ADVENT ALPHABET a rush of letters...get ready!

 M =  MOM

I think about my mom every day, yet, even more during this season of hearth and home, warm kitchens, dinners and discussions around the large oak dining room table, worship services where we await the light together.                                                    

My mum decorated the house tastefully and beautifully covering seemingly every surface with a tree, poinsettia, bauble or ornament. Of course the featured display was the manger scene that she had for decades and placed on the mantle of the fire place, she added extra angels and green garland and made sure the light attached to the back of the manger was new and bright. She made cookies featuring the C&E kind (so special and rich and time consuming we only ever had them at Christmas (C) and Easter (E). Her wrapping of packages were worthy of a department store effort and she would ready the feast for Christmas days ahead and on dawn of the holiday wake at 5:30 in the morning to get the ham and/or turkey in the oven and begin the preparation for the side dishes and requisite fruit cup. 

My mother taught Sunday school for over 67 years (!!!) and made certain to be at every worship experience sitting as we did in the second or third pew on the left hand side of the sanctuary. Methodists are not movers we are planters.Older and more learned, I enjoyed discussions on readings and articles and was always impressed with how current she stayed and how open-minded to learn new insights.

'Tis the season for lights and gifts ---we were brightened and blessed to have received a grand one.

N = NIGHT

It's no surprise that our Advent season culminates near the Winter Solstice, which is the longest night of the year. I've always found something mysterious and appealing about the night during the season of winter. I enjoy strolling hours after sunset and the colder the better.  There is a magic to walking  in the nighttime hours when it's "see-your-breath cold" and if lucky snowfall.  

The night is needed to make the luminaries guide the way, the house lights sparkle and the candlelight break through in hope.              

O =  OLD

Though our society does everything from hair-dye to botox to keep us wading, splashing and being dipped in the elusive fountain of youth, the Christmas season is one that welcomes and celebrates the old. We are drawn to stories of Christmases past of what it was like when our grandparents were young or how the celebration occurred during the war years. We gently put the old ornaments on the tree and top it off with the star that's been in the Christmas box for decades. A season built on hope and waiting, preparation and patience is well evidenced in the wise ones of our society. Blessed be.

P = PRESENCE

We will remember this year, this season, this holiday for our lifetimes. 

It's to the point when watching a movie and the characters are at a bar or together at home or at a sporting event, I pause and sigh remembering those times.  Yes, I took them for granted. Now, I long for those times and dream about family gatherings, parties, out with friends at a bar or restaurant, game nights and Pirates games....well, to be honest, Pirates games were always safely socially distanced.

Through this time, we've learned the power of presence and the joy of being with; such a wonderful gift that God became enfleshed to experience it as well.

Q = QUILT

I was pastor to a church that had a quilting ministry.  Being one who lacks the dexterity and whose only known knots are of the "granny" variety, I was gobsmacked to watch this gathering of women work their skills on wooden frames and select the exact pattern and fabric. After watching them spend months on the quilts it was even more heartening to listen to their plans about giving them away and whom in the community could use a new quilt: the widow whose husband of 52 years passed on; the single mom; the newly married woman whose partner has been serving overseas.  

A quilt is ideal for the Advent and Christmas season because it is patiently stitched together of pieces of fabric, each with a story knitted inside and the purpose is to warm us and offer a soft snuggle on cold winter nights.

R = REINDEER                            

As mentioned earlier in this blog, I come from a family of. hunters that goes back generations. Many, many family photos feature posing with a newly "gotten" deer...turkey...pheasant.....we hunt. We celebrate the animals that were bagged.

A couple of Christmases past, my oldest nephew taught is toddler daughter to refer to Santa's famed reindeer as bucks. Lovely.  It was special when Sadie would see the famous photos of Santa and his reindeer and she'd point and proclaim, "Buck! Buck! Buck!"  

ADVENT: MESSAGE 2

ISAIAH 61.1-4, 8-11

HELP NEEDED

Of the many make-one-reflect monuments in Washington, DC my favorite is FDR's. It is sweeping in size and scope and meaning. To visit it is to walk through it. The monument conveys the moments and accomplishments of his long presidency. There is the Great Depression and included in this section are persons in a bread line. 

Several times when I've visited this monument I've seen persons, tourists, stand in the bread line either in the front, back or in with the figures. In our social media saturated world a photo is taken and posted amidst giggles and "that's a cool post!" commentary.

Every time I witnessed this it angered me. Then I pondered that maybe, unbeknownst to them, they are providing a visible teaching moment for Isaiah's prophecy, the ministry of Jesus, and the call of the church....hashtagDisciple....they are quite literally standing beside and in solidarity with the poor.

Isaiah writes of the long anticipated One who shall "bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, bring comfort to those who mourn and the One await is One who loves justice."

When's he getting here?

Being comfortably ensconced in the "Maa'm Stage of life," I have frequent opportunity to dialogue with the younger set (alas, that group grows larger every day....). I am often asked, "What's been the biggest surprise you've experienced with the church?"  I don't even pause in my answer.  For me, the biggest surprise that I've encountered with the church is that we don't really seem to like poor people. 

Oh sure we'll give old clothes to the rummage sale, bring in can goods for the food drives, write a check for Missions or purchase a toy for a poor kid at Christmas, yet, to really be with and identify with persons in poverty??!!? Nope. Haven't seen it.  We really don't want "them" in our pews or sitting on our steps smoking cigarettes or passed out drunk in our shrubbery. 

Yet, if I read the prophet closely and if I study the Gospels and if I listen to and learn of the teaching of Jesus, then it is those in poverty whom we should warmly welcome and know them by their names and listen to their stories and involve them in the life of the church. We should be friends and hang out together.

My friends could care less what people think of them.  My friends say they got their check and are running to the bakery, what can they get me? My friends are fiercely loyal to their buddies. My friends are creative and resourceful. Example: Someone gave them free tickets to the Pirates game and the seats were in the "All You Can Eat" section....they brought coolers and Tupperware containers. My friends are resilient and smack down after smack down they keep bouncing back. 

My friends convict me with their experiences and I need to be more in kinship with them. We should invite them to be part of our church community and have them serve on committees and open ourselves to be educated by their experience and changed by our kinship with them.

It may make us uncomfortable. It may upset some members. So what.  It's what we are called to do. It's do-able when we commit to do it together.

HELP NEEDED.  Have you seen the one prophesied by Isaiah? It's OK, those shoplifting food, sleeping on a friend's couch and huddled over heating vents haven't either. 

Where should we be looking for him?