Don't take'em down just yet....

Don't take'em down just yet.

Like a resilient strand of Christmas lights 

that keep twinkling 

even when a few bulbs occasionally go dark, 

so is our communal body of faith. 

No one is the source of the energy - we’re each filaments – and together we reveal more of its potential. 

And, what to love about the logos of God? 

In a Word, grace. 

Born to us if we choose to see it 

is a persistent, radiant beam 

of the original light  of all creation 

that reveals purpose and meaning, 

and shines forth a pathway (within and among us) 

of belonging and redemption 

in an otherwise shadowy, disorienting, and often lonely darkness.

dirty diapers and discipleship

Joy to the world! The Lord is come!

...oh, and, uhhhh, we're going to need to provide this child shelter; feed him; clean him when he messes himself; look out for this child's safety; hold him when he's crying scared or in pain.... help this child grow in our community; and love this child, and his friends, even when they start acting out in disturbing and provocative ways; and compassionately tend to his broken, adult body. Can we do this together? 

Tryin' to keep it real this Christmas morning as we consider godly parenting and lifelong vocations of Christian discipleship.

REPENT! and prepare to rejoice

talkin'bout John the Baptist, Jesus, the original Santa Claus, and Nelson Mandela.... often misunderstood, rarely imitated, and all worthy of Advent reflection; particularly with themes of repentance (turning around; gettin’ a bigger/changed mind about our courses in life) and hope

Advent 1... and World AIDS day

"Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen." [Advent 1 Collect from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer]

Today is the 25th anniversary of World AIDS Day. Today, we have the opportunity to unite in the fight against HIV, to show our support to people living with HIV, and to commemorate the 35 million we have lost to the disease. This year’s theme is  “Shared Responsibility: Strengthening Results for an AIDS-Free Generation.” - See more at: http://blog.episcopalrelief.org/blog/touchstone-international-programs/world-aids-day-2013-striving-for-an-aids-free-generation#sthash.NujankMJ.dpuf


http://aids.gov/news-and-events/awareness-days/world-aids-day/

everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving

no pithy preaching today as I prepare for our morning service... just some deep breathing, with deep gratitude for many blessings as well as humble thanksgiving that God is God. 

“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

Nov 19, 1863: Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address

worth reading again today on the 150th anniversary of its original delivery by President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, PA during the American Civil War...
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm
______________________________________

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

All that glitters now is not golden forever...

Distracted or discouraged? Hold fast your faith and hope. We have ample opportunities to testify. All that glitters now is not golden forever. Prosperity and abundance are promised... but not on our timeline nor according or our sense of entitlement. Indeed, much of what we are dazzled by now will fall into ruin before our heavenly host calls to the eternal feast. How we labor in the meantime will be considered when we’re ultimately fed.