Stir Up Your Power and Come!

"Advent Moon Rise"

In a time long ago, there used to be a season in the church year called Advent, a word that finds its meaning in the Latin word for “coming.”  It set aside the first four weeks of the new church year to focus on waiting and anticipating the birth of Jesus Christ.

I had always loved that season, but since a Madison Avenue mentality has so completely insinuated itself into our celebration of Christmas – Advent has fallen on hard times.  It frankly never contributed much to the gross domestic product.  Ask anyone to sing an Advent carol and all you will hear is silence. 

Besides with all the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals who has time to listen to the stories of ancient prophets who pined for a long-promised Messiah, but didn’t live to see that day.  If you press the point some may push back and say that we already know the rest of the story.  We already live on the other side of Good Friday and Easter.  So – who are we supposed to be waiting for anyway?

But there is still brokenness in this world, and there are twisted hearts that no amount of holiday cheer can fix.  There is a hunger in our souls that no Christmas party or holiday dinner can fill.  The Apostle Paul had it exactly right when he wrote to the Romans in the first century,

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

It is that kind of deep groaning that Advent is meant to assuage.  I like to think of Advent as a season of expectant yearning for the divine banquet that has no end, or the final Advent that is yet to come. 

And while we are waiting there are a lot of things that we could be doing.  Just look around at our world. There is brokenness everywhere.  Maybe while the family is together, the discussion might be centered on what the family could do to make our world better.  There’s time to perhaps open the Heifer International catalog and look for gift ideas.  There is time to set aside a Saturday to go outside and glean a field or two with the Society of St. Andrew and put food on someone’s table this Christmas.  There are lots of things that can be done to help heal this world.

But if nothing else, take some of this Advent time for yourself.  Sit quietly and take the time so that our hearts can hear what God is telling us.  You may want to use the following to open that dialogue:

Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.  By your merciful protection awaken us to the threatening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of your new day. Amen.
                                                                     Opening  Prayer, First Sunday of Advent       

"Breezewood", our Garden Beneath the Crest

I have recently discovered that my wife has created a beautiful tour of our Japanese garden on her blog.  The tour is not new, in fact she created it several years ago around the time that we opened it up for a public tour by other volunteers at the JC Raulston Arboretum.  I have been so involved in my own orbit that the visual tour's existence remained undiscovered until recently.  As a way to remedy this oversight I am posting the link to the tour below.

Since our garden has always been a "work in progress" and many things have been added in the intervening years I am confident that there will be an update later this year.  I will not miss that posting.  Here is the link, enjoy -----``

Ilene Holmes: Breezewood, our Garden Beneath the Crest

Let Streams of Living Justice ELW 710

I love Lutheran Hymnody.  It is as close to proclaiming the Word of God, without preaching a sermon that you can get.  This was our opening hymn at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church a couple of weeks ago.  Read the lyrics as you listen to the music.  Actually, it was so emotional for me that I had trouble singing them.  How can anyone not believe this and live accordingly and still call themselves – Christians?

Immigrants in the Eyes of God

For the last several days I have been reading a great little book by Walter Brueggemann, Prayers for a Privileged People.  When I was serving as pastor at Holy Trinity, I used this book many times to center myself and reconnect myself to the will and heart of God.  Today, I re-read one of my favorite prayers from that time.  It is one that has taken on a whole new, deeper meaning in the last several days.  Let me offer it to you this evening:

On Controlling Our Borders

Jesus – crucified and risen – draws us into his presence again,
the one who had nowhere to lay his head, 
no safe place, 
no secure home, 
no passport or visa, 
no certified citizenship. 

We gather around him in our safety, security, and well-being,
and fret about “illegal immigrants."
We fret because they are not like us 
and refuse our language.  
We worry that there are so many of them 
and their crossings do not stop.  
We are unsettled because it is our tax dollars that sustain them 
and provide services.  
We feel the hype about closing borders and heavy fines, 
because we imagine that our life is under threat. 

And yet, as you know very well, 
we, all of us – early or late – 
are immigrants from elsewhere; 
we are glad for cheap labor 
and seasonal workers 
who do tomatoes and apples and oranges 
to our savoring delight.  
And beyond that, 
even while we are beset by fears 
and aware of pragmatic costs, we know very well 
that you are the God who welcomes strangers, 
who loves aliens and protects sojourners.

As always, we feel the tension 
and the slippage between the deep truth of our faith 
and the easier settlements of our society.

We do not ask for an easy way out, 
but for courage and honesty and faithfulness.  
Give us ease in the presence of those unlike us; 
give us generosity amid demands of those in need, 
help us to honor those who trespass
as you forgive our trespasses.

You are the God of all forgiveness. 
By your gracious forgiveness transpose us 
into agents of your will, 
that our habits and inclinations may more closely
follow your majestic lead, 
that our lives may joyously conform 
to your vision of a new world.  

We pray in the name of your holy Son, Jesus.

And I say – Amen.  AMEN.

Sending Prayer

It has been nearly 24 hours and I find myself still strangely moved by the Sending Prayer and Blessing at the end of yesterday’s worship service at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, here in Raleigh.  Maybe it is the fact that it was Martin Luther King’s birthday, maybe it is part of the anxiety and foreboding that I feel about the next four years that our nation faces but I cannot put it down.

Let us imagine, with God, a circle of compassion,
      No one standing outside that circle.
We move ourselves closer to the margins
      So, that the margins themselves will be erased.
We stand there with those whose dignity has been denied.
      We locate ourselves with the poor and the powerless 
      and the voiceless.

At the edges, we join the easily despised and the readily left out.

     We stand with the persecuted 
     so that the persecution will stop.
We place ourselves next to the disposable.
     So that the day will come 
     when we stop throwing people away.
And may the grace of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Bless us in this work.

Thank you God, for giving me this New Year’s resolution reformation.  Let it shape my life, so that through me the lives of others will be transformed this year and all the years of my life.