A Christmas Prayer
H/T to Cathleen Falsani over at The Dude Abides:
A Christmas Prayer
by Robert Louis StevensonLoving Father,
Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift
and good desires with every greeting.Deliver us from evil by the blessing
which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.May the Christmas morning
make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds
with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven,
for Jesus' sake.Amen.
Links of the Day, December 21
News
- Senate Democrats unite for a momentous health care vote!!
- Iranian reformist Ayatollah Montazeri passes away. His funeral is an occasion for more protests.
- Copenhagen gets mixed reviews.
Miscellaneous
- A heart-warming Christmas tale: a woman abandoned as a baby twenty years ago finds the people who found her.
Only a few days to go …
Welcome to the fourth Sunday in Advent. In a few short days, we will celebrate the coming of the Light of the world, and the commemorative time of waiting and darkness will be over. During the last month or so, somewhat coincidentally on my brother Gabe’s recommendation, I’ve been reading Ben Patterson’s Waiting: Finding Hope When God Seems Silent. I could write much about my own journey of waiting (and I will, eventually), but that’s not what this blog is about.
Four hundred years. It had been four hundred years since anything had been heard from God. And the children of Israel languished under Roman occupation, oppressed and marginalized in what was supposed to be the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of freedom and prosperity. This was not what the fulfillment of God’s promises was meant to look like.
And into that environment, into that darkness, into that uncertainty and longing, hope came, love came, justice came, grace came: the Word became flesh and moved into our neighborhood. Jesus was born: the fullness of God in a fragile, helpless baby.
It’s been two thousand years since that cosmic event and those who follow in the heritage of Israel—the followers of the Way—are waiting. Jesus came, and we wait for his return, when the earth will be made right and justice, hope and healing will reign on the earth. Still, we live in the in-between time, and we might often find ourselves thinking that this is not what the kingdom of God that Jesus heralded and inaugurated with his coming is meant to look like: conflict abounds around the world, disregarding God’s commandment to love one another; poverty and hunger continue to afflict millions, even as we move into the second decade of the 21st century, flying in the face of Jesus’ exhortation to care for the least of these; a blithe disregard for the creation shows a blatant disrespect for the Creator. And that’s just a snapshot.
But in this environment, this season reminds us of the coming of Jesus, the hope of all creation. We remember that though there is much that may discourage us or deflate our spirits, the most ultimate victory was begun with the birth of a baby boy, over two thousand years ago.
“For God loved the world in this way: that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16
"Homeless at Christmas"
These poignant and challenging thoughts come from my friend Kurt:
He was born to an unwed teenage girl.
Born in substandard housing.
He was first greeted by some of the most marginalized people in his culture.
Under fear of death by a powerful politician, this boy and his family fled to another country and lived some time in exile.
The man who raised him was not his birth father.
He spent his most significant adult years as a wandering teacher without a permanent home.
He was executed by a coalition of religious and secular leaders afraid of his revolutionary ideas.
This one, born homeless, has become the one who offers hope to the world.
As we get ready to celebrate Christmas, it is good to remember Jesus’ earthly beginning, and his self-emptying, servant stance. Jesus reached out to the marginalized throughout his life. Jesus cared for those who were aliens and marginalized following the grand tradition of the people of Israel who once were aliens themselves.
Jesus is Emmanuel: God with us. He is still God with us. He has stepped into our neighborhood and everything changes.
He stepped into the messiness of our lives -- so as his followers, we must step into the messiness of our world.
Bono of U2 spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington a few years ago. He called attention to the poor and the vulnerable in our world. In that talk before then President and Mrs. Bush, King Abdullah of Jordan, and other politicians and religious leaders, he said:
"God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives … and God is with us -- if we are with them."
May the celebration of Jesus’ birth stir us to look beyond ourselves and towards others.
Merry Christmas!
Snow weekend!
Snow hit the East Coast hard this weekend. It was the most snow I'd ever seen. (And apparently, the most snow that's ever fallen in DC in December!) And I was as giddy as a four year-old (or a super-excited puppy).
Anyway, the sun is blazing outside, the snow is turning to mush, and the city is slowly, slowly, slowly recovering from snow-induced paralysis.
Here's a small selection of pics from this weekend; for more (and for a couple fun videos), check out my Facebook:
UPDATE: There was also a fun snowball fight yesterday that we missed out on ... and then it turned a little bizarre, with a police officer pulling a gun! Crazy.
Here's the fun snowball fight part: