From All of Us to All of You

Merry Christmas!
Joy to the World! The Lord is Come!

Sermon Opener and NOtes For Dec 21, 2008

Songs of Justice

I think I should let you all know that you have just done something that has been banned. Oh not here in Atikokan. But it has been banned by somebody at one time or another. Of course that in and of itself is not unusual. In our lives we all do a variety of things that have been banned by someone somewhere. This may mean dancing, or drinking alcoholic beverages, or eating ham, or celebrating Christmas. But what is notable is what this banned activity is and why it was banned.

We have just read a banned piece of poetry. Again not unusual. Many pieces of writing have been banned over the years. We have just read something that was banned because it was seen as breeding sedition. And that was? The piece of Scripture commonly called the Song of Mary or the Magnificat.

Yes. You heard correctly. A piece of the Christmas story was declared seditious and banned from being read aloud. It was in Guatemala in the 1980's (and I believe the government in question was an ally of the United States). And do you want to know the really surprising thing? They were right! Mary's song is in fact seditious, or at least revolutionary. The words in it call for a total upturning of the world, a “new world order” to borrow a phrase. Like most of Scripture Mary's song is an indictment of the world as it is and a promise of the world as it could be. It is a song of God's justice.

• Look at what the words actually say. What do they call for? Where is the “peace, order and good government”, the “peaceably and in good order”?
• Scripture as counter to the domination and imperial systems of the world – from Moses on.
• God's passion is justice. Justice that sees the world totally differently than the powers and principalities.
• Martin Luther King Jr. The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends inexorably toward justice.
• Medical Mission Sisters On a dark day deep in the present, grinding the loneliness and plight of the poor. Only the clean of heart dare to remember, the poor were his Gospel and their hope is sure.
• Liberation theology Preferential option for the poor
• Bruce Harding In every age through time unfolding your constant love abounded; for through your great subversive power the proud they are confounded...The mighty ones they lose their privilege, you sanctify the lowly. You cry that all need food abundant for every child is holy.
• Jesus as revolutionary, Jesus' passion is God's passion, Jesus' passion for King-dom of God
• Luke reads back his experience of Jesus, Luke the gospel of social justice.
• Christmas as start of the revolution. Christmas as sign of God's justice breaking into the world.
• Christmas revolution calls for more than charity. Revolution calls for real change, calls for challenges to structures, calls for real actions not just to feed the hungry but to ask why they are hungry.
• Dom Helder Camara When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist.
• Play My Soul Sings by the Hardings
• Read from my 2002 column:

On Christmas day we celebrate the birth of the child that sparked Mary 's song. As an adult this child would proclaim his ministry with words that echoed his mother's cry for justice (Luke 4:18-19). If we follow the path he followed, then we need to join in the struggle to fill the hungry with good things, to lift up the lowly, and to free those who are oppressed. On Christmas we mark the beginning of the revolution that will bring on the age of peace, the age where lion lies down with lamb and all have that which they need to live.

Christian faith is not mainly about individuals feeling good about themselves. It is not mainly about life beyond this one. Christian faith is mainly about how we live together in this life, it is about community. The path laid out by the Christ child is one of justice in this world. At Christmas we are flooded with requests for charity. But to truly celebrate Christmas we need to do more than write the cheques and donate the food.

The true Christmas gift is to make changes in society so that people don't need our donations to make it through the cold winter. What will our gift be this year?

This year, as we prepare once again to sing about angels and shepherds, I urge us once more to hear Mary's song of revolution. This year let us join in the revolution of faith - a faith that calls for a world renewed, a people restored, and a hope fulfilled.

• Where will the Christmas revolution take root in our lives?

THe THeological Problem with Santa

Every year there are debates around the land about Santa.

Does the Santa story take away from the true meaning of Christmas? Does the cycle of believing in Santa (and Santa's cohorts for Easter and Teeth, not to mention the Great Pumpkin or the Holiday Armadillo) and then learning the truth breed cynics who won't believe in anything? Does it lead children not to believe in God (or Jesus depending who is launching the argument)?

I find these questions to be pointless. And really the answers depend on the children. My girls are big on Santa but also know the Christmas story. Because we have chosen to make sure of that. And I know few, if any, people who were scarred by the mythic creations of childhood. If we teach our children well they can easily handle the difference between truth and fact and parental "lies" like this. And if the Santa cycle is all it takes to undo your child's faith then I would suggest that the teaching of said faith has not had a lot of depth.

But I do have a theological problem with Santa. Santa, as used to control children's behaviour, lacks grace. Santa, we are told, knows who's naughty and nice, and only gives gifts to well-behaved children.

Where's the grace of God? Where's the graciousness of Christmas, of God-with-us? The Santa story denies the concept of unconditional love. And in this world anything that challenges unconditional love needs to be addressed.

So I am all for Santa, but drop the Orwellian list of naughty/nice and watching us sleep etc. Santa is an agent of God-made-manifest. And as such Santa's gifting is unconditional.

Christmas ALready!! SOON!

Songbird kindly reminds us that:

It's true.

There are only five full days before Christmas Day, and whether you use them for shopping, wrapping, preaching, worshiping, singing or traveling or even wishing the whole darn thing were over last Tuesday, there's a good chance they will be busy ones.

So let's make this easy, if we can: tell us five things you need to accomplish before Christmas Eve.

1. School Christmas Concert this afternoon, PRincess is in the choir and in her class presentation. Scalliwag will be in her class presentation.
2. Set-up and decorate the tree. The plan is for Beloved and I to set it up and put the lights on after the girls go to bed tonight and then all of us put decorations on tomorrow. (It is just so much easier to be moving a tree around without 3 small "helpers")
3. Sermon for Sunday, talking about Justice as God's passion and the subversive message of MAry's song--and of Christmas itself.
4. Sermonette for Dec 24 service. I have written the two other readings and sent them to the volunteers (although the male reader told me he had been "voluntold"). THoughts about fear and change, and keep it brief.
5. Buy some more stocking gifts because sometimes Santa needs help after all.

ETA: Forgot to mention that Chirstmas cards are yet to be done. Guess they will be Epiphany Cards (or on time for those who follow the Julian calendar) this year.

Good Luck!

Back in the fall of 1996 I was looking for a job. AS often with job searches I sent out resumes to a variety of places. I ended up being hired at Kids Kottage (a crisis nursery in Edmonton), and worked there for almost 3 years before going to complete my MDiv.

The Kottage exists largely through the gifts of others. Every year they have a Radiothon and to day is the day of their 15th Radiothon. May they be blessed with the genrosity of the community today!

Here is a video about their ministry (because that really is what it is after all):

I HAve ALways Believed This...

Sugar does not make children hyperactive!

Parents were so convinced about the myth that when they think their children have been given a drink containing sugar (when it is actually sugar-free) they rated their children's behaviour as more hyperactive.

I have had this arguement many times in my working life. Both in camp settings and when working in a crisis nursery. And my observations were that it made little or no difference if kids had a sugary snack/drink at night or a non-sugary one. Many of my co-workers did not agree...

ANd the book looks like something worth buying when it comes out!

Let the Christmas Revolution Begin

This came in my work e-mail Saturday--and I wrote it! It is a column I wrote for the paper in 2002 and no longer have on my computer (since I changed computers in 2004). IT came back at a timely point since it ties in nicely with my planned sermon for Sunday.


A young woman, pregnant when she shouldn't be, in a world where the penalty for such a pregnancy could well be death. She is scared. She is not sure what to do. Thus begins the story we tell every year at this time. Most people in this situation would share Mary's confusion, her fear, her powerlessness. But Mary does not stop there. Mary is not the gentle, meek and mild handmaiden of carols and storybooks. She is indeed a strong, rebellious woman; ready to face the challenge of this unexpected child. In the face of her disgrace Mary seeks the support of her cousin. Then Mary sings a song that is nothing less than revolutionary. In Luke 1:47-55 Mary sings about the promise of God to overturn the tables of the powerful. Mary calls for the world to be reordered, for justice to be done, for the Reign of God to begin. This is the truth of Christmas.

On Christmas day we celebrate the birth of the child that sparked Mary 's song. As an adult this child would proclaim his ministry with words that echoed his mother's cry for justice (Luke 4:18-19). If we follow the path he followed, then we need to join in the struggle to fill the hungry with good things, to lift up the lowly, and to free those who are oppressed. On Christmas we mark the beginning of the revolution that will bring on the age of peace, the age where lion lies down with lamb and all have that which they need to live.

Christian faith is not mainly about individuals feeling good about themselves. It is not mainly about life beyond this one. Christian faith is mainly about how we live together in this life, it is about community. The path laid out by the Christ child is one of justice in this world. At Christmas we are flooded with requests for charity. But to truly celebrate Christmas we need to do more than write the cheques and donate the food.

The true Christmas gift is to make changes in society so that people don't need our donations to make it through the cold winter. What will our gift be this year?

This year, as we prepare once again to sing about angels and shepherds, I urge us once more to hear Mary's song of revolution. This year let us join in the revolution of faith - a faith that calls for a world renewed, a people restored, and a hope fulfilled.

But I really Can't Dance!

You Are Dancer

Carefree and fun, you always find reasons to do a happy dance. Why You're Naughty: That dark stint you had as Santa's private dancer. Why You're Nice: You're friendly. Very friendly.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

The Eyes Have It!

The RGBP Friday Five

1. What color are your beautiful eyes? Did you inherit them from or pass them on to anyone in your family? Mine are not beautiful but they are blue. AS are my father's. Also as are my Beloved's and all 3 girls.

2. What color eyes would you choose if you could change them? I really have never considered changing eye colour, or hair colour, or so on. BUt having eyes of 2 different colours seems an interesting thought...

3. Do you wear glasses or contacts? What kind? Like 'em or hate 'em? Glasses. HAd them since I was 21. Now on my 4th pair. Put up with them would be the best description of my attitude.

4. Ever had, or contemplated, laser surgery? Happy with the results? Never had, never plan to have. The idea of anything touching my eyes just gives me shivers (which is why I will never get contacts). During my theatre days as a teen getting eye make up done was often an ordeal. Then again if laser eye surgery gave me the ability to shoot laser beams from my eyes.....

5. Do you like to look people in the eye, or are you more eye-shy? Definitively more eye-shy.

For Church Geeks Only!

OR at least that would be my guess.

THe General COuncil Office now has a link to a variety of Church DOcuments. THis includes minutes of GCE and letters from the MOderator and other stuff (with more to be added I assume.

You can find it here