Faith, Grace, and Hope

Tomorrow will be the first day of a new church year- the first Sunday in Advent. I usually think of Christ the King Sunday as the "eve", but technically... here I sit on a Saturday night at the true eve of the church year. Yes, yes, the calendar is arbitrary, etc, etc. Nevertheless, here we are. In Judaism, the Days of Awe- Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the days in between- mark a new year, a time of atonement, and a sense of focused worship both as a course corrective for one's relationship with the Creator and as preparation for the living of another year. In Christianity, we often experience the course corrective during Lent. Once upon a time, Advent was a companion season to Lent- a shorter time of reflection, penitence, and metanoia  before a festival (Christmas). The season of waiting has lost some of that flavor, but it doesn't have to. We can still take these few weeks- four Sundays and a handful of weekdays- and reorient ourselves in our relationsh...

Our God in heaven, Holy parent of all black, brown, olive, tan, and peach children, Holy is your name. It is for praise and glory, not to be used lightly. Your kingdom come, We dare to ask for the day of justice Your will be done, We dare to ask to be used for your purposes On earth as in heaven, May it be so, Lord. Give us this day our daily bread, And stop our hands from taking more than our share Forgive us our sins, For they are legion As we forgive those who sin against us, For they are legion Lead us not into temptation, For we are prone to anger, to frustration, to laziness, to despair, But deliver us from evil, From the forces that oppose you- wherever they exist For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory- You alone are God. Everything is yours. Amen. Amen . Excerpted from a post (by me) at RevGalBlogPals

No words necessary. 

This review was first posted on 11/24/14 at RevGalBlogPals.org . In the next six months, you will need to buy a present for someone. This person may be easy to buy for or kind of tricky. He or she might be religious, but persnickety about religiously themed books or movies. She might be a World War II buff, but who already seems to have/know everything. He might be a voracious reader of generalized military history, yet shies away from specific biographies. The person you know may have loved Unbroken (Hillenbrand) and wants to read something similar, but despairs of finding such a book. Good news, friend! I have the book for this person, this situation, your (advanced) church book group, and maybe for you. Mission inNuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis by Tim Townsend is just waiting for you to buy one or two copies, read, and distribute. Frankly, I’m a voracious reader, consuming quickly and without discrimination. I dove into this book and then I...

I cried today at the thoughts of the Brown family, of what "justice" looks like for some people, of the division between people I like and people I love and people I respect.  In the brokenness, I have drawn into myself. I spent most of my evening, talking very little. Reflecting. Listening.  Amos is very clear when he says that the trappings of worship offend God, when they are devoid of a regular life of justice and righteousness.  I wrote this prayer: Lord, we have pulled out the Advent wreath, the Christmas tree, the poinsettias. We dusted off the hymns, unsung for a year, and unearthed the words of your prophets. Yet, in your eyes, these efforts are for nothing without the regular, persistent, deep pursuit of justice for all  people. Our efforts are hollow without consistent work toward peace, reconciliation,  and participation in your mission for creation. In our hearts, we do long to be your people, to carry out your mission, to be lights in the darkness-...

Dear Mamie Till- Mobley- First, I apologize for using your first name. You don't know me and it's not right for me to presume. I cannot stop thinking of you tonight. We have just heard, late at night, that Office Darren Wilson of the Ferguson, MO police will not be charged with any crimes in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. Wilson is white. Brown was black. You wouldn't have been surprised by the rhetoric that has poured forth since Brown's murder on August 9th. We've heard about his misdeeds, his alleged activities, his tendencies, his size, his demeanor, his habits, and all other manner of detail meant to reveal that his life was just another brown life, only significant by what it proved in death- that it didn't count for much to the whites around him. Mrs. Till-Mobley, tonight, people are arguing that a failure to indict by a grand jury means that there wasn't enough evidence to prove a crime, that the officer didn't do anythi...

Today for Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday, I made a slide show of art of the life and ministry of Moses and the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The gospel writers used wrote in ways to make similarities between Jesus and Moses obvious, because a connection to the prophet of freedom lead people to understand what they might expect from Jesus. Of course, he turned out to be so much more than they expected. Jesus is more than a prophet and even more than a king. Here are some rough notes. Moses Jesus Pharaoh orders destruction of all Hebrew baby boys. Moses’s mother saves him by floating him down the river in a basket. (Exodus 1-2) Herod the Great hears tell of a new king, born in Bethlehem. He orders the slaughter of all the babies in the vicinity. (Matthew 2) Moses is adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, “taken into Egypt”. (Exodus 2) Joseph has a dream in which an angel warns him of the s...