"Shiny"--a sermon for t-fig

edited Friday 11.30a CST (or is it daylight time now?)

Rev. Teri Peterson
Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church
Shiny
Exodus 34.29-35, Luke 9.28-36
Transfiguration C

Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterwards all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
~~
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is exactly the kind of thing many people claim they want. It’s exactly the kind of thing that many Evangelicals say is absolutely necessary. It’s exactly the kind of thing that many people say doesn’t happen anymore:

Talking with God. I mean, direct, two-way conversation with God, the kind where God does some of the talking.

Nowadays, if you go around saying that God has been talking to you, one of two things is likely to happen. Either people are going to write you off as “one of those Christians” or they are going to make a call to the nearest mental health professional. And if you’re glowing on top of that, they may very well step away and call 911, just in case you’ve been exposed to some kind of radiation or something.

Even when Moses came down the mountain the first time, the Israelites had started a big party because they weren’t sure he was coming back or that he was even talking to God anyway. And this time when he comes down from Mount Sinai, tablets in hand, face shining with the Glory of the Lord, they know he’s for real and they also know that is a very scary thing—so they run away. Only when he shouts for them do they come slowly crawling back to the foot of the mountain. Voices carry a long way in the desert. Light goes quite a ways too, especially when it’s dark, and especially when it’s this kind of light—not a mini mag light, but God’s light, the light that comes from within, the shine that accompanies someone who has been talking with God.

The Israelites aren’t alone in their fear. On the mount of the Transfiguration, probably Mount Hermon, in the Golan Heights, Jesus and his disciples are praying. Well, Jesus is anyway. The disciples are sleepy, but they’re holding their eyelids open. While Jesus is praying—talking to God, as it were—he too takes on this light, he begins to reflect God’s glory. And the disciples are afraid! They don’t know what to do, what to say, or what’s going on. It’s all they can do not to make fools of themselves in front of Elijah and Moses…except Peter, of course, who does manage nicely to say just the wrong thing. And then, of course, they get included in the conversation that Jesus, Moses, Elijah, and God have been having: God booms from the cloud “this is my Son…pay attention!”

Now, since Moses’ face shone because he had been talking with God, and since Jesus was transfigured into shininess while he was praying, I have to wonder whether the disciples, too, were shining just a bit after God had been talking to them. After all, they’ve just seen the true divinity of Jesus, they’ve been basking in the glow of glory, AND God’s voice spoke to THEM! There must be some residual glow. But even if they were shining, I wonder if they noticed? Or if they thought they could just head back to normal life, saying nothing, and have everything go on as usual?

These incidents both happened on mountaintops, away from normal life, away from the busyness and the needs of the world. People have been climbing mountains to talk to God for ages—pretty much since there were people. High Places, places of sacrifice and worship, dot the Middle East. Some even have remains of the altars, statues, or poles used for worship. Throughout Scripture people go to the mountain to encounter God—Abraham, Moses, Elijah, prophets, Jesus, the John who wrote Revelation. The holy places tend to be high places—the Temple was on a hill, the Mount of Olives is nearby. Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. The sign for Moses and the Israelites after the Exodus was that they would worship God “on this holy mountain”, thought by many to be Mount Sinai. Jesus delivered the sermon on the mount on a hill overlooking the sea of Galilee. There is an abundance of holy places on high ground. It seems that people have been meeting God, and God has been meeting people, on mountains pretty frequently!

I know a lot of people who say they find it easier to meet God, easier to talk to God, out in nature. There’s no better place to pray than hiking on a mountain, they say, because it brings you closer to the sky—God’s own cathedral. It puts you in touch with the creation. It’s quiet and many think you can hear God better “out there.” And it’s true that going away to a quiet place, to a mountaintop, to worship and to pray is a biblical thing to do. It’s also true that going to a worshipping community and its sanctuary is a biblical thing to do. It’s also true that going to feed the hungry is a biblical thing to do. God talks in all these places—the question is where we expect to find God, and where we can best listen.

In the Celtic tradition, as many of you have been learning, some places are “thin”—the boundaries between earth and heaven, between sacred and secular, are thinner, fuzzier, more porous in some places. Many of these thin places are on high places. And at many of them, especially in Scotland, pilgrims have been building cairns for centuries. A cairn is basically a pile of rocks. The rocks carry the prayers and identities of the people who place them. Nearly every thin place has one—something to mark the spot, to bring it even closer to heaven, to preserve the moment. But unlike Peter’s suggestion of dwellings, the stones stay and the people go.

The thing about encountering God, of course, is that God doesn’t live on a mountaintop. We can have mountaintop experiences in church, on a bus, in school, with friends, while praying at home, or even out on the plain—a good thing since we live in the prairie, not the mountains! What matters is that we encounter the living God, and once that has happened, we can never be the same.

What goes up must come down, even on the mountain, even in the church, even at home. In the thin place, on the mountain, we encounter God. Then we go down the mountain again to everyday life, but we are different. We carry with us the glow that comes from talking to God. Like Moses, we’re shiny. And we have a choice to make: to hide our light, as Moses did, so we don’t scare people (or so we don’t inconvenience ourselves), to stay silent as the disciples did, or to share our light with the world.

Some people will say they aren’t good enough, that their light isn’t strong enough. Some will say that it’s too difficult or too risky to share the light. Others will say they don’t want to brag. But Jesus told us that even though it would be difficult, we’re to let our lights shine—a lamp belongs on the lampstand, not under a basket. Light is for sharing, not for hoarding. And the light that comes from an encounter with the living God is long-lasting and genuine, not boastful or fearful.

One of my favorite quotes is often attributed to Nelson Mandela but is actually from Marianne Williamson. She says, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." (1)

When we encounter God, our inner lights are renewed, and we go out as mirrors of God’s grace and glory, bearers of God’s presence—to let our lights shine on the world. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.


(1) by Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles.

procrastinating

it's writing day. I'm working on my t-fig sermon. and for some reason I cannot stop obsessively checking my email...every few minutes. It's like "oh, I wrote two sentences...must be time to check my email." I can't stop. I might have to unplug my internet cable just to get anything done. I really want to have the sermon done by 5.

It's 3.10.

And I'm blogging, checking my email, praying for a way out....or an inspiration.

prayer on the mountaintop

for Transfiguration...

PRAYER ON THE MOUNTAINTOP

You always seem to speak on mountains—
make this place a mountaintop today.
On mountains your glory shines—
make this place a mountaintop today.
On mountains we can hear your word—
make this place a mountaintop today.
On mountains you show yourself to your people—
make this place a mountaintop today.
On mountains your presence is easy to see—
make this place, and every place, a mountaintop
and make us the mirrors of your glory,
the speakers of your word,
the bearers of your presence.
Amen.

hair

Am I really asking so much?

All I want is a good hair day on a Sunday.

Is that so much to ask?

Am I having good hair today? yes. Friday, when it was my day off? yes. Sunday? no.

I have yet to have a good hair day on a Sunday in this church. What is that all about?

please??? Especially when the video people are actually taping?

cold

it looks like the forecast that gave me hope--the one that said it would get up to freezing this week!--was wrong.

Now for Thursday (the day they thought it would get up to 32) we're looking at a range between 0 and 10 for the day. sad.

On the bright side, it was above 0 this morning when I woke up, so I went to the gym. I feel better already.

But it's snowing, so the brightness comes from blinding white snow...

days off

I love being organized enough that I can actually take days off.

This week I managed to be organized (and disciplined!) enough to not only take both yesterday and most of today off, but also to go home at a decent hour every night that I didn't have a meeting! That's awesome. I feel pretty good about my time management this week. Oh, if only I can do it again....

what might be helping: going to church 30-45 minutes earlier than usual because I skipped going to the gym this week. I'm morally opposed to going to the gym if it's below zero degrees when I wake up and want to go. Therefore I've not gone for a whole week. It's supposed to be warmer this week--highs getting up to freezing! (I can't believe I'm excited about that, when a year ago "cold" was 50 degrees.)

In other news, Ollie drank a whole bowl of pineapple juice. I can't even believe it. In still other news, Andrew is still sneezing. And he finds the best time for olympic-training to be "anytime it's dark outside."

Today's tasks:
1. children's sermon
2. butterscotch brownies for the bake sale tomorrow
3. read
4. nap
5. watch Food TV
6. make some kind of excellent dinner involving vegetables and probably brown rice.
7. play with kitties.
8. read
9. nap
10. panic about children's sermon, have anxiety dreams, wake up at 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am, 6am until I come up with something.

Sounds like a good day!!

:-)

happy birthday amy!

Today is my friend Amy's birthday. Go wish her happy birthday!

kitty olympics

Here's the olympian-in-training.
What events is he training for, you ask?
Well, let's see:

• attack and flinging of oblong objects (pens, chapstick, remote controls, telephones, etc.)
• retrieval and shredding of kleenex (more points if it's retrieved from its box)
• single-bound-bed-leaping
  
• trash-can-tipping

It's been an exciting couple of nights at my house...

dots

• I came back from Atlanta to discover that the HIGH temperature here, with wind-chill factored in, was -17 degrees. BRRRRR. yesterday it was so cold that school was cancelled. Today it's really cold and snowing too. Who even knew it could snow when the high temp for the day is 0?

• I got my car back. It's beautiful. I hadn't realized how comfortable my car is to drive until I spent time driving two different rental cars that were decidedly UNcomfortable to drive.

• My computer was doing weird stuff yesterday. But today it seems better (knock on wood).

• my to-do list for this week is going excellently!

• It is so cold outside that cars don't start. My car starts, at least so far, but wow. Also, I have had to close all the blinds/shades/curtains in my house in an effort to keep some heat in. My 25 year old furnace has trouble keeping up with the -30 windchill thing. My cats do not like this because they can't see out without, you know, climbing through the blinds. But they were cold before, so too bad. Ollie was acting like she was going into hibernation or something.

• I cannot even believe it's only 3:00 in the afternoon. I think today might be the longest.day.ever.

• Did I already tell you that I watched Jesus Camp a couple of weeks ago, and it was a really well done film, and one of the scariest movies I've seen in a long time? Tonight's movie menu: Little Miss Sunshine. Don't tell me about it! I haven't seen it yet!!

• I am collecting copies of the Northwest Herald article about me. If you read this and you also get the Herald, please bring me the article! I need to send some to my fam. Thanks!

• Richard went out and bought us all space heaters yesterday. God bless him. it's a beautiful thing. For the first time since coming back from Atlanta my toes are not freezing.
  

• Sherri (the church musician) and I are getting ready to teach a class during Lent: The church in Africa. The class is called "Uyai Mose" (Come All You People). It's going to be cool. If you have stories about the church in Africa, your experiences of a church in Africa, or resources for stories/personal experience, please email me ASAP! And if you're here in town: come to our class, it's going to be awesome!
  

emergent mainline

This seminar is pretty good...I'm enjyoing myself, meeting people, hanging out with old classmates, and enjoying being "out of town."

but here's the thing I'm missing: a center of God in Jesus.
We're all about our experience, we're all about ways of organizing (or not), ways of proclaiming, ways of whatever...but without the explicit center, what does that mean? Are we a community gathered around Jesus, or a community gathered around our postmodern experience of ourselves?

I think we assume the center, but it's not being said, and that worries me.

What excites me? Imagining our story together in a different way, re-writing our narrative, plugging into the greater story in a way that is renewing and whole-making rather than destructive. We can hope, people.

postmodern

in a conversation in which I've said "I'm postmodern"--the response:
"well, yes and no."

do you get more postmodern than that?

I'm famous!

Okay, so almost famous.
Whatever.
The article about me ran in today's Northwest Herald. It's pretty good--especially given the paper's reputation around here. The photo is funny to me because it's one of about 4,000 photos he took, with me looking at different things in the sanctuary. LOL! in the print version of the paper there's a photo and teaser on the front page, then the story and full photo are on the front page of the local/region section, section 2 or B or whatever. Cool! This is a good way to start my ridiculously early morning...

Thought I'd share...

in the dark....

it was night when we left the house, carrying only backpacks, and made our way to the bus station. We boarded a large charter-type bus with carpet-feeling seats. The other passengers were loudly speaking in languages we didn't understand, the movies they showed were not funny, the heat was not functional, the shocks didn't seem to work either, and often the headlights were optional.

We made it to (insert destination here: Sallum, Taba, Hurghada, whatever) in one piece, only through the grace of God.

At 4 this morning I went to a hotel and boarded a large charter/commuter bus with softer carpety upholstery, a functioning heater and brakes and headlights, with very few fellow passengers, all of whom spoke English. I was handed a newspaper as I boarded, the driver took care of my bags, and the lights stayed off the whole way to the airport. Granted, the drive is just an hour, but.....
I glanced at the front page of the paper and saw my own picture...and suddenly the trip wasn't feeling quite the same as those previous late-night-bus-trips....

Sticks and Stones--a sermon for Ordinary 4 C

("final" draft)

Rev. Teri Peterson
Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church
Sticks and Stones
Jeremiah 1.4-10, Luke 4.16-30
Ordinary 4 C

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’
Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’ But the Lord said to me,
‘Do not say, “I am only a boy”;
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
says the Lord.’
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,
‘Now I have put my words in your mouth.
See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.’


When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, ‘Is not this Joseph’s son?’ He said to them, ‘Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, “Doctor, cure yourself!” And you will say, “Do here also in your home town the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.” ’ And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’ When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.


Can you think of someone who reminds you of Jesus? Someone who has been really Christ-like? How about someone who has really represented God to you, personally?

Now, be honest. Raise your hand if you thought of someone who was really kind, who comforted you, who helped you out when you were in need, or who is just really nice.

Now raise your hand if your first thought was of someone like Mother Teresa. Did any of you actually think the words “Mother Teresa”?

Now raise your hand if you thought of someone who said things you didn’t want to hear, who was kind of obnoxious, who hung out with all the wrong people. Someone who angered you so much by what they said and did that you would not have minded joining a mob stoning them—with actual stones or with words. Since, of course, we don’t really stone people today, but we all know that sticks and stones break bones, but words….well, words can hurt even more than stones.

Barbara Brown Taylor tells the story of a woman who, when asked to do this same exercise, said, “when I heard this question, I tried to think of a person who told me the truth so clearly that I wanted to kill him for it.” Taylor goes on to say, “She burst our bubble, but she was onto something vitally important that most of us would be glad to forget: namely, that the Christ is not ONLY the one who comforts and rescues us. The Christ is ALSO the one who challenges and upsets us, telling us the truth so clearly that we will do appalling things to make him shut up. If you do not believe that, maybe that is because you have not recognized Christ in some of the offensive people God has sent your way. Not all of them, mind you, but some of them—people sent to yank our chains and upset our equilibrium so we do not confuse our own ideas of God with God.”

The thing about Jesus, you see, is that in the gospels he doesn’t often look much like that first group: the nice, comforting, helpful Jesus. Yes, sometimes he’s like that. But most of the time he is out just narrowly avoiding getting himself killed. Why? Not because he offered someone a tissue, but because he says things. He does things. Not the good, popular thing, but the right, unpopular thing. He sees the image of God even in the annoying, the unclean, the wrong people. He talks to women. He touches lepers. He tells religious leaders that they may look righteous on the outside but they’re sinners on the inside. He says things like “blessed are the poor” and “take up your cross” and “your sins are forgiven” and “back in the time of the prophets, the outsiders from Lebanon and Syria got healed, but no Jews did.” It may not sound like it to us, but these are fighting words…especially since everyone listening knows that they are the truth, but no one wants to hear it. Jesus says to these people, sitting in his home church, “you think you’re special because you’re God’s chosen people, you think you can use me for whatever I’ll do for you, but you’re wrong. God has chosen a whole bunch of people, not just you—the circle is wider than you imagine.” And boy do they not want to hear this. They move from adoration and applause to anger and assault in the blink of an eye. Surely no one speaking for God would ever be like him?!!?

A couple of years ago there was a tv show called Joan of Arcadia. Joan is a normal teenage girl…except that she talks to God. Not like she prays a lot…I mean, she actually talks to God. God appears in totally random people—convenience store clerks, custodians, creepy guys at the cemetery, nurses, teachers… So Joan is constantly on the lookout for God, sometimes even mistaking ordinary people for God. The thing is, even when she turns out to be talking to an ordinary person, she hears God’s messages through them anyway. When God does show up, it’s often to ask her to do something—God has her join the chess team, take AP chemistry, go to a dance with a nerd, and even build a boat. Her parents think she’s gone crazy, but Joan learns not only about following when she’s called but also about her own hidden gifts, among which are boat-building! It’s an interesting show—I recommend it. The best part is watching Joan as she learns to recognize God in the most random ordinary people, even social outcasts, weirdos, and people who always say the thing no one wants to hear. She eventually learns to see God everywhere. I suspect that’s a part of our own calling too—to look for and see God in everyone we meet.

But how do we know when people are being Christ-like by saying things we don’t want to hear and when they’re just mean-spirited? Well, I suspect we can find some clues in today’s readings. Jesus tells good upstanding synagogue-goers that the woman from Lebanon and the man from Syria are worth just as much as they, the Jews, are, and the congregation tries to throw him off a cliff. Jeremiah is told he is being sent to the nations and kingdoms, not only to the Israelites, and ultimately his message gets him tossed in prison and dragged off to Egypt. It seems that whenever the thing we don’t want to hear is a widening of the circle, an opening of the door, a breaking down of barriers—perhaps that’s one place where we should look a little deeper for God’s image in the people who bring that message.

Recognizing God is one side of Joan’s calling, and ours. The other side of the coin, for both Joan and for us, is to be the one who says or does those things that need to be said and done. And often that second side is the harder part of our call—to speak truth with love, to do the unpopular thing. Sometimes we don’t know how to do it, what to say. Sometimes when we do it, we get words and stones thrown at us. Speaking the truth in love is not an easy thing to do, but it is a Christ-like thing to do.

There are lots of examples of people who try to do this. Sometimes they’re horribly unpopular, sometimes their stories make the news, sometimes they get labeled with unsavory words. I’m sure you know some. Here are some I’ve been thinking of lately.
I’ve been thinking about the couple who put a wreath shaped like a peace symbol on their house in Colorado this past Christmas. They were threatened, the neighborhood association ordered them to take it down, they were called traitors—because they put up a symbol of peace in a time of war.
I’ve been thinking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian during World War II, who stood against the German churches that were going along with Hitler’s plan. Ultimately he spoke out too much and he also got caught in a plan to assassinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer was killed in a concentration camp.
I’ve been thinking about protestors who converge on Washington to beg for a culture of life for all people—for the lives of Iraqis, the lives of people on welfare, the lives of unborn children, the lives of the Sudanese, the lives of would-be immigrants. Each of them tells us something about ourselves, about our country, our culture, our politics—and often they are things we don’t like hearing about ourselves. They get labeled “radical” and “partisan” but they continue to pray and work for what they know is right.
I’ve been thinking about Jimmy Carter, who has been working for peace and justice his whole career. Sometimes he’s popular, sometimes he’s unpopular. Right now he’s pretty unpopular because of the title of his new book. I haven’t read it yet so I can’t say much about it, but I can say that the storm surrounding it sounds an awful lot like he touched a nerve…like he said something that no one wants to hear.
I’ve even been thinking of Mother Teresa, actually. Yes, she was kind and caring and wonderful, and she eventually became popular and beloved. But in the beginning, she was doing the thing no one else wanted to do, she advocated for the unpopular and unclean, hung out with the wrong people, and spoke up for the right thing even when no one wanted to hear about it.
I’ve been thinking about some people here in this congregation who have said things about our life together that needed to be said…and there are others who don’t want to hear…and ultimately, we are the body of Christ together, the image of God is in each of us, and our task is to meet Christ in one another.

And, like Jeremiah and like these modern-day prophets, our task is sometimes also to be the one who says the hard thing, who does the right thing, to be the unpopular one, to tell the truth in love. When I was growing up, we had a phrase that got used a lot in my family. You’ve probably heard it: “What’s popular is not always right, and what’s right is almost never popular.” It’s hard to do what’s right, to speak truth with love. It often leads to getting stoned with words. For the prophets and for Jesus, it often led to real sticks and stones. Jesus didn’t say it would be easy. In fact, he said we’d be persecuted, but blessed. And God tells us through Jeremiah not to be afraid: though the way will be difficult, God will be with us the whole time.

Indeed, God puts God’s own words into Jeremiah’s mouth. How great it would be if that were the case for us! It would be so much easier to say the right thing if we knew they were God’s words. But since we don’t, we often keep our mouths closed. We pass by on the other side for fear of doing the wrong thing or of not being good enough. But, as I was reminded by Becky Fischer, the pastor in the movie Jesus Camp, “If you don’t open your mouth, the Holy Spirit can’t speak!” We are called to be Christ-like in both the “usual” caring, kind, and helpful way and also in the more difficult speaking-the-truth-in-love way. And that means we have to open our mouths sometimes and trust that the Holy Spirit is going to do the speaking.

In the words of William Sloane Coffin: May God give you grace never to sell yourself short, grace to risk something big for something good, and grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but truth, and too small for anything but love.
Amen.

monks

I was so hoping to fit the Monk Story (as I call it) into my sermon this week, but it's not going to happen. Therefore I'm going to tell you all the monk story.

Once there was a monastery with a bunch of old monks. No new monks had come for a long time. There was a monk that annoyed everyone because he slurped his soup. There was a crotchety old monk. There was a monk who irritatingly kept track of who arrived a few seconds late for mass. There was a monk who snored so loudly everyone else could hear him. All of the monks were pretty set in their ways and sometimes were...well...not subtle about the ways other monks annoyed them.

The abbot was not at all sure what to do about this or about the fact that the monastery was going to die with them, so he went to visit a hermit in the woods. After hearing the story (over a cup of tea of course!), the hermit said "well, I don't know how to bring more monks to your monastery, but I do know something: one of you is God."

well, the abbot sure was surprised to hear that! He went back to the monastery wondering who it might be--the slurper? The snorer? the time-keeper? bad-tempered-bob? He gathered the few remaining old monks and told them what the hermit had said. They were quite excited to hear this, but also desperate to know who it was! They left the chapter-house all-abuzz.

Well, not knowing who was God, they began to treat each other as if each one might be God, they began looking for Christ in each other. Soon enough the atmosphere of the place changed from one of grumpiness to one of joy. The very air was vibrant. Soon people began to flock to the monastery to try to learn what these monks knew...and the monastery grew and thrived. And they never did figure out which of them was God.

The end.

I love this story. I like it almost as much as the camel story, which will wait for another day because right now I am procrastinating on turning the 1700 words I have already written into something resembling a sermon.

okay, I had to do it

apparently I am a lemming.
Oh well, because I'm a winsome lemming.
Who doesn't love the word "winsome"--I mean, really?

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Reverend Countess Teri the Winsome of Piddletrenthide Under Booth Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

"simple" luxuries

There are some things I can do here that make me really happy, and every morning I think of how luxurious they are. Perhaps they don't sound like luxuries, perhaps they sound like simple little things, but I promise you, they are luxury.

--popping my clothes in the dryer before I get in the shower, so I'll have warm clothes to put on. (Since I've been living in apartments with laundry elsewhere in the building, or in Egypt where dryers don't exist, for 8 years, this is an incredible luxury that I love.)

-- standing in the shower an extra few minutes, not doing anything, just being in the warm water, and knowing those two or three minutes are not going to make or break the morning. (this only happens on non-Sundays...)

-- running to the store to grab milk after 10pm. There's just one store nearby where I can do that, and there's just one person who works that shift each night, and I am so thankful for that girl.

-- Driving. Getting to church in exactly 10 minutes. Being able to say "I'm 4-1/2 minutes away from church right now" with authority, and being right.

-- telephones, and good friends on the other end of the line. Being able to talk to friends is so great. I can see why several of my friends have forbidden me to leave the country again for a while--it's hard to be without a friend, even by phone!

-- leftovers. Refrigerators, microwaves, dishes that can be microwaved...these are beautiful, beautiful things.

snow and ice

it's covering the lots of the country--some places used to it, some not.
I think we are supposed to fall into the "used to it" category here.
However, yesterday while heavy wet snow was falling onto frozen roads, the crews were not out in the full force one would hope. Instead, the roads, especially the ones that are not the two main roads in this town, were blanketed with snow and ice--though it didn't look that bad, it was extremely slippery.

Slippery enough that my cute (and still almost brand-new) honda civic slid at a 45 degree angle rather than the 90 degree turn I was trying to make, leaving me stuck on the curb in a snowbank at the corner. About half an hour and four lovely young men later, I was on my way but with a very broken bumper.

It turns out that snow can cause serious damage if you run into it, even at very slow speeds, and even more damage if you then try to get out of it. The estimate for repairs? $1302.66. Thankfully, injuries= none, except the car.

Today it's sunny, a teensy bit warmer, and there's actually a thaw going on.

figures.

movie theaters

I don't like movie theaters. I think it's bizarre to pay $8 (more or less) to sit in a room with a bunch of people I don't know and then watch tv, very loudly, while wondering what exactly is on the floor. It's rude to talk, but I like talking. Other people talk and that annoys me. At home, you can watch the movie for about $3-4, in your own house where you know exactly what is on the floor, you can talk all you want and you can rewind if you miss something.

Having said that, I saw two movies this week: Charlotte's Web and The Pursuit of Happyness. Both were excellent and I highly recommend them. CW was witty, encouraging, laugh-out-loud funny, and tearful. PoH was saddening, encouraging, eye-opening, and dramatic. Both said things about life that were so great, I'm going to share them with you. I was really struck by how both of these movies, which seem so different, have the same exact themes. Now maybe this happens with most movies and I've just not watched enough of them in close enough proximity to one another to catch it, but this time I just really caught on.

Without further ado, three things I noticed in common between Charlotte's Web and the Pursuit of Happyness:
1. The main characters are so determined! (Fern is not going to let that pig be killed, and neither is Charlotte. Chris is going to be a good dad, he's going to be there for his son, he's going to provide, he's going to get their life together.)
2. The main characters work really really hard, all out of love for someone else, not for themselves.
3. The main characters really believe that the world can be different. Even when other people, even significant people, tell them it's not possible, even when everything is against them, even when everything looks hopeless, they continue to see possibilities, to trust, to hope, to believe. Ultimately, I think this is what the Christian life is really about--to believe that things can be different, that they will, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. and then to put into action themes 1 and 2--to work for that different world, to be determined, to love.

And that's my insight for the day. The end.

Friday Five

A simple friday five for a busy week. Strangely appropriate, since I had an interview with a reporter yesterday.

Who: me!!! and who else?
What: emergent mainline seminar
When: Jan. 30-Feb. 1
Where: Columbia Seminary in Decatur, GA
Why: cuz all the cool kids are doing it

So...anyone else?

an alternate set of answers:
Who: me and RCLPC
What: a newspaper article in the Northwest Herald
When: umm...good question. "within the week" according to the photographer, but who knows
Where: the Northwest Suburbs
Why: because RCLPC went to Egypt to find their new Associate Pastor (me).

oh yeah.

an adventure indeed

the first session meeting i've ever moderated is out in record time, all business accomplished.
no anxiety necessary.
:-)

a new adventure?

Right now I am desperately wishing I knew more of the matriarchs of RGBP personally, or had phone numbers for them.
Senior Pastor's daughter is sick. throw-uppy sick.
There is a session meeting tonight.
As "another minister of this presbytery" I have been invited to moderate said session meeting.
I feel some mild anxiety about this as it's not only my first one to moderate but also the meeting in which we need to discuss/approve the budget.

A new adventure indeed....every day, a new adventure.

In other news, I saw Charlotte's Web this afternoon. It was great. I cried. I was reminded why I don't watch Animal Planet anymore. And it was a beautiful movie. I can see why Richard's sermon was about the movie this weekend. :-)

More news: I was installed yesterday. It was great. Numerous thanks to the people from all over who agreed to serve on the commission--some of you are real life savers! The reception was wonderful--many thanks to the extremely talented women who baked, the people who set up and cleaned up, and the APNC and God for bringing me here. And I am so happy that last presbytery hoop is jumped.

That's all.

Saturday evening

There are not a lot of better ways to spend a Saturday evening than this:

--cooking Indian food at home
--WHILE watching Buffy!
--then eating said Indian food
--WHILE watching Buffy!

It was great.

Unfortunately, now I have to clean up. boo.

parking lot adventure

I got my hair cut today (nothing drastic) and then headed down to Trader Joes because WOW was I in need of groceries!

I had the funniest experience there....

I parked my car, and when I looked out my driver's side window before going out into the cold, I did a double take.

There was a large, dark colored poodle-esque dog in a red sweater sitting in the driver's seat, facing forward, one paw on the wheel.

I kid you not.

I was a little too slow grabbing my phone to get a photo--I got the dog, kind of, but it had taken its paw off the wheel by then.

sadly, the car was gone when I came out, so I never got a chance to see if the owner looked at all like his/her dog. matching sweaters, maybe?

kitty news

My kitties are getting along.
How do I know?

They groom each other now.

How cute. :-)

Also, I woke up in the middle of the night to discover that I had Andrew sleeping on my left shoulder and Ollie sleeping on my right hand.

Also cute.
and kind of hot.

Things

There's a lot going on here. Too much, some might say. It's been a busy January, and promises to get busier. In a nutshell:

--There is big change afoot in our worship life.
--The confirmation class has started and there are 19 youth in it! It's incredible...and will require lots of prayer for both the youth and for me as to how best to organize a year-long class into half a year, and how to give the attention they deserve to 19 different youth.
--Senior High Youth Group has started well...and is starting some new things, which is exciting. Among the new things: Wednesday night "Study Break"--hanging out with theme snacks; movie nights, and field trips (to the ice cream place!).
--I was asked not once but TWICE to lead a workshop at the Blackhawk/Chicago Presbytery Junior High Retreat. Sadly, the session retreat is on the same day, so that's a no go for me. I'm sure the session retreat will be great and valuable, but I really love the B/C presby JH retreat and am sad to not only miss it but also to turn down that opportunity.
--I'm getting ready to teach a class on Celtic Christian spirituality.
--I'm also getting ready to co-teach a class on the church in Africa using story and song. If any of you are or have been in Africa and want to share a story, email me using the link at the top of the page. Thanks!
--It's my friend Noell's birthday today. You should go wish her a happy birthday!
--My installation service is this Sunday, thank goodness. I cannot wait for this last hoop to be jumped through. I think the PCUSA makes this intentionally difficult/a lot of work to discourage people from looking for a new call. Not that I'm looking for a new call, just that putting together a commission and a service in a place where you don't yet know anyone and where the clergy population is gender UNbalanced is a nightmare--and I'm glad it's almost done. Plus, the cheesecake that will be had at the reception might make it all worthwhile.

--I still don't have any friends in this area, but I am working on it.
--I admit to not having finished a novel last week, but for the past 10 days I have been reading "Mirror Mirror" by Gregory Maguire...it's pretty good so far. Different.
--The choir's Epiphany party was huge amounts of fun.
--Today I've been reading all the magazines/perusing the catalogs that have piled up on my desk in the last couple of weeks. Some: not bad. Some: very bad.
--Ditto all the music for our contemporary worship service, which has been playing on my car CD player for three days now in my attempt to familiarize myself with our repertoire.
--Lesson: in all sets of resources, there's good and not good stuff.

And now I must go. I have a novel to read.

marching band

Okay, so I know that the old-style (what I would call "Real" but is actually known as "big ten" style) marching is so out and everyone is doing the "marching" (glide step) that looks like walking these days, but honestly.
Regardless of step style, am I asking so much that marching bands in major parades at least walk in straight lines? In both the Macy's parade and the Rose Parade I have watched top-tier "marching" bands that can't even keep their lines straight when they're NOT playing, let alone when they are. Where are my high school band teacher and our kinda anal drum majors to whip them into shape? I mean, really. It's a marching band, people. Where are the diagonals? Oh wait, they don't exist because there aren't any lines.

Now that that's out of my system...I suppose I can move on in life. :-)

Happy New Year

Well, it's finally midnight here in central time...as jason pointed out to me, he gets "a whole hour longer" in 2007 than me. Until next New Year's, anyway. Unless he comes here for New Year's next year...in which case, I guess, he does in fact have an hour more than me in the year. lucky.

anyway, I think you should all be very impressed that I made it all the way to midnight. I was actually seriously considering going to sleep after talking to my eastern-time-boyfriend, but Veronica Mars kept me up. That's right. I finished two seasons on DVD and just wasn't ready to wait a year for the next season...so I started downloading. Did you know you can download TV episodes on iTunes? Dang. That's cool. Anyway...I'm enjoying the show. And so I'm still awake to hear and even see the fireworks random people around town are shooting off from their backyards with their own personal firework rocket launcher things. It's crazy. Real fireworks, coming from about three neighborhoods over...in every direction. Wow.

Everyone's listing their resolutions or things they want to do or whatever. I used to make my New Year's Resolutions into handy little acronyms so they'd be easy to remember. But then, at some point...maybe last year...I stopped making them. I don't do the resolution thing anymore. (warning: cynicism ahead...) I know that this week my gym is going to get more crowded, and it will last about until Valentine's day and then drop off. I know the Starbucks will probably have a shorter line for a few days. I know the library, which is undergoing some reorganization, will be full for a couple of weeks (when it's open, anyway, which is not a lot in january because of said reorganization).

(warning two: shameless bragging ahead...) Anyway, I have begun making it a habit of beginning my new year, and my new habits, at the beginning of Advent. It's been a couple of years...ever since the first time I had a youth group "New Year's Party" on the first sunday of Advent. so...my "new self" has been in progress since about Thanksgiving. But really before that too--because I don't want to be one of those Valentine's Day casualties, so I started making a habit of going to the gym, for instance, 5 days a week, back in November. And I have noticed that, along with that, I eat better. I don't crave the sugar, the candy, the cookies, the brownies, the Dr. Pepper, etc, in quite the same way. In fact, I bake and take the stuff to church and don't eat it. I made chocolate chip cookies a couple of weeks ago and am still working my way through the second half of the one cookie I tried to eat. And everyone else said they were really good.

Ice cream is still my main weakness.

Anyway...here are some things I would like to try to do this year:
* paint pottery once a month
* read a novel a week. (well...I don't have to finish the novel every week, just I want to have at least one novel going every week.)
* maybe get a library card....
* get into a work rhythm that allows me to get everything done and also set reasonable boundaries.
* make friends in Crystal Lake

that's it...no clever acronym yet though.

Anyway...Happy New Year! may it be better than last year.
And for those still waiting for the ball to drop...here's a little postcard from the future. nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah...I got here first. ;-) just kidding.

and happy sleeping to all of you.

1st Sunday of Christmas: a sermon

the first first draft of this weekend's sermon...to be preached on Saturday and Sunday...comments invited!

“Need to Know”
Luke 2.41-52
RCLPC
Christmas 1: December 30/31 2006


Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Once upon a time, there was a young girl. She was considered too young to start school—she had not reached that magic age by the magic deadline, and so was sent to another year of preschool, despite the fact that she had already begun to read. The next year rolled around, as years are wont to do, and the girl went to the Kindergarten class with the other girls and boys. A few delightful days full of games, stories, and play passed. Then a note went home with the girl. Her mother read the note, laughed, and said “I told you so.” The next week, there were tests…all kinds of tests. Tests with shapes, words, stories, puzzles. At the end of the tests, a very serious woman said to the mother, “I think your little girl here ought to be in second grade.” The mother laughed again, said “I told you so” again, and then said “no way.” First grade it was…and the girl was back with the kids she tried to begin school with the year before.

Jesus was only 12. He wouldn’t be a man, a student, an apprentice…an anything, really, until the next year. He had a whole year to wait until he could study with the teachers, ask questions, or do any learning outside his home or local synagogue. He certainly couldn’t work, and anything he might say would probably be automatically discounted because he was nothing but a child—and children were not worth much until they became productive—at 13.

Have you ever noticed how children often say things very matter-of-factly, as though it should be plainly obvious to all of us what is going on? Like the girl who, when asked what she was drawing a picture of, said “God.” To which the teacher responded with a mixture of patronizing and confusion, “but no one knows what God looks like.” The girl did not even look up from her drawing as she answered, “they will when I’m done!” How obvious, of course! I suspect that teacher walked away not really understanding. I suspect that my own parents and teachers walked away from that first week of school not really understanding the things I said and did, how to handle a 5 year old so precocious she got notes sent home that said “Teri tried to teach the class today…again.” And we read just now how Jesus’ parents didn’t understand…well, much of anything. This whole passage is filled with “they did not understand.”

The thing about parenting, I’m told, is that there’s no really good comprehensive “how-to” book. No “parenting for dummies” that actually covers all the bases for every child and every parent. There are always surprises, plot twists, comic relief, tragic moments. There’s always something that just wasn’t in the book. Jesus’ parents are no different, though their son was pretty different. Joseph and Mary had no big yellow book with black letters on the cover: “How to Parent the Messiah!” They learned about parenting the way everyone else does—by doing it. And Jesus, of course, learned about growing up and being a normal kid the way everyone else does—by doing it.

So here we have this suddenly precocious almost-teenager where just a few days ago we had a sweet little boy. Last week, in the manger, he wasn’t even crying, and now he’s sassing his mom. Last week there were angels singing and shepherds running, and now he’s wandering off in a crowd, staying out after curfew, not calling home, and sitting around with the grown-ups talking about religion and politics. But he’s only 12! What happened to Mary’s little momma’s boy?

I suspect this is a familiar feeling for many of you, as you’ve watched children grow up. Even I have felt it, watching my brother grow up and learn about life the hard way. I’ve felt it watching kids in my youth groups grow up. And they aren’t even my own kids! Yesterday they were crawling and today they’re driving. I admit I can’t understand how you all feel as you think about your kids becoming teenagers. And I can’t understand how Mary and Joseph felt when Jesus talked back to them in front of all those people, after they’d been sick with worry for four days.

Funnily enough, Jesus couldn’t figure out why they were so worried. And Mary and Joseph couldn’t understand why he didn’t get it. It’s a classic parent-teen conversation, with attitude. And all the people around were amazed that a mere child could understand so much of what the teachers taught. All over this story people are amazed, astonished, assuming, not knowing, and not understanding—and no one fits more of these words than Mary and Joseph, newly minted parents of an adolescent. Can’t you just picture them? They’ve been down in the city for a festival. They’re walking the 65 miles home afterwards with a throng of travelers, many of whom traveled down together as well. Family and friends, neighbors and coworkers, they all walked together. In the evening, Joseph says to Mary, “where’s that boy of yours?” Mary says, “umm, I looked after him while you took the lamb to be slaughtered. He’s your responsibility today! Why don’t you check on him?” They start with the family tents…no sign of their darling son. Then the neighbor’s tents…no sign of the kid there. Then his friends’ parents’ tents…no sign of the Son of God there either. Soon they’re saying to each other “no, he’s God’s Son, and he’s not even that cute…” as their frustration and anxiety mounts. They ask around, they even look in the camps of people they don’t know…he’s not there. So, back they go—fighting the crowd, the flow of traffic, the throng. Probably a hundred people told them they were going the wrong way as they walked back to Jerusalem, which was already a whole day away. Perhaps they were thinking that at least the crowd would have cleared out of the city by now, so he’ll be easier to spot…and what does he think he’s doing anyway?...he’s never misbehaved like this before…why did they ever agree to have kids?...soon Mary’s going through all the things she’s going to say to him when they find him…if they find him…Oh, God, what if they can’t find him?...that little scoundrel….kids these days!

Finally they go back to the Temple, which is finally starting to smell less like blood, and they start looking in the circles of teachers and students who ring the courtyard. In Middle Eastern culture, this is how religious schools work. Teachers find spots in the shade in the courtyard of a major place—in this case the Temple, in today’s Middle East, the mosque or the church—and the students gather around them. Everyone sits on the floor together while the teacher lectures and asks questions, and the students memorize, recite, and answer. It seems that Jesus has taken up residence in one of these circles…and that he is the one asking the questions. Hmm….how can this be? No one understands, least of all his parents, who finally find him sitting cross-legged on the white marble floor.

Have you ever noticed how often we use the words “understand” and “know” and other words like that? We like to know things. Well, at least I like to know things! Plus, we’re Presbyterians—education, intellect, understanding…that’s our thing. We like to know with our minds, to learn, to get our heads wrapped around things. We like to have words for everything—lots of words. That way we can be in control, right? Knowledge is power, after all.

But Jesus is one of those people we just can’t get our heads all the way around. We can’t know everything there is to know about God, we can’t understand Jesus, we can’t control or have power over God’s Spirit with our knowledge. It just doesn’t work that way! And, contrary to popular belief, we can’t ever really, fully, understand another person either. Most of us have enough on our plates just understanding ourselves, let alone someone else!

But that doesn’t stop us from trying, in either case. We have a very human desire to know things. Jesus apparently did too—otherwise he wouldn’t have stayed behind questioning the teachers in the Temple. Jesus’ parents wanted to know where he was, they wanted to know why he would do this thing, they wanted to know who he was and what all of that meant. But they couldn’t know—they couldn’t understand.

The thing is, even though they couldn’t understand, the reality is that they didn’t need to know. It wasn’t a necessity. Yes, they wanted to know all these things and probably more. I suspect most parents want to know all kinds of things. Kids too want to know all kinds of things. And there are about a zillion things I would love to know about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the church and the world and the brain and creation and pandas and people and…and…and…but I don’t need to know all those things in order to be in a relationship with God or with my neighbor. I don’t need to understand God. I don’t need to know everything, I just want to. And Jesus’ parents decided they didn’t need to know everything either. Instead, they just gathered up their son with hugs and tears and mild admonishments, and took him home. They loved him. Mary treasured these and many other things in her heart, as all mothers do. They didn’t need to know or understand, they just needed to be in a relationship with him, to treasure these things. Staying in the relationship is what mattered.

We don’t actually need to know everything, though we might want to. We don’t need to understand God—we can’t understand God! We can use all the words we want, but we can’t contain the Word. What we need is to be understood—by the only One who can understand. The only person in this story who is described as “understanding” is Jesus. Staying in the relationship with Jesus is what matters for us too, just like Jesus’ parents. They didn’t get it, but they loved one another. Even we can do that! He understands all things, including us, and including our relationship with him. And that is what makes all the difference.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.

in the news....

an article about harassment of women in Egypt

and

an article about how Jesus might feel about religion...

both interesting reads.

bread of life

Serving Communion is such an interesting thing.

When people arrive at the front of the line, usually they look into my eyes.
I say “the bread of life” and then they pull off the smallest possible piece of bread they can. If they accidentally get a piece that they might be able to taste, they look at me and make a surprised look and sometimes they even say “ooh! Sorry!”

They often say, “thank you.”

And then they move on to the juice or wine, and I always wonder whether they can even put their miniscule bit of bread in the cup without getting their fingers all sticky. But by then I’ve moved on to the “bread of life” line for the next person.

Last night I had one of the youth (a sophomore in high school) get to the front of the line and say to me “yeah, the bread of life. I got it!” He’d obviously heard the line about fifty times while waiting.

I also had lots of kids come up and try to take big pieces, only to be reprimanded by their parents: “just take a little piece!” which is usually followed with them looking at me and apologizing as they take their own microscopic piece of bread.

Why do we have this compulsion to take the smallest piece of bread ever? I want to just break the pieces off for people so I can give them a large enough piece that they might get the “feast” idea rather than the “famine” they seem to operate out of. We are not going to run out of bread, I swear. And you know what? This is a feast, a party, a celebration—it’s okay to take a big piece. At least big enough to get it in the juice without getting your fingers in too. In fact, I think it’s GOOD, even BETTER to take a big piece. This is the bread of life, strength for the journey, food from heaven! Do you just want a little bit of life, a little bit of strength, a little bit of heavenly food? No! This is your chance to be fed with God’s own self. Take a big piece. And teach the kids to take big pieces too! I think I’m going to do a “worship workshop” for kids and teach them about communion…and I’ll tell them to take big pieces. :-)

As for “thank you”—well, I always want to say “you’re welcome” which I’m not sure is exactly right. Though perhaps it is—“you are welcome to this feast!” Or perhaps I should just say “thanks be to God.” Or perhaps I should just say nothing. I don’t know. I’m sure I’ve written about this before somewhere but I don’t know where…so I can’t remember how I’ve dealt with this before. Last night, though, I just smiled and looked to the next person.

Suggestions for communion:
Don’t change the bread for Christmas Eve. And don’t use rye bread. It’s kind of spicy, and mixes strangely with grape juice. Always use Welch’s. And that’s all.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas all!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday.

After spending all of Christmas Eve at church (one morning service and five evening services), I slept in like crazy this morning. Then we opened presents and now I am the proud owner of some highly cool stuff!
--The coolest multi-purpose pot EVER--the strainer is right in the pot! No more pouring of the potatoes all over the sink while draining. woohoo!
--Really awesome measuring cups that look like little pots! They are serious stainless steel, too. The one-cup one is nearly as heavy as some aluminum small skillets.
--A beautiful tea box that makes me like a restaurant!
--an "I heart Mr. Darcy" sweatshirt...

and candy, fudge, and some other stuff. woohoo!

My cats loved playing with the wrapping paper.
the dinner was excellent--I used bunches of my new stuff to make it.
the Mythbusters marathon is awesome.
my kitties are both sitting on the couch with us right now....how sweet.

and that's all.
happy christmas!

Friday Five

From the RevGalBlogPals...

Festive Foods Friday Five

Well friends, we've covered advent, music, and movies/TV--but we here at F5 HQ would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that quintessential holiday topic... fooooooooood.

1. Favorite cookie/candy/baked good without which, it's just not Christmas.
hmm...I have to say those rice krispie things with peanut butter in them, with lots of chocolate on top. I don't know what those are called, but my grandma makes them and they are really good. Luckily last year while I was in Egypt one of the other missionaries made them. This year I am just suffering because I don't know how to make them and my grandmother is on vacation.

2. Do you do a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, both, or neither? (Optional: with whom will you gather around the table this year?)
Am I a bad person for not even knowing our own traditions? I have no idea what usually happens. I think that we used to travel on Christmas Day and that at grandma's house (dad's side) there were snack foods and make-your-own-sandwich-on-a-croissant trays. So I suppose the dinner is usually on Christmas Eve. This year, though, it's me and my dad at my house, and the dinner will have to be on Christmas Day because we have 5, count-em, FIVE services on Christmas Eve, and someone is bringing dinner for the staff and their families. So...on Eve I'll be with church people and my Dad. On Day I'll be with my dad and my two cats.

3. Evaluate one or more of the holiday beverage trifecta: hot chocolate, wassail, egg nog.
What exactly is wassail? Isn't that something one does? As in, "here we go a'wassailing" or something? Is that really just a drinking song? Anyway, I don't actually like eggnog, so I guess I'll go with hot chocolate. Even better: Trader Joe's Natural Mint cocoa. yum.

4. Candy canes: do you like all the new-fangled flavors or are you a peppermint purist?
Candy Canes should be peppermint. And they should be red and white. Period. Also, I actually only like them to use as stirrers for hot cocoa--then you have peppermint hot cocoa!!

5. Have you ever actually had figgy pudding? And is it really so good that people will refuse to leave until they are served it?
I have had figgy pudding. I guess it's that good, but I didn't find it so exciting. I prefer something I had for the first time a few weeks ago: Old Peculier Christmas Pudding. Yum. I tried to find info about it, but no luck. sorry. All I know is that it looks like cake, is made with beer or something, and was made by an incredible woman from the church and served at a huge Christmas open house. and yum.

Edited to add: Well, I am APPALLED with myself that I forgot to include a question about the crown prince of holiday foods--the fruitcake.
Feel free to add your thoughts on this most polarizing holiday confection.

I really don't like fruitcake. The smell, the taste, the heaviness...ugh. The end.

Advent 4: "Prophets and Promises"

edited for length (it was too short!)....and for ease of speaking...and for too many references to rich people being sent away empty. LOL.

Prophets and Promises
Isaiah 9.2-7, Luke 1.46-55
RCLPC
Advent 4: 23/24 December 2006

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.
You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.
For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
For a child has been born for us, a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.


And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I don’t know about you all, but both of these readings make me want to sing. I mean, really—just listen to them! There’s the Messiah, the cantata from two weeks ago, several great hymns, some catchy songs from other places in the world…there’s so much singing going on here. I hear so much beautiful music in my head when I read or hear these poems of Scripture.

But when I start to look at the people and the context behind them…well, that’s a different story. In Isaiah’s case, we find a nation polluted by corruption, a people who have turned away from their God, impending exile, and a prophet bringing words of both judgment and hope. And in Mary’s case, we find a poor young woman, living in a land occupied by a foreign power…a young girl, really, who has just discovered that she is going to have a baby, in spite of the fact that she’s not married, in spite of the fact that her fiancé had nothing to do with it, in spite of the fact that her village could stone her when they find out. Were I in either of those situations, I doubt I’d feel much like singing. And yet, sing they do—both Isaiah and Mary. In the midst of all the troubles, all the corruption, all the oppression, all the poverty, all the danger, they sing.

Have you ever known people like that? People who somehow manage to sing even in the midst of the difficulty, the tragedy, the anxiety? I know some of those people, and I am usually in awe of them. How can they do it? I often don’t understand. I don’t know if it’s that they just have such incredibly strong faith that they can sing of God’s mercy and promises even after an earthquake has left their house flattened, or if they are perhaps a bit…well, slow. I just want to say “can’t you see what’s happened? What’s happening? How can you be standing there talking about God’s great gifts and promises?”

And other times, I am that person. Sometimes I am the person who can sing of God’s grace and God’s promises in the midst of tragedy…but not all the time. I find it’s often a lot easier to look back on the situation and see God instead of trying to do that right in the thick of things. But here we have two people who are right in the middle of some pretty sticky situations, and right then and there they sing and write poetry about God’s promise. It’s pretty incredible.

There’s a word for these people, and it’s not “crazy” or “slow” or even necessarily “super faithful.” These are people who can see the world differently—but the word is not “idealistic” or “unrealistic” or “head in the clouds.” These are people who see the world the way God sees it, not the way we see it. The word for them is “prophet.”

Prophets are not people who gaze into a crystal ball or look at your palm and tell your fortune, not people who tell the future. You may have noticed, actually, that they have a disturbing way of speaking—they often speak in the past tense about things that haven’t even happened. Did you hear what Isaiah said? The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. A son has been born for us. And Mary: God has shown strength, filled the empty, fed the hungry, and sent the rich away empty. This past-tense talk can be really confusing when we start to think about how the world really is. I mean, our world seems pretty dark. The son we assume Isaiah is talking about won’t be born until (tomorrow night) tonight. There are lots and lots of hungry and homeless and empty people waiting to be filled, and lots of people who are so rich we can’t see them around the piles of money and paparazzi. Where is this world that these prophets sing?

That’s the trouble with prophets. They talk as though everyone can see what they see—but we can’t. Prophets see God’s world God’s way. It’s a seeing not done with eyes, but with an open and treasuring heart. It’s a way of seeing that makes them vulnerable to charges of idealism and charges of treason. That’s why prophets have such a rough life in the Bible—people wanting to stone them, imprison them, cut their heads off—any way to silence those people who show us what God sees.

Because the thing is, what God sees is often not what we’d like to see. Sometimes we would prefer to stay in our darkness—it’s comfortable, we know what to expect, we know how to act and how to respond and how to think and feel. Light can be blinding and disorienting and is not comfortable. We like being filled with good things, we like our comfortable lives, and frankly we probably do not want to give them up, we don’t want to hear that all our hard work only gets us sent away empty while the hungry and poor are lifted up and filled. The way God sees the world is pretty different from the way the world actually is—in fact, it’s opposite in many ways. The world order is upside down. That’s what prophets tell us: they tell us that, according to God, things are not right but they will be made right…indeed, in God’s vision, they are already made right. There is a revolution involved here, a turning, a new thing. This Advent message is not all cheer, not all stockings and fuzzy slippers and cookies and presents, not all gentle cattle lowing, strangely clean shepherds singing, and wise men looking adoringly at a sleeping baby that never cries. This baby we will welcome mere hours from now is one who turns the world around, who brings God’s vision for creation to life, who doesn’t just tell us what God sees but IS what God sees. It’s a different kind of cheer, a different kind of good news than what the world usually thinks of as “good.” This is news that God is alive, that God cares about the world and about us, that God is here in the midst of it all with us, and that things don’t have to be this way. This is news that God works great things even in the smallest of servants, that justice is coming, the mercy of God is deeper than we ever thought it could be, that life and love really are stronger than hate and death. This is news that the light, while blinding, is so much better than stumbling around in the dark and hurting ourselves.

And yet….and yet, the world still doesn’t seem right. It still seems pretty dark. The light does not seem to shine very well. The hungry are still hungry, wars still rage, the yoke of oppression still weighs heavily on many. The promises often seem far away…they were, after all, promises made to our ancestors, to Abraham. Perhaps they are so far back in history that they don’t count, that they don’t matter, that too many people have forgotten…even that God has forgotten?

But no…Mary says…no. God does not forget. God remembers. God keeps God’s promises, every time. That’s why the prophets, prophets like Isaiah, yes, even young girl prophets like Mary, can speak of this world they see using the past tense—because it has happened and will happen. Isaiah assures us: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this! There can be no doubt—the zealous Lord makes promises and keeps promises. Too bad it’s so hard to see them in our upside down world. Too bad it’s so hard for us to speak this way, without sounding trite and cliché. It’s hard to sound like Mary, like Isaiah—to be so sure, even in the midst of turmoil, war, and fear, or even in the midst of Christmas cheer, family and shopping.

But here, in the deepest moment of Advent—literally the last hours before we celebrate Christmas Eve, the darkest moment of the year, the shortest days, we do it too. We read these words and we proclaim that they are the truth—that light has shined, that a son has been given, that God has turned the world upside down, filled the hungry, showed powerful mercy, and brought rejoicing where there once was fear and grief. We sing of the promises these two unlikely prophets remind us of, and we too, for a moment, have this kind of sight, this kind of vision—God’s promise, God’s future, God’s new thing, is coming and has come and will come. Thanks be to God! Amen.

oy

the president just said, in the midst of his final press conference of the year, "i encourage you all to go shopping more." Oh dear. He really does think that shopping will defeat the terrorists. I mean, I know we joke about that, but he seems to actually think that.
Also, he's repetitive in an annoying way. "sustain itself, govern itself, and protect itself." over and over and over. oh my.

in other news, which is probably news to no one:

Until I moved here, Christmas lights on people's houses were things we went out looking for. In seminary we used to go driving around the neighborhoods looking for decorated houses to look at. In Egypt, of course, no decorated houses. But here, man, DANG! There are lights on almost every house. If you drive around at night, many of the houses look like gingerbread houses--with lights around the eaves on all levels (even on three story houses!), lights on everything. And there are some things I haven't really seen before. Like light-up animals. Did you know that you can buy reindeer made of Christmas lights at Home Depot? I thought these people were making these things--it's good to know that's not the case, but wow. There are a lot of these. And then there are the big inflatable things. On my way to church there is one house that has FOUR of these humongous inflatable decorations on their lawn, including a motorcycle-riding Santa and a snow-globe with snow blowing around inside. What is the deal with these things? I do not approve.

that's all. back to the sermon, the bulletins, the drama, the confirmation mentors, the senior high sunday school teacher recruiting, the reading, and the finishing up getting my house ready for people now.

confessions of a "church professional"

I know that confession is not a popular thing in our culture. I've never been one of the popular kids, so oh well.
I have some confessions to make.

Hi, my name is Teri, and I have what we like to call "boundary issues."
I have difficulty keeping time for myself. I have difficulty keeping Sabbath, in spite of the fact that I have no difficulty being Sabbath-police for my friends.
I have difficulty saying no, especially to things I really would like to do, things I feel I ought to be able to do, or to people I like (or want to like me).
I feel some guilt about trying to keep time-boundaries because I don't have a family to "attend to" and most of the other people here do. It's like I have no excuse to not work a bajillion hours a week and do everything and be what everyone wants. (This is how I think, okay?)
I am what would be called a "workaholic" in most other jobs but in this vocation is praised as "dedicated."

I know that this is dangerous. I know this leads to burnout. I know, intellectually, all the things that can happen if I am like this. I also know that I like things to be done well, I like to get things done, and that I LOVE what I am doing. And I knew about the hours when I got into it.
What I don't know is how long it will take (or what buttons will have to be pushed) for me to set those boundaries and keep them in a healthy way. Because I need to do that, and soon.

but for now, all I can do is confess. Lord, have mercy.

(ps/edit/clarification: my issue is not taking a whole day off. I do that pretty well by scheduling time with friends in the city on Fridays. My larger issue is day-to-day hours. I don't go in until 10 (I am not a morning person, so I go to the gym in the morning, then head to church) and a lot of people don't really understand that--so I tend to work later and later in an effort to justify that timing of my day. Except, of course, that leaves me with 10-12-14 hour days 5-6 days a week. But Friday, man--no work happens. I go to the Art Institute.)

random stuff

I have many things about which to blog. However, I am not feeling very well today and therefore am going to do some random dots instead of anything terribly worthwhile.

* I can't believe I didn't know about bloglines before. Suddenly I am saving all kinds of time. Dang.


* I love the Art Institute. This was one of my great "finds" of this week's visit. Raffaello Botticini's Adoration of the Magi, painted around the turn of the 15/16th century. Crazy.
That's quite a "stable." One of the cool things about this is that it's round (duh). Also cool is that painters of this period often, apparently, make the point that people have traveled a long way by putting things in their "procession"--so there's a giraffe hanging out, an African, a peacock, and all kinds of exotic stuff. And, of course, everyone (Mary included) is wearing middle class medieval european dress. funny! But cool. it's a beautiful painting.

I noticed on Friday that the Medieval Christian stuff like reliquaries and mass-ware (like communion-ware, only Catholic!) and devotional statues and stuff are in a big hall that also houses all the armor and armaments from the same time period. How funny and sadly accurate a picture of the medieval church that is. John the Baptist's finger on one side, spears and armor on the other.

* The Devil Wears Prada was a better movie than I expected.

* Wicked the Musical has a happy ending where the book does not.

* There's a strange wildlife phenomenon here. I live in a suburb (big box stores, traffic, and all), but work in a rural area (which is a grand total of four miles from my house...funny, but again, more on that in a different post). Every day I drive past cows and sometimes chickens. There are deer too, apparently. I saw one from the train yesterday morning--standing in the woods, staring at the commuter train as it flew by. It was beautiful. Last week I went to dinner at someone's house and had to drive through serious back-country-roads to get there (it's about 25 minutes from my house). I saw both deer crossing signs AND equestrian-crossing signs, which was quite funny. I didn't see any deer, though. And, of course, there are Canada Geese. Now, I thought these geese migrated south to a warmer place. There was a huge flock hanging out in one of the fields for about a week back in November. Then, one day, they were gone. This past week I drove a different way to church (past some different fields) and discovered the big flock of geese had migrated about half a mile southwest. Silly birds--there's ice covering that field! They did not manage to get somewhere warmer. In fact, they left the company of the cows, so they are probably colder (but less smelly) now.
(Monday update: the geese have moved about a half mile further south, to a little pond near a subdivision. funny geese.)

* down in the city (a whole hour away on the train), people are crowding the sidewalks with their big shopping bags from Macy's. I miss Marshall Fields. Also, do people not notice when they are blocking a whole sidewalk? Three people, hand in hand, walking slower than the average pedestrian traffic, oblivious to the fact that there's a pileup behind them...this does not make me happy. Especially when it's cold and windy outside.

* There was so much pedestrian traffic on Madison Ave near State Street on Friday afternoon that I saw a woman literally darting in and out of people trying to cross the sidewalk from a store to the road (to get a taxi). It was like watching someone cross traffic in Manhattan (or Cairo). Except she just had to dodge people walking very fast (too bad for her, she wasn't in the same stretch of sidewalk where I was stuck behind those three above).

* Andrew still has a cold--he sneezes a lot. Hopefully the amoxicillin will make him feel better soon. kitty snot is totally gross.

* This is totally awesome. I mean really. Watch the whole thing--it's cool. They have so much fun, it's impossible not to smile. :-)


* how is it even possible that it's Christmas already in one week? I am not ready. I have no idea what my Advent 4 sermon is going to be about. I have no idea what the order of worship for the two family services on Christmas Eve is going to look like. I have people now saying that their kids may not be able to stay for both services, which may mean cutting the drama (entire cast is elementary kids) from the 5-o-clock service...which means I will have to do something there instead. I have no time to figure all this out. Worse, however, I have no time to be sick. My tummy needs to get its act together. And my brain needs to stop me from eating eggs at places like the Corner Bakery. I should know better. I still made it through two services, the Happy Birthday Jesus party, and a christmas eve play rehearsal. Stirred-down coke is the best remedy for an upset tummy. I had two today and really did feel better for a while. Now I can't tell if I'm hungry or sick, so i'm holding out on eating. I suspect I'm hungry.

* I just want to spend a week doing nothing but watching Buffy and taking naps. Is that so bad?

* that's all for today I think.

thursday photo posting...

okay, so...it's thursday. I have photos to share with you all. Therefore, thursday photo blogging. good times.





First, last week's winterwonderland. This is "my" church--RCLPC--right after the big snowstorm. How postcard is this?













This is one of the fields I drive by every day. I mean, really....I work in a strange, strange place. More about that later.













Next up, newkitty, whose newname is Andrew. Here he is in the kitchen--his favorite place. He seriously eats like 23 hours a day.












And here he is with Ollie--both of them are eating treats (one of the only ways to get them to stand still far enough away from me to take a photo!!)

For ReverendMother and the other RGBPs...

This was in my inbox this morning, and of course made me think of RM's Friday Five last week! hehehe...

Advent Devotions: Thursday, December 14, 2006

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 52:7–10

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices,
together they sing for joy;
for in plain sight they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.
Break forth together into singing,
you ruins of Jerusalem;
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God. (nrsv)

Reflection

Bob Carlisle wrote the lyrics to a beautiful, powerful song that is played often on the radio at this time of year. “The Christmas Shoes” illustrates the message of the Isaiah 52:7-10 passage. It tells of a young boy, in worn-out clothes, waiting in line to purchase a pair of shoes on Christmas Eve. The shoes are for his mother, who has been sick for quite a while. “I know these shoes would make her smile,” he tells the person in line behind him. “And I want her to look beautiful if Mama meets Jesus tonight.”

But the young boy doesn’t have enough money in his pocket to pay for the shoes. Could anyone help him? he asks. The gentleman behind him reaches into his own pockets and makes up the difference, reflecting, “I'll never forget the look on his face when he said,
‘Mama’s gonna look so great.’”

I knew I’d caught a glimpse of heaven’s love
As he thanked me and ran out.
I knew that God had sent that little boy
To remind me just what Christmas is all about

It is in taking the time to share our love and kindness with others, especially those in need, that the Christ child is born anew in our world, in our hearts, in our lives at Christmas and throughout the year. It is in sharing our love and kindness in small, practical ways like the man in the story that we point others to Christ’s eternal peace. It is in walking in his way of peace that our feet, like his, become beautiful as we share the good news message of Christmas that God loves us and comes in the person of Jesus to save us all.

Prayer

Loving God of the Christ child, guide me and help me walk in the paths of righteousness, and help me to be a messenger to a world falling apart, pointing the way to love, hope, and peace eternal. Amen.

Written by Keith Harris, Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago

new puter!

My beautiful new computer has arrived.
It's white and has a pretty little apple on the front.
The apple lights up when I turn it on and off.
It's cool.
Also, everything works.
yay!

Tomorrow: pictures of Andrew.
Also tomorrow: a post that has a point of some kind.
For now: leaving church so I can finally eat dinner. I'm very hungry.

archives

my archives are gone now that i've switched to the blogger beta. does anyone know how to bring them back? please?

new kitty and other stuff

okay, new kitty has a name.
Andrew.
Much like the Buffy character of the same name, he's kind of a spaz and he likes to be the center of attention.

I think the post office commercial with the package and the plastic deer is hilarious. "that's okay. My place is here, with the snow people."

I really had something else I wanted to say, but I completely forgot while Blogger was busy switching me over to the Beta. grr. Perhaps I will remember later. Perhaps not.

Material Girl

Okay, so I'm not a big materialistic girl, but my family is always asking AND there are some things I need and some things I want, so I've made some lists. Feel free to peruse. If you have way more money than I know about, check out the Williams-Sonoma list first! LOL.

Williams-Sonoma registry. The "event date" is October 2006.

Amazon Wishlist.

I also need gloves and winter clothes--but I'm not about to give out my clothing size. So...I suppose I'll just say that gift cards to places where I can buy clothes (Limited, Gap, major department stores like Macy's, Victoria's Secret...) are good things.

goings-on

* new kitty arrived yesterday. silver furball, 7 months old, male, name pending. Ollie is cautious and, frankly, a little mad at me for hanging out with other cats. She also refuses to head back into my bedroom because it would mean passing the guest room, behind which closed door there is a new unnamed furball who cries at being alone, then goes to sleep.

* computer sick. very sick. runs only in safe mode--trying to start in normal-computer way = continuous rebooting from Windows loading page. new computer (bought by church) only just ordered today. computer mommy sad.

* 18 kids in confirmation class--dang!

* new kitty is super cute and lovey-dovey, but kind of a spaz too.

* Ollie has started licking the sliding glass doors...i'm hoping it's because she enjoys the cold (there's snow on the other side).

Beautiful moments of the past week:
* 9 high school kids walking a labyrinth, really participating in the stations: including touching water, putting it on their heads.
* sparkly snow on evergreen trees and also on bare branched trees lining the street down to our little white country-church, also covered in snow.
* talking until almost 2am with a new friend.
* people volunteering at a shelter that houses about 100 cats, most of whom are waiting for adoption.
* 36 people coming to my confirmation kick-off dinner. Parents playing the "make a pair" mixer (you know, name tags on their backs, they have to make pairs, ie "Nacho" and "cheese.") and actually having fun.
* me realizing that I had double booked myself for an hour on a Saturday three weeks from now....that hour being the worship service at which I am supposed to be PREACHING. ha!
* 10 small children so excited to be in the Christmas Eve play that I have to write some new parts for a few of them.
* new kitty curling up in his little bed and actually sleeping in it--something Ollie would never do.
* Ollie curling up inside my computer case and sleeping in it...again.
* Discovering that the personal-trainer-mandated 3x/week workout isn't as hard this week as last week.
* sleeping in.

you know it's cold when....

you are sitting at a stoplight and the temperature gauge on your car moves down even after your car was warmed up.

sparkly!

It snowed.
A lot.
There are probably 2 feet of snow on my balcony right now.
Now the sun has come out and it's all sparkly outside!
Is it weird that I want to go out and make a snow angel on my own balcony? I think that would be so fun.

Ollie is not at all sure what to do with all the stuff outside her windows. heehee!

Too bad I have to go to church in a few hours...I suspect driving will not be the most fun I've ever had. But in the meantime---
sparkly!

Friday Five: Advent is here!

From the RevGalBlogPals: Adventually!

Although it comes as late as it can this year, Advent is upon us.
Here are five questions about Advent for this first of December:

1) Do you observe Advent in your church?

yep. This week the church got all decorated with purple and with greenery, the wreath set up, and we are not singing a single Christmas carol until Christmas Eve (at least as far as I'm aware). We have kids acolyting to light the wreath for basically the first time ever, and a theme about new things (or something).

2) How about at home?

well...I don't spend much time at home. ;-) I have this year's PCUSA advent calendar (laid out like a newspaper, which is clever and kinda cute). I have a book I'll read at home during advent...it's called Manger and Mystery: an Advent Adventure.

3) Do you have a favorite Advent text or hymn?

ooh, so many. Of course, like everyone else, I love O Come O Come Emanuel...but I also really love "Comfort, Comfort, Ye My People" when the genevan psalter tune is sung well (not too slow). And, of course, Isaiah being my fave book of the whole Bible means that Advent is pretty much the best time of year for me, reading-wise! Though normally Lent is my favorite season, I have to admit that the music in Advent is about as good as it gets.

4) Why is one of the candles in the Advent wreath pink? (You may tell the truth, but I'll like your answer better if it's funny.)

I suspect it's to remind you of the Pepto-Bismol you'll need to recover from the children's sermons that try to explain why the candle is pink.

5) What's the funniest/kitschiest Advent calendar you've ever seen?

There's one at the grocery store right now that has santas all over it and counts down by opening doors shaped like presents. That's pretty bad...not funny, more sad.