saturday before Christmas

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Okay - Tree #2 - is up and decorated in the simplest way possible - just lights and selected glass ornaments - no brass or gold or glass or theme or special colors - just the first ones we laid our hands on. And then I said - well, there, that's pretty and closed up the bins with the unused ornaments. And it is pretty. It's okay that the glass ornaments (which represent at least one a year since we've been married) aren't used this year. There will be other years, other trees. This year needs to be simple.

Still no card -writing and presents to the east coast not sent. Pro-Flowers is a great thing, but I need to get on it.

It's Saturday afternoon and I must polish the sermon - and be ready to go to John's concert at 4:00, have dinner, then will have some time after that.

Still need to get readers for the 7 p.m. service, maybe ushers. I think the other two are set.

But, as thing go, it seems managable.
Peace, Peace, Peace.
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musings for advent

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I'm back to preaching again, after taking it easier the last two weeks - thanks Dan~!

At the same time Christmas is drawing near, with all its joy, the pastoral staff is walking with an extended family through the end stages of a tragedy, and I hear about others whose loved ones are moving into the end stages of life. Or moving into the place of needing more care. Or just moving out of the house, out of marriages. Or moving away from the church - my churches, because we just don't seem to give them what they want/need.

So the sermon title, picked on Monday is 'blessed' and I am pondering what it means to be blessed. In our common current use it means a little more than lucky - everything is going okay, good, excellent. We can be proud of our children, we have good jobs and trust we'll have them tomorrow, we have good health. So we are blessed.

And then, are the tragedy-ridden, the parents of disappointing kids, the unemployed, the sick - not blessed. Well, in common usage, yes, they are the 'unblessed.' It's very OT - deuteronomic system stuff we live with every day. So much so we don't even realize what we're saying, often. So much so that we don't realize the hurt the comes from this assumption - we hint that God has withdrawn his favor from those who suffer.

The expression 'to bless' must mean to pass judgment - really, it is to contextualize a situation and claim meaning for it - positive meaning. And once that sense has been accepted the opposite situation - to suffer - takes on the opposite meaning - to lack blessing (cursed).

Elizabeth saw it differently. She 'blesses' - says good about Mary - for she perceives that Mary has been touched by God. And she proclaims Mary 'blessed' - happy, for Mary has believed what was said to her. Elizabeth knows that God is acting here. That is cause for proclamation, for identifying that God does the blessing.

Blessed. So we are to remember, and be compassionate - that blessing isn't about removal from suffering, about good luck, or happy outcome. It's about proclamation that here - in this life, in this place, God is acting, God is. . .

God is in a pregnant teen and in a poor city in hills of a poor territory. God is with a little old pregnant lady and her temporarily mute husband (that must have been a long nine months). God is with a struggling oppressed community, a minority in the great empire. God is hanging out on the road, in the prisons, in the sick rooms, in the hospital beds. God is doing his blessing thing where his people see that he is acting . . . where compassion comes out, where tenderness is expressed, when violence is stopped, when forgiveness is real.

God blesses. We may judge for 'blessing' - but in eyes of faith - God's blesses. The maker of meaning is the source of any blessing - any good and gracious understanding of our lives.

For those who walk in tragedy - the judgment of blessing seems far, far away - impossible to compute, to realize, to utter. But here is the core of faith - the determination of 'blessed' isn't ours, it is God's. God is in that sickroom, with that wayward child, in the painful awareness of sin and grief and loss - and God determines the 'blessing.'

The hope of the lesson - walk with God, hang in there, trust - and you will find God. Blessing comes. He looks with favor upon the lowly - and blesses.
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One Tree is Up!

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One Christmas Tree is up.
The little artificial one downstairs is lovely with golden Met. Museum stars, gold balls, red birds, balls and ribbons, a few white angels. White lights of course.

Who knows when the big one will go up? My dear husband has a concert on Saturday and rehearsals tonight and friday - Thursday may be the day for it going up and Sunday for decorating.

We just do it for ourselves, no kids in our lives.
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cozy tonight

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It's my birthday and a blizzard at the same time. So the Eagle and I are squestered at home - I hope he is not called out to the hospitals. It is supposed to be getting quite nasty in the wee hours.

I'd love to 'watch' the blizzard - the blowing falling snow, but it's going to be the middle of night, not the time for visible weather. This will be a secret storm, hidden by darkness. We will wake to the changed world - drifted snow and heavy branches.

We will not fully understand or experience it, cozy as we are, in the house with limited windows and excellent insulation. Our comfort - perhaps it makes us shallow.


December afternoon a day after the first snowfall.

In all cities,
there is a moment, in December,
when the sun is low
and the light is slanting, soft.

When melt and cars and concrete
create a universal smell.
This is not beauty.
But it is real.

That we, humans, ride this tide of our own making
our permanently frozen ground,
our marred landscape
our padded feet not feeling
our swaddled bodies not aware
that the soft sun is crying:
breathe.

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advent of

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Now that Thanksgiving is over, and the family room is painted, it's time for the big push. That is - the Advent season.

And I need to write a Jan. newsletter article, too. (We have early deadlines). Caroling parties, feeding people at potlucks, special visits, concerts, my birthday, all that falls in this season. I'm stepping back from preaching for a few weeks - so I can think about the Christmas eve stuff.

Have to send presents far away, and complete planning for the season after.

Christmas itself will be very quiet - just John and me and maybe the young man, if he condescends to come over. John and I like being together, that's a good thing.
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home

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Well, day two of the 'whole week off'. Let's see what's been done on the list.

• went to court with the YoungMan and he got off with a light fine for Disorderly Conduct. Unfortunately, my bail money from last week went to the fine. I'll never see it again.
• Made appointments for YoungMan at doctor - now to get him to go, and ask about his on-going health issues
• had mammogram, which was fine - HEY, what do ya mean, not yearly? Over my dead body. Sis found her cancer at her YEARLY mammo - and under the new guidelines she wouldn't have gone!
  
• Last night of NAMI family-to-family. It was overall a good experience. Some of the sessions I could have done without (medication doesn't fix everything). But met some people with extraordinary courage and compassion. And realized we weren't in it alone. I was so grateful Aquila was able to come too.

still to do:

• clean fridge, shop for weekend and Thanksgiving
• call for appointments for dentist, passport, car repair, carpet cleaning
• Get new driver's license. Try to get YoungMan to renew his, too.
• Prepare downstairs for painting - move stuff, furniture, tape, drape - paint, etc. This is the biggest project on line.
  
• shop for Christmas (some was done by internet yesterday , ya!)
• Play with dyeing before I pack stuff away and out of the dining area
• figure out what's going on with Thanksgiving day itself. MIL is in rehab, SIL will be alone, but YoungMan hasn't let us know what he will or won't do.
• re-organize my study.
  
• For work: connect with Christmas tree decorators. Review photos for PPT Dec. 6.
• Read Edgar Sawtell.
  

Hmm - what about doing the fun stuff first?
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faithful witness

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the rough draft of Sunday's sermon

Proper 28B, Nov 14,15, 16, 2009 – Mark 13:1-8 (Faithful Witness)
By Gracious Powers
1 By gracious pow'rs so wonderfully sheltered,
and confidently waiting come what may,
we know that God is with us night and morning,
and never fails to greet us each new day.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a brilliant young theologian, pastor and teacher when Hitler came to power in Germany. He struggled with the implications of what his nation was doing, and what the church should and could be in the face of such wrongs. You’ll find a translation of his poem – Von guten Machten – By Gracious Powers. The English-language church hasn’t yet found a tune that it sings well too, so today we’ll read it together.

Bonhoeffer had come down a long road to write this poem. It was probably written in 1944 – as some of our troops were marching toward Germany, as the battle of the bulge was happening on the German-French border, as the last long winter caused great pain in throughout the war-torn land. It was contained in a smuggled New Year’s letter to his mother and through her, to his many friends, colleages and his young fiancé.

Bonhoeffer had already been imprisoned for more than a year and a half, suspected of helping Jews leave the county, suspected of various violations of the security laws, suspected of avoiding the draft and money laundering. And all those things were true, by the way. Decisions had to be made – these things were done as part of the resistance to evil and the holding up of what was good and decent.

2 Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented,
still evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
oh, give our frightened souls the sure salvation
for which, O Lord, you taught us to prepare.

Think about it as he faces the kind of world Jesus speaks about – a world falling apart – Bonhoeffer turns to faith and trust in an almighty God. Jesus looked at the greatest building in his land – one of the great buildings of any time and place, really – and saw that it would come down – stone upon stone. Jesus saw that whatever humanity creates is perishable – like the grass in the field, as the psalm says. The great Temple, that so impresses the disciples – is only a creation, and does not hold the Creator, Jesus reminds us.

3 And when this cup you give is filled to brimming
with bitter suff'ring, hard to understand,
we take it thankfully and without trembling
out of so good and so beloved a hand.

Bonhoeffer had many opportunities to avoid the coming troubles. Because of his international connections – he was offered work and safe harbor in England, America and even in India – where he was invited to study with Gandhi. But he felt it was important to stick with his country – that if he sheltered somewhere else, he would never have the authority to participate in the restoration after the war. His family was there – his students, the young men studying to be pastors and his church was there. So he went back, from America in 1939, to be on the road, to drink the cup, to look evil in the eye.



“This is but the beginning” – but note Jesus does not say the beginning of the end – but the beginning of birth. God is active, even when we hear of wars and rumors of wars, of earthquakes and famines and new diseases. God is still in charge, even when the world is changing. God is bringing faith to birth, is bringing life to birth, is bringing truth to birth.

For there is always hope – in Bonhoeffer’s story – there is a love story. Out of the ruins of his career and family and hopes, in the midst of war, Dietrich asked a young woman to marry him, only three months before his arrest.

4 Yet when again in this same world you give us
the joy we had, the brightness of your sun,
we shall remember all the days we lived through
and our whole life shall then be yours alone.

There is a hope in this poem – the same kind of realistic hope that we find in our Gospel lesson. Stay fast, says the Gospel, watch and discern the truth in the midst of falsehood. Be wise and do not follow the quick and easy call of the self-appointed Messiahs. Follow the path that Jesus walked - understand that the Temples of this world – whatever buildings or organizations or institutions we know and love and participate in – are just that – Temples of this world.

They may be good and sturdy or they may be falling down – but they do not hold the divine power of God. They are but constructions. Our lives are held in the hand of the Almighty God – the one gracious power that wonderfully shelters us – come what may.

5 By gracious pow'rs so faithfully protected,
so quietly, so wonderfully near,
we live each day in hope, with you beside us,
and go with you through ev'ry coming year. AMEN.

Text: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906-1945; tr. Fred Pratt Green, 1903-2000
English text © 1974 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Duplication in any form prohibited without permission or valid license from copyright administrator.