Preparing room

The candlelight, the dinner, the presents, the rush of the day is done...now what? We are still in the Christmas season and now is when it really matters. A lot of congregations will spend time Sunday doing a carol sing. I always found that appeased and pleased the folks especially since I am one of those pastors who won't sing Christmas carols during Advent. Thanks goodness, the hymnals have made that task easier by adding some solid, singable tunes to the Advent reperatoire.....if you have to reach for "Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming....." you had surly congregants.....

The song "Joy to the World" includes the line, "prepare him room." And, that's the rub.

Living the faith is about preparing room, making room, adding room.

Imagine what it would mean to have policies that shared resources so that all had enough, had space, had room?

Imagine what our faith communities would become if we acutally made room for everyone and worked to inlcude everyone in the life of our faith communty? One didn't need to have a certain family pedigree, or income, or fashion, or membership, or intellect --- we just welcomed, included and involved everyone. Why the possibilities are astounding!

Imagine what would change in us if we made room to listen to another and especailly to the other who's view, perspective, reality, faith and experience is completely opposite from our own.

Because the car I currently drive is in the "pray and start" phase and because it's so wonderfully easy and efficient, I've become a frequent user of the trolley system of Pittsburgh known as the T. (Also, I just enjoy telling someone that I'm taking the trolley...it's some kind of homage to Mr. Rogers). My morning and evening commutes on the T have given me an excellent glimpse of community and the possibilities present when we actually look up from our technological devices and see each other and acknowledge a fellow being.

The T gets crowded. The closer one gets to the city, the more uncomfortably crowded the T becomes. Yet, no matter how packed, whenever a senior, or a woman with a stroller or with toddlers in tow boards, without fail, several persons will offer their seat and choose to wedge themselves in with the standing hoards so someone else who needed the room of a seat could have theirs. I confess, witnessing those small acts of kindess gets my day off to a lightened start. It's even more fun when two or three people offer seats similtaneously.

A simple practice of faith is to pay attention, notice, look up, look out, look out for.

As the year draws to a close, notice when and where and who and how folks prepare room and make room. Share those reflections.

The gift of my mother was frequently heard saying to anyone who came to her home, "Come on, in. Have a seat. Can I get you something to drink? Have you eaten? Sit down, we've got plenty of room." ....yes, we do....if only we pay attention and make the effort.

sj;

Riddle me this....

So, it's National Puzzle Week ---- happy?

My mother kept her mind sharp and nimble by doing puzzles. She did the "Jumble" in the daily paper and every day my brother would print off an AARP puzzle. Truth be told, I frequently assisted on these efforts, although she was a more than adequate solver of word puzzles, riddles and make-you-thinks.

Due to my English-major self and my whole numbers are icky view, I don't do SODOKU.

I am horrible at the hands-on "take apart this puzzle and put it back together again" things. My spatial knowledge blows. Anytime I solve one of those it is total luck.

I like a New York Times crossword every now and then --- NOTE: Earlier in the week (Monday through Wednesday) they are a lot easier.

I have grown fond of the free app "Quiz Up" and recommend it most highly. One plays against the clock and a player from anywhere in the world in answering 7 questions on the topic of one's choosing. Is fun and one may get lucky and get to play someone from Uzbekistan in Baseball....stomp city!

I like folks who think.
I like folks who can pun.
I like folks who create with words and can make me pause and ponder.

The world needs folks like this --- OK, I'm not sure being able to pun will fill a major world need, yet, in those late-night meetings determining how to make sure every child has a home (news story today about the incredibly large number of children who are homeless in the USA) a person who can ease the tension with a well-placed pun wold be an asset.

How are you exercising your mind?
With what are you filling your brain?
Do you know any good riddles?

If you know this one, I trust you to just opt out --- Riddle me this: "The man can't come home, because the man with the mask is there."

Email your answer to revsj92@gmail.com and the first correct answer wins a prize.....ooo-eeee!!!!

sj;

BOO! Were you scared???

'Tis the concluding days of the Halloween season which means children will soon be jacked-up on chocolate (even those mini-size bars pack some zip!) and most likely all those Halloween decorations will be taken down --- unless of course, you were one of the few who went with a pleasant, autumnal, corn-stalks and pumpkins theme.

As per the photo at the beginning of this post, that is not the norm in my neighborhood. Of all the ghouls and the skeletal hands reaching up through the ground, this house with it's hanging heads on the front porch and blood-stained guillotine complete with a vulture near the head-catching basket wins the award for most gruesome. I did find this house quite entertaining and actually circled the block twice to capture a photo. Decapitated heads in the doorway the exception, once again, large, menacing, movable spiders were popular this season. As one whom is not easily frightened by spiders this to me is just entertaining, however, if large, movable snake decorations every come into popularity I will not leave the house until November.

What is it about our penchant to want to be frightened? The fright business of decorations, stores and haunted houses, mazes, cornfields and caverns is a $7.4 BILLION industry in the United States!!! Is it our need to get the blood pumping and the adrenaline flowing? Is it a filler for the rush one gets from riding a roller-coaster? Is it the "comfort" of living in a society where for many of us our monsters are make-believe and distant?

As the first frost has arrived and I'm making the final purchases for the Halloween treat bags I'll give to the little goblins, ghosties and hundred Elsas whom knock at my door, I've had the urge to watch a good horror film. They are being featured prominently on the cable networks this time of year and in running through the remote I came across the movie, "Children of the Corn." It was campy and hokey and I started to watch it and then, I confess, I asked myself why do I want to watch a movie that's going to get in my head and frighten me? I clicked over to ESPN.

I've never been a fan of the fear genre. I trace it back to my sophomore year in high school when the movie "HALLOWEEN" with that knife-wielding, wouldn't die, Michael Myers was all the rage. A group of friends and I went to see it. I slept with the lights on for a week and everywhere I went kept looking over my shoulder. Therefore, I was completely floored recently when I saw a gaggle of teens each sporting t-shirts with the white-masked face of Michael Myers emblazoned on the front. Why?

As for me, I'll be filling my pre-Halloween evenings reading Washington Irving's "THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW." I'll let you know if I hear any hoof beats......

sj;