Sunday, December 3, 2006, Advent One
03/12/06, Advent One
During the season of Advent, I will be posting something every day. It will begin with a Collect followed by the daily Scripture lessons, each day's selection from the Advent calendar from Alternatives for Simple Living, www.simple living.org . These will be followed by a mishmash of whatever takes my fancy for you to pick and choose. Please don't be put off by the amount. I really mean you to pick and choose. Although it would be nice were you to pray the Collect and read the lessons!!!
Collect:
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Readings:
Psalm 25:1-9; Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36
Advent Cycle of Prayer: The Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain
Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: As soon as I discover where this is hidden on the revamped website for diocese, I will start posting it here!!
Advent Calendar: Ways to Change Ourselves:
1. Prioritize changes we need to make, including both "big" and "little" changes. Do not allow tokenism - doing only small stuff, like recycling, and ignoring the hard changes, like reducing our dependence on our cars. Likewise, do little stuff to keep a consciousness, otherwise the big changes may overwhelm us. It feels good to say, "Look at all the changes I've made!" But it's tokenism if they're all small stuff. Help: "Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices" and "The Joy of Simple Living."
What Do You See?
Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.-- Luke 21:29-31
The dentist down the street has already wrapped his fig trees for the winter: they are swathed in black landscaping fabric, supported with lines attached to sturdy stakes, so they won't blow over in the winter wind. The tall black cylinders bend this way and that. They look like a convention of drunken druids.
Our fig tree lives in a more sheltered spot: next to the house on the south side, where it will be warmed by whatever sun manages to come around in the cold and protected from the worst gusts of the winter wind. It also enjoys an occasional half hour of warmth from the dryer vent, which is right at its feet. Still, our garden is far from being a fig tree's vision of heaven: this is New Jersey. Figs are a Mediterranean fruit. Dryer vent or no, we must wrap our fig, too, if we expect it to survive the winter.
No one has the right to expect a fig tree in New Jersey to bear fruit. You have to work to make it happen. The tree does contain a powerful life force, but you have to protect it -- it has come into a hostile place, and it needs all the help it can get. And so it will be a fine day next spring when we see the first fat buds on the fig's branches. Well, well, we will say. You made it!
The kingdom of God is coming, and it will come without any help from us. The ways in which we will see it, though, and the places in which we will receive it -- those we must make for ourselves. We must prepare and protect them. If you want a library book, you have to go to the library -- one won't just appear in your hand. If you need laundry soap, you have to go to the store -- you won't get a box of detergent just by imagining it. God is right here, here for all of us. We don't have to create God for ourselves. But we do have to lift our heads and see where God is to be seen in our world.
This is as good a time as any to ask ourselves: what is God doing in my life? Where do I see the signs? Might there be signs I've missed? Has heartbreak or disappointment dulled my vision? Maybe. But these things are the winds of winter. They don't last forever.
+
Lessons for Advent I, Year C:
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36
+
Face to Face
Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith. -- I Thessalonians 3:10
To see and be seen -- we travel at this time of year, eager to see members of our family we don't see much, to visit friends we don't see enough. Oh, it's so good to see you! we say, as we embrace upon greeting them. It's been way too long!
When Hurricane Katrina struck, the lucky ones were evacuated from their homes. Many of those who could not be reached died. And, among the lucky, some were luckier than others: some homes remained standing and could be saved. Some remained standing but clearly would never again be habitable. Others were just gone. And the people who lived in them traveled, too -- to Houston, to relative's homes in other states, to the homes of strangers, to hotel rooms in cities they'd never seen, put their children in new schools.
And now, family by family, many decide to go back home. To a house whose rotted sheetrock walls have been hauled off with the trash, whose muddy furniture is beyond redemption. To an old school with new teachers, to a familiar street without its familiar grocery store. To a precarious new job. Or to no job.
The fourth phase of Episcopal Relief and Development's Katrina response includes case management: person by person, family by family, careful answers to important questions: How do I find a new job? How do I gain access to help with my home repairs? Where can I find a new doctor? How do I discipline my children and hold it all together, with dad working in another city and sending money home?
The case manager knows all the players -- the Lutherans, the Episcopalians, the city, the state, the whole network of social services and those who run them. She sees people face to face, week by week. Problem by problem, she walks with them to find a solution. There is a solution to everything, she tells them. Don't you worry. We'll find it together.
She must be a sight for sore eyes.
+
All I want for Christmas is ERD! Give the ones you love the gift of giving, from ERD's lovely new Gifts for Life catalogue, which provides imaginative ways of giving concrete help to those who need it, in honor of your recipient. For more information about ERD, or to make a donation, visit http://www.er-d.org, ortelephone1-800-334-7626,ext/and click on "Gifts for Life," or telephone 1-800-334-7626, ext 5129.
+
Copyright © 2006 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org
The following may be sung to *Away in a manger*.
Away in a manger no crib for a bed
A long ago baby was born in a shed.
What possible meaning could tis have for me
A child of computers and technology?
The stars in the bright sky look down n me now,
But Christmass in these days lacks something, somehow.
There's tinsel and turkey, and gifts by the score,
And I am left feeling that there should be more.
Wise men with research grants can do awesome deeds
But we are neglectful of our neigbour's needs
For love and for caring, a Christ-child reborn:
God's hand touching our hand on each Christmas morn.
Old manger story, with shepherds and kings:
Amazing how simple the message it brings.
Regardless of science, or surfing the net:
God still sends us Jesus, and He loves us yet.
(Author unknown)
*Waiting" by Jeff Shrowder, an Australian Uniting Church minister.
Waiting -
for cut hay to dry;
for a rising lamb market;
for exam results;
for "yes" to a job application;
for news of a medical diagnosis.
Waiting -
for the transcendent light
which rips open the heavens
and kindles a warm glow within;
which brings the first light of dawn
and sets the heart on fire.
Waiting -
for the flood that sweeps all before it;
for the thief that comes in the night;
for the birth that disrupts, disturbs,
and turns the world upside down,
at an unexpected hour. . . .
Waiting, for the peace of the Lord.
© Jeff Shrowder
Wouldn't It Be Wonderful by Anne Weems
Wouldn't it be wonderful
if Advent came filled with angels and alleluias?
Wouldn't it be perfect
if we were greeted on these December mornings
with a hovering of heavenly hosts
tuning their harps and brushing up on their fa-la-las?
Wouldn't it be incredible
if their music filled our waking hours
with the promise of peace on earth
and if each Advent night we dreamed of nothing but goodwill?
Wouldn't we be ecstatic
if we could take those angels shopping,
or trim the tree or have them hold our hands
and dance through our houses decorating?
And, oh, how glorious it would be
to sit in church next to an angel
And sing our hark-the-heralds!
What an Advent that would be!
What Christmas spirit we could have!
An angel-filled Advent has so many possibilities!
But in lieu of that,
perhaps we can give thanks
for the good earthly joys we have been given
And for the earthly "angels" we know
Who do such a good job of filling
Our Advent with alleluias!
Some words from the new Presiding Bishop of ECUSA –Katharine Jefferts Schori
Saints are those who are vulnerable to the gut-wrenching pain of this world.
Some of us have to be seized by the throat or thrown into the tomb before we
can begin to find that depth of compassion. And perhaps unless we are, we
won't leave our comfortable narrow lives -- or our remarkably nasty ones --
to wake up and begin to answer that pain.
In the early church, baptism was meant to be that kind of life-altering
encounter. New saints spent three years in the readying, and then were taken
in the dead of night into the crypt, stripped naked, and drowned -- only to
emerge filled with new breath, doused with sweet-smelling oil, and given a
new white robe. What you and I do on Sunday mornings today sometimes seems a
pale imitation, yet it can have every bit the same effect. ...
We have to be willing to suffer with the people who disagree with us so profoundly, and until we're
willing to do that cross-shaped work, we're not able to reconcile, not able
to do that Anglican thing of living together in diversity.
It may be more comfortable to live where everyone agrees with us, but
it also quickly becomes boring, stagnant, and dead. Living with people who
disagree with us may be challenging, but it is the only route to creativity.
The fruit of those challenging relationships will be far more than any one
of us could accomplish in isolation.
Bruce Prewer, another UC minister, concludes his Psalm for the New Year:
Sing to the Lord a New Year’s song! Give him the choicest of New Year’s
honours:
As we greet one another with Happy New Year.
Greet him as the Lord of every minute.
For his call will be renewed each morning.
And his peace shall be ours at the close of every day.
[Australian Psalms, Lutheran Publishers]
*In the Australian Hymn Book II [Together in Song], Hymn 687 is by the
Australian Anglican minister, Elizabeth J. Smith: God gives us a future:
1. God gives us a future, daring us to go into dreams and dangers On a path
unknown.
We will face tomorrow in the Spirit's power, We will let God change us For
new life starts now.
2. We must leave behind us, sins of yesterday, for God's new beginning Is a
better way.
Fear and doubt and habit must not hold us back: God gives hope, and insight,
And the strength we lack
3. Holy Spirit, teach us, how to read the signs, how to meet the challenge
Of our troubled times.
Love us into action, stir us into prayer, Till we choose God's life, and
Find our future there.
[The preferred tune is John Michael Brierly’s Camberwell] [Together in Song,
HarperCollins Religious]
1,000 YEARS ARE LIKE A DAY
"You must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say 'Where is this coming he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation' ... But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
2 PETER 3: 3-4, 8-9
We live in astounding times. Think of the events of recent years: Rabin and Arafat shaking hands on the White House lawn; Red Army tanks shelling the Moscow Parliament because the Communists won't come out; floods covering much of the Midwest with water for weeks; a false Christ being featured on the covers of all the major newsmagazines and in a TV movie.
The combination of momentous political change and unusual natural phenomena in recent years has many folks wondering just what the heck is going on. The evangelist Billy Graham recently wrote that he has never in 50 years of ministry had so many people ask him if the end of the world is at hand.
The timing of the Second Coming has always titillated us, perhaps because it is concealed from us. For as Jesus said, "No one knows that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." That instruction often gets forgotten when believers see events that correspond with the signs Christ said would foreshadow His return. There is growing speculation that the Second Coming is imminent, a trend that will only intensify as the turn of the millenium approaches.
Christians must take care to not be deceived - either by those who insist He's coming tomorrow, or those who claim He won't return in our lifetime.
For the "scoffers" are also many, and are on thin ice as well. For decades, progressive thinkers ridiculed "Bible believing" scholars who insisted that Christ's return would be immediately preceded by such unlikely events as European political union, a cashless society and a Middle East peace treaty. No one's laughing today.
But as Peter understood, a comma on a page in the Bible could be 50 or 100 years for us. God defines "soon" much differently than we do. God's desire is for "everyone to come to repentance" - for us to invite Christ into our hearts and our lives. On a Bethlehem night 2,000 years ago, He came as a babe. One day, He will come in glory. In our world, He comes to us through the love and caring of forgiven people living changed lives.
Christ means for us to join him in eternal life. For now, His will is for us to be here, loving our neighbor until they ask us why, and then pointing them toward the Cross.
These meditations were prepared by Rich Miller of Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Rich is a lay speaker who attends the The Hopewell United Methodist Church in Hopewell Borough, N.J.
During the season of Advent, I will be posting something every day. It will begin with a Collect followed by the daily Scripture lessons, each day's selection from the Advent calendar from Alternatives for Simple Living, www.simple living.org . These will be followed by a mishmash of whatever takes my fancy for you to pick and choose. Please don't be put off by the amount. I really mean you to pick and choose. Although it would be nice were you to pray the Collect and read the lessons!!!
Collect:
Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Readings:
Psalm 25:1-9; Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36
Advent Cycle of Prayer: The Reformed Episcopal Church of Spain
Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: As soon as I discover where this is hidden on the revamped website for diocese, I will start posting it here!!
Advent Calendar: Ways to Change Ourselves:
1. Prioritize changes we need to make, including both "big" and "little" changes. Do not allow tokenism - doing only small stuff, like recycling, and ignoring the hard changes, like reducing our dependence on our cars. Likewise, do little stuff to keep a consciousness, otherwise the big changes may overwhelm us. It feels good to say, "Look at all the changes I've made!" But it's tokenism if they're all small stuff. Help: "Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices" and "The Joy of Simple Living."
What Do You See?
Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.-- Luke 21:29-31
The dentist down the street has already wrapped his fig trees for the winter: they are swathed in black landscaping fabric, supported with lines attached to sturdy stakes, so they won't blow over in the winter wind. The tall black cylinders bend this way and that. They look like a convention of drunken druids.
Our fig tree lives in a more sheltered spot: next to the house on the south side, where it will be warmed by whatever sun manages to come around in the cold and protected from the worst gusts of the winter wind. It also enjoys an occasional half hour of warmth from the dryer vent, which is right at its feet. Still, our garden is far from being a fig tree's vision of heaven: this is New Jersey. Figs are a Mediterranean fruit. Dryer vent or no, we must wrap our fig, too, if we expect it to survive the winter.
No one has the right to expect a fig tree in New Jersey to bear fruit. You have to work to make it happen. The tree does contain a powerful life force, but you have to protect it -- it has come into a hostile place, and it needs all the help it can get. And so it will be a fine day next spring when we see the first fat buds on the fig's branches. Well, well, we will say. You made it!
The kingdom of God is coming, and it will come without any help from us. The ways in which we will see it, though, and the places in which we will receive it -- those we must make for ourselves. We must prepare and protect them. If you want a library book, you have to go to the library -- one won't just appear in your hand. If you need laundry soap, you have to go to the store -- you won't get a box of detergent just by imagining it. God is right here, here for all of us. We don't have to create God for ourselves. But we do have to lift our heads and see where God is to be seen in our world.
This is as good a time as any to ask ourselves: what is God doing in my life? Where do I see the signs? Might there be signs I've missed? Has heartbreak or disappointment dulled my vision? Maybe. But these things are the winds of winter. They don't last forever.
+
Lessons for Advent I, Year C:
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36
+
Face to Face
Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith. -- I Thessalonians 3:10
To see and be seen -- we travel at this time of year, eager to see members of our family we don't see much, to visit friends we don't see enough. Oh, it's so good to see you! we say, as we embrace upon greeting them. It's been way too long!
When Hurricane Katrina struck, the lucky ones were evacuated from their homes. Many of those who could not be reached died. And, among the lucky, some were luckier than others: some homes remained standing and could be saved. Some remained standing but clearly would never again be habitable. Others were just gone. And the people who lived in them traveled, too -- to Houston, to relative's homes in other states, to the homes of strangers, to hotel rooms in cities they'd never seen, put their children in new schools.
And now, family by family, many decide to go back home. To a house whose rotted sheetrock walls have been hauled off with the trash, whose muddy furniture is beyond redemption. To an old school with new teachers, to a familiar street without its familiar grocery store. To a precarious new job. Or to no job.
The fourth phase of Episcopal Relief and Development's Katrina response includes case management: person by person, family by family, careful answers to important questions: How do I find a new job? How do I gain access to help with my home repairs? Where can I find a new doctor? How do I discipline my children and hold it all together, with dad working in another city and sending money home?
The case manager knows all the players -- the Lutherans, the Episcopalians, the city, the state, the whole network of social services and those who run them. She sees people face to face, week by week. Problem by problem, she walks with them to find a solution. There is a solution to everything, she tells them. Don't you worry. We'll find it together.
She must be a sight for sore eyes.
+
All I want for Christmas is ERD! Give the ones you love the gift of giving, from ERD's lovely new Gifts for Life catalogue, which provides imaginative ways of giving concrete help to those who need it, in honor of your recipient. For more information about ERD, or to make a donation, visit http://www.er-d.org, ortelephone1-800-334-7626,ext/and click on "Gifts for Life," or telephone 1-800-334-7626, ext 5129.
+
Copyright © 2006 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org
The following may be sung to *Away in a manger*.
Away in a manger no crib for a bed
A long ago baby was born in a shed.
What possible meaning could tis have for me
A child of computers and technology?
The stars in the bright sky look down n me now,
But Christmass in these days lacks something, somehow.
There's tinsel and turkey, and gifts by the score,
And I am left feeling that there should be more.
Wise men with research grants can do awesome deeds
But we are neglectful of our neigbour's needs
For love and for caring, a Christ-child reborn:
God's hand touching our hand on each Christmas morn.
Old manger story, with shepherds and kings:
Amazing how simple the message it brings.
Regardless of science, or surfing the net:
God still sends us Jesus, and He loves us yet.
(Author unknown)
*Waiting" by Jeff Shrowder, an Australian Uniting Church minister.
Waiting -
for cut hay to dry;
for a rising lamb market;
for exam results;
for "yes" to a job application;
for news of a medical diagnosis.
Waiting -
for the transcendent light
which rips open the heavens
and kindles a warm glow within;
which brings the first light of dawn
and sets the heart on fire.
Waiting -
for the flood that sweeps all before it;
for the thief that comes in the night;
for the birth that disrupts, disturbs,
and turns the world upside down,
at an unexpected hour. . . .
Waiting, for the peace of the Lord.
© Jeff Shrowder
Wouldn't It Be Wonderful by Anne Weems
Wouldn't it be wonderful
if Advent came filled with angels and alleluias?
Wouldn't it be perfect
if we were greeted on these December mornings
with a hovering of heavenly hosts
tuning their harps and brushing up on their fa-la-las?
Wouldn't it be incredible
if their music filled our waking hours
with the promise of peace on earth
and if each Advent night we dreamed of nothing but goodwill?
Wouldn't we be ecstatic
if we could take those angels shopping,
or trim the tree or have them hold our hands
and dance through our houses decorating?
And, oh, how glorious it would be
to sit in church next to an angel
And sing our hark-the-heralds!
What an Advent that would be!
What Christmas spirit we could have!
An angel-filled Advent has so many possibilities!
But in lieu of that,
perhaps we can give thanks
for the good earthly joys we have been given
And for the earthly "angels" we know
Who do such a good job of filling
Our Advent with alleluias!
Some words from the new Presiding Bishop of ECUSA –Katharine Jefferts Schori
Saints are those who are vulnerable to the gut-wrenching pain of this world.
Some of us have to be seized by the throat or thrown into the tomb before we
can begin to find that depth of compassion. And perhaps unless we are, we
won't leave our comfortable narrow lives -- or our remarkably nasty ones --
to wake up and begin to answer that pain.
In the early church, baptism was meant to be that kind of life-altering
encounter. New saints spent three years in the readying, and then were taken
in the dead of night into the crypt, stripped naked, and drowned -- only to
emerge filled with new breath, doused with sweet-smelling oil, and given a
new white robe. What you and I do on Sunday mornings today sometimes seems a
pale imitation, yet it can have every bit the same effect. ...
We have to be willing to suffer with the people who disagree with us so profoundly, and until we're
willing to do that cross-shaped work, we're not able to reconcile, not able
to do that Anglican thing of living together in diversity.
It may be more comfortable to live where everyone agrees with us, but
it also quickly becomes boring, stagnant, and dead. Living with people who
disagree with us may be challenging, but it is the only route to creativity.
The fruit of those challenging relationships will be far more than any one
of us could accomplish in isolation.
Bruce Prewer, another UC minister, concludes his Psalm for the New Year:
Sing to the Lord a New Year’s song! Give him the choicest of New Year’s
honours:
As we greet one another with Happy New Year.
Greet him as the Lord of every minute.
For his call will be renewed each morning.
And his peace shall be ours at the close of every day.
[Australian Psalms, Lutheran Publishers]
*In the Australian Hymn Book II [Together in Song], Hymn 687 is by the
Australian Anglican minister, Elizabeth J. Smith: God gives us a future:
1. God gives us a future, daring us to go into dreams and dangers On a path
unknown.
We will face tomorrow in the Spirit's power, We will let God change us For
new life starts now.
2. We must leave behind us, sins of yesterday, for God's new beginning Is a
better way.
Fear and doubt and habit must not hold us back: God gives hope, and insight,
And the strength we lack
3. Holy Spirit, teach us, how to read the signs, how to meet the challenge
Of our troubled times.
Love us into action, stir us into prayer, Till we choose God's life, and
Find our future there.
[The preferred tune is John Michael Brierly’s Camberwell] [Together in Song,
HarperCollins Religious]
1,000 YEARS ARE LIKE A DAY
"You must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say 'Where is this coming he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation' ... But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
2 PETER 3: 3-4, 8-9
We live in astounding times. Think of the events of recent years: Rabin and Arafat shaking hands on the White House lawn; Red Army tanks shelling the Moscow Parliament because the Communists won't come out; floods covering much of the Midwest with water for weeks; a false Christ being featured on the covers of all the major newsmagazines and in a TV movie.
The combination of momentous political change and unusual natural phenomena in recent years has many folks wondering just what the heck is going on. The evangelist Billy Graham recently wrote that he has never in 50 years of ministry had so many people ask him if the end of the world is at hand.
The timing of the Second Coming has always titillated us, perhaps because it is concealed from us. For as Jesus said, "No one knows that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." That instruction often gets forgotten when believers see events that correspond with the signs Christ said would foreshadow His return. There is growing speculation that the Second Coming is imminent, a trend that will only intensify as the turn of the millenium approaches.
Christians must take care to not be deceived - either by those who insist He's coming tomorrow, or those who claim He won't return in our lifetime.
For the "scoffers" are also many, and are on thin ice as well. For decades, progressive thinkers ridiculed "Bible believing" scholars who insisted that Christ's return would be immediately preceded by such unlikely events as European political union, a cashless society and a Middle East peace treaty. No one's laughing today.
But as Peter understood, a comma on a page in the Bible could be 50 or 100 years for us. God defines "soon" much differently than we do. God's desire is for "everyone to come to repentance" - for us to invite Christ into our hearts and our lives. On a Bethlehem night 2,000 years ago, He came as a babe. One day, He will come in glory. In our world, He comes to us through the love and caring of forgiven people living changed lives.
Christ means for us to join him in eternal life. For now, His will is for us to be here, loving our neighbor until they ask us why, and then pointing them toward the Cross.
These meditations were prepared by Rich Miller of Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Rich is a lay speaker who attends the The Hopewell United Methodist Church in Hopewell Borough, N.J.
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 9:43 AM
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