It seems to me that Advent is a unique opportunity to pay closer attention with a renewed intention, a radical one! “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” Mary Oliver Endless yes, for all times, and especially to be cultivated during Advent. Yesterday was that blessed morning after our first snowfall of the year! The sun was bright; the sky that cobalt blue! At first my gaze was wide-angled and then a snowflake called me “to pay attention”.  Perhaps I exaggerate and it was not just one but many. Nevertheless it was that contraction of the gaze which brought a new focus and insight. God’s perfection. The snowflake was exactly as it should be, bringing brightness and luminosity and shape to yesterday’s grey world.  Again, the snowflake was giving glory to God by being its unique self in a mass of selves! I am now wondering whether I can find a holy morsel each day and bless it. 

  As we enter Advent together may we be reminded of some essential truths and beliefs. Advent is a time to recommit and even rewrite our creeds. What do you believe and how do those beliefs foster and sustain hope? As we light the first candle of the wreath and pray for Hope, let us remember and hold each other in faith. Advent Credo It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss— This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life; It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction— This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly. It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever— This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wo

  And so we begin...again, as though for the first time. We at Christ Church have been blessed with the presence of Rev. Emily Blair Stribling and her husband Robert. While many now know Emily is a gifted preacher, not as many know she is a remarkable and published poet! When Emily sent me the poem below, Advent Angel, I just felt that it was also a gift, for all of us, to escort us into Advent. Advent Angel Her name is Willa. She is taller than I am. She speaks softly. She loves candles,  ones that smell like fir trees  and ones that smell like roses. Her blond hair is curly all over. She likes to wear forest green and magenta together, and brown boots she says she’s had forever. Wore them in the stable when she went to visit  the baby. It was so cold she also wore her brown-tweed coat. She says she remembers the sweet scent of hay and hide, the steady chomping of the animals gathered round that rickety manger,  as if there was nothing  special about God being born bona fide  blood an

  As we enter Advent together may we be reminded of some essential truths and beliefs. Advent is a time to recommit and even rewrite our creeds. What do you believe and how do those beliefs foster and sustain hope? As we light the first candle of the wreath and pray for Hope, let us remember and hold each other in faith. Advent Credo It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss— This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life; It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction— This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly. It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever— This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wo

  And just like that Advent begins this Sunday and we light the candle of hope. Hope. May it be present this day and everyday. BLESSING OF HOPE So may we know the hope that is not just for someday but for this day— here, now, in this moment that opens to us: hope not made of wishes but of substance, hope made of sinew and muscle and bone, hope that has breath and a beating heart, hope that will not keep quiet and be polite, hope that knows how to holler when it is called for, hope that knows how to sing when there seems little cause, hope that raises us from the dead— not someday but this day, every day, again and again and again. —Jan Richardson from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief

  I had noted the passage in my journal but seemed to move away from it as I headed out to drive the beautiful foothills of the Berkshires. “There are seasons when we hold onto our faith, and then there are seasons when our faith holds us.” Rachel Held Evans I thought mistakenly it was up to me… Suddenly I almost veered off the road when I noticed the floor of the now almost barren forest was glowing red. Faith had found me, grabbed me. Isn’t that what happened when Moses encountered the burning bush? I wonder whether taking off my shoes will sustain the hold. So I wrote this: I learned a lesson today Beyond the loss of foliage on the trees Is a gain of brilliance in the forest. The denuded arboretum Now opens to a spreading sprawling burning bush-like radiance And reveals a glory unconsumed. Take off your shoes You are witnesses to holy ground I had never paused before Assuming winter darkness had irrevocably descended Instead I had already resigned to wait for spring And resurrection

  Blessed be God who animates our lives and calls us to be Kingdom bearers of the extraordinary kingdom of love and peace and justice. AMEN We gather together this morning to celebrate the end of one liturgical year as we anticipate the beginning of another with Advent Year C. We call this Sunday’s celebration the Reign of Christ or Christ the King Sunday. It is no ordinary Reign or Kingdom and no ordinary King. It is the still point of the turning world. Amidst the gathering time of Thanksgiving when all is safely gathered in before the winter storm begins, before the Christmas swarm begins, we as Christians pause on the arc of our liturgical year. Ordinary time comes to an end, paradox and irony abound. We are somewhat consoled at this arrival or at least in this pause; yet there is an anxiety still. Language of kingship and kingdom can be disconcerting. We know more than we did about divine power as contrasted with secular human power. In this non liturgical year the physical and th

  A Prayer for Your Weekend by Ted Loder (Guerrillas for Grace) Oh God, gather me now to be with you as you are with me. Soothe my tiredness; quiet my fretfulness; curb my aimlessness; relieve my compulsiveness; let me be easy for a moment. O Lord, release me from the fears and guilts which grip me so tightly; from the expectations and opinions which I so tightly grip, that I may be open to receiving what you give, to risking something genuinely new, to learning something refreshingly different. Forgive me for claiming so much for myself that I leave no room for gratitude; for confusing exercises in self-importance with acceptance of self-worth; for complaining so much of my burdens that I become a burden; for competing against others so insidiously that I stifle celebrating them and receiving your blessing through their gifts. O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me. Amen. It is that time of year when the refrain “all is safely gathered in” becomes all important. It is not

  Helen Keller's is a favorite story “ I realized that story needs to be tended with truth, vulnerability, change, and inquiry in order to hold its integrity.” Padraig O’Tuama When I came across the quote above, something resounded in my soul. The “how” of story-telling can be as important as the “what”. Most of my life I have loved stories, especially biographical. I have loved unexpected courage and restorative justice. That passion has translated in many ways into preaching. That which shimmers for me in Scripture and the scripture of life, is often realization of identity in God, conversion from one way of being to another, dignity appreciated and honored, and kindness, always kindness. All stories tended with the kind of exquisite scrutiny O’Tuama describes radiate an underlying holiness which seems to be that which Creation intended. And there it is, the word “in-tended”. Perhaps our entire lives become more meaningful when tenderness soaks and drenches our life stories, our