God, I am praying for a boring year after Wars on Terror Great Recessions Housing Collapse A Pandemic
And those were only the large scale events
I pray for an uneventful new year with uninteresting times and very precedented events
I pray for peace in your personal life your home your town and city and country
I hope that thing seem corny and maybe not normal (because what is that anyway) but ordinary enough that pieces of trust can be built up again
I pray that this year does not feel like a bludgeon but comes in like a lamb and out like a lamb
I pray that there are moments of rest spaces of sanctuary places of healing and times of rebuilding
I pray for a prededented year full of laughter at jokes you may have already heard smiles with friends you have time to see and book and shows you feel comfortable enough to revisit, with glee
I pray for comfort for safety in the known for rituals that you love– your favorite haunts your tastiest meals your places to just be
I hope you are able to repeat yourself without fear
But most of all I pray that you have an uneventful New Year
Amen.
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God of Chronos and Kairos You know the calendar the timetables the budgets the to do lists and all the holy moments the smiles the blessings the hellos the goodbyes the transitions the deaths the baptisms the caretakings the laughter the hugs the holy moments of silences somehow you sneak kairos–God’s time in the midst of the chronos–measurable time
As we enter into this practice of trying to talk about both Grant us your Holy Spirit so that we can savor that you work in both Chronos and Kairos And open our hearts and minds and spirits to feel your presence in all the kinds of time that exist In the name of Jesus Christ– who entered Chronos, so that we might experience Kairos better, we pray. Amen.
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You know God, as my husband takes down the Christmas tree Christmas eve (quick before we get distracted) and the relations make their way home and the songs and candlelight fades
that we need time to sink into Christmas because Christmas is a journey.. I say this not to tsk about Advent vs Christmas vs Epiphany But to think about deep rhythms of the body, winter and the universe
And how we need a good couple of weeks of Christmas-tide to rest think and pondering
There is so much journeying and pondering at Christmas
not to mention comforting of one another
Yet we seem to burst onto the scene in joyfulness and glory and demand a quick wrap up with the wise ones before we rush home
I wonder how wonderful it would be if we gave one another the time of slow and fruiting Christmas with a full couple of weeks of rest
(I thought this especially during Covid “Shutdown” what if we emphasized a quiet holiday time home protecting one another?)
How I long for a time of cozy recovery built in to our culture Tricia Hersey suggests we snatch this kind of of rest whenever we can
So I pray that you steal some cozy restful comfort and recovery this holiday-tide
And if you have not I hope that you build it in As I imagine
Jesus longing for Peace for all as he lay with his parents snug after all of the festivities
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Pride and prejudice archive. The days between Christmas and New Years. A woman reading by the fire, another reclining on the couch, the third writing. all look languid.
@Kim@tech.lgbt in Norway, ‘up and not crying is a not uncommon response to “how’s it going” type questions, and I fell like that’s a very reasonable standard to hold oneself to especially nowadays
I have experienced so many longest nights… the scary longest night of childhood– too scared to cry out for help in the dark too scared not to The sheer powerlessness of not knowing what to do
The longest night of giving birth the pain, the trying to breath, trying to talk everyone trying to help, feeling like no one is trying to help I’ve not been Mary, but Good God the pressure I have experienced that longest night
I have experienced the length of ten millions hours Of the bedside wait for a beloved one to die imminent, and yet too long the wondering if staying is the best thing to do or not, the talking without response– the simultaneous hope that they know you are present but that they don’t, because then they aren’t feeling any pain
I know the powerlessness of longest night moments of parenthood Of sitting on the couch laughing so you don’t cry Because you don’t know what to do next, as your child is anguished and alone– And you Cry right in front of them “I am here” As they are crying about how alone they feel
I have felt the chilliness of the Longest Night of being alone– how cold it feels to have no friends what it means to be laughed at every time you speak shunned, and ostracized The awkwardness of being your neurodivergent self And realizing there is no other way to be
And then again during the isolation of Covid where we all, kept each other safe briefly
Before all the wars resumed
I have not experienced every longest night, but I have had to pick what bill not to pay I have stand in the grocery line with WIC Praying that all of my credit cards do not bounce I have had long payment plans with the IRS, And preached to help the poor knowing that I am actually being self-referential
When I think of the Darkest night of the Soul and Jesus, with his guts spilled out on the cross I feel like I understand a little more when I had to relearn how to walk how to eat how to defecate after surgery–and feel the worst pain ever to recover (And it makes me wonder about If Jesus walked to Emmaus because he had to relearn it, And if he didn’t eat, because he couldn’t yet)
The longer I live The more I understand the Longest Nights and I think, we need time to sit in silence grief loneliness charity
with one another Because humans experience Longest nights And I believe God sits with us and cradles us and sings us lullabies until the dawn arrives again.
Happy Solstice The Shortest Day of the Longest Fucking Year of Our Lives
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“Infant so tender and mild” implies the existence of a chewy and spicy baby
The existence of rhyme schemes must make God giggle sometimes
Of course newborn babes are mild
They cannot even lift their own heads with their wee little necks… It doesn’t mean
That they are not mighty with their lungs and that you as a parent Do no jump every time they snort or sniffle In a weird way to check and make certain they are still alive.
I also want to point out God That mild Is a word that is conspicuously absent in the Bible
No one
absolutely no one is described as mild in the Nativity texts it is just a word that describes all newborns
And is probably the opposite of who Mary* is Please note every time someone asks about Mary’s mildness I want to yell out it is because it rhymes with CHILD that is why Mary is described as mild.”
Why do we think Mary was meek and mild? She agreed to bear a child out of wedlock in defiance of her culture. She sang a song of liberation and freedom for the oppressed and unjustly treated. She made a rough journey to Bethlehem when heavily pregnant and another to Egypt with an infant (note evidence says it was probably a pre-schooler which may have been WORSE). She was a revolutionary, a fitting mother for her rebel son.
I am comforted in a season where I do not feel mild that this mildness is nothing more than a myth.
@KaitlynSchiess Every Discussion of “Biblical Womanhood” should include the fact that in Luke 1, two pregnant woman celebrate their new motherhood by passionately discussing the coming overthrow of every earthly empire
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Support my Work! I am EVEN NOW writing my Dissertation in Creative Writing as a Public Theologian and VERY close to my goal to graduate this year! Every contribution helps no matter how big or small! https://gofund.me/554d36e3
Dr. Wil Gafney “Christmas is not Canceled. Festive Christmas celebration and public displays are. But the Feast of the Incarnation will continue to be observed. There will be church services for the local residents. Tourism is strongly discouraged.” Layla Darwish: Most average Americans doesn’t even know Christmas is cancelled in Bethlehem.
Christ Incarnates Christ always comes that is the promise
That is what I said when I took my ordination question I said that I believe that Christ will come and every knee shall bow
And someone stood and asked me How?
Aren’t you worried about Universalism (Worried that Jesus might save everyone?? HA!)
And I said I don’t know It is not my job to understand it
Just to believe it and to declare the good news
That even in the midst of war and rubble and horrific devastation where humans dehumanize one another Christ will keep his promise
I believe that somehow Christ is still with us and will be incarnate for everyone
Because the Bible says Good News for All People All people will stream Every Knee shall bow
I did not see any asterisks or footnotes
I did not see any guns or calls for coercion or force
Last I saw Jesus said to kneel to one another And wash each other’s feet
(I have suspicions about this is why we will be kneeling to be besides the Christ who is already kneeling to serve us)
But right now I am just hanging on to the faith that Jesus is here And Coming
Because it’s not my job to bring Jesus
Or to bring anyone to him God has already done all of that work
Jesus is coming Hear the Good News Alleluia, Amen.
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