Bethlehem Bound

 

Last week, we held a word you selected close to your heart, ears, and life.  Or maybe you decided you needed more than just one word this Advent.  Or maybe you are longing right now to trade your word for another, the way you would swap something from your lunch with something from your friend’s lunch at school growing up (I’ll trade you a Hostess cupcake for that Little Debbie treat we’d say to each other ~ like we were playing Let’s Make a Deal).  Here is my deal for you.  You are welcome to find a new word this week if you’d like or continue to carry the word you selected last week.  No right answers or rules or shoulds/have tos during this Advent.  Sometimes we make a choice and feel disappointed, wanting to rewind time.  On the road to Bethlehem, maybe you need to set down your word from last week, for it has taken you as far as it can.  Or maybe you want to keep carrying your word because you sense there is a blessing not yet revealed or realized.  Or maybe your word has been a light to your path.  Or maybe you are still struggling to find a word.  Right now, find a word or a few.  Say your word aloud.  Let the letters leap from your tongue into the world as a blessing that no one may hear, but God does.  Your word, your life, your presence on the path to the manger, creating space and a place for God this year.

 

Slowly read, aloud preferably so you hear your own voice, the Indigenous People’s Version of John 1:

 

Long ago, in the time before all days, before the creation of all things, the one who is known as the Word was there face-to-face with the Great Spirit.  This Word fully represents the Creator and shows us who he is and what he is like.  He has always been there from the beginning, for the Word and Creator are one and the same.  Through the Word all things came into being, and not one thing exists that he did not create.  Creator’s life shone out from the Word, giving light to all human beings.  This is the true Light that comes to all the peoples of the world and shines on everyone.  The Light shines into the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it or put it out.

Into the wilderness of the Land of Promise (Judea) came a man named Gift of Goodwill (John).  He was sent by the Great Spirit to tell what he knew about the Light so everyone could believe.  He was not the Light but came to speak the truth about the Light.  The true Light that shines on all people was coming into the darkness of this world.  He came down into this world, and even though he made all things, the world did not recognize him.  Even his own tribe did not welcome or honor him. But all who welcome and trust him receive their birthright as children of the Great Spirit.  Creator’s Word became a flesh-and-blood human being and pitched his sacred tent among us, living as one of us.  We looked upon his great beauty and saw how honorable he was, the kind of honor held only by this one Son who fully represents his Father – full of his great kindness and truth. 

Gift of Goodwill (John) told what he knew about him and cried out with a loud voice, “The one I have told you about is here!  He comes after me, but is much greater – my elder!  He has more honor, for even though he is thought to be younger, he existed before I was born.” 

From the fullness of his being, we have all had many gifts of kindness poured out on us.  Drawn from the Water (Moses) gave us our tribal laws, but the gift of great kindness and truth came from Creator Sets Free (Jesus), the Chosen One.  No one has ever seen the Great Spirit but the one Son, who is himself the Great Spirit and closest to the Father’s heart, has shown us what he is like.  (First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament).

 

Was there a word above that sang to your shy soul?  Did you hear something new, feel something new, encounter a truth that has always been in this passage, but this translation illuminated for you?  Let these words inspire and infuse us as we begin the second week of Advent and our travel to Bethlehem this year.  May God’s peace/shalom/wholeness/healing and presence hold and enfold you this week.  Amen. 

Bethlehem Bound

 

Through the Word all things came into being…

 

What is coming into being with your word this week?  Maybe your Advent word is helping you explore this holy season.  Maybe your Advent word is frustrating you because you two had a tiff last night when you were thinking about all the other words you could have chosen and you decided that “hope” was your word…or “peace”…or “love”…or “light,” and now that word feels heavy or unable to uphold you.

 

Take time with your word today.  Go look up a definition of the word you’ve selected.  Make as many sentences with your word as you can.  If you are frustrated, you could start with, “I can’t believe I picked “hope” as my word.”  Google quotes using your word, see how other people have played with this word previously.  Or just write it down on a piece of paper again and again and again, because all words can be Holy when we let God enter the “third space” with us and our word.  In fact, God is already there.  What might God be singing to you this day in your word?

 

Please pray with me: God, I picked this word, (speak your word aloud).  What do You want me to discover or uncover in this word?  Did I get it right?  Help me continue to explore and express and experience the elasticity of this holy word as I let it work in me and through me in these days.  Let my word and Your presence guide me deeper into this season of Advent.  Amen.  

Bethlehem Bound

 

The Word was present to God from the beginning

 

You and your word have been hanging out for a few days now.  Any new insights into why that word leapt into your imagination?  Today, I invite you to write your word 10 times on a piece of paper.  I encourage you to do this in analog form; not on a computer where you can copy and paste quickly, but with a pen and paper where each letter takes time.  You are doing this to let the word sink into your DNA.  Your word you selected this week is a doorway God can work/walk through throughout this season if we stay awake and alert to God’s work in the world.  What if you asked God for a definition of the word or an example ~ then listened for the Sacred to sing out as John chapter 1 told us on Monday?  Hold your word today, let your word hold you.  With God’s hope to enfold and hold you especially right now.  Amen.

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.