09....minus 1

Scott is going to swim in the ocean tomorrow, yes, it is cold and rainy and all that but he is a fan of starting the year off with a splash. Me...I finished the final draft of my MA final project yesterday, and for me that is my splash into the new year. Scott's deal is a one time event, cold slap in the face...Mine, I have been working on this since August.
This is quite significant for me, it had become so huge in my mind that psychologically I was unable to even start let alone complete. I had great ideas every month that I could never follow through on because it had become a mountain of impossibility. I have been needing to write this Final Project for my MA for about 2 years now and have been unable to write a single sentence till this last August. What happened was an advisor who knew I could and encouraged every step of the way, Thank you Randy, and a husband who always believes the impossible can happen especially if it has anything to do with ability. He knew I could more then I knew I could. Yesterday, while the kids and he were out giving me quiet space in the house, I corrected the last of the draft. (BTW...I seem to not like to put in commas, anywhere, even when I need them, and even, when, I don't).
It is anti climatic after all the personal drama to finally be done. I should have a party or something for this accomplishment but it is New Years and a new year trumps all other celebrations. I have no idea if and when the graduation ceremony will happen but all the writing is done. When they sign on that line I will have a MA in leadership...too bad I don't have a job that needs it. But I finished it...I did not quit...I wrote 70 + pages...This is a great way to begin a new year.

And they found the babe...

There he was, all crinkled, prune like...hair matted against his cone shaped head lying in the manger. Protected for a time in the arms of his mother. A bundle of wrapped potential stretching against the confines of skin...the Almighty in flesh.
There they were, tired from a day of sheep keeping. Bright light...strange words of hope...don't be afraid, He is Here...the Almighty God, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father...All Hail...to this bundle of baby in the manger...GO and SEE...Peace and goodwill....Go and SEE!!!
There she was, tired sore, sweaty and dirty...pushing Him into humanity. A new mother, a new father...a new baby balling his little fists feeling hunger, limited for the first time in eternity, in a body.
Angels finding shepherds finding the baby...finding us.

Thank you all for following me through this journey of Christmas...it was so good for me to dive into the familiar. Merry Christmas and I will see you next year.

Mary did you know...

We watched a strange movie the other night...'Water'. It is a story about what happens to widows in India and how they are thrown away by society because without a husband they are just a burden to society. It made me think about the state of women across the world whether it is the hidden women in Muslims societies, the arranged women in Hindu society, the beaten down women in developing societies and the surviving women in war torn societies.

A great way to measure whether a religion has any merit is to see how they treat their women. It is a good barometer. Even though Christianity has its flaws when it comes to the treatment of women, Jesus always did right by women. He trusted himself not only to the care of a women but throughout His story all sorts of marginalized women were honored. A prostitutes (Rahab), a foreigner ( Ruth), the victimized (Tamar), the barren (Elizabeth), the widow ( Anna), the young mother (Mary) were named and honored.

Maybe that is why so many women followed Jesus and follow Jesus. Even though Catholics have taken away the simplicity of Mary and relegated her to an unapproachable standard, she represents the vulnerability of what it means to be a woman. And in that vulnerability she carried and cared for Jesus.

Every year I think of her as she struggles to carry her heavy body over the rough trail to a place she did not choose. No place of her own, no clean sheets and warm water, no family...nothing easy about the journey. So similar to so many stories all over the world on this day in December.

In uturo, He made his dwelling amongst us...

The reason for the season...

Every year we try really hard to do this season right. We are told time and time again that we can't forget the reason for the season. BUT...I contend that Jesus is not the reason for the season, we are. The whole reason we have this season, other then the fundamental reason that Constantine wanted to redeem the pagan solstice holiday, is to celebrate that the ALMIGHTY came down for us. We are the reason, we always have been and we always will be....Jesus came for us. I know...it makes it all pretty self-centered and it sounds wrong BUT...think about it. Unto you is born this day.....Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men.

In Zechariah's song...because of the tender mercies of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on the darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide OUR feet into the path of peace. Jesus did not come on a holiday trip for His benefit, He came for us...We are the reason for this season.

It is odd to think this way but what it does for me is changes my perspective. If this was all for us...why not celebrate! The solstice holiday that we redeemed was a season of hope. IT is dark, but it will get lighter. IT is cold, it will get warmer. It is gloomy but it will end. Bring in the evergreen to remind us that seasons come and go...light the candles, have a party...get us through these dark days. We knew even in our paganism that we needed to celebrate in the dark to remind us about the light. Constantine was brilliant in changing what was hollow into what we now claim as our holy day. It has only been our holy day for a few hundred years...It wasn't ours to begin with...none of what makes up Christmas is our to begin with. We borrowed a lot to make this rowdy time of old redeemable. I think it is a great idea, Christmas isn't biblical in that it was a holiday we were to celebrate...we created this time because we needed this time to hope. In the dark of the season, in the cold of the night we needed a light to guide us through. A star...angels...donkeys and pregnant mothers... young and old, rich and poor , the best story ever to bring us light in our dark places. It is about us, always has been. Isn't that the most amazing gift ever!

And there were angels...

We had another BB game and this time we had more parents there then players from both teams. St. Paul's have a great fan base and though the girls team and the boys team had a combined score of 4 you would have never known from the parents cheering.
This is what I think about when I think of the Angels in the Christmas story...Fans of Baby Jesus coming to cheer even though it is a field and some shepherds. Like the parents, just excited to be cheering their team on no matter the score.
From the glory of heaven, the myriads of glorious song to a field and shepherds who can't even listen they are so scared...a strange place for an angel choir. But think about it...what was normal about any part of the story. The only normal event of the story was the baby being born. Nothing more normal then a baby being born when it is time...oblivious to the hoopla around just wanting his mothers milk and caring arms to nestle.
The gears of time and eternity pivot on that little baby, no wonder the angels came to sing.

Small things..cont.

There they were...Nick's BB team, all five of them. The team they were playing, about 20. I don't know if you realize this, if you have 5 members of a BB team...all of you play all the time with no breaks, just playing. 5 is all they have on the C team, the lowest of all teams at LC. Nick is the smallest member of the smallest team on the C team at LC.
They won... 19-17 in the last 20 seconds of the game. I have never been a big fan of BB, but this team inspires me, I don't want to miss a game. There is something about being an underdog that overcomes great odds that inspires even the jaded. Don't despise the small things...
A small baby, in a small town, in a small country, born to poor parents...Right! Change the world? I don't think so...Odds are stacked...
He did, He does still...overcome great odds to make all our smallness into something great. Our weakness, his strength. Our 10th...His surplus. Our attempts...His overcoming.
Joy to the World!

The day of small things...Zech.4:10

"Who despises the day of small things? Men will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel".
How's that for a Christmas card verse?
Zerubbabel who is in the line of David, line of Mary, line of Jesus...has the plumb line, making sure that when the temple is built it will be true. BIG TEMPLE...small plumb line, this small thing will make the BIG THING true. God is in the rebuilding program and this Christmas there is some rebuilding to do. God's rebuilding program for me starts small like having a plumb line in someones hand. Bringing truth into my thinking is where God begins with me.
The other day I was trying to deal with a huge disappointment. I was uncertain about abilities, strengths and purpose. Always uncertain ,it seems, these day. A friend called me for coffee. We met and soon after we sat down she was called away in an emergency of sorts but in that 10 minutes of conversation she poured love into my uncertainty. She was my plumb line. She spoke truth into my discouragement. She was my Zerubbabel with plumb line in hand. How about you...how about me? Whose plumb line are we?

Zechariah...in the OT

Z in the NT propels me to look at the original Zechariah in the OT. It is a great book full of angelic announcements, visions, proclamations and symbolism. Names from Jesus' genealogy are scattered through out this book as well as prophesies of that Day. It is a quick read, but it is one of the longer minor prophets. All this to day, I will be wandering through the chapters for the next week or so.
1:11 And they reported to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, " we have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and peace". The 'they' are 4 horsemen who the Lord sent to go and see...
The whole world at rest and peace...
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.
It is the one phrase at Christmas that has always been dissonant to me. Peace on earth, it seems at that moment in the day of Zechariah it was true..the whole world was at rest and peace, but never since and definitely not now. If not global peace...can there be personal peace? What does that look like, that shalom, whole body and soul contentment with yourself, God and others? Are you at peace this Christmas season? Could you tell us what that looks like for you?

There was a priest named Zechariah... Luke 1:5

They were old, Elizabeth was barren and they were upright in the sight of God. Faithful servants but not quite fulfilled. They are described as people who observed all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly but they had no children. This was a huge deal back then, huge deal now especially when you want children. I don't think they were hoping anymore and Elizabeth had figured out what to do with her life apart from being a mother. That must have been hard in a culture and time where being a mother was the most important role a woman could fulfill. They also felt that God had maybe overlooked them and somehow even in their faithful service it wasn't good enough. Longing unfulfilled as far as they knew.
Daily they were faithful anyway to what they knew they were given to do...
One day Zechariah goes to the temple...this time a bit different, he is chosen by lot to burn incense in the Holy of Holies. Everyone is waiting outside worshiping and an Angel comes down and brings tidings of a baby. Long story short...Zechariah does not believe, Angel gets mad, Zechariah gets to be mute for 9 months and Elizabeth gets to be pregnant and bear a child. Not just any child...the forerunner of Jesus, a voice calling in the wilderness, a strange child who eats grasshoppers and honey. A child who grows to be a man, set apart for an amazing task but who ends up getting killed by Herod a bit sooner then Jesus his cousin.
Elizabeth's disgrace had been removed..this is my favorite part of the whole story except for her husband being mute, that's just funny. God could have chosen anyone else but not only did he restore her to her community, he gave her the joy of caring a child and raising him.
Maybe God does not overlook our disgrace either.
Maybe in this season of longing and expectation He will meet us and surprise us. We may feel too old, too young, too inexperienced, too jaded, too disappointed, too something...maybe like Zechariah and Elizabeth He will bring us good news.

...and 14 from the exile to the Christ. Mt. 1:17

Longing is wrapped up in those words. Generations...400 years they say, silence in the heavens. Waiting, hoping and maybe giving up. When did some quit hoping, after the first generation, 100 years, 350 years...how long would I wait ? Christmas is a strange mix of emotions and one of them for me every year is longing. This is year in particular is fraught with a strong emotion of hope and longing. I don't know about you but I am dry to the bones when it comes to enthusiasm for things that are spiritual. I want to be excited about Christmas...I can't even muster enthusiasm for church.
Longing...The Jews had never been restored from the exile. They were still living under another countries rule and still waiting for liberation. After all that time can you imagine what they were looking for...it wasn't a baby in a manger. How can a baby save anything let alone give them back their dignity and freedom. But their freedom, their hope started with a baby...well, 2 to be exact. John and Jesus...cousins from a too old mother and a very young.
As I move through this story again it may at times seem pretty personal, it should be, hope always is.