Second Day of Christmas present

"God's gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit.  God's ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit.  God's varous expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is:  Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits.  All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people!  The variety is wonderful...."


from I Corinthians 12, Eugene Petersen's translation, "The Message"

Winter, and very cold,

and the night at 

its deepest.  The politicians,

as usual, double-tongued.

The town chaotic, teeming

with strangers.

And tonight, as often

in winter, in Bethlehem,

snow is falling.

I always love how each flake,

torn from the sky,

arrives separately,

without sound, almost

unnoticed in

a flurry of others. How

each one (on a clear 

night) lies there glittering

on the swelling breast

of snow, crisp

and intact, as wholly itself

as every radiant star

in a sky sparkling

with galaxies.

How many new 

babies tonight

in Judea, coming

like snowflakes?

But plucked,

dazzling, from the 

eternal heavens,

into time,

tonight is born

The One.

-Luci Shaw, Accompanied by Angels:  Poems of the Incarnation

The Kents Hill Vespers ceremony was beautiful this year, not just in the Torsey Sanctuary setting, but in the spirit.  Not one student or staff member complained about the terrible rain storm that swept us in!  I chose "snowflakes" as the focusing image this year, largely because of Jacqueline Briggs's marvelous children's book about the inventor, Snowflake Bentley, illustrated by gifted woodblock artist, Mary Azarian. 

Like people, no two snowflakes are alike.  Yet, like people, snowflakes group together, becoming more than any one can be alone.  Fatih communities and schools are both sticky clusters of unique creatures.  Like the snowflake's individual, fractally patterned arms, the gifts in each of us seek out others for mutual expression.  The variety echoes the wonder of the Creator.   

Turning with Thanksgiving toward New Birth

     One of the reasons I love Thanksgiving, a reason I suspect others share, is that it is more about the people I share it with than anything else.  Christmas has taken on an urgency that is hard to live up to-thebest presents, the perfect decorations, managing an insane celebration and work schedule.  Out of curiosity, I googled "perfect holiday table."  Notice what is missing from this typical image?

     But Thanksgiving, ah Thanksgiving, (if you can crop out the "Black Friday"-or now "Black Friday Week" clamor) is the day set aside to just be with each other, people, around a life-celebrating table.  Thanksgiving is even free from religious competition about whose holiday it is or how it ought to be celebrated.
     Yesterday while strolling through the facebook neighborhood, one of my firends pointed toward a pre-Thanksgiving sharing by the editor of textweek.com.  Textweek.com is a feast in itself, putting on the table resources for understanding bible passages:  visual, musical, cinematic, popular and scholarly.  Here's some bits from Janee's story.  While many of us are dreaming of Christmas traditions, anticipating the creation of joyful memories, Janee's family, with an autistic son, walked the holiday as though it were a minefield.  She writes:

 Our family learned to slow down at Christmas a number of years ago when he was unable to tolerate *any* of the celebration. He could not handle the changing scenarios - the twinkling lights, the changes in grocery store displays, the changes in the sanctuary at church, presents appearing under the tree, the tree ITSELF, and the moved furniture. He would fall on the floor and scream, unable to move, afraid to open his eyes, almost constantly from Thanksgiving until well after Christmas when it was all over. We carried him through that time his head covered with his coat so we could get through the grocery store, or sat with him huddled in his room, carefully ordered EXACTLY the same since summer, with no Christmas trappings.
     Even gifts appearing under the tree, and even worse, being unwrapped, changing, moving, was a traumatic process for Phil
...  We'd try to find him a present he'd enjoy, but he'd merely scream and cry in panic at the intrusion on his carefully ordered world, and the gifts would sit ignored until he outgrew them and we gave them to some little boy who could appreciate them.
He wanted nothing. 
     [Then one year] right around Thanksgiving, we once more asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas. ... And our 10-year old son, for the first time in his life, answered the question. "PlayStation 2," he said. "I want PlayStation 2 Christmas." We just about fell over. His sister gave him a piece of paper. She wrote "Phil's Christmas List" at the top. He wrote, "PLAYSTATION TOW" under her heading. "At Sam's," he said. "Go to car."
     So, we drove to Sam's. He has never looked at anything there, never seemed to notice that Sam's has anything he might want. But he led us right to the PlayStation 2 sets, picked out the bundle he wanted and put it in the cart. "Open at Christmas," he said. He watched gleefully as we wrapped the package, and then he solemnly placed it under the tree. So, a PlayStation 2 game set sits there, wrapped, with his name on it, and he waits to open it. "December 25," he says. "Open PlayStation 2 December 25."
[A few days later, returning from] yet another Christmas rehearsal with our daughter, Phil found a Best Buy ad in the paper and turned immediately to the PlayStation games. He circled "Harry Potter" and "John Madden Football", handed the ad to Bob, and said, "I want Christmas." There were tears in my eyes. It's such a small thing, but such a truly amazing thing. It's one more bit of hope that he will be able to function in some semblance of society as an adult one day - that he might be able to live just a BIT more independently, and one day want the things he needs to survive enough to work for them..... 
     This Advent season I am grateful for being able to appreciate what complexity and miracle is involved in such small "selfish" acts as wanting something for Christmas and expressing those wants to another person. I'm grateful that my son is able to enjoy some of the commercial cultural trappings of the holiday this year instead of running from them screaming. I'm grateful for the many ways Phil helps me stop and look again, even at my most "Christian" conclusions. And I'm especially grateful that my son helps me see Christ's humble birth, over and over again, even in the midst of nightmares and worries I could not have imagined 10 years ago, even in the midst of Advent. -Jenee Woodard
     Signs of hope come in such odd packages, don't they?  As our Thanksgiving turns toward the celebration of new birth, may we become more aware of the everyday pleasures we take for granted, as well as how overwhelming the holiday season can be.  What miracle will you witness that points toward the "reason for the season?"  How might it change your life, for a day or forever?  And how will you share that good news?

Thanksgiving Leaks

Yesterday, on the way to choir, I kidded that our neighbors' lawn is leaking.  Just a few days a go it was a blaze of golden glory that filled our front windows with light.  Now the wind has blown crinkly dry leaves over to our side of the street.  Every passing truck wooshes up a whirl of musky clutter.

The media is yammering about a couple of other leaks.  Christmas is leaking, and not just into fall, but into summer.  If Christmas spending really is what's going to save our economy, I guess the attention is due.  But is doesn't seem like a particularly inspiring economic model.  Of course the other leak makes it hard to pay attention to inspiration anyway.  All kinds of stores will be open on Thnksgiving this year so that shopppers can get some extra hours in.

What is work?  I don't mind the neighbors leaves.  Raking them is good energy and they'll tuck in my garden.  But if day after day, year after year, every extra minute had to go to dealing with the deluge of another's dead foliage, my energy for the work would wane.

Shopping can be a pleasurable survey of what another has to offer.  Or it can become a deadly demand to keep an economic engine running, an endless chase to fill a wish list, something you have to do on your day off.  Never mind that it can be done in the comfort of your own home, on-line with convenient pick up or free shipping.  What does it keep you from doing?  Does your recreation drain your resources or renew them?

Pick-up football, a walk with someone you rarely have enough time with, parchessi, picking the turkey bones for soup, bulding the tallest lego tower ever with a little person,   Resting, Renewing, Re-creating.

Thanksgiving really is an investment.  Please invest wisely. The next day each of us will be leaking, dollars and sense, or overflowing gratitude.

3 good things about Paul LaPage

When I was in college, one New Year Resolution took root and made a real difference in my soul.  For every negative thing I thought about someone, I would think of three good things.  It didn't convert many of my opinions, but it improved the context of my opinions immeasurably.

I am frankly disapointed by today's news that Paul LaPage will be Maine's next govenor.  So in the interest of refreshing that earlier practice, here are three good things about Paul LaPage, a creature who God created:

1.  He will be Maine's first franco-american govenor.  This is long overdue and a healing of community wounds.  The Holocust and Human Rights Museum of Maine has sponsored a great series this fall about the impact of prejudice in Maine's franco-american and catholic communities.  (If you ever get a chance to hear Prof. Alan Whitmore of USM speak-run right over!)

2.  We will never have to wonder what he thinks about anything.  He says what he means and he means what he says.

3.  He was elected in a free and fair election, by the will of the people of Maine.  His election re-invests members of the community who have felt disempowered.  This broadens our body politic.  No blows were exchanged, we have the resoures to meet the basic needs of all, and we each have the personal power and freedom to make a difference.

Now about the casino vote, that's not a person, so I have no good things to say......

Our heros

This week on facebook I asked my friends who their heros are. Many are family members who have modeled what real strength is. I met one of my heros not too long after moving in 2000. I don't know his name. It was during a public forum sharing information and resources after a devastating episdode of pedophilia was revealed. (I met my friend Bud when we were both on the panel.) When the question and comment time came, a young man, in his early thirties, stood up and faced the theatre. None of us knew him. He had driven some ways to stand and give the parents, teachers, and community members there a message to share with the teens. He said, "I'm all right now." He had been one of this man's first victims. And after years of healing and with the help of loving family, he was all right. He had survived, and thrived, not by ignoring the pain, but by overcoming it. Life was good. It had been bad. But it didn't stay that way. It was the first time he'd spoken in public and was bravest thing I had ever seen anyone do. It made him even stronger
Many of us know someone who needs to hear that message. You can survive. You can thrive. There are many reasons. This video is the sharing of another brave soul. Please remember to pray with thanks for those who stand up in the face of the awful and witness to what is possible.

Americans love underdogs! Underdogs aren't willing to settle for the reality confronting them. Today in worship we read about one of Jesus' underdog stories, the persistant widow and the reluctant judge. Holy unhappiness!

Hero of the Day

I've been watching for heroes, every day and extra-ordinary (wonder what the difference is, really).  Who's yours today?  Add them to the comments and maybe we'll name enough to have a hero of the day all the way through the sermon series that starts tomorrow.
     The Kennebec Journal, our local newspaper, ran one of those thought-provoking juxstapositions of articles last Monday.  Both articles were rare glimpses of hero making in progress.

Kim Jong Un was the first article's subject.  His dad has named him to be the next leader of North Korea's dynastic government.  In order to actually reach that status, though, he has to distinguish himself as a hero.  A massive publicity campaign is marketing him amid firework spectacles, patriotic music, dancers, and military parades.  "Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that the parade included three never-before-shown types of missiles and launching devices."  (AP article 10-11-10)  Kim Jong Un even has a new, heroic nickname, "Young General." Every hero needs an evil adversary it seems, and his is the U.S. the "People's Army's enemy."  By rallying the troups, military and popular behind him, North Korea's leader in the making, the newest four star general, begins chapter three of the family legend that is North Korea's governing myth.  Soon we should be hearing divinity stories like those that legitimized his father and grandfather's power.

On the other side of the world, recorded in the KJ article directly below, 33 Chilean miners were arguing about who would be the last to rise to the surface after two months in their underground prison.  It ended up being foreman Luis Arzua. The miners prepared for their big debut on the world stage quite differently than Mr. Kim seems to have.   The 34th member of their captive community helped, "God has never left us down here."  Some came to know God in new ways, others made commitments to hard changes in their lives, all contracted to equally share any profits from their story.

There is authenticity in acting heroically rather than trying to become a hero. It makes me think about how often Christianity turns into a hero making machine rather than a heroically inclined, even underground, community.