Tag: Birth of Jesus

12 Days of ….

Black and White image of a Patridge perched in a pear tree found https://www.englishstamp.com/product/partridge-in-a-pear-tree/

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

Feel free to use/adapt/share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”

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.

Advent Day 17, Not mild Advent

“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

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”

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Advent Day 12, Made in God’s Image

We made gingerbread men cookies
They were imperfect
each one different
they bent
and slanted
from handling–
in or out of the oven,
But when we laid them out to cool



I thought “they look so beautiful,
like they are dancing”

Perspective I amazing isn’t it?
I wonder what our beauty
to God, looks like.

Feel free to use/adapt/Share with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatytheWord”

#Advent Day 11, God of Wonder

@LauraKConnell “The traumatized brain is not open to exploration and wonder. It is imprisoned by black and white thinking, the need for certainty, and a desire to get things over with. 

Good God,
who whispers comfort
in the midst of the chaos–

Holy Spirit,
who inspires art
not for any capitalistic gain
but because humans need
to co-create with God

Jesus,
Sweet, baby Jesus
who came in the form
of a baby

I am reminded of all the ways
you invite us to wonder

You are the God
who compares us to the stars

You are the Holy Spirit
who is the wild goose,
heavenly dove
squawking pigeon

You are the Savior
who almost always
answered a question
with a question

And told stories
mysterious
stories
to unfold in our heart
differently
according to our experiences

You are the God of openings
trying to clear the way
to tell us that it is ok
to heal our traumas first

to let go of our black and white
and the permission to sit
wait
and linger
without fear

to look into the eyes of a baby
Savior

and wonder…

Jesus comes to save us
from our trauma
so we can wonder
once again–
this is why prescribed beliefs
is against my religion

Thank sweet
wonder-full
baby Jesus
Amen

Feel free to use/share/adapt with credit to Pastor Katy Stenta, Trauma quote from Laura K.Connell

Advent Day 8 Silence & Noise

I like to think about
How Jesus was all about
the in-betweens

Because Jesus got
that some days
You wanted to be
in the the middle
of the racous noise

And others
the stillness
is what feeds
your soul

I remember the moment
in the pandemic
when all the introverts needed people
And I know there are many times
When I, and extrovert, was surrounded
by my family’s devices, and craved an empty house

The extremity can feel so holy can it not?
Alone in a field looking at the stars?
In the middle of a crowd, feeling lost in the humanity?

I love that all of this is blessed
Yes, be loud!
Yes be quiet!

Go, find your people!
Go, be alone!

Is this not how God makes things holy?
By blessing who we are
what we need
And how we do it?

Feel free to share/adapt/use with credit to Katy Stenta “Katyandtheword” tweet by Amy Colleen

Tweet by Amy Colleen @sweistwrites
So many Christmas carols can be divided into two categories “Will You Be Quiet” and “Let’s Get Loud.”

“Shush! The Herald Angles Will Now Perform
Muteness (x)
Let All Mortal Flesh Please Can It
If You Would Shut Your Pie Hold for 5 Seconds You would Hear What I Hear
(2) The Loud Ones
Virtuous Believers, Let Me Hear you Say Yay!
Happiness to the Earth!
Small Child Banging on Percussive Instrument.
Hasten to the Hilltop and Give it To’em
TRUMPETS! AND! LATIN! CHRIST THE LORD

Day 5 Advent Alternative: We 3 Kings

We Magi from Eastern Lands are
Following Heaven’s wisdom Afar
Valley, Fountain, Desert, Mountain
Following Yonder Star

O Star of Wonder, Star of Night
Star with Humble, Beauty Bright
Westward leading, Still Proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold, a crown for kin-dom come
King forever, ceasing never
Humbly born of grace

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense Trin’ty, Deity nigh
Prayer and Praising
We are raising
Worship them, God most high

Myrrh is mine
It’s bitter perfume breathes
A Life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in a stone cold tomb

Glorious, now, behold Him arise
King and God, Sav’r on High (Sacrifice)*
Alleluia, Alleluia
Heaven to earth replies

Feel free to use/share/adapt with Credit to Pastor Katy Stenta “KatyandtheWord”

Explanations for some changes: 1. We don’t know how many “kings” there were, and if they were kings. 2. Orient is an out of date and racially charged term lumping a lot of groups together in an uneducated way. 3. Moor carries with it radicalized meanings and Valley/desert/mountain are straight out of scripture 4. I emphasized a little more of Jesus’s humble status 5. Men is changed to more inclusive language 6. God’s Trinity status and Jesus’s status in the Trinity is emphasized

*I am not sure how I feel about this line and substitutionary atonement theory. I waver, and I am definitely behind Jesus as Savior. On the other hand, we do not always have to be comfortable with everything, so I have offered two options.



The Waiting Room: #adoption #narrativelectionary #joseph #christmas

Jesus is adopted

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2259 here is a good resource to start thinking things and another one http://revgalblogpals.org/2014/12/16/narrative-lectionary-dreams-and-adoption-rooted-in-faith/ …but Jesus is adopted by Joseph

as scripture describes here

This fact is so, so important in understand who Jesus is…..He’s family…http://theinmanclan.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/the-painting-004.jpg

NPR’s The Moth  recently played Jillian Lauren’s tale of adoption

(Full 12min story here)

She flew to Africa to find her child, and was terrified, because a friend of hers had just come back from a Russian adoption empty-handed.

She had been warned that some of the people in her group were “super-Christian” so she decided to cover her tattoo, avoid talking about homosexuality (because even if they were nice, they probably actually hated them) and stop cursing.
She makes the long flight over and goes to the orphanage, where amongst beautiful babies, she and her husband are the last ones called over, and finally, finally they get to meet Tariku, for the first time and plays with him all day..and then has to put him back (at which point she wants to run away with him in her arms) until the next day. She describes the promise ceremony, where they meet the mother, who is still a young teenager, and formally hand over the care of the baby. The mother said, that Tariku’s name meant, his story because he already had such a story to tell.

This put me in mind of Jesus Christ’s story…of how he is and was the word of God how he had a story before he was born and that part of adopting Jesus is adoption of the word of God adoption of that whole story of creation….

Back to Jillian and her husband…they get to the embassy for the paperwork, and they get through the line, and the clerk tells them that they cannot adopt Tariku, because they can only adopt up to 4months…Jillian and her husband explain that it is a typo and should say 4yrs, so he goes in the back….

and they wait, and they wait, they wait hrs and there is no word, they don’t know where he’s gone or what he is doing, so by now they are asking frantically for help.

They reach a social worker who listens and also disappears in the back…

Meanwhile, of course, all the other parents received their paperwork fine, they have their cute diaper bags and their children and are ready to rest up for the long flight home tomorrow…

but they wait with the couple who is trying to figure out how to get Tariku …Tariku’s new parents wait, and all the other families wait with them…and their kids all play on the dirty floor together, they all wait beside this almost family….and finally, finally the official comes back and says everything is cleared up…and he-didn’t-know-why-they-were-so-worried-anyway….

Jillian explains how this experience formed a new family for her, for while they were awaiting to adopt Tariku, the people there adopted them…….and they became family, one that meets up regularly and keeps in contact…

Joseph adopted Jesus…just as Mary became mother, Joseph waited for him, and became his father…in fact all the people who were there…all those who had been waiting: the shepherds, the wise men, Mary & Joseph, all of them became a family…

Isn’t this what we practice every year? Aren’t we awaiting a Christ who will be adopted by us, and within that waiting, those-who-are-waiting become a family….and it doesn’t matter how different we truly are, because we have Christ in common. We wait, and we celebrate with one another and we mourn with one another and we do the hard waiting with one another….We wait for Christ at Christmas, because we are practicing, awaiting Christ’s return!

“For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba!* Father!’ 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness* with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” Romans 8:16-17

We adopt Christ, Christ adopts us

and somehow, through the love of Christ, we end up adopting each other….

That is what we do every Christmas…that is what the church is….a waiting room for Christ….one where we learn how to love each other as family….

Maybe that’s why every time I walk into a church, I feel like I am home

Painting from http://theinmanclan.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/the-painting-004.jpg