Month: December 2013

Veni, Veni

 

Swarming sailors on the billowing wind,

Shadowed, sooty moon of smoky autumn.

The linden tree has shed its leaves.

Now Belgian lace of branch is stretched against a somber sky.

Lake and sky blend seamlessly

as the world winds down into the monochrome season.

Drowsy, we drift in dreadful dreams of doom and death.

Meanwhile, on the dark side of the moon several continents away,

three wise men bearing the wearying weight of worldly crowns

slog through desert sands,

faithfully following a star

to what strange, distant destination?

A manger suffused with reflected radiance from an infant King of Kings,

The joyful end to all earth’s wanderings.

 

 

Sylvia Bargiel

According to Matthew:

“I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was hungry and you gave me food, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.  Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me. You are righteous and will enter into eternal life.”

I gave money to a homeless man, I gave clothing to the shelter, I gave food to the food bank, I visited someone in jail, I cared for a relative who was sick, and does that make me righteous?  Do these deeds guarantee me a ticket to heaven?  I think not.  Although it may help, it’s like chicken soup when you’re sick, it can’t hurt.  I think to be righteous you not only have to give these things, but give of yourself as well.

Kindness, generosity, love, patience, understanding, comfort, is just some of the things you can give others.  Will this make you righteous?  I don’t know, maybe you should just have a bowl of soup.  Anyway I guess the moral of this story is, don’t be afraid to give of yourself, give you time, talents, and treasure.

Granddaddy always said…  “Don’t give till it hurts, give till it feels good.”

 

Larry McNamara

 

Restore us, O God of hosts* Show us the light of your countenance and we shall be saved.                       Psalm 80:3b, 7b, 18b

 

You may have heard that darkness is “no-thing.” It has no substance in and of itself, but rather is simply the lack of light We are now in the darkest time of year – the winter solstice – when the sun is at the lowest angle as we experience the shortest days of the year. It can be a dark and gloomy time. But that is not the end of the story. Just as we know that the days will begin to lengthen, we also know that times of trial and sorrow will give way to the light of God. Just as we await the coming of  Spring, never doubting its eventual appearance, may we also expect the coming of God’s reign in the birth of an infant who brings us the light of God. If we stay open to this light, we can be instruments of this holy light. May we allow the light of God shining in and through us to banish the darkness around us. Three times in the appointed portions of Psalm 80, the psalmist cries out, “show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.” Let the light of the new born babe shine through every dark spot in our lives.

 

 

Roger Wood

 

 

Over the last 2 months we Gracelings have been busy in our community, and as we end Advent and celebrate our Christ’s birth and the coming of the Kingdom of God, it’s a good time to take stock.

We cosponsored 2 food-truck giveaways, the first with Faith Christian Community Church at the end of October, the second just before Thanksgiving at Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church. A total of 490 people were served, who picked up food for 1600 members of their households. The second truck was served by 22 of us from Grace, almost 15% of our active worshipping membership. This was the second- largest volunteer event we had this year, after our involvement in the Blue Water Half Marathon.

We also hosted the Thanksgiving dinner at Pathway homeless shelter. 16 Shelter residents who had nowhere else to go had a complete turkey dinner served by 7 of us from Grace. We provided an extra table and chairs so that everyone could eat at once.

Grace parishioners donated warm clothes and toiletries for an Episcopal mission to Native Americans in South Dakota. We sent a dozen boxes to them.

We also completed our annual “Angel” project with families of kids at Woodrow Wilson School as well as clients of the Council on Aging. All the kids were adopted by our members in record time! We provided a toy and clothing for each of 44 children. Sixteen Wilson families received food parcels, including a ham; 19 seniors also received food and gifts.
We bought sheets and blankets for Pathway, donated knit caps made by seniors, and one of our congregants arranged for a local floor-covering firm to donate new carpet to them. In time for Christmas we’ll be providing pajamas to the 6 children now living in the homeless shelter.

After a fire destroyed the River District supermarket in the south end of town, a lot of people who had walked there to shop were left needing to use public transport to go elsewhere. In order to help some of these people, we purchased a few hundred bus tickets and sent them to the pastors at some of their local churches for distribution. These were Pastor Anthony at Metropolitan Missionary Baptist, Rev. Miller at Restoration Christian Community Church, Pastor Kevin at Christ Centered Community Church, and Elder Thornton at Shiloh Baptist.

We have developed a good working partnership with Blue Water Safe Horizons, parent organization to Pathway. Rather than simply contribute to their general budget, and beyond the other things we do with Pathway, we’ve told them that they can call to refer particular clients to us when we might be nimble enough to offer help in a hurry. So we received a call from a staffer at Carolyn’s Place, the domestic violence shelter, telling us they had a client ready to go into an apartment that their Supportive Housing agency had arranged, but the client had put all her belongings in a storage unit when she fled to the shelter – and couldn’t afford the payment to retrieve them. The contents were to be auctioned in less than a week! BWSH asked if we could help with half the cost, as time pressed. This is exactly the kind of client-specific donation we want! While Carolyn’s Place also initially wanted help moving the furniture from storage into the apartment, and this sort of direct work with clients is what we like, I secretly rejoiced that they found enough people from BWSH staff to handle her two couches, etc., without needing us. I’d rather help move feather-dusters or pillows.

A novena, from the Latin word for nine, is a series of meditations repeated on nine successive days.  The medieval novena before Christmas was a series of antiphons (short anthems), called the “Great” or “O Antiphons.” These were sung on December 17 – 23, with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day being the last two of the nine days.  In late medieval times the novena started on December 16, and left out December 21, the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle.  At the Council of Trent in the middle of the sixteenth century the Catholic Church reverted to using the antiphons continuously from December 17-23, but the Anglican Church has continued to omit St. Thomas’ Day.  The antiphons all begin with “O:”  “O Wisdom,” “O Lord,” “O Root of Jesse,” “O Key of David,” “O Dayspring,” “O King of the Nations,” and “O Emmanuel.”  Each of the antiphons forms a verse of the hymn, “O come, O come, Emmanuel,” No. 56 in the Hymnal.  According to Catholic usage, December 21’s antiphon is “O Key of David.”  Christopher Smert, who was the Rector of Plymtree and a Vicar-Choral of Exeter Cathedral in 1480, wrote this hymn as a meditation on the antiphon:

 O David, thou noble Key, scepter of the house of Israel,
Throw open the gate and give us way,
Throw open the gate and give us way,
And save us from our [of]fences foul.

 We be in prison; in us have mind, 
And lose us from the bond of sin,
For that thou loosest no man may bind,
For that thou loosest no man may bind,
And that thou loosest no man may bind.

Lord, bow thine ear; to thee we call;
Deliver thou us from wickedness,
And bring us to thy joyful hall,
And bring us to thy joyful hall
Where ever is life without distress.

The original, with its tune, is in a manuscript in the British Library.  The text makes a nice little poem to meditate on for this day of the Christmas novena.

 

John Speller

As I look back at my childhood, I realize just how well my mom kept Christmas.  She always hosted the family Christmas party (for both sides of the family).  It was a well-prepared event, with great cooking, and we had a great time every year.

But what I remember most is the “jackpot” excitement I felt as a child on Christmas mornings.  Mom always had for us an abundance of well-wrapped presents under the tree.  She was careful to make sure we all received the same amount.  She shopped early so that we always got what we wanted.  She stuffed the stockings, and she got us more then we deserved.

As I got a little older (and learned that Mom and Santa were kindred spirits) I began to engage in a behavior that shames me to this day; I snooped around before Christmas and found where Mom hid the presents.  Then, I even went so far as to show them off to my friends—friends who either didn’t get as much, or didn’t even celebrate Christmas.   I was boastful and impatient.  I was vain and greedy.

Advent is about waiting.  It’s about waiting for the birth of Jesus.  Waiting for the Christ child to be born, the baby who will carry our sins—my sins—away:

“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.”

I no longer snoop for presents, I’ve learned to wait.  And at 77, Mom continues to host the family Christmas dinners.  She keeps Christmas well, and now, finally, so do I.

Thomas Manney

 

“I heard a preacher say recently that hope is a revolutionary patience… Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.”

(Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird)

Rome was not torn down in a day. The Kingdom of God will not come to be all at once. We must call it forth, on earth as it is in heaven, a little at a time. We need hope, and patience. Remember that blessed one who comes in the name of the Lord, that voice calling in the wilderness to make straight the Lord’s paths? This time, it will have to be us, you and me. Don’t give up! With God’s help, the dawn will come.

Bob Lotz

Deer Hunting is a time of waiting. All hunters wait in great anticipation for opening day. To the avid deer hunter the season begins as soon as the first sign of the turning of the leaves, the first frost and the great V in the sky of geese heading south for the winter.  We head for the woods to scout out old hunting grounds and search for new ones.  We build new blinds which we hunt from or refurbish our old ones. Laying out our hunting clothes and checking our ammo and guns.  All in the process of opening day. A time of patience and attention.   We wait and we hope.

Advent is a time of waiting, patience and attention.  We also have a waiting time in our spiritual lives.  We wait for the new life of Christ to come to us.  With the help of the Holy Spirit we open ourselves to the nourishment of grace.  We wait and we hope.  We long for a more Christ- like life, and a better understanding and relationship with God and others.  We wait and we hope. With prayers, the sacraments and good works will make our waiting fruitful.

Just what are we waiting for?  The reason for the season?  Is it Jesus?  Is it the hustle and bustle of the annual holiday season?  Its easy to get all wrapped up in the most wonderful of time of the year.  Advent marks the beginning of our church year.  Anticipating the new birth of our Savior but also a new life within ourselves.  Advent is a time to reflect on our present day life and listen to any call God might be sending us.  A change in our daily lives.  Perhaps to walk more closely with God.  To deepen our relationship with Him and with those around us.

The Gospel of Mark (13: 33-37) teaches us always to be ready and to be on watch for Jesus return.  Advent is a time for us to reflect on our own state of affairs.  Are we truly ready?  Are we really prepared?  If Jesus came back today would you be ready?

David Muehlmann

WAITING, EXPECTING

Nine months.  It seems like such a long, long time.  As a mother, it was such an exciting time, and a little scary, especially the first time.  But always the joy and wonder at what was growing inside me.  As a grandmother, more concern during the long wait,and more worry at the end as I was just an observer not making the decisions.  Mary had those same nine months of waiting and expectation.  What a strange and different wait hers was.  No one had ever had the experience she had had.  No other woman could comfort her with their stories of a similar pregnancy.  What a brave step out in faith she made by saying “let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).  Her joy and wonder were very different and unique from that of any other woman.  Waiting, expecting, fearing, longing, anticipating, thrilling.  We know how the story ends, but Mary certainly didn’t.  I wonder what I would say if visited by an angel?

 

Mary Gale McPharlin

 

In keeping with the preparatory nature of Advent, the readings for yesterday, (Sunday 15 Dec) and today present an instructive illustration of the necessary steps.

Yesterday’s readings give an encouraging and uplifting description of the gifts and goodness of God. Today’s readings show the other side of the coin, in that they describe the necessary steps to earn these gifts..

Psalm 44 vv 1-8 detail the gifts that God has given in the past, (“…for not by their own sword did they win the land”), but vv 9-26 describe the more recent misfortunes that God has sent their way, (“You have made us like sheep for slaughter, and have scattered us among the nations”) ending with an astonishing few verses requesting, (almost demanding) favorable assistance (“Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.

Revelation 3:7-13 softens this message somewhat in that it gives a sharp warning to those who are out of line, (“…those of the synagogue of Satan…I will make them come and bow down before your feet), but reassurance to the faithful (“…hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown”).

Matthew 24:15-31 emphasizes the two sides of the coin. Vv 15-29 describe the fate of the unfaithful in graphic terms (“For at that time there will be great suffering”), but ends (VV 30-31) with a dramatic and astonishingly prescient assurance that Jesus will come in glory to save the faithful. (“…they will gather his elect from the four winds).

The balance of these two aspects of God’s nature can help us to obtain the desired “right relationship with God”

  John Hickman