Christmas Day

“What has happened to me has been the very reverse of what appears to be the experience of most of my friends. Instead of dwindling to a point, Santa Claus has grown larger and larger in my life until he fills almost the whole of it. It happened in this way.
As a child I was faced with a phenomenon requiring explanation. I hung up at the end of my bed an empty stocking, which in the morning became a full stocking. I had done nothing to produce the things that filled it. I had not worked for them, or made them or helped to make them. I had not even been good - far from it.
And the explanation was that a certain being whom people called Santa Claus was benevolently disposed toward me. . . . What we believed was that a certain benevolent agency did give us those toys for nothing. And, as I say, I believe it still. I have merely extended the idea.
Then I only wondered who put the toys in the stocking; now I wonder who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the great planet in the void.
Once I only thanked Santa Claus for a few dollars and crackers. Now, I thank him for stars and street faces, and wine and the great sea. Once I thought it delightful and astonishing to find a present so big that it only went halfway into the stocking. Now I am delighted and astonished every morning to find a present so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and then leaves a great deal outside; it is the large and preposterous present of myself, as to the origin of which I can offer no suggestion except that Santa Claus gave it to me in a fit of peculiarly fantastic goodwill.” G.K. Chesterton

Fourth Sunday in Advent

Due to our extreme winter weather here in the Pacific Northwest, many were unable to even get their cars out of their driveways in order to make it in to yesterday's services. But Rev. Bill Maxwell saved the day by trekking through our snow-filled roads! In today's gospel Luke tells us the story of Mary's unexpected visit from the Angel of the Lord. She had much to ponder after he left. Perhaps these were some of her thoughts?

Young Mary
I know not all of that which I contain.
I'm small; I'm young; I fear the pain.
All is surprise: I am to be a mother.
That Holy Thing within me
and no other
is Heaven's King whose lovely
Love will reign.
My pain, his gaining my eternal gain
my fragile body holds Creation's Light.
its smallness shelters God's unbounded might.
The angel came and gave,
did not explain,

I know not all of that which I contain.

from The Ordering of Love,
The new and collected poems of Madeleine L'Engle

Third Sunday in Advent

In today's sermon Rev. Bloch+ touched on the paradox of rejoicing in all things, of giving thanks in all circumstances, and in realizing that we are rescued already, even as we wait! In that same vein I give you the following:

Paradoxes of Advent
by Michele Blake
from The Tentmaker

One of the essential
paradoxes of Advent:
that while we wait for God,
we are with God all along,

that while we need to
be reassured of God's arrival,
or the arrival of our homecoming,
we are already home.

While we wait,
we have to trust,
to have faith,
but it is God's grace that gives us that faith.

As with all spiritual knowledge,
two things are true,
and equally true, at once.

The mind can't grasp paradox;
it is the knowledge of the soul.

Second Sunday of Advent

In this second week of Advent we are give a reality check of sorts. And couldn't we all use one? Read Elizabeth Bloch's+ sermon "The Beginning" to learn how Mark used very plain and simple language to tell us about "arche" - the first word in his gospel that describes the beginning of a new reality that has the potential to transform all of our ideas of the way things are.