Carol One: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Listen to this instrumental version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel and as you do let the words of the second verse of this Carol sit, simmer, and sing to your heart, especially as the violin draws you in:

O come, O Wisdom from on high,

who ordered all things mightily;

to us the path of knowledge show

and teach us in its ways to go.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

shall come to you, O Israel.

I find these words incredibly profound and poignant, especially if you dig deep beneath the words.  First, Emmanuel means God with us and for us.  God ~ not distant ~ but here and now in your very life.  Second, the call for wisdom speaks deeply to my soul in these December days.  I need, crave, long for, and am restless for wisdom.  This wisdom is about more than simply knowing something.  I crave, need, long for and am restless for wisdom that impact and influence how I live my life.  I can know something mentally and yet it doesn't make a big difference.  I know that diet soda is not great for me, water is better, but I still enjoy one every now and then.  We know that certain behavior (smoking or excessive drinking or shopping on credit we cannot pay off) has negative ramifications on our lives.  Yet, those problems still exist...not because of a lack of information, but a lack of ability for transformation.

You see, the wisdom I long for transforms my life.  A kind of truth that not only nudges me, a truth that takes me by the hand and says emphatically, "You will go here."  And yet, God's wisdom doesn't insist, it exists...it doesn't demand but invites us into a holy mystery. 

How do we listen for the knowledge of God to teach us?  I think it means slowing down and truly listening.  I find words of hymns and poems to be some of the most helpful ways of hearing, really hearing, what God is up to in my life.  Listening for the words that wrap around my soul with bands of love.  I invite you to write down the places you long for wisdom.  Perhaps in a relationship with a family member or a situation or an event or way to be.  What are those places and people for whom you would like wisdom/knowledge/God's guidance?  Then wait.  Not passively as though God will text you, but wait actively and attentively.  Read some poems, keep listening to music, slow down so your own shy soul can get a word in edge wise.  It may not come immediately, but over the course of days and weeks leading up to Christmas, I believe the work of the Spirit works in our lives.

Prayer:  God of wisdom slowly entering our lives, help us patiently and persistently be open to You in these December days.  Amen.  

Carol One: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

First...listen to this beautiful instrumental version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel.  As you let the notes sink down deep, what images come into your mind?  If you had to color this song, would you reach for bright/bold colors or muted/soft colors or some combination?  Why?  If you had to write a story based on the emotions this melody awakens what kind of scene/plot do you hear unfold?

Listen...breathing in these notes.  Listen and be in the midst/middle of this hauntingly holy hymn.

Second...pray the first verse with me.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

and ransom captive Israel

that mourns in lonely exile here

until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

shall come to you, O Israel.

Consider the word, "come".  That is a word that can be spoken in a variety of ways.  It can be said with a passionate, insistence as in when I call out to my dog.  This word can be a demand, but it can also be a pray-filled plea softly whispered. "Come" said so you can barely hear the sound of your own voice as you toss that word gently out into the universe.  In this way, we are longing deeply for the arrival of something/someone.  Like medical test results, a relative to walk through the door, or a relationship to be healed/made whole.  In this case, the word, "Come" doesn't fall from our lips as though we are in control/charge, but spoken in such a way that we realize our own limitations and that this single syllable word might be our own chance.  Do you sense the difference?  Do you have moments when you have shouted out, "Come" and times when it has been your hail mary prayer toward God?  

What we are longing for, preparing for, wanting to come in the season of Advent is the arrival of God's presence in our life.  The paradox is that: God is already here right now.  Maybe what we are longing for is actually our own awareness of that truth.  Maybe it is less about preparing a space for God, but rather making more room for God in our crowded lives.  The deeper paradox is that we try to do this amid the hustle, bustle crowded calendar, overflowing, racing, running around time known as December.  When the world seems collectively in a frenzy and frazzled, we slow down.  We do this not because God cannot keep up with us, but because the truth is that the blur of life can cause our soul to wheeze and our minds to whirl and our hearts to feel wiped out.  We slow down lest we miss the traces of God's grace.  

So, go ahead, listen to music and watch the video again letting that one word, "Come" sit on the tip of your tongue.  What is that longing, restlessness, waiting prayer you pray will be answered with some arrival in these December days?

Prayer:

Come, O God, not as a demand or decree, but as our most heartfelt prayer to awake and be aware of the nearness of thee.  Amen.

Introduction take two

Okay...I find it so annoying when an author gets you all set up and ready to go in the introduction and than has another forward or prologue or another series of introductory remarks.

So, please accept my apologies on this.

Really...I mean it.

But before I launched head long into what I want to say...
Before I take you on this ride through a few Christmas Carols like looking at Christmas lights...

I want you to pause...ponder what is your favorite Carol?  I even want you to go play your favorite Carol right now.

Really....I mean it.

I will wait.

Did you go play the Carol?

It is okay....I really want you to.

I will wait (after all I published this a few days ago and I am not really here typing anyway!)

Okay...thanks for that.  Because I want you to ask yourself, "Why do you love that Carol?"  Is it the words?  The melody?  Some memory that it awakens when your grandmother would sing that Carol in the kitchen while making cookies?

You see, I needed a second introduction both for space so you could first name your favorite Carol (after all that is what is most important)...and secondly because I want you to get into the groove of listening.  Really listening.  I want us to hear these words....let goosebumps race, run up and down our arms.  I want these words to be breathed into your being.  John 1 says that, "The Word becomes flesh"...that is what I want with these Carols.  Let them get caught up in your DNA so that you are singing them all day.  Let them guide you prayerfully to the manager, the container for God that bursts into a barn (which we will talk about as the most ludicrous moment ever...because it worked and still works).  God entering in not when everything was perfect, but an absolute mess.  God not in a place of power, but poverty.  God not among even good church people like you and me, but among shepherds.  Really?  This kind of truth has be to told with a slant (thanks to Emily Dickenson for that image).  So, this will take time.  To listen.  To listen again.  To listen a third time and prayerfully reflect each day on these carols.

Alright now we can begin.

Really, I mean it.

Grace and peace everyone....

Introduction take one

I invite you to click on the above video...listen...sing along...and enjoy!!


The child-like nostalgia means that Christmas isn't Christmas until I hear the Charlie Brown crowd sing, "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing."  Actually, I need the whole glorious cartoon.  Yes, I know it is a bit cheesy, graphics are old school, but when Linus wraps his blanket around his head and recites the Christmas story...if there isn't a tear or a small lump in your throat, I think you need to check your pulse.

For me, Christmas Carols teach and tell us much about this mystery of the season.  They preach the power and possibility.  They invite us into the holiness and awaken the holiness within us.

But Christmas Carols can also just become background music.  We don't often let these words sit, simmer, and sing to us.  So, here is my invitation to you: let's listen with new ears and open hearts.  Over the coming days we are going to circle around Christmas Carols.  Each day in Advent (beginning December 3), I will post a reflection about a Christmas Carol with a video.

I want you to listen/watch the Carol once or twice.  Not the kind of listening where you put it on play and walk away.  The kind of listening where you close your eyes, try to savor and soak in every word.  Ask yourself, "What do I hear?"  Or which word get stuck in your soul?  Or what feelings does the Carol stir?  What does this Carol have to say that can help us prepare for Christmas Day?

These Carols are more than a soundtrack for the season, they are more than just soundbites that we can sing along with, these Carols can help lure us toward/leap into one of the most beautiful scandalous stories ever told: God is with us/God is for us.  This truth is not just then and there in a barn two thousand years ago.  I mean right here and now...where you are...reading this blog.  God isn't distant or distracted...out there somewhere beneath the pale blue night (Ten points for anyone who got this quote from An American Tale...yet another cartoon classic).  God is here.  While I probably say that too much, the point is that I don't think we really live our life with that truth.  We get caught up in the hustle and bustle, not only in December.  To take time to sit, savor, breathe in these words, and be is what I pray diving into and dwelling in these Carols might bring.  Preparation in the days before Christmas has more to do with our hearts than the presents under the tree.  So, I invite you on this journey.  A journey into music that makes a difference and can make us different.  A journey where we can stand in the straw to see God laid away in a manager, while Hark! the Herald Angels Sing, on a Silent Night, Holy Night, for It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.  So Come All Ye Faithful to see this great Joy to the World and to our lives this year.

Grace and peace everyone ~~

Thanksgiving

Twas two days before Thanksgiving and all through our house
Everything was in turmoil and everyone groused.

With company coming and a big meal to make,
There wasn't enough time or space in the oven to bake!

The tension we felt was more than just about the food,
We knew that this wasn't the appropriate Thanksgiving mood.

We knew in a few days at the table full of steaming platters we'd meet,
And we would all have to utter or mumble a gratitude before we could eat.

The last few days would still simmer and sit,
Was a few sentences of thanks all we would get?

Wasn't this day about so much more than a meal?
Isn't this moment supposed to linger/last part of the deal?

The unanswered questions hung in the air,
Because it wasn't like we didn't care!

We did...we restlessly hungered for a different life...we wanted something more...
But with a turkey to cook, stuffing to make, and people about to knock at the door...

Why does the to do list take precedent and cause such strife?
Because we know how we spend each day is how we make our life.

So, we cling to that Norman Rockwell painting come hell or high water,
Its just sometimes we get the former rather than the later.

Here is my invitation to you reading this blog...
Stop right where you are...even if you're holding a log (seriously rhyming is hard!)

Pause...ponder...pray.
Stop trying to make the perfect day.

For the grace is not found in the potatoes or pumpkin pie...
God's love is bigger, won't be contained...that isn't a lie.

This silly poem is about more than just making you smile...
It's prayer is that we realize life is lived in the meanwhile.

It isn't just a day or meal or a moment...
It is a feeling, a sense of hope's bestowment.

So breathe and be...rest and know.
That who we are, God's beloved, is what I pray will grow.

So, may Thanksgiving do more than fill your belly...
May it remind you of the One whose grace makes you fully.

You are God's beloved and blessed.
Happy Thanksgiving to you...in that may you rest.

Grace and peace everyone....

Sunday prayer

The cornucopia spilled out with gourds galore...
Pumpkins peaking out from the woven wood....
Squash and apples and sweet potatoes all hanging out in harvest party.

What an eclectic gathering.
What an image of the church.
A place where we come in various shapes and sizes.
Colors and reflections of the Creator.

What a vision for the church too
For the abundance cannot be contained with the woven walls
But spills out in a joyful way,
Scatters about in beautiful random-ness
A holy chaos of creation.

Our lives are a cornucopia we cannot contain.
God's love spills out from us even when we try to control that grace.
God's presence overflows from our souls even if we try to strain to clasp hold.

What would be in your cornucopia if you colored it today?
Would it have family and friends...would it have playful moments that bring you joy?
Does your cornucopia perhaps right now feel a bit lacking and lackluster?
Maybe some kind of pain has stolen the joy
Or someone's words left you feeling depleted, deflated.

Can we share whatever overflowing emotion we carry with the One who knows us better than we know ourselves?
Can we see that the invitation is not to our best-life-ever...but actually to abundant life, which means there is an important difference and distinction. 
Best life ever is defined and described by the world.  It usually means money or followers on Facebook (or your blog).
Best life ever is a goal few of us ever reach even as we keep swiping our credit cards or running after that carrot on the just out of reach string.
But authentic life, abundant life, life full not of riches, but the richness of God.  That is different.

That cornucopia isn't controlled by us, but only our ability to see and receive and respond to what is.
That cornucopia has more than a trace of God's grace...it is God stitching and sewing our bruises and brokenness into something beautifully whole, even with a few holes.

So may the cornucopia of your life this day notice that while all the gourds might not be shiny and smooth, there is still a beauty and wonder in the messiness and less-than-perfectness that fills our daily living.

May grace, gratitude, and practicing the presence of God stir within you on this Sabbath day.

Amen. 

Gratitude

I tend to write these posts early...then through the magic of the internet...am able to schedule these words to appear when I tell them too. 

So, on the day this post is released I will be driving back after a three day retreat in South Carolina... a new state to me.  The retreat is about facing the changes of life with integrity and authenticity.  I love those two words.  Integrity means a state of being whole.  Authenticity reminds me that while I can't completely control everything, I can control the way I respond.  There is an authorship to my life even if the plot line is shaped by forces outside my own.  Because what people say and do impacts the plot line of my life.  Because events and experiences impact the plot line of my life.  Because when the phone rings...or I have to make a difficult decision...or something doesn't quite follow the map I had in mind...all that and a million tiny moments all make a difference in the plot line of my life.

Trying to live with a wholeness and openness and knowing what I can author and what is being written outside of me...that is a good definition of life.  And I need spaces and places where I can set outside of the ordinary and everyday.  I once heard this called, "Getting to the balcony," where I can see a different perspective and a wider picture than the blurriness of life lived up-close and at a frenzied pace. 

For me the more I can notice and name the traces of God's grace in my daily life...the more life becomes grace-filled.  The more I see a butterfly landing nearby and smile...the more gratitude grows within me.  It is a cycle or ever widening circle.  It is an awareness of holiness.  I know it is a luxury to be able to get away for a few days...one that not everyone has.  But even so, the point is not the retreat...the point is practicing the kind of space and place in daily living.  Retreats are not meant as spiritual filling stations so much as reminders of what I am supposed to be doing every day.  It is like hitting the re-set button in my life or upgrading the operating system to fix the bugs that have crept into my daily life.  I pray that today you might find the space and place to retreat, reframe and refocus your life on God's presence...even if it is just for five minutes.  And may there be more than a trace of God's grace as you drink deeply and dwell in the holy of this day God has made.

Grace and peace ~~~