welcome.

The invitation is three-fold (see the links to the right for more):
*Pause More: Carve out non-frantic time with family and friends, and time for personal reflection.
*Spend Less: Last year, the average family planned to spend $850 on holiday gifts. Set a budget, say "no" to over-consumption, and "yes" to creative and ethical gift-giving.
*Share More: Locally and globally there are many opportunities to share, to open up our homes, wallets, and schedules to share hope and justice.

a season of singing

During revolution's worship gatherings this advent (at least until this last sunday), we sang very few "christmas" songs. We sang ones of anticipation (O Come, O Come Emmanuel; Come Thou Long Expected Jesus) - but not the ones of celebration. . .trying to build up that sense of longing, holding back while the radios and stores drown us in rudolf and 'santa baby,' letting loose on Christmas Eve and the Sunday after with all our favorite Christmas carols. Apparently, people have noticed. One folded anonymous prayer request card came to me last week with the plea: "Play Christmas songs."

I must confess - while I know what's "advent appropriate," I too want to hear Christmas music. This last month our radio at home has been host to many Dean Martin songs, as well as plenty of Sufjan Stevens' Christmas music. There's something deeper, though, about singing. Singing is a deeper risk, a bolder cry than listening or speaking or praying silently. I remember a theology professor who loved to quote Augustine - "when you sing once, you pray twice." Indeed - singing seems to stir the soul. Whether it's the public, playful, and protesting kind of singing (like we did down at the plaza - see below) or an intimate, candlelight caroling - the deep darkness and hope and joy of christmas seem to summon singing. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus' birth is surrounded and swaddled in song - from Zecharaiah (John the Baptist's father) who sings the Benedictus, to Mary's Magnificat, to the Angels anthems - everyone is breaking out in subversive song about the coming of a Savior.

Our pastor in Texas (Dorisanne Cooper) wrote recently, "I've been wondering lately if there is any way to really understand what God is up to in the world without singing about it. And if the goals for us all shouldn't be to continue to sing until we embody it, too. May our singing this season move us ever onward toward that goal."

This is why we sang carols last Saturday down at the Plaza. We sang not believing that we were going to change the busy shoppers; we sang hoping that we were singing ourselves into a different perspective and freedom, a different vision and hope for Christmas. This is why I'm longing for a Christmas Eve gathering of not only listening to the Christmas story, but singing it into being.

waiting in the dark

I doubt that many of us are deeply aware that tonight is the longest night of the year, and today is the shortest day of the year, in the northern hemisphere (Winter Solstice). It's not really a major event in our urban culture. But December 25^th was chosen as the date for Christmas over three hundred years after Jesus was born because there was a Roman Winter Solstice festival on that day celebrating the “birthday of the Sun.” The Pope thought it a good time to celebrate the coming of Christ's light. People's lives (at least those in the northern hemisphere) were shifting as they welcomed the lengthening of days and the return of the light.

We live in a culture addicted to light; it is difficult for us to appreciate the Advent gifts of darkness. November’s National Geographic magazine cover story looked into the ways that our world suffers from light pollution: the migration patterns and breeding cycles of animals have been thrown off or sped up by all our artificial light, and we humans suffer from lack of rest and balance. With streetlights and headlights, we have been slowly extending the day, and shortening the night – so we can work more and consume more and travel further and feel more safe. We would rather be in the Power and Light district than the alleys of powerlessness and shadows, right?

But the Benedictus, the song of Zechariah (John the Baptist's father) ends with these words:

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

A few weeks ago, I went to the new exhibit at Union Station – Dialog in the Dark. For a whole hour, I walked around in pitch black darkness. I had a white cane and a sight-impaired guide. It was disorienting and confusing. I realized how darkness is a kind of surrendering of control. How darkness demands trust and patience. (Think about when someone asks you to close your eyes, or to blindfold you – the first question that springs up in your mind is, Do I trust this person?) I had to rely on senses other than sight to get through very normal, everyday situations. We went to the market, we crossed the street, we sat in the park . . . The moments that felt most enlivening to me were the times when I was waiting or sitting – listening. Hoping that my guide would call me or come take my hand and lead me somewhere new.

I realized that in order for us to more deeply live and proclaim the way of peace, we must learn the discipline of sitting in darkness. We must withdraw from the sparkle and the noise of this season, name the darkness of this world, befriend our own inner darkness, and hold vigil with those who sit in the darkness and the shadow of death.

We must discover that darkness is a place of creative possibility, a place from which new things can begin: from photography darkrooms to the womb to cocoons to Jesus’ tomb, darkness can be a place of new life, of new beginnings. The Spirit of God hovers over the dark waters at creation, and from the waters of chaos begins to create light and life. Christian mystics and Orthodox Christians have long regarded the darkness of God to be a powerful and transforming mystery. They speak of the “dark night of the soul” and the “dark cloud of unknowing” as spiritual experiences, profound encounters with God.

Sitting in the dark is a very active discipline – a discipline that demands focus so that we are not sleeping in the dark, nor stumbling along trying to make it on our own. This waiting in the dark, sitting in the dark, is an Advent prayer.

Move over the face of my deep, my darkness,

my endless restless chaos,

and create, O God;

trouble me, comfort me, stir me up, and calm me,

but do not cease to breathe

your Spirit into my wakening soul.

- Jan Richardson, in her Advent book Night Visions

caroling

you're invited to bundle up and meet a group going caroling at the plaza, singing "normal" carols as well as a handful of creative anti-consumerism ones. Singing voices, protest signs, dressing up, bringing cookies or cider are OPTIONAL, while a willingness to be seriously silly and receive a variety of responses (most were pretty positive last year. . .) is required. Our sub-par singing (and dancing) is done with a playful humility - knowing that we are complicit and the target of our protest as much as the shoppers passing us by. . .

Buy and Sell (Silver Bells)
City Sidewalks busy sidewalks
lined with advertising
It's the big retail season of Christmas
Children begging for each new thing
toys for mile after mile
and the mood of the season is clear

Buy and sell (buy and sell)
Buy and sell (buy and sell)
It's Christmas time for consumers
Ching-a-ching (ching-a-ching)
Cash tills ring (cash tills ring)
Must we spend Christmas this way?

Maxing credit, running debits
buying things we don't need
with the money we don't really have
Children crying, parents sighing
there's no time for our friends
and the reason behind it is clear

Adapted from www.buynothingchristmas.org/resources/carols.html

low-carbon 12 days of christmas

although the real "12 days of christmas" is supposed to start Christmas day and go through Epiphany (when you take the decorations down), i thought this a relevant post for now. These are abbreviated from a list created by NCC Eco-Justice. . .

1. Send Electronic Christmas Cards (or use Recycled Paper Cards)
2. Make Your Own Decorations (wreath, garland, ornaments, etc)
3. Buy a Living, Local Christmas Tree (and plant it after Christmas)
4. Use LED Christmas Lights (90% less energy used)
5. Do Your Christmas Shopping with Reusable Bags
6. Give homemade, used or non-material gifts (see more links to the right)
7. Buy Local and/or energy efficient gifts that are minimally packaged.
8. Use Reusable or Recycled Gift Wrap
9. Practice Alternative Giving (donate to a charity in a friend/family name)
10. Limit Your Travel (carpool, train, or drive before flying)
11. Serve Local Food for at least one part of Christmas Dinner
12. Pause and Remember Why We Celebrate! (see "pause more" links to the right)

giving goats

PBS' Religion and Ethics Newsweekly reports some good news out of the recession:

The Christian relief organization World Vision commissioned a survey recently which found that because of the recession 71% of Americans say they will spend less money on holiday presents this year, and nearly half (49%) say they are more likely to give a charitable gift. But for those that do, animals have become a popular donation— particularly because of their value in helping the world’s poor become more self reliant. For example, Heifer International reports that goats are its number one charitable item at a modest $75 donation.

Here's clickable links to peruse gift catalogs of Heifer International, World Vision, Oxfam America. . . and the new browse-all sites of Changing the Present and Just Give. (goats cost $120 now instead of $75, by the way)

While these big organizations have very smooth and clear gift options (and impressive CharityNavigator ratings) many of the donations don't exactly go to the specific animal in the picture. The money still goes to a great cause (probably better than the things we who are ignorantly disconnected think "those poor people" need). . .but it's a helpful reminder that there are several layers of insulation involved with these highly-successful and most well-known alternative gift catalogs.

I'd encourage you to see if there are other global alternatives to which you (or your church) may have a relational or longer-term connection. Also, with a little digging I bet you can find that a local non-profit or ministry you (or your church) are connected to has tangible Christmas needs. . .some of them may have a 'gift catalog' or needs list, and you just don't know about it. Revolution's Reshaping Tree was started on the idea (modeled at Lake Shore Baptist) of the tangible needs of local ministries - and also included global giving options based on the interests and relational connections of people in our community. People take home ornaments (or give them to someone as a "gift") - and bring back the specific item(s) requested. It's a modified "angel tree" idea. . . but includes not only the staples like blankets, gloves, and socks - it also has options for committing to relational/volunteer service hours. This season for special giving is not just an opportunity for easing guilt, but also for initating relationships that are transformative for all involved. . .

elizabeth's gift

This year, the story of the Visitation caught my attention in a new way. It's a little six-verse story hidden between the high-drama Annunciation (the angel Gabriel visits Mary and foretells the birth of Jesus) and the famous Magnificat (Mary's song of praise and her vision of a transformed world):

39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, ⁴⁰where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit ⁴²and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. ⁴³And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? ⁴⁴For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. ⁴⁵And blessed is she who believed that there would be believed, for there will be a a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

These cousins share the experience of mysterious and unexpected pregnancies; Elizabeth was considered old and barren, while Mary was quite young and supposed to be a virgin. Elizabeth was in her six month, while Mary seems to have been somewhere in her first trimester. No doubt Mary was in the less ideal, less popular spot - she was in real danger of becoming a single mother, unwelcome in the home of her father or her fiance. She was living in that place between promise and fulfillment, a wilderness place full of possibility and fear. It seems as though she had already been visited by the Spirit - but she probably wasn't yet showing. Why did Mary leave her home town "with haste" to visit her cousin Elizabeth?

Upon hearing of Mary's arrival, Elizabeth's son (John the Baptist) leapt in her womb, she was "filled with the Holy Spirit," and then she proceeded to speak (in a loud voice) potent words of blessing. Before even hearing the story, she blesses Mary's pregnancy and her faith. Mary proceeded to sing the Magnificat, there in Elizabeth's living room, and then to stay with her for three months. Elizabeth's blessing gave Mary the breath to sing, and then the space to more deeply believe the miracle that was unfolding inside her.

A friend in Texas recently shared about how people continue to pilgrimmage to Elizabeth's village (Ein Kerem) in Israel. Less than six miles outside Jerusalem, the small village is in a valley between the Judean hills, surrounded by olive groves. There is a place called Mary's well where tradition says Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth. People come to drink from the well and take small bottles of holy water home with them.

Part of the pregnant Advent season of waiting involves discerning and sharing blessing, receiving and giving empowering words of confidence and praise, words that give new wings and words that inspire you to sing, words that fill us like refreshing water. Advent is a season of welcoming words of an Elizabeth, or sharing them with one who is Mary. It is a season of stopping at the well to re-fill and to share. The words may be spoken loudly in greeting, whispered over candles, or written in a card. . .

drinking tea

a good friend in texas shared this with me recently:

I come by my tea drinking habits naturally. My mother starts heating hot water for tea as soon as she wakes up; so did my grandmother. I don’t remember Mother ever fixing coffee except for company. She still keeps her china teacup near the stove all day, pouring boiling water over the same teabag over and over again to get every last bit of good out of the leaves Lipton put in it.

The goodness of tea is in its slowness. It takes time for a mug full of very hot tea to reach a temp I can sip, but even the waiting is at one with a warm drink that soothes and heals. Lingering over a hot cup is part of the act of drinking tea.


Starbuck’s doesn’t make much money off me. The tall tea is the cheapest thing to order. And to me, it’s good deal to get that much Calm, Zen, Earl Gray, English Breakfast, or Darjeeling in a cup. It’s soothing, especially this time of year.

Drinking tea alone is a very good thing. But drinking tea in the company of someone else is like drinking in friendship, attention, and conversation all at once. These things, like matters of the Spirit, need time to steep. You can’t rush tea. My favorite line of Anne Lamott’s is this: “It’s like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony.” The simple ceremony centers me.

In mid-November I’d been thinking about the gift tea has played in my life – how many afternoons I’ve stopped for tea when I’m in another city or country – how few I’ve stopped for tea with a friend here. The next day at staff meeting, Dorisanne asked if any of us had decided on a spiritual discipline for Advent. I didn’t say anything out loud that day. But inside, I was still thinking about tea.

A few years ago Judy Prather and I heard Wayne Muller talk about two kinds of healing. "One kind,” he said, “is the healing that comes when we look for what is broken and out of balance. We search for a way to put our hand to the source of pain or surgically repair the wounded place. We do what we can to heal the sharp, hurting pieces of life. We offer our gifts. . . “But there’s another way of healing . . . We listen to the things that haven’t been broken. We take time to see where wholeness is alive. We notice what is good. We help make the quiet, invisible things visible. We remember the things that don’t die – the changing of the seasons, friendships, God’s love. We take time to see where wholeness lives in others. The healing of the world turns on all these good things.”

Drinking tea may seem a long way from the word “discipline.” But if it slows me down, I will put another teabag in my mug, each morning, each afternoon, each evening this Advent. In this small ceremony, I will raise my blue mug give thanks for you.

“The cup of grace,”

Sharlande Sledge
Lake Shore Baptist Church (Waco, TX)

cider, creativity, and a choir

well, the choir was on the movie What Would Jesus Buy? (we will go anti-consumerism caroling the last Saturday before Christmas) but the creativity and the cider were definitely flowing yesterday afternoon.



this is the second time in two weeks i've had the opportunity to create a unique, beautiful, and affordable christmas gift because of two generous artists (one a textile artist, one a potter) and two generous spaces (one the art room of jacob's well, one the neighbor2neighbor dining hall of revolution). Somehow creating things is easier when i set a time to gather with friends - not only because of the collaborative inspiration, but also because of the simple communal help/accountability in setting aside a time and space for creativity in an otherwise hectic december schedule.

st nicholas: the secret santa

this friday night is the Eve of the Feast of Saint Nicholas, a night when children around the world put out stockings for small, simple (often edible) gifts.

There are many stories about Nicholas that are worth learning and re-telling. The one that most caught my attention this year is the one about how Nicholas heard of three impoverished young maidens who were about to be sold into slavery by their father because he had no money for wedding dowries. Nicholas secretly tossed gold (balls? bags?) through the window (or chimney?) of their home, landing in their stockings that were drying by the fire. These gifts saved them.

Two other great stories included one about famine relief and another about how he advocated for prison justice. What a different version of Santa! Sacrificing for strangers in need, giving secretly, advocating for justice. . . If you're interested in the history of how St. Nicholas (de)volved into Santa, I recommend reading this article or listening to this NPR story.

a sampling of daily (online) devotionals. . .

On this Cyber Monday, I invite you to find your favorite online advent devotional. A few of them allow you to print off the resources in advance - making it easier to read while lighting your advent wreath. Here is a short annotated list; the list of links to the right includes additional sites.

Following the Star
A collaboration focusing on expectation and longing. Each day includes five movements: presence of God (gathering/focusing), word of God (scripture), devotion (reflections), conversation with God (prayer), and benediction (sending). With contemplative music (or silent).


The Light Shines in the Darkness
Daily advent reflections spoken by members of Trinity (episcopal) Church in New York City, with photo slideshow and a brief scripture.


Unexpected and Mysterious
A brief reflection followed by a passage of scripture. Created by friends of Luther Seminary. Viewable by day, with the option of having it emailed to your inbox.

Advent-Christmas Devotional Guide
A daily reflection with a short passage of scripture for you to look up. Created by the Baptist World Alliance. Online as a .pdf document - also available for printing off (if you prefer holding paper over reading a screen).

Pray-as-You-Go
A daily audio file with song, lectio divina, and brief reflection. You can download one day at a time, or a whole week.

happy new year!

Get out your fireworks, and begin the countdown this Saturday night . . .the beginning of the Christian year is here! What? you're not having a New Year's Eve party? Well, I guess I'm not either. But I am looking forward to the moment when we light that first advent candle . . .and I'm trying to live into another calendar.

The Christian liturgical year has different rhythms, colors, and festivals than the secular calendar (click here for a helpful overview). Some of our biggest secular holidays have religious roots (valentine's day, christmas, easter) - but usually alternative heroes and myths (cupid, santa, and the bunny), and a big focus on money, candy, and gifts (rather than anticipation, confession, or repentance). I think it's important to not only protest the commercialization of these holidays, but also to embrace a deeper, more transformative version of each celebration.

Recognizing a different sense of time, a different calendar, is essential to re-orienting the rhythms and priorities of our lives. I have only celebrated the Christian liturgical "cycle" for a few years, but have found each of the seasons increasingly meaningful each year. Advent and Lent, seasons of preparation and reflection preceeding Christmas and Easter, were my first introductions to the Christian year. I first learned how essential a season of reflection and fasting was during Lent - how walking the road to the cross and sitting in the darkness of Good Friday deepened the miracle of Easter morning. Later I discovered how Advent is a season of waiting and lamenting, a season of sitting in the darkness in order to more deeply welcome and appreciate the light of the incarnation. Now I am exploring how to more deeply engage the seasons of Epiphany/Christmastide (after Christmas) and Eastertide (after Easter) - to balance the preparation with the celebration, so that it doesn't seem so anti-climactic having just one day of hopes realized.

Mustard Seed Associates, a community in Seattle, has created an alternative google calendar. You can also make or order a new calendar for 2009 which begins with Advent (and ends before next year's advent).

ready your wreath

Advent begins next Sunday - will you have a wreath ready? Advent is a 4-week season of waiting - a time of preparation and anticipation leading up to Christmas. Advent marks the beginning of the Christian year (more on that in a post soon to come).

According to Christine Sine, "the tradition of Advent wreaths actually began because farmers took the wheels of their wagons during the wet winter months and this became the framework for the Advent wreath. Now I am not sure that any of us would consider taking the wheels off our cars over the winter but I do think that we need to build times of rest, reflection and renewal into our schedules."

Pausing to light an advent wreath is a great way of focusing time of prayer or reflection; you can do it once a week, or every day. We put ours on the kitchen table, and light the candles every morning and evening before eating. I recommend putting it wherever the "center" of your home is.

An advent wreath can be simple (four candles in a circle around a central candle), crafty (click here for a how-to), or natural (with evergreen branches and/or a wooden base). The main idea is to have 4 candles in a circular arrangement, and to light one each week of advent (starting November 30th) - lighting another candle every week. Some people use 3 purple candles and one pink candle, then place a white "Christ" candle in the center. Depending on your tradition, the candles may have specific meanings (i.e. week 1 = hope, 2 = peace, 3 = joy, 4 = love OR 1 = prophets, 2 = bethlehem, 3 = shepherds, 4 = angels).

Check out these weekly advent wreath devotionals: united methodist or process and faith
and/or feel free to start sampling the daily devotionals to the right ----> Some of them are free printable booklets (which may be more conducive to the wreath experience).

Also, if you have children, you may enjoy creating an advent calendar in addition to a wreath. There are many creative ways to do that posted here.

layaway is back. . .

is this one of the "harsh realities" of our struggling economy, or is it a new(old) sanity? Layaway is considered the opposite of the credit card: pay-as-you-go rather than buy now, pay later. (it's actually a new concept for me - i remember the section at kmart being near the bathroom, but i've never personally tried it, or known what it was). Wal-Mart's not doing it . . .but Kmart, Sears, and several online businesses are.

According to a Marketplace story, a third of Americans are planning on using their credit cards less this year (!) NPR did a longer story about the "resurrection" of layaway and pawn shops in late October. Here are some of the interesting excerpts:
*We might have to "go back to pulling out of the hat. . .do more family gatherings. . ."
*"We live in a society based far too much on consumption and consumerism. . .when everyone is borrowing to buy stuff. . .it's not a healthy economy."
*Many people will be reverting to layaway, but not without some pain and arguing.

so . . .if you're going to be buying stuff this season, try to support ethical companies and embrace layaway as an alternative to credit cards. . . ;)

the day after thanksgiving: make something

check it out: make something day. They have some ideas - but mainly, i appreciate the idea of taking a time when you're together with friends or family, and creating something (instead of shopping). This is a 'next step' from Buy Nothing Day - the day after thanksgiving, when all the stores have dramatic sales.

experiments

Our sunday night soup potluck conversation culminated in sharing how each of us might try something new this Christmas season:
- christmas morning, share digital photos from the year (instead of gifts)
- give our child just 3 gifts
- instead of buying ethical gifts for everyone, draw a name and give 1 gift (and go out to dinner w/ partner, rather than buying gifts)
- spend more time with family
- go to a few less parties
- share gifts w/ stressed out co-workers: change the holiday atmosphere
- spend more time in quiet reflection (reading the 'songs' early in Luke)
- donate to charities, given in 'honor' of others
- sing anti-consumerism carols in playful public protest
- give reshaping tree gifts to family

What are you going to try this season? Start the conversations now, before the shopping frenzy begins!