me was a beautiful remembrance of God's promise, and the fulfillment of that promise, that we celebrate and await in this season. I hope I wasn't the only one who was touched by God in the sharing. And by the way, if you were one of the people who led a prayer or read a scripture in that service, THANK YOU for helping me to pray to God and hear the Lord's Word.
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