Silverwalk Hermitage

While I was in church Saturday night, it occurred to me, Jesus began his ministry to those on society’s fringe at his Birth, at the Nativity.

Who were the first outside the Holy Family notified of this baby, this new King?

Shepherds – those whose job was THE last anyone would want, who were, to put it nicely, not well accepted into regular society.

In the stable where He was born, shepherds were the first to attend to Him, to see hope incarnate and they went home praising God.

God the Father brought the fringe, the outcast of upright Jewish religious society, as the first to view Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.

Who sits in the honored pew at your church stable?

Related articles

• Nativity Scenes and Economic Justice (reimagineimago.wordpress.com)
• But You Just Watch the Sheep… (ransomedbeggar.wordpress.com)

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Today I recall, through a dog blog I regularly read, how Advent is a season and so is Christmas; the twelve days of Christmas start with Christmas and end Jan. 5 or 6, depending on your reading or preference. A full Christmas season makes more sense to the tradition of putting up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, leaving it up till the Feast of the Magi or Twelfth Night. Mary and Joseph were able to move out of the stable to a home which is where they welcomed the Magi.

I like the idea/practice of the Christmas season – all is not over in a day or night. We have the opportunity to plan, celebrate and worship the new-born Babe for several days before moving on in the Year. And this season, to me, helps me with the concept of resolutions for the New Year – because the New Year takes place within the Christmas season – wow.

My plan is to have my cards and presents sent by Dec. 6, St. Nicholas Day; failing that (frequently), my back up date is Feast of the Magi which I also made Justus’s birthday. It is a date I remember. Justus will be two in January. Jesus is always. Thanks be to God.

Related articles

• Persia, Magi and Jesus (philoshonumphios.wordpress.com)
• The Angst of Waiting (bryanmarvel.com)

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Prayer for Nature
by Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918)

O God, we thank you for this universe, our home; and for its vastness and richness, the exuberance of life which fills it and of which we are part. We praise you for the vault of heaven and for the winds, pregnant with blessings, for the clouds which navigate and for the constellations, there so high. We praise you for the oceans and for the fresh streams, for the endless mountains, the trees, the grass under our feet. We praise you for our senses, to be able to see the moving splendour, to hear the songs of lovers, to smell the beautiful fragrance of the spring flowers.

Give us, we pray you, a heart that is open to all this joy and all this beauty, and free our souls of the blindness that comes from preoccupation with the things of life, and of the shadows of passions, to the point that we no longer see nor hear, not even when the bush at the roadside is afire with the glory of God. Give us a broader sense of communion with all living things, our sisters, to whom you gave this world as a home along with us.

We remember with shame that in the past we took advantage of our greater power and used it with unlimited cruelty, so much so that the voice of the earth, which should have arisen to you as a song was turned into a moan of suffering.

May we learn that living things do not live just for us, that they live for themselves and for you, and that they love the sweetness of life as much as we do, and serve you, in their place, better than we do in ours. When our end arrives and we can no longer make use of this world, and when we have to give way to others, may we leave nothing destroyed by our ambition or deformed by our ignorance, but may we pass along our common heritage more beautiful and more sweet, without having removed from it any of its fertility and joy, and so may our bodies return in peace to the womb of the great mother who nourished us and our spirits enjoy perfect life in you.”

On Being blog - thank you

Image by wstera2 via Flickr

I’ve been listening to the daily Advent messages from Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church (see menu; you can read them, too).  I wonder about, in the Northern Hemisphere, when we celebrate Christmas and New Year’s during winter, the dark time of the year. I understand how the birth of Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, would bring light and warmth to a cold, dark world but New Year’s resolutions are something else.

I resolve………whatever – and then, I am going out on the frozen tundra to start (or not) my car? To briskly walk up and down piles of snow (I grew up in Minneapolis, MN suburbs; January is when we got our snow and lots of it) as part of my new exercise habit? I don’t think so; no wonder so many of us drop out of our resolutions by March.

One year, long ago, I started a diet and exercise program before winter. By the time winter came, I was running 1-2 miles a day; the best temperature for me to run was 10 degrees – not too cold and not hot – I showed up at my parents’ looking like a snowman on more than one occasion.  I lost 50# and ended up running 3 miles with no trouble. Best I’ve felt in my life; then I re-met the wrong guy, got married and lost myself.

As we anticipate the New Year, I suggest we bring the promise, the hope, the humanity of the newborn baby Jesus with us. Though I enjoy geography, I don’t recall what the season would be in Palestine this time of year (understanding we don’t know which time of year Jesus was born). He had a rough start:

• born in a manger, surrounded by animals into whom God had breathed the breath of life same as humans, loved and welcomed by his Mother and a human Father whose emotions before his arrival were all over the map
• this baby appeared conceived out-of-wedlock to a girl whom Joseph loved – Joseph trusted dreams, Mary and G-d.
• sometime about 2 years after his birth, He and his family fled to Egypt to escape the infanticide unleashed by a paranoid Herod.

Related articles

• Advent (viaperegrini.wordpress.com)
• Advent Series Day 7: a place to call home (everydayawe.com)
• Resolutions…Be real with yourself:-) (deborahnk.com)

In the end, the software in my iPhone 4S was “totally corrupted.”  Because of work obligations, I was without it for 3, almost 4 days, before I could drive the 2 hours there and back to St. Louis to an Apple Store for repair or replacement. I spent about 3 hours on the phone (Google VoiP) Sunday night with Apple Care till they, without acknowledgment, hung up at closing time, then another hour back at Sprint on Monday. They checked out the phone again, then gave me the bad news re: the need to travel for repair due to Apple’s proprietary repair contract. Once the very young man at the Store had my phone in hand, it took about 3 minutes for him to replace the software. I wanted more energy expended; and they did almost everything on iPads!

initially, I was very bothered not to have my phone because it is now my main phone – I gave up my landline plus I was “on call” that Sunday night and another night before repair. I let everyone know I was using my old trusty TRACFONE as a back up.

Not having a wee computer with me at all times ended up being a relief: no checking email first thing on waking, no lingering Facebook checks, but no camera – except the one on the iPad which turned out to not be so good – very difficult to keep it still.

From my visit to our National Cathedral

I remember before home WiFi, laptop, iPhone and iPad, how I would go outside int he morning (when it was warm enough) to read and pray my morning office. I sat in the yard swing beating off dogs who wanted the lap where my BCP and Bible were. I miss that – I miss getting out and into real life instead of working so much on computers.

And yet, everywhere I turn, I need to do something online: finish a class, updated my license, check out some information.  I have a great concern for those people without access to computers or to libraries. One woman with no car found me when she was at her library with the librarian doing a search for her about a Coonhound. She had nothing many of us take for granted: travel means, online access, a job….yet she was concerned and worried about this dog…..

As I try to formulate changes for my life in the coming year, computer use is one; do I keep the home WIFI? Do I keep the home computer connection at all? why not just use the library? Would using our county transit system, when I have no firm timelines, be of benefit for my pocketbook, environment and community?  How lean can I get my life style in terms of spending, habits, increased availability to others (don’t want this lean!)…

God meets us where we are. As I look back at this past year, I have felt angry most of the time; was it because I disconnected myself from real life to spend many more hours online (“but I don’t have TV” – HA); did I feel a loss of control because hours went by throughout the day with lost productively or decreased physical activity? And where does God want me in this next year, day, hour?

How are you aligning your life to best serve God this coming year? Are you listening to that still, small voice as She speaks to you through corrupted software and the like?

P.S. – Saturday night the iPhone crashed again, unable to “restore” it via iTunes. Could this be a less than subtle hint from God? or just a bad phone? Stay tuned (oohh, bad pun).