A child should lead the way

Who would think that what was needed to transform and save the earth 
might not be a plan or army, proud in purpose, proved in worth?
Who would think, despite derision, that a child should lead the way?
God surprises earth with heaven, coming here on Christmas Day.
---John Bell and Graham Maule

Surprise! It's a baby, and it's just the thing for what ails us!
Merry merry Christmas!


...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Calling all angels

Before the marvel of this night, adoring, fold your wings and bow;
then tear the sky apart with light and with your news the world endow.
Proclaim the birth of Christ and peace, that fear and death and sorrow cease:
sing peace; sing peace; sing gift of peace; sing peace; sing gift of peace!
---Jaroslav Vajda

On this Christmas Eve, maybe a few angel instructions are only appropriate. This modern era carol is the only one I know addressed to the heavenly beings. We know from the Biblical account that the shepherds were shaken and stirred (and maybe terrified) by the angels' arrival on the scene that peaceful  night. Now from Vajda's imagination we hear the angels instructed to 'tear the sky apart with light'! What a scene! A marvel, even!
And the message? Birth. And death. The birth of Christ. The birth of peace. And the death of fear, and sorrow, and death itself. The angels' song? Straight up peace, with no room for anything that breaks it.
That good news is enough to tear apart the sky!

...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Salvation/destruction

This child must be born that the kingdom might come:
salvation for many, destruction for some;
both end and beginning, both message and sign;
both victor and victim, both yours and divine.
---John Bell

One of the easiest things to forget about Jesus' birth and early years is that he was already a 'marked man'. He came to lift up the littlest, the least, and the losers --- great news if you were little, least, or lost. If you were a one-percenter in the Bible-times world, however, this 'good news' was more than a little threatening. Herod was no idiot; he could read the writing on the wall --- or at least in the stars. When the astronomers from the East stopped to inquire about the new 'King of the Jews', the current King of the Jews was more than a little alarmed. You see, good news for the powerless is often anything but for the powerful. In life, there are winners and losers, and a savior who turns the tables is going to upset the table-toppers.
So it shouldn't surprise us when the powerful begin early making mighty efforts at keeping their power. Even when the opponent they battle is a baby. It is never too early to snuff out table-turning...


...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Finished creation, restored salvation

Finish then thy new creation, pure and spotless let us be;

Let us see thy great salvation perfectly restored in thee:

Changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place,

Till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise.
---Charles Wesley

Restored and finished. Charles Wesley, in the mid-1700’s, used these words to envision the fulfillment of God’s dream for humanity. With a love that surpasses any other concept of love, God continues to “create” us, to draw us toward purity. This verse is an encouragement to me, as I often feel God must not quite be done with me yet! What a God we worship, Whose creation is not limited to a one-time act, but happens over and over to create and re-create us as whole and pure!

It’s enough to lose ourselves in wonder, love, and praise….

...so here we stand, whoever we are,

bathed in the light of a star...

Renewed Creation

You come, O Lord, with gladness, in mercy and goodwill,
to bring an end to sadness and bid our fears be still.
In patient expectation we live for that great day
when your renewed creation your glory shall display.
---Paul Gerhardt

Today I am feeling worn out. I have had a cough that won't let up for going on a month, and things keep piling on. Things I bounced back from at 25 seem a little tougher to shake in my...early 50's. Even the medicine the doctor prescribed to make me better, made me worse. If you could see me (and I'm sort of glad you can't see me in my blogger chair), I would look worn out to you; I've got my worn out PJ's on, I'm eating leftover leftovers at the computer desk, my face is ashy save for the cheeks rosy from coughing and the purple circles under my eyes from the allergic reaction to the meds. If I was a rug, someone would cut out the good parts of me to craft and resell as wallets on etsy.
Our world is that kind of worn out right now. Tempers are frayed, both interpersonal and international. Ecosystems are fragile and natural resources running low. People sometimes look for reasons to separate themselves from others, based on ways they look, behave, love, speak. We choose consuming over conserving, doubting over trusting, fearing over loving. Our creation needs re-creating.
Good news! The coming of Christ brings with it the promise of renewal for the creation we have worn out! We will be renewed!

...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Comfort, comfort

'Comfort, comfort now my people; tell of peace!' so says our God.
'Comfort those who sit in darkness mourning under sorrow's load.
To my people now proclaim that my pardon waits for them!
Tell them that their sins I cover, and their warfare now is over.'
---Johannes Olearius

How long have you been struggling? For the right? Against the wrong? On the side of the little guy? How tired have you gotten in the struggle against the dark? Sometimes that struggle is against forces out there, and sometimes the dark creeps a lot closer to home. In this paraphrase of Isaiah 40, we hear the voice of the prophet, whispering a promise --- if we hold on, just a little longer, there is comfort coming, there is pardon, there is relief in your mourning.
Hold on, friends. Comfort is coming.

...so here we stand, whoever we are, 
bathed in the light of a star...

Silent stars

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep,
the silent stars go by.
---Phillips Brooks

In times of tragedy and pain, sleep eludes us. The more tired we get, the more exhausted our minds and bodies become, the less likely we are to submit to rest and peace. We toss and turn, running over mistakes, tragic events, 'if-only's, held hostage by the things our minds held at bay during the daylight. For days, we can stumble through nights of not-sleep, days of barely-there --- going through the motions of living.
What a relief then, what a gift --- the night of deep, dreamless sleep. Whatever brings it on, whatever coaxes it out of our psyches, we sleep. And we heal. And above it all, the stars. The stars.


...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Risen with healing in his wings

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.

Mild he lays his glory by, born that we no more may die,

Born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth.

Hark! The herald angels sing, “Glory to the new-born King!”

---Charles Wesley

There is a danger in the carols of Christmas, one that threatens to deaden us to the wisdom hidden within. This danger is familiarity, the same quality that makes them beloved. Anywhere you go, you are apt to hear some version of this carol, sung or played by a wide variety of ensembles. Many of us could sing this carol in our sleep --- all three verses!

Our familiarity with this carol should not, however, blind us to the message of comfort and hope contained within. Hear these words anew: “Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings….” We all know that in the midst of the great joy of the season lurk illness, injury, grief, and sorrow. These are part of life, and do not miraculously disappear during Advent and Christmastide. But there is good news, even in darkness! There is one who brings light for our darkness, life for our dead places, and healing for what hurts us. In the middle of this tumultuous existence, Christ comes to meet our deepest needs.

...so here we stand, whoever we are,

bathed in the light of a star...

Life's crushing load

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.
--- Edmund Sears

There is no doubt about it --- real life doesn't stop for Advent and Christmas. And tragic times of loss and sadness are just as likely to befall us during this holy time as at any other. Doctors deliver life-changing health news. Beloved friends and family members pass away. Young disturbed boys with guns walk into schools and shoot away. People you trusted to stay, leave.
And just like that, the shine can be dimmed on the Christmas glitter. And honestly, that glitter may not ever come back with the same intensity. Because of all the things we are promised, a return to 'before-ness' is not one of them. And some days, it takes more effort to put one foot in front of the other. And some days those aches feel like a 'crushing load', and the path a 'climbing way'.
But there is comfort for the hurt, balm for the pain, a softening for the raw edges of grief. Because even here, resting beside the 'weary road', there is an angel song for what ails you. And me.


...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Did Jesus look like his pictures?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
---Isaiah 53:2

Maybe it's been a slow news week, or maybe it's just that most wonderful time of the year when non-Christmas experts suddenly want to chime in on all things Christmas; but today a talking head on a national news network took to the air to state that it is 'just historical fact that Jesus was a white man.' And I just sat there, smh (for those of you who, like me are afraid of online slang, this one is safe --- 'shaking my head'). Because this TV lady (I'm not ready to call her a newscaster right now) had walked into the Children's Bible, Illustrated Edition trap. You have that Bible, don't you? It's the one with the full color front, with the picture of flower-child Jesus --- long, flowing, light-brown hair, shaggy beard (also light brown), righteous surfer tan set off by his white robe, rope sandals --- surrounded by a group of adorable (also white) pudgy children. What sets the picture off, though, are the piercing blue eyes.
Now, everything we know about Jesus' origin (yes, historically) tells us that he looked nothing like a gentle surfer dude. He undoubtedly looked like a typical middle-Easterner, dark-haired and -skinned. That is the history. And perhaps Isaiah's writing (quoted above) hints at Jesus', well...plain-ness. The piercing blue eyes? Probably not. Heads that turned when he walked by? Nope.
See? That was part of the idea of incarnation. Not that God took on human skin to walk the earth as America's (or The Galilee's) Next Top Model. Not that God came down in an Elvis sequined jumpsuit that shouted 'Look at me!' But that God came as a regular Joe, passed as the son of a regular Joe, and lived right here with us, like us.
What made Jesus holy, set apart, was the message bound up in his humanity --- the message that God is for us. It wasn't his historical dark skin and hair. And it wouldn't have been his whiteness.

...so here we stand, whoever we are, 
bathed in the light of a star...

Wait.

For you, O Lord, my soul in stillness waits;
truly my hope is in you.
---Ps. 62:5

And, sometimes, amidst the clamor of the season, there is a moment of stillness. It may have been sought after, it may have been urged upon you. But in that stillness, your soul waits. And there's the hope.

...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Make this hope your guiding premise

Match your present to the promise, Christ will come again.
Make this hope your guiding premise, Christ will come again.
Pattern all your calculating and the world you are creating
to the advent you are waiting: Christ will come again.
---Thomas Troeger

Does the whole 'Christ coming again' idea ever confuse you? It does me (good thing the world doesn't depend on whether I have it all figured out or not!). When I read the ends of some of the Gospel accounts, it seems Christ comes again, several times over. I know that throws open a debate over what age we are currently living in, and that makes lots of folks a little nervous. Me, too; but mainly nervous over what kind of 'Kingdom Come' created here on Earth.
I like what Thomas Troeger has to say to us here, though. I hear him saying, 'Leigh Anne, live your life in line with the promises you say you believe from God. Create the world you say you are waiting on. This is the arrival that is advent.'
What do you think?

...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Thin places

Now the heavens start to whisper, 
as the veil is growing thin. 
Earth from slumber wakes to listen
to the stirring, faint within...
---Mary Louise Bringle

In Celtic spirituality, there are spaces where the division between the physical world and the spirit world grow 'thin', allowing for a sort of supernatural transfer between realms. In these thin places, all kinds of magic might happen.
Christianity surely has at least two 'thin places' in its story. One, the moment of Jesus' death on the cross, is marked by a literal thinning of the veil --- the heavy curtain in the Temple at Jerusalem, separating the presence of God from the presence of God's people, is ripped open from top to bottom, ending forever constructed separation between God and us. The other thin place is surely the moment of God's 'crossing over' --- the Creator of the universe taking on the skin of a creature, Word becoming the frailest of flesh. It is this thinning that we await during the Advent season.
God presents us with this thin place --- do you hear the whispered invitation? Dare we step in?


...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Emmanuel comes a-singing

To us, to all, in sorrow and fear, Emmanuel comes a-singing;
his humble song is quiet and near, yet fills the earth with its ringing;
music to heal the broken soul and hymns of lovingkindness.
The thunder of his anthems rolls to shatter all hatred and violence.
---Marty Haugen

I have a Tibetan singing bowl. To play it, I slowly and steadily circle a heavy wooden dowel around the rim of the bowl. At first, I would promise that nothing is happening. But I keep the dowel circling, slowly, steadily. And gradually I feel a vibration in the fingertips on which I balance the bowl. And then there is a low hum, the kind I wonder if I am imagining. But it is there, and it is steady and solid in some way. And the longer I circle the dowel, the fuller the sound grows, and I can hear it and feel it filling me.
I imagine Emmanuel coming, singing, this same way. We may not hear a song at first; may just notice a change in the quality of the air in the space. Then, the slightest hint of harmonic vibration; and as you stand very still, you realize the song the Savior sings resonates through every cell in your body, and rings in every corner of your soul. Overwhelmed with the music, you become the song the Savior sings.


...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

That was joy you heard

Repeat the sounding joy!
---Isaac Watts

I just hosted a Christmas party, and pure joy broke out. One minute we were eating chicken salad and chips and cookies, and drinking ginger ale, and playing Dirty Santa (I stole Meagan's totally cool mug set!), and Matt was dancing in an elf hat --- just your average party.
But then. Joy. And the best kind. The unexpected, sneak-up-on-you, pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you joy that takes your breath away. Someone turned around on the piano bench and pounded out a few chords, paged through one of the carol books. Someone got the guitar, Spenser tootled on the recorder (just like she learned in 5th grade). The bass got added, uke, bells, drum, kazoo, Tibetan prayer cymbals. And the joy broke out all over. The kind that makes this generation grab their iPhones and press REC. We sang, and played, and laughed. We made up our own song, made plans to take the show on the road.
It was a little bit of Christmas magic.
A moment of pure, sounding joy.


...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Peace...and quiet

The Lord bless you and keep you,
the Lord's face shine upon you,
Lord be gracious to you;
the Lord's countenance shine upon you,
and give you peace. And quiet.
---Isaiah 6:24-26, and Abby

If you have been a parent of several children who are all very young at once, you will know the feeling --- that sensation of never quite catching up, or settling down, or, you know, breathing. There is always something you didn't do, or something huge you've potentially dropped off the radar entirely. The physical exhaustion is hard to describe, and the mental contest of comparing the job you are doing to that of your closest friends and family also raising families is cruel and useless.
Into that kind of life, we could all use a little peace. At the end of each long day, full of joy, and wonder, and tears, and frustration, and fun, I would stand in the room where my three very young children lay, readying for what I fervently prayed would be a good night's sleep. I laid my hand on each head in turn, a blonde, a dark brunette, and a wispy dishwater, and prayed this blessing for these children who were surely the best part of me. And , showing that no careless comment goes unheard during the rest of the day, my observant middle child decided that the good Lord would, in all wisdom, give peace and quiet. Perfect. My first thought would have bee written in sarcasm font --- no scripture goes untwisted. But then. But then...I thought, perfect (remove sarcasm font). I had blessed my children, and Abby had returned the blessing to me. She had added the word she believed would make that blessing perfect in my life, in that moment. Perfect. and Blessed.
You know, sometimes peace comes quiet. Sometimes it come raucous. Sometimes peace comes suddenly, more often after long toil. Sometimes peace comes completely, sometimes ragtag and partial.
In this holy season, peace comes both beginning and achieved --- in a Babe.


...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Hold fast to dreams

Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
 life is a broken winged bird 
that cannot fly.
---Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes knew something that maybe the Apostle Paul did not. Forgive me if I overstate; maybe it was that Paul was off making a different point entirely. Paul ended his famous treatise on love with the bold statement "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love" (I Cor. 13:13). The Beatles were known to have crooned 'All you need is love (ba-ba-ba-da-da)'. Maybe they got the idea from Virgil, who said 'Omnia Vincit Amor (Love Conquers All)'.
But Langston Hughes, he was on to something. When your hope runs out, when your dreams die, nothing else seems to count for much. Without hope, love seems empty desire. Without hope, any endeavor seems controlled by some heartless fate.
But hope. Hope gives wing to what may lie in our futures.
Take heart. Hold fast to hope.


...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

AND...

They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks. 
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
---Isaiah 2:4

There is a long and proud tradition in this world. If you are against something, and need to destroy it, burn it up! Off the top of my head I can think of burnings of subversive books (in real life, in Nazi history, and in Farenheit 451), rock and roll records (young readers, I'll explain records later), ugly Christmas sweaters (I kid you not), confiscated marijuana crops, Korans, piles of old tires (if you live out in the country in the past), bought-back illegal handguns, dead bodies during plague years, even 'witches' (alive, during dark days of our country's own history).
And when I read the prophetic message contained in Isaiah 2, I could picture the efficiency with which swords and spears, implements of war one and all, could have been gathered up into the world's largest and most justified bonfire. What better way to bring peace than to destroy forever the instruments of violence and hatred? And yet God's ways are so much higher than my ways, God's creativity drawing lovely circles around my crude connect-the-dots. Because destruction, even of pure evil, is never God's final word. God's final word is redemption, even of evil.
Another way top say this might just be AND. Like the Coke Zero ad campaign, it is not enough for violence to cease for God to call it a day. No, the impulses that give birth to violence must be transformed to yearn for the birth pangs of peace. The dreams of revenge must morph into dreams that include sufficient supply for all of God's children.
Those spears? Those swords? Don't destroy them. Transform them. Then use them to transform the world.
Peace the world. With AND.


so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Hi Mom! Send Bitcoin!

Turn from evil and do good.
Seek peace and pursue it.
---Psalm 34:14

On Saturday our little town was visited by a few (hundred thousand) extra people. There was a pretty big football contest going on, and a show called Gameday broadcast from town on the morning of. During Gameday, folks endeavor to have their creative signs captured on camera and spread famously across the world for a few seconds. My son Sam told me a story he had heard about one college student's sign.
The sign was a riff on the familiar 'Hi Mom! Send $' scrawled by college students across the decades on signs, letters, and telegrams from State U to Hometown USA. This one, however, was for a new, digital age. This sign said, 'Hi Mom! Send ---' then had a symbol that looked like a combination of an upper-case B and a dollar sign, followed by a black and white jumble. The symbol was for Bitcoin, an "open source peer-to-peer electronic money and payment network." It is a traded commodity. The jumble was a QR code, which can be read and translated by smart phones. When folks saw the fun -looking sign, they scanned the code into their phones on a lark --- and this is where the magic began. Apparently the young man has so far made $24,000 in Bitcoin from the folk who scanned his QR code during the few seconds of air time his sign received during ESPN's Gameday broadcast.
He knew what he wanted --- and he went out and sought it. In the verse from the Psalm today, we are told to seek peace, to pursue it. We all dream of peace, visualize it, sing about it, long for it. And those are all important pursuits. But the time comes when chasing after peace is the noble pursuit. Here at Advent, we often extol the virtue of waiting. And a wise person said 'Good things come to those who wait.' But in our world filled with turmoil, mistrust, and violence, peace must be sought and pursued.
Peace must be made.
Don't wait for your Bitcoin to fall out of the sky. Get out your Sharpie and make your sign. Gameday's coming...


...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...

Freedom...bathed in the light of a star

Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in thee.

Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a king,

Born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring.

- Charles Wesley

Advent is all about…well, you know…hope, peace, joy, and love, right? This hymn says Advent is all about…freedom…deliverance…a kingdom of grace. A topsy-turvy kingdom ruled by a child-king, reigning not over us, but in us. Free from what, we may wonder? We are living in the USA, as free as any people in the world. But there are bars that imprison us in a narrow world of small expectations and low risks. We are prisoner to our fears and sins, allowing them to hold us back from full participation in Christ’s kingdom of grace. In this kingdom there is no place for our small-minded fears and doubts.

Talk about your revolution….it’s independence day!

...so here we stand, whoever we are,

bathed in the light of a star...