A new look at Christmas

A friend send me this as her Christmas greeting today. I think it's really good - so appropriate for where we are. I share it and pray, too, for a new, real, Holy Spirit-led unity, mercy, and grace to fall upon us.

Something happened this year, I am not sure what. The economy crashed. We were daily deluged with news of wars, rumors of wars, global warming and pending environmental catastrophe. We watched politicians battle in ways that cause children to be sent to their rooms, or students to be kept after school in detention halls. My job became overwhelmingly stressful. It rained much of the summer... I don't know, something.... Suddenly it is Christmas Eve, and I have not made cards or baked, have not put on Christmas music, have not felt that "Christmas Spirit" that usually comes to my heart this time of year.

So this morning I am pausing for an attitude adjustment. I step back and consider this beautiful planet, all the peoples on her, and all the sources of hope they are. It is my faith that God is, that God is watching, and that everywhere a human soul looks up and opens their heart, right there the Spirit can enter the fray of all our troubles - with kindness, compassion, giving, innovation, creativity, solution. I am sure the answers for all the woes that plague us exist in God. They just need to be found, discovered, implemented by those who will stop the rushing about and hear/heed the Spirit's whisper.

It is my prayer for you all this Christmas Eve that you will join me in stopping for a minute to just listen, listen for the Voice of Spirit, the Voice that is always there trying to give us our answers. As Christ said, "Let those who have ears, listen."

Depression

¹ Save me, O God,

for the waters have come up to my neck.

² I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold.

I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.

³ I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.
My eyes fail, looking for my God. (Psalm 69 NIV)

"My spouse died yesterday after a long battle with illness. I know it's best the suffering is over, but it makes Christmas tomorrow so different...."

"My husband's been out of work for 18 months, we can't sell our house, we have two daughters in college; we don't know what to do...."

"My mom died this year. She loved Christmas - decorated her house like no one I've ever seen. Loved the music, loved the gifts, loved the grandkids...She was gone so suddenly last spring. How will my dad and the rest of the family ever make it through this first Christmas?"

"A year ago she was fine, living on her own. Now she's in an assisted living facility and can't remember who I am day to day. I miss my mom. I miss our conversations, her humor, her fullness of life. She's just not the same."

"My mom died on Christmas and my sister committed suicide because of depression. Now I'm seeing the same signs in my wife...What do I do?"

And so I pray in the words of the psalmist:

¹ My God, my God, why do you seem to abandon us?
Why are you so far away when we groan for help?
² Every day we call to you, God, but you do not answer.
Every night you hear our voices, but we find no relief.

³ Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
⁴ Our ancestors trusted in you,
and you rescued them.
⁵ They cried out to you and were saved.
They trusted in you and were never disgraced.

¹¹ Do not stay so far from us, for trouble is near, and no one else can help us.

¹⁵ Our strength has dried up like sunbaked clay.
Our tongues stick to the roof of our mouths.
You have laid us in the dust and left us for dead.

¹⁹ O Lord, do not stay far away!
You are our strength; come quickly to our aid!
²⁰ Save us from the sword;
spare our precious lives from these dogs.

²² We will proclaim your name to our brothers and sisters.
We will praise you among your assembled people.
²³ Praise the Lord, all you who fear him!

²⁴ For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy.
He has not turned his back on them,
but has listened to their cries for help.

²⁶ The poor will eat and be satisfied.
All who seek the Lord will praise him. Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.

²⁷ The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to him.
All the families of the nations will bow down before him.
²⁸ For royal power belongs to the Lord.
He rules all the nations. (Psalm 22 NLT, alt.)

God, for those hurting right now, facing the depths of the abyss, I pray that you will reveal yourself to them, deliver and protect them, encourage and uplift them, be their strength and their joy. May they know your love and grace in a profound way. Amen.

Waiting - a musing

Tonight I know two families who are waiting for loved ones to die. Both have been ill a long time, so being released from the physical problems of this world will be a blessing. Both have spouses that will grieve deeply. Both are believers. But Christmas is a strange time of year to face a death.

Christmas comes at the end of fall - the end of long, lighted days. In a way, the time from the summer solstice to the winter solstice is a time of dying. Gradually the days cool, the daylight becomes shorter, and before we know many things like leaves and flowers have died for the season. Even Advent can be a time of dying to ourselves, getting honest with God (again), and surrendering a little more of our will to Jesus. A different type of death.

And yet death is not the end.

Much as on Easter we ask, "Death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory?" this Christmas these two families can know that the other side of the dying process is LIFE - life lived in heaven with Jesus. And on the other side of the "dying" months, come the "rising" months from the winter solstice to the summer one - and the light gets longer, the temperatures (eventually) rise.

Most importantly, at Christmas we celebrate the end of waiting for the Messiah. The Jews had waited hundreds of years for the coming of the King. They didn't expect a baby in a manger, but God's ways are definitely different than ours. If Advent involves dying to ourselves, Christmas involves CELEBRATING all that GOD is and has done through Jesus for us. In him we have life and have it abundantly. In him we live and move and have our being. In him we can see the way, the truth and the life.

Sometimes we must wait for death. But we know it is never the final end. God is a God of life.

Thank you God for life!

Amen

Then pealed the bells

Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David's town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.

There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."

At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises:

Glory to God in the heavenly heights,

Peace to all men and women on earth who please him. (Luke 2 - MSG)

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

God, this time of year is full of traditions, memories, and special events. Even as we remember and reflect and renew our earthly relationships, help us remember the "old familiar" story of your birth is the center of it all.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Thank you for the men and women who have passed down the Christian faith through the years. Thank you for the martyrs, the persecuted church, those that are ridiculed and scored for their faith - both in the past and in the present. Thank you for the witness of all your people through times and places for the Good News of Jesus Christ. Help us to take this faith and live it out in the here and now and pass it on to future generations.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

God, for the many places in the world that are still under the thumb of the evil one we pray for deliverance. For those bound in slavery, for those oppressed by governments, for those whose existence is tied to evil - we pray for release for the captives, restoration of sight to the spiritually blind, and the reclamation of the Good News in lives and hearts currently crowded by the many faces of evil. We pray for peace to come into these situations and into every life yearning to know your peace.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Thank you for hearing our prayers. Thank you for being living, wonder-working, and the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Thank you for showing your power in our world and faithfully keeping your promises. Thank you for your protection, your provision, your revealed holiness.

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!*

Come, Lord Jesus, come. We need you to finish the work you have begun, turning this fallen, dark world back to goodness and life and abundant life. Use us for the work we can do until there is peace on earth and good will to all.

Amen.

(*by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

Transition

Change. Transition.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

"God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow."

"It's all the same, only the names are changed."

"When you go through the storms I am with you...you are mine."

"Not everyone likes the new things."

At this time of year we remember a young, Jewish, peasant girl whose faith enabled her to accept one of the most enormous changes anyone can experience - the announcement she would be mother to God's Son.

"I am the Lord's servant; may it be as you have said."

At this time of year we remember a young, Jewish man whose faith enabled him to accept his betrothed's changes - which, therefore, also changed his life - and to raise a child that was not his own.

"So Joseph married Mary...."

At this time of year we remember families who have lost loved ones during the past year - families for whom Christmas will be very different. We remember families for whom job losses and economic distress will make this a very different Christmas.

"This Christmas will be so different without them..."

At this time we see an "old year" quickly tumble into a "new year," as if the new is better, or as if the days are somehow fresher in the new year. We breathe a sigh of relief when a hard year is ended, looking forward to a new year with hope for its future.

"I'll be so glad when this year is over."

As our church searches for a new pastor and prepares to make a call we must realize that things around here will change. There will be a new personality in the mix. We will have to release a very well liked interim pastor. God continues to call us to new places, new ministries.

"There is a time for everything, a season for each pastor..."

At the end of C.S. Lewis's "The Last Battle," the main characters are passing from the Old Narnia into a New Narnia. This new land is like the old, except the colors are brighter, the scents are sweeter, the air purer -- it's just better by far. In their first moments in the New Narnia, the main characters go "further up and further in," running with abandon and joy in this new place Aslan (the Christ character) has brought them to.

Not every change or transition we undergo in this life on earth is immediately seen as a "good one." But, if Christ is calling us to a new place, we can trust that as we go further up and further in, as we follow where we are led, we will be accompanied by our Savior.

"Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how." - Jesus (from Matthew 16 MSG)

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5,6 NIV)

God IS the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

God IS faithful, especially to his chosen children.

God CAN be trusted to walk us through the changes and transitions we encounter.

So, Lord, help us turn over to you our anxieties and fears, our hopes for the future, our pain from the past, and our sin that hinders us from running with endurance the race set before us. Grant us your peace so that we may run further up and further in to where you call us to go. May we run with joy and abandon because we are confident in who YOU are. Lead us, Lord, in paths of righteousness for the sake of your Name and your Glory.

Surrender

As the Christian pursuits her goal, she learns that she must offer up her own will and to accept the Lord's will with joy. To do this, complete trust is needed and it is by building altars that Much-Afraid abandons herself. Before every big step in her journey, she builds an altar and her offering is consumed. The biggest sacrifice that is asked by the Shepherd is at the last part of her journey. It is that of offering up the promise that she received when He called her to follow Him as well as the flower of "natural human love and desire growing in her heart[.] " After this offering, nothing is left in Much-Afraid but her desire to do the will of the Shepherd. The times of purification are over and she is finally ready to enter the Kingdom of Love. It is therefore by following the path indicated by her King, by offering up her will and by trusting Him completely that the Bride can arrive to the threshold of the High Places.** http://www.angelfire.com/nm/AndI/HindsFeet.html

"Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? (Matthew 16:24-26 MSG)

Surrender don't come naturally to me
I'd rather fight You for something
I don't really want, than
Take what You give that I need

And I beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm falling down, falling on my knees

Hold me Jesus
I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
Hold me Jesus
Cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace*

I think about a poor, Jewish peasant girl who had an angel tell her she'd be the mother of the Son of God. If something like that happened to me, I'm not sure what my response would be. But hers was simple:

I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve.
Let it be with me just as you say. (Luke 1:38 MSG)

What was it about her spirit, her faith, her trust in God that led her to so easily say YES to such a huge request by God? Being unwed and pregnant at that time could quickly lead to divorce from her betrothed, societal shunning, and even death. So, why could she so easily (at least as the writer of Luke records it) surrender to God's will?

Where are the places I still need to lay down my will, to let Jesus be in the driver's seat of my life? What are the things I think or say or feel or...whatever... that I need to surrender on the altar so that my heart and soul can be lined up with Christ's? It seems like He keeps finding things in me that I need to clean out of that back closet of my soul - junk he says to give to him so that he can replace that junk with His love and peace.

²⁸"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11 NIV)

Take my burdens, my junk, the stuff that impairs me from being able to follow you

Show me your way

Less of me, more of you

Help me surrender and trust you

Be my Prince of Peace

Amen

* "Hold Me Jesus" by Rich Mullins

** from a review of "Hinds Feet on High Places" by Hannah Hurnard

Logjam

Spiritual logjam.

Angst.

Confusion.

Am I being stubborn?

Desiring discernment.

Wanting to do the right thing.

Not in unity with others.

My spirit all balled up.

My husband and I are making a major decision about a home for our family. I am one of a team of people searching for God's choice for a new pastor for our church. Two MAJOR decisions I am a part of, both with huge implications.

I pray for wisdom. I yearn for guidance. I cry out to God - HELP ME.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
⁴⁷ And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
⁴⁹ For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.
⁵⁰ And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation. (Luke 1 NKJV)

My soul magnifies the Lord.

My soul MAGNIFIES God.

Magnify, God.

God gets bigger.

I get smaller.

More God.

Less me.

Less me.

More God.

Fill my confusion with you.

Help me know what to do.

Protect my thoughts.

Give peace to my spirit.

My spirit rejoices in God my savior.

He HAS done great things for me.

He is mighty.

His name is holy.

His mercy is on those who fear him.

Merciful blessings.

Merciful peace.

Merciful wisdom.

Magnified God.

May your will be done and your Kingdom come.

Amen.

The Face of Light

I received an email subscription that I thought fit into the Advent season, even though its writer is Rabbi Daniel Lapin. I copied the text of the devotion below (but left off the advertisements!).

[P.S. I can't get the devotion to look formatted correctly here - if you can't read it feel free to follow the link to it directly.]

But first our scripture and prayer...

¹ "Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.

² See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,

but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.

³ Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (Isa. 60:1-3 NIV)

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (John 3:21 NIV)

Light of the World, You stepped down into darkness, drawing us to your grace, coaxing us to become your Children of Light. Thank you for this gift of grace given. In this season of preparation, help us to come to you in humility and honesty to reflect on our lives, confess our sin, and obtain your forgiveness. We want to be in the Light as You are in the Light and shine like the stars in the heaven. We want to be the face of Light in a word strangled by darkness, hopelessness, distraction, fear, greed, illness and death, cruelty, hunger, and so much more. Help your children in all places to be the face of Christ - the light of Christ - in a dark and dreary world. Hush the noise of strife in our world, and help us to hear the angels' song and to sing with them: Glory to God in the Highest! Glory to God! Amen.

It Came Upon The Midnight Clear © Public Domain by Edmund Hamilton Sears | Richard Storrs WillisIt came upon the midnight clear
That glorious song of old
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold
Peace on the earth good will to men
From heaven's all gracious King
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing

And ye beneath life's crushing load
Whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow
Look now for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing

For lo the days are hastening on
By prophet bards foretold
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong
And man at war with man hears not
The love song which they bring
O hush the noise ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing

Thought Tools by Rabbi Daniel Lapin

Hey, Buddy, Got a Light?

December 9, 2009 22nd day of Kislev, 5770 Volume II Issue #49

Forward to a Friend

What three changes could you institute that would improve your life? Most people know exactly what they ought to do and what they ought to stop doing that would make their lives better. Which begs the question; why don’t

we just go ahead and do these things?

The answer is what I call “The Force of Darkness.” Understanding and learning to conquer this sinister force is so important that God introduces us to this primeval darkness and general chaos no later than the second verse of Genesis.

According to ancient Jewish wisdom this verse reveals a dark force built into the universe that attempts to combat progress towards improving our lives. This is why it is harder to diet, exercise, and grow thin, than it is to sit around, eat, and grow fat. This is why it is harder to save and invest than it is to spend and consume or to educate one’s self and improve one’s career rather than to seek entertainment. This is why self-discipline is harder than indulgence or why it is harder to build a marriage than it is to destroy one. In other words, keeping the flame burning is just plain hard. It is far easier to sit back and allow darkness to win.

If the problem is darkness, surely the antidote is light -- which brings us to Chanukah, the festival of light.

Many mistakenly think that Chanukah is a post-Biblical rabbinical holiday. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, its roots lie in the Torah and within the prophecies of Hagai and Zecharia, centuries before the historic events.

Many mistakenly think that Chanukah exists because about 2,150 years ago the Hasmonean Maccabees won an extraordinary military victory over the Greeks and Jewish Hellenists. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, one of the reasons the loyal and faithful Jews were able to win the war was because it was fought on the days already prophetically preordained for light to defeat darkness.

Many mistakenly think that Chanukah is an annual holiday celebrated by playing silly games while eating oily potato latkes. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, just as ranchers must vaccinate their livestock each year to keep them healthy, Chanukah is an annual vaccination of light to keep ourselves healthy enough to dispel darkness.

On the first night of Chanukah we light one flame. We add a flame each successive night until we have a glorious extravaganza of light emanating from our menorah on the eighth night. Why don’t we increase the total light on this holiday by kindling eight flames every night?

Simple arithmetic reveals that lighting correctly requires a total of 36 flames. It is no coincidence that the word light appears 36 times in the Torah. It is also no coincidence that the first word in the Bible possessing the numerical value of 36 (each Hebrew letter is a number as well) is the Hebrew word AYEKA, meaning “Where are you?” which God asks Adam after his sin.

Needless to say, God knows where Adam is hiding. The question was not an attempt to discover Adam’s physical whereabouts but instead it was God admonishing Adam to reflect on his spiritual condition.

That word echoes down the ages as God asks each one of us every day, “Where are you?” The message of the 36 bright flames, increasing by one each night, is that you dispel darkness by achieving just a bit more today than you did yesterday. Remaining in one place is just a slower way of moving in the wrong direction. Staying the same is an illusion, not reality. That is simply the way God created the world.