Bethlehem Bound

 

The Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God. 

 

Wait, wait, wait, my soul wants to object and interject.  Just wait a minute here.  Which is it?  Is the Word in God’s presence, or is the Word a part of God?  You can’t be both; that doesn’t make sense!

 

I love that Scripture is a mystery, wrapped in a puzzle, stuffed inside an enigma.  Scripture isn’t interested in giving you a step-by-step instruction manual for life.  Scripture wants to keep you off-kilter and off-balanced and even a bit offended by its insistence that God is up to something.  A few weeks ago, I talked about the Venn Diagrams of life.  Your energy interests with another person’s energy, and together you create a “third space” ~ a space that is a collaboration and cooperation of both.  I think about “third space” with my wife.  We are each unique, and together for 25 years, there is an energy we have both tended/created/crafted ~ we continue to do so.  I have a third space with my kids, with you as church members, with the readers of these words.  A third space can’t be contained because it is always changing ~ taking on new shapes.  So, yes, the Word could be both before God and a part of God, because I know that my family is always, always in my heart/mind/soul.  I know that God is always a part of my life, and at the same time, the Sacred is separate.  Hold this idea of “third space” as you move about your day.  You are creating a “third space” with the Word you are carrying to the manger.  That word is both separate and becoming part of your life. 

 

As you make the road to Bethlehem by walking, together with your word, you will create a “third space.”  Spend time today with your word.  Make it a cup of hot chocolate and ask it what it wants to tell you.  Speak the word aloud.  If the word is a part of a Christmas Carol and go blast that Carol from your speakers, singing with gusto.  Even if that word isn’t part of a Christmas Carol, blast music anyway because that is a holy prayer practice.  Tend the space between you and your word, because as you do, I believe God works within us and through us in these days.  With God’s hope to enfold and hold you this week.  Amen.

Bethlehem Bound

 

In the beginning, there was the Word

 

Advent marks the beginning of a new church year.  Pause, smell the air…do you sense an aroma hovering like when you sit in a new car?  Or does the air smell more like stale pumpkin pie and leftover turkey that you can’t believe is still in your refrigerator?  I mean, how many sandwiches can one person eat?  What is in the air you breathe?  What is in your heart right now?  Does it feel like you are starting a new chapter or just a continuation of the same story that feels stuck and stymied in your life right now?  Maybe it is a bit of both?

 

On Sunday and yesterday, I encouraged you to find a word to carry to the manger/stable/ Bethlehem this year.  Maybe today, you are still trying to find a word for Advent.  A few questions to ponder with your word you selected so far.

 

Do you sense excitement or exhaustion in your life right now?

Do you feel hope or hanging on by a thread today?

Where do you feel like Elizabeth – pregnant with possibility, and where do you feel barren or dealing with pain?

 

Of course, only having one word to describe the beautiful complexity that is you can be an exercise in frustration.  We are multitudes; many words roam around within us.  Many words want to take up residence or pitch a tent in our minds, refusing to leave. You may need more than one word.  You could fill up a page trying to express all that is swirling in you. 

 

Last week, I offered you this list as possible words to carry in the backpack of your life to Bethlehem.  You may want to light a candle of “Hope” today as you read these words ~ and I pray this lets loose your imagination:

• Jesus 
• Christ 
• Bethlehem
• Manger 
• Shepherds 
• Angels 
• Mary
• Joseph
• Incarnation/God-in-the-flesh
• Advent/waiting/wandering
• Wise Ones 
• Frankincense and Myrrh or Gifts
• Peace
• Joy
• Faith
• Hope
• Love
• Emmanuel: A name for Jesus, meaning "God with us". 

 

Remember that lighting a candle called hope is an act of resistance in a world where the headlines object, our rational minds reject, and our heartlines project a different truth.  You may feel your inner defense attorney yell out that such a word should not even dare be spoken today.  Hope is always vulnerable, like a baby lying in a manger.  Hope is always foolish, like shepherds crying out good news to anyone who would stop to listen.  Hope is persistent because God isn’t finished yet.  God continues to sing from barns to this day.  Do you hear what I hear?  What word is crying out for you to carry to the manger this year?  With God’s hope to enfold and hold you this week.  Amen. 

Bethlehem Bound

 

Yesterday, we began the season of Advent, preparing for God’s love to be born anew in the flesh and breath of Jesus as a vulnerable baby and laid in a feed trough (manger).  Between now and Christmas Eve, I invite you to find a word to carry with you to the manger.  You may choose a word from the list I published last week, or maybe you want to select a word from the reading below from the Gospel of John.  John lets loose his poetic side and sings out about a Word (or Logos or Wisdom or Truth) that becomes human.  John chapter 1 is a wonderful invitation for us to dwell in Word/God’s wisdom, but God’s Word comes to dwell with us as well as in us.  Today, I want to read the passage from the Inclusive Version of the New Testament.  Slow savor these words:

 

In the beginning, there was the Word; the Word was in God’s presence, and the Word was God.  The Word was present to God from the beginning.  Through the Word all things came into being, and apart from the Word nothing came into being that has come into being.  In the Word was life, and that life was humanity’s light – a Light that shines in the darkness, a Light that the darkness has never overtaken.  Then came one named John, set as an envoy from God, who came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through his testimony everyone might believe.  He himself wasn’t the Light; he only came to testify about the Light that illumines all humankind.  The Word was coming into the world – was in the world – and though the world was made through the Word.  The world didn’t recognize it.  Through the Word came to its own realm, the Word’s own people didn’t accept it.  Yet, any who did accept the Word, who believed in that Name were empowered to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor urge of flesh, nor human will, but born of God.  And the Word became flesh and stayed for a little while among us; we saw the Word’s glory – the favor and position a parent gives an only child – filled with grace, filled with truth. (Inclusive Version of the New Testament)

 

Which word from the reading sang to your soul?  Did any words surprise you in this translation?  Did any words feel like sandpaper to your soul?  Which word(s) would you like to remember today?  Pick one word today from the above reading as a light to your path to the stable this year.  Or you can select a word from a favorite carol.  Or a word that expresses where you are at or would like to be by the time we reach Bethlehem.  We will continue to let John guide us to the One with eternity dancing in his eyes as we prepare a manger-shaped place in our hearts this Advent season.  With God’s hope to enfold and hold you this week.  Amen.

With Gratitude

 

With praise and thanksgiving, O God, we sing out to You today.  We give thanks for food that nourishes our bodies and friends whose laughter sustains our souls.  We give thanks for the soil where pumpkins grow and are made into delicious pies we can enjoy.  We give thanks for ordinary moments when music soothes us and times of worship where we can show up fully as our God-created/crafted selves.  We give thanks to the stars that beckon in the night sky and guide our way to Christmas.  We give thanks for smells that awaken our senses and silent moments wrapped like a fuzzy blanket that warm our hearts.  We give thanks for hands held this year, tears honestly wept, and laughter lovingly prayed.  God, we give thanks that Your love knows no borders.  Your presence is unconditional and unceasing.  Bless the food we eat, the friendship we experience, and the moments of gratitude for this day we pray.  Amen.

Bethlehem Bound part 3

 

This week, I’ve been inviting you to prepare your heart for the beginning of Advent this coming Sunday.  You’ve had a chance to reflect on what you are longing for and what you are carrying in the backpack of your life.  Pause to ponder what is growing within you right now ~ could be a dream or a desire or a prayer or a possibility ~ we can be pregnant in many ways.  Yesterday, you unpacked your backpack to think about what you are carrying before you start the path and are Bethlehem-bound.  Were there things in your backpack you’d forgotten about?  Were there things you needed to recycle before heading to the stable? 

 

Today, if you had to select one word right now to describe what is in your heart, soul, mind, and life, what might that word be?

 

Do you sense excitement or exhaustion?

Do you feel hope or are you hanging on by a thread?

Do you long for possibility, or is there too much pain?

 

Of course, only having one word to describe the beautiful complexity that is you can be an exercise in frustration.  We are multitudes; many words roam around within us.  Many words want to take up residence or pitch a tent in our minds, refusing to leave.  Maybe you need more than one word.  You could fill up a page trying to express all that is swirling in you. 

 

Now, is there a word you long to let loose in your life that might guide you to Bethlehem?  Is there one word like a star that you can follow to the stable?

 

Here is a short list of possible words you can choose for the season ~ but I pray this opens your imagination:

• Jesus 
• Christ 
• Bethlehem
• Manger 
• Shepherds 
• Angels 
• Mary
• Joseph
• Incarnation/God-in-the-flesh
• Advent/waiting/wandering
• Wise Ones 
• Frankincense and Myrrh or Gifts
• Peace
• Joy
• Faith
• Hope
• Love
• Emmanuel: A name for Jesus, meaning "God with us". 

 

Or go read the words to your favorite Christmas Carol as a source to find a word.

 

Ponder today what word might cause your soul to stir.  A word that gives life and energy to your weary and worn-out soul.  A word that reminds you, God is still singing in the world today.  May this pondering guide you and hold you on this Thanksgiving Eve.  Amen.

Bethlehem Bound Part 2

 

Yesterday, I invited you to think about what you want to carry in the backpack of your life to the manger this year.  Part of the invitation is to empty out what you’ve been carrying so far.  There is a great line in the hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” that goes, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”  So, what hopes do you carry?  This could be personally, relationally, spiritually, and for our community and country.  What fears do you carry?  Again, these could be for yourself medically or relationally, or for our world?

We all have an invisible backpack.  Seth Godin reminds us that you don’t know what anyone else is carrying in theirs.  We may think we know, but we don’t.  And often, we can be unaware of what we carry in our own lives.  Before you start down the pathway to where Jesus is laid in a manger, first sit with your one wild and precious life to see what has accumulated in your backpack this last life.  I remember when our kids were young, we had to go through their backpacks often because papers and trash and forgotten items would all congregate at the bottom…and you don’t want to leave a banana peel for weeks on end.  

But how many of us have a metaphorical banana peel that has been lying around and we’ve been carrying out ~ maybe unaware.  To sit with your life this week, asking, What am I holding onto right now?  Or make two columns: hopes and fears.  Or think back over the last year of what brought you joy and love and peace, where you felt hurt, wounded, and treated as less than a beloved child of God.  May such sacred pondering be a way that sets your sights and hearts on this 25^th day of November for all that we will celebrate one month from today.  Amen.

Bethlehem Bound Part 1

 

This coming Sunday, November 30^th, we begin the season of Advent.  The four Sundays before Christmas are set aside for us to prepare our hearts, souls, and lives for the birth of Jesus.  For four Sundays, we open to God who sings through the wombs of Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptizer, and then Mary, pregnant with Jesus.  Their lives model for us fierce faithfulness.  Where, when, and how can we be pregnant with the possibility of God in these days?  Remember, life was not all chocolate rivers and pony rides for Elizabeth and Mary.  These two brave and bold women each faced discrimination due to gender, age (Elizabeth being older and Mary being young), marital status, and geographical location ~ neither was famous nor an influencer with thousands following their every post.  God moves in ways that leave us speechless and silent with a mystery beyond our explanation.  God moves in ways that provide endless exploration in our lives.  More than likely, you have been to Bethlehem before.  You have sung Silent Night drenched in candlelight.  You have been in the Christmas Pageant growing up.  The story may not be new to you, but you have never been this age at this point in history with all that is swirling around you and within you.  Today, I invite you to write down your prayers as we prepare for Advent.  Thirty days from today, we will arrive at a stable, step inside, to behold and to be held by a mystery that can change our lives.  How can you prepare a manger-shaped space in our hearts, souls, and lives this year?  What does it mean that God comes in the flesh of a vulnerable baby this year?  Where do you pray, “Come thou long expected Jesus?” this year?

Chew on these questions, savor the taste of these questions, and see what comes up in response to these questions.  And may you sense the presence of the One who is with us and for us, Emmanuel, God in the flesh and form of Jesus, born anew and afresh this year.  Amen.