Christmas Day

Our readings for Christmas Day are:

1. Isaiah 52: 7-10
2. Psalms 98: 1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6
3. Hebrews 1: 1-6
4. John 1: 1-18

• What Good News do you bring?
• If we are going to bring people to Jesus, we have to have something that they want.  The Prosperity Gospel suggests that God is here to fulfill our needs.  Not responsible Christianity.  But what do we offer that's even better?
• From your own life story, what promises would you make to anyone thinking about giving their lives to Jesus?
• How does your life announce the Good News?

• The grand stage of history
• God's goodness and love are in the little things, and the big things.  This very moment and the long sweep of history.
• Where have you seen God's work in your life, your family's, your community's, your nation?
• How do those actions of God shape your view of your existence today?
• Where do you fit into that bigger picture?

• Imago Dei
• We all bear the image and likeness of God.  I hope that doesn't mean that He's losing His hair too.
• Can you think of any ways that you share in the Shekhinah glory of God?
• What prepared you for that experience?
• What can you do to be more prepared the next time that God chooses to visit you?

• How much revelation is enough?
• We are all called to be prophetic, to herald the approach of God, who comes in large ways and small.  How much revelation do you think the world needs?
• How have others shown you the glory of God?
• Was that attractive, or frightening?
• If one of us doesn't do their job revealing God to those around them, do you think that God will find someone else?
• Is that a good thing?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. How is my life Good News to those around me?
2. How am I being the ongoing incarnation of God?
3. How can I show the glory of God more in my life?
4. What am I inspiring in others?

I Can't Seem to Find my Harp

For some reason, popular imagination puts a harp into the hands of the angels.
I'm hoping that there is a corner of heaven where the angels play the bagpipes.

Bagpipes need a lot of room.  They don't fit well into a studio.
The only time I ever heard someone practicing on the pipes was outdoors.

The pipes are not pretty, nor polite, but urgent, calling you forward.
Over the brow of that next hill to see what awaits you.

The best part of heaven is that everyone there will praise God in their own way.
The way that they were created to praise Him.

No more will we try to praise God in ways that do not suit our character,
No more will we waste time and talent trying to find our true voice.

No more will we punish ourselves with uncertainty or false modesty,
But in humble ardor belt out narratives of God's glory in our own life story.

My hope is that heaven won't be a surprise, a shock to me.
That I will have found my true voice long before then.

That I will have found the way that God is coming to Earth in my flesh,
That I will know in my bones and sinews that resurrection is real and throbbing within.

Merry Christmas!

4th Sunday in Advent

Our readings for the 4th Sunday in Advent are:

1. Isaiah 7: 10-14
2. Psalms 24: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6
3. Romans 1: 1-7
4. Matthew 1: 18-24

• What would make you happy?
• Ignatian spirituality encourages us to get in touch with our deepest desires.  One of the deepest desires that many of us harbor is to know that someone else cares what happens to us, and cares enough to take action on our behalf.  We want to believe in someone.
• What makes you believe in God?  Is it just that you cannot imagine not believing in Him, is it because God has proved Himself faithful, compassionate, honest to you enough times that you trust Him, is it a bio that you read of him lately ...?
• If God really wanted you to trust Him, what would He have to do to prove Himself?
• Would it be wrong to take that up with Him in prayer?

• Seeking what we cannot see
• Many from my parent's generation cherish memories of growing up in a supportive culture that fostered righteous living, where faith was part of the fabric of the community's life.  Much has changed.
• What good would come of creating a community, a neighborhood, a family where decisions were made in love, where compassion guided actions, where words were always meant to heal and where children could grow into adulthood firm in the sure knowledge that they are cherished and important?
• Where would you start to build such a community?
• Would that journey be a transformation of where you live now, or would you have to start over somewhere new?
• What are the odds of making that happen?
• Is it worth a shot?

• Looking forward
• The Gospel writers tell us over and over that Jesus' coming has been promised.
• God could have sent His son as a complete surprise, without the prophetic utterances down through the centuries.  Why do you think that He told us Jesus was coming?
• What good can come of waiting for God to come in our lives?
• What can we do to prepare better?
• What does it really mean to be ready for God?

• Discernment 101
• Joseph got through all of that without a spiritual director, but it was a near thing.  You have to wonder how accustomed he was to getting God's word in dreams.
• When you have tough decisions, where the consequences are large, do you have a process that you go through, or do you just "wing it"?
• Where does prayer factor into that process?
• Joseph sounds as though he had made up his mind, yet he took a different path?  What does that tell you about his character?
• Would you be as willing to change your mind on something so important?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I honest with God about my desires, my fears, my failings?
2. How am I renewing those closest to me?
3. What am I waiting for from God?
4. Am I willing to change my mind with God's guidance?

It's for you

Separating the sacred from the day to day seems like a worthy goal.

Keeping each to its corner of our lives helps keep the sacred pure.

But maybe there's another way to look at it.

Cell phones at church remind us all that we are there to worship

And yet, the rest of our lives are only barely held at bay

Demands on our time, our attention, our hearts lie in wait at the door.

The prayer of the faithful gives us a place to put all of that

On the alter, along with everyone else's "all of that"

And find connection with one another in each other's need.

Those needs are offered, accepted, transformed, and returned anew

An exchange of gifts between us, through us, with God

That we might learn compassion, and compassion lead to a helping hand.

So the next time I hear someone's cell phone go off during Eucharist,

I'll try to remember that we all are bound together in a fabric of need.

Need that Christ is looking to transform and then meet, maybe even in me.

Merry Advent!

3rd Sunday of Advent

Our readings for the 3rd Sunday in Advent are:

1. Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10
2. Psalms 146: 6-7, 8-9, 9-10
3. James 5: 7-10
4. Matthew 11: 2-12

• The only thing that we have to fear is fear itself
• I wasn't born until well after the Great Depression, but I try to imagine myself, huddled against the cold of another winter with hardly enough money to keep boiled cabbage on the table, listening to President Roosevelt on the radio in the evening, and feeling deep down that I, my family, our community was not alone in this, that we were far from abandoned, that poverty and uncertainty were not all that life held for us.
• What do you fear most?  For me, I fear not aging gracefully.  I'm not likely to try to clutch at silly artifacts of years gone by.  I'm afraid that, as I shed one thing after another, I'll be slow to realize I really don't control nearly as much about my life as I think.
• Do you ever talk to God, or anyone else about those fears?
• What might you say to someone else who has your fears? 

• Howdy stranger
• The stranger lives a rough life.  No one can vouch for them, no one knows whether we can trust the stranger in our midst, and frankly, we're inclined to assume the worst until events prove us wrong.
• Have you ever been in a circumstance where you were a stranger to everyone there?
• How did you get over/past that feeling?
• How was God present to you in that process?
• How can you be God's presence to others going through that process?

• Pray like a farmer
• Farming, like no other human endeavor, reminds us that we are not in control.  All it takes is unseasonable weather, a blight, a tornado, and that year's crop is done.  At some point, no matter how hard a farmer works, they have to rely on God for the rest.
• Who are some of the folks that you rely on to help you in the really important tasks in your life?
• How do you thank them for all of the support that they give you?
• How do you know that you can count on them?
• How do they know that they can count on you?

• By their fruits you will know them
• All of us are called to be healers.  Maybe not anything splashy, but those who reconcile none the less.
• Can you think of a time when someone else was a healing presence in your life?
• Where are you "good news" to others?
• Is there anyone in your life who could benefit from more of that "good news" that God offers through you?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. When will I be willing to part with my fears?
2. How am I hospitable to others who are not like me?
3. Where do I need to give up being in control?
4. What fruit am I nourishing in my life?

Merry Advent!

2nd Sunday in Advent

Our readings for the 2nd Sunday in Advent are:

1. Isaiah 11: 1-10
2. Psalms 72: 1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
3. Romans 15: 4-9
4. Matthew 3: 1-12

• The price of change
• Very few of us like change for its own sake.  Most of us feel deep down that if some institution, some tradition, some effort is really worthwhile, it will continue, and thus prove its value.
• God seems to delight in taking a small piece of something, a remnant, and building something wonderful with that.  Think of Adam's rib, Noah's family, the small force that Gideon marched on Midian, the stump of Jesse from which Jesus sprang.
• Why do you think God doesn't just chuck the whole thing and start over? 

• What does "flourishing" look like?
• We all know what a flourishing plant looks like: abundant new growth, blossoms in the spring, fruit in the fall.  But what of justice?  What does flourishing justice look like?
• In your life, where do you see greater justice?  Perhaps more generous maternal/paternal leave programs at your office, perhaps job-retraining programs instead of layoffs, perhaps concerned citizens buying locally to support the local economy, perhaps immigration reform, maybe better attention to Title IX provisions, ...
• Do those improvements add up to a better life for just those in need, the marginalized, or do the rest of us benefit from them as well?
• What really separates each of us from the needy, the voiceless?
• Could that ever change?
• Should it?

• Mercy all around us
• How would you define mercy?
• When has God ever shown you mercy?
• How did that mercy change you?
• Are you more merciful now than you used to be?

• Good fruit is hard to find
• The fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control Galatians 5: 22-23).
• Who are some people in your life who show one or more of those fruits in abundance?
• How did they get there?
• Why don't you ask them?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What is God building me into?
2. What am I willing to do to bring peace?
3. How am I growing in mercy?
4. What fruit am I nourishing in my life?

Back from the Desert

It had been a long, hard ride out to the desert
Sand eventually getting everywhere in my robs
Grinding into tender skin as a reminder
That our forefathers worked hard to get here
To the land flowing with milk and honey.

He looked me straight in the eye
When he sent my head under the water
And baptized me into readiness
For some coming Messiah.
I came up changed, freed, renewed.

And now, now I need to get home.
And somehow tell my wife what happened,
And find out how real this really is
This conversion that I've experienced,
This newness that I feel.

Because, if I cannot get her to understand,
Then no one will understand,
And if no one understands, I have to wonder,
Whether anything really happened at all?
Or if it was a wasted trip.

How then shall I live now?
Abandon everything and wait for Messiah?
Start praying daily to get closer to God?
Give more at the Temple?
Or try to pretend that nothing really happened?

But something did happen, I know it,
And I just need to give it a name so that I can call it
When I feel down, uncertain, lost
With no clear direction anymore,
No, clear guiding light in this life.

Something, someone, some cosmos
Reached into me and touched me
And I was one with everything
For just a moment.  I laughed and cried,
I suffered with the oppressed through the centuries,

And I knew that there was so much of life
That goes unappreciated because its not comfortable
And now I want to ponder it all, before, during, and after
Until I find the peace of the desert
In my right here and now

In my life.

Merry Advent!

1st Sunday in Advent

Our readings for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Isaiah 2: 1-5
2. Psalms 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
3. Romans 13: 11-14
4. Matthew 24: 37-44

• Hospitality ministry
• Think of the various ministries that you are a part of.
• What is that community doing to draw more people in?
• How comfortable are all of you with the folks that you have right now?
• What criteria does someone have to meet before they can join that ministry?
• Who came up with those rules anyway?

• Peace in our time
• Those of you old enough to remember the 2nd world war, followed by one war after another ever since probably wonder what our chances are at ever achieving real peace.
• What does it take to achieve true peace?
• Where does that start?
• What is the relationship between peace and justice?
• What can you do to start building peace?

• At the gates
• It's easy to slip into a mindset that sees the world that we are in as threatening, menacing, and throw up defenses against the perceived threats.
• What are some of the threats that you see to yourself, your children, your community, our nation?
• Do you think that there are "the wrong kind of people" that might be trying to get into our churches, our schools, even our families?
• If Jesus ate with tax collectors and notorious sinners, how would He deal with those undesirable folks?

• Getting away from it all
• The examples that Jesus gives are all ordinary people, doing ordinary things.  Nothing about the one who is taken distinguishes them from the one left behind in these little vignettes.
• Jesus's words about the end times certainly paint a grim picture for humanity during those days.  What makes you sure that you will be spared the worst of those end times?
• What do you think it means to be "awake" and "watchful"?
• Do you think that we can/should be maintaining that level of vigilance on our own, or do we need others?
• What can we do to help each other be ready for whatever/whenever?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I humble enough to welcome new people into my community?
2. What am I willing to do to build peace?
3. Where can I be more hospitable?
4. What can I do to be more ready for tomorrow, next week, ...?

Arrival

The dust of past horizons cannot be found in our clothing,
The soil of other continents no longer clings to our boots.

But those experiences, those loves, the disappointments
All make us who we are, form the foundation of who we are becoming.

They are really all that we have to offer on the altar,
The only gift that we truly bear.

Not our wealth, or network of friends, or even knowledge.
All we have is all we are, broken, injured even, often afraid.

Nativity is not about taking and giving.
Nativity, arrival, our arrival to this universe bursting with potential

Is all about transformation, even a transubstantiation
Of those dark shadows into gifts to share with others

As they learn how to go through their own transformations
And we together shine the love of Christ

Bright enough to reach anyone who's looking
Bright enough to lead them to a vulnerable, helpless infant

The dawning of Christ within our hearts.

Merry Advent!

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Malachi 3: 19-20a
2. Psalms 98: 5-6, 7-8, 9
3. 2 Thessalonians 3: 7-12
4. Luke 21: 5-19

• Doing good is its own reward
• All of us like to see the good guy win in the end.  In fact, one model of a dramatic story arc consists of the good guy finally realizing who they are, emerging into a dangerous situation that calls for the very best from them, early setbacks while they come to terms with the demands that their destiny makes of them, followed by a final triumph of virtue over vice, good over evil, courage over fear.
• What do you think of when you think of leading a victorious life?
• Is that victory something that you are contributing to now, or something that you plan to get started on when you have the time?
• Who are some folks in your life who were victorious in their own way?
• How do you define victory?

• Praise is natural
• David Whyte has a poem that I invite you to read at: https://onbeing.org/poetry/everything-is-waiting-for-you/ that invites us to be alert to our place in the cosmos, and the place of the cosmos in each of us.
• St. Ignatius wrote in his Spiritual Exercises a brief paragraph called the Principle and First Foundation.  You can read about that here: https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/what-the-principle-and-foundation-calls-us-to/.  There, Ignatius reminds us that all of creation exists to help us draw towards God.
• If then, all of physicality cooperates with our journey toward God, how ought we to regard those things that we posses?
• What about the people in our lives?
• How can we do better at a "balanced" attitude toward this world that we find ourselves in?
• How can we come to better appreciate the beauty that is all around us, sustains us, and inhabits us?

• Earning your keep
• Earning a living is more than merely an obligatory grind that we go through to put food on the table and a roof over our heads.  It is a doorway into the emergence of creation, an opportunity to join our hand with God's as creation continues to grow and evolve.
• How did you decide on the career/retirement that you have currently?
• Did you expect for it to be fulfilling?
• If it is not fulfilling, is that bad?
• For whom?

• Missing the forest for the trees
• It's so easy to lose sight of the why of things and get caught up in the what.  The Jews of Jesus' day found their national and historical identity in the temple of Jerusalem, but by the time that Luke wrote his Gospel, all of that had been reduced to rubble, and both the Christians and the Jews were trying to find the meaning of it all.
• What are some things that are truly essential to your life?
• What would happen if one or more of those suddenly disappeared for some reason?
• If that happened, would you still be able to say that God is good?
• Why?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What am I willing to give to achieve victory in my life?
2. Are the things in my life helping me to live more prayerfully?
3. How is my work bringing God's kingdom to earth?
4. What do I need to let go of in my life?

Beauty

The ceramic vase occupied a place of honor on the mantel.

Fresh flowers always on display bursting from its throat.

It was a bargain, a find, a steal even from long ago

Passed from mother to daughter for generations.

That vase had witnessed many family gatherings,

Wakes, and baptisms, weddings and funerals, and much much love.

Whenever the family members saw that vase, 

It put them in touch with who they were, who they were becoming.

It seemed to say, in its own mute way "times come and they go,

But love and what nurtures love will last forever."

One night, a fire broke out in the house, and they all had to leave.

Everyone made it to safety with hardly the clothes on their backs.

And someone remembered the family vase, there in the home's funeral pyre.

And no one had the heart to tell grandma that no one had thought to get it.

When they finally had the courage to tell grandma, she closed her eyes awhile.

And then she opened them, looked around at family and loved ones gathered.

And said "you are all far more precious to me than any remembrance.

All of you are dying, and reemerging as you go through life.

Each passing to make room for the next flower to arise from the ashes.

As long as we have each other, we don't need anything to remind us.

Let this event, this memory, remind us always that the important things

Can never be taken from any of us."

Shalom!

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. 2 Maccabees 7: 1-2, 9-14
2. Psalms 17: 1, 5-6, 8, 15
3. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 - 3:5
4. Luke 20: 27-38

• Doing good is its own reward
• The danger in doing the right thing because you expect that "they will get theirs" in the end is that God's notion of justice is probably far more liberal than mine, and "getting theirs" may look very different in God's eyes than it does to mine.
• At the end of the day, what is the reason that you make the tough calls, the hard decisions?
• Do those tough decisions ever get any easier?
• If someone were to tell you that there were some colossally hard decisions coming your way, how would you prepare for that?
• What's stopping you?

• Mighty in prayer
• History is festooned with men and women of prayer who are bold before God to the point of seeming audacious.
• Do you think that God wants bold followers?
• What do you think leads to that sort of relationship with God?
• Is it worth it?

• Finding strength
• There is more to strength than moving weight around.  Profound strength can be found in those who have the courage and determination to keep working at something long after conventional wisdom would conclude that they are wasting their time.
• Where do you find the strength to do the difficult things in your life?
• Is that strength increasing?
• What are you doing to pass that strength along to others?

• Missing the point
• Resurrection promises fulfillment.  Not necessarily of our passing fancies, but of our deepest longings, those longings put in our hearts by God Himself.  For my part, I long to truly understand those around me.  Not so that I can predict what they will do, but to know who they truly are and to empathize with them fully.
• Unfortunately, most of us, myself included, do not have the depth of character for that sort of awareness beyond a few close friends.  Any more is just too much of a strain.
• What do you long for at bottom?
• What are you doing to achieve that?
• Do you think that longing will last into eternity?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Where do I need discernment?
2. Where is God calling to me to be bold in prayer?
3. Where must my strength lie?
4. Where are my God-given desires calling me?

Shalom!