Tuesday, December 22

Today’s Thought & Prayer is supplied from the weekly Advent Oasis service, happening on zoom on Wednesday evenings at 7:30pm. Please plan to come to this brief (15-20 minute) gathering. Here are the coordinates:

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83561561966?pwd=V1B5ZmtZYktnNDRzRVlWMkpmclp3UT09
Meeting ID: 835 6156 1966
Passcode: 358775

In addition to lighting of the Advent candles together, we will pray, hear God’s word, and reflect on the Christ’s promise of salvation, in this time of darkness. All this in 15 to 20-minutes!! Here’s the reflection that Arleane R. will be leading us through. This week the focus is on Love. 

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Matt Tullos, an American Baptist preacher and writer, speaks of today’s reading in these simple terms:

If you want to know how to love one another, look at the love that sent Jesus to earth to live a life of love and pay the price for all of our sins. It’s all about love. It’s always been about love. This isn’t a love of fancy words and impossible tasks. This is a love that simply says, “I am willing to love you no matter what.”

God loves us, you and me, no matter what. This is wonderful and astonishing, all the more so because God doesn’t need to love us. God wants to love us, and God wants us to be open to receiving that love. God didn’t need Jesus to live among us. But you’ll note that God in fact “sent” his son for the sake of humanity — “sent,” not “Jesus came” or “Jesus showed up” or “Jesus happened to be in the area.” God sent Jesus, and in just a few days we will celebrate that great gift.

Note also that God doesn’t love us this way, because we persuaded God to do so or because the human race demanded or even expected it. God doesn’t love us because we are especially good (because frankly sometimes we’re not). God made us and chose to love us. I find that staggering and at the same time breathtakingly simple.

God’s love exceeds action or earthly relationships. God loves and God IS love. The Incarnation of God at Christmas sets into motion the divine example of how we need to be loved and to love others. It exceeds mere fondness or polite affection. It’s not romanticized. It’s not seasonal. It’s not fleeting. God’s love is very real and sweeping, while it’s not fancy or impossible, it is certainly radical. The Christmas narrative – God sending a baby into the world for our salvation – is, on the face of it, an extraordinary and risky and seemingly impractical plan.

Mother Jennifer referenced the unexpectedness of it all in her Christmas letter: a virgin becomes pregnant; there’s no room in the inn; a star and angels alarmingly appear in the night sky; and the first to have audience with the newborn king are seekers from a foreign land who have to sneak home by a different route. On top of that, the holy family themselves become refugees.

There is an Impressionist painting of the Nativity by Garibaldi Melchers that shows Mary not upright and beaming, but completely laid out on her back and likely asleep. Joseph sits with hunched shoulders and clasped hands, somberly watching the baby, perhaps worn out himself or maybe in contemplation about what this is all going to mean. The walls and floor are grey and barren. There are no adoring gift-giving guests in this scene. The only spot of brightness besides the Christ child are a water jug and basin – clearly there for post-natal clean up. Childbirth is messy and exhausting. Child rearing is exhausting and expensive. Living a human life can be frustrating and tedious, even without being something of an outsider and social disrupter as Jesus became. This is how God loves the world.

Dorothy Sayers, best known as a crime writer but also an essayist, put it like this:

For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is— limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death. He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. … He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.

God could have loved the world from on high, from a position of majesty and glory. Jesus could have least been born in a really nice B&B. He could have skipped the whole thing and been remote and omnipotent. God could have done it that way, but God didn’t, “and thought it well worthwhile.” This is how God loves us.

I am in a unique position to be able to quote the Right Rev. Jenny Andison who, in one of her Christmas homilies last year, beautifully summarized what we can learn about love by examining God’s extraordinary plan of sending Jesus to dwell among us:

God becoming one of us dignifies what it means to be human –– no one therefore is disposable, no one is irredeemable, no one is beyond hope. God living a human life demonstrates for us the potential that exists in all of us and in all our relationships for transformation. By coming to earth as the baby Jesus, God is hanging in there with us, not leaving us to our own devices, not abandoning us – Jesus shows us what IS possible in our friendships, our marriages, or work relationships.

If we didn’t believe God’s love could perfect everything, we would have given up a long time ago. We wouldn’t work at relationships with each other. We wouldn’t work to soldier on through this pandemic. We would ask questions like, “If God is love, why do we need to create Christmas hampers? If God is love, why can’t we celebrate together as a parish family? If God is love, why is rain forest still being depleted at a rate of 200 thousand acres a day?”  Well, it is precisely because God is love that we ask these questions and then act on them to care for and feed one another and to protect each other and God’s creation.

God so loved the world that Jesus was sent to live among us and experience human existence from birth to death, with all its chaos and roughness and pain. And while that seems like bad news, it is in fact the very best news. Christmas shows us that divine love can transform the world, that trials shall pass or be overcome, and even when life turns out to be messy or disappointing and challenging, we have a God that knows exactly what that feels like and a guarantee of a love that triumphs over it all. We therefore are not without hope or peace or joy. We are not in darkness, even when it seems as if we are. And we are the recipients and the instruments of transformative love. “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

Prayer:

Lord God, let your blessing come upon us with the lighting of this candle of LOVE.
May its light be a sign of Christ’s promise of salvation, in this time of darkness.
Now we watch and wait for his coming. Lord Jesus, come soon.

Thursday, December 17, 2020

One piece of technology I am most appreciative of these days is the PVR (personal video recorder). For some who remember VCRs, the scrambling to find blank video cassettes and the bother of setting times for recording etc., the PVR is far more convenient. In our home, the PVR gets a real workout on Sunday mornings when I have at least three programs set for viewing later in the week. Two of them focus on U.S. politics while the third, CBS News Sunday Morning hosted by Jane Pauley, offers a wide array of interesting topics beyond the political realm. A segment of this program shown last Sunday got the wheels turning in my head as I was musing about what I should write for today.

The first program in the December 13th recording showcased the work of Brandon Stanton, a young American who took to the streets of New York City armed with only a camera and a penchant to engage those he photographed in a conversation about some part of their life story. This led to a very successful blog by Stanton and later a book, Humans of New York, containing photographed individuals alongside a solitary but powerful printed statement which captured some aspect of their life – perhaps a sense of loss, pain, generosity or hope and so on. This led Stanton to undertake an eight-year global sojourn capturing people from different countries and cultures, around the world, that again relied on a simple photograph of individuals and a statement about their life. It also created another best-selling book of photos entitled World.

Stanton told the CBS interviewer that he learned from these encounters that everyone experiences pain and in sharing these stories he has seen the power of other human beings who viewed his photos to connect with such accounts. It is the foundational nature of this human sharing, Stanton suggests, that allows us to cross borders that geographically, culturally or demographically divide us, yet at the same time affords a chance for a sense of connection with others.

The Advent Oasis series being Zoom-broadcasted at this time via All Saints’ website features meditations and prayers on the subjects of hope, peace, joy and love. In watching the segment on CBS News Sunday Morning, I was struck by how Brandon Stanton had taken upon himself the task of engaging randomly-selected individuals to photograph and tell their story. Many of these conversations were indeed dark in tone and lacked a sense of peace. Yet, there were some interactions that caused the person being photographed to convey to Stanton a positive message of hope or joy.

As we celebrate the birth of our Lord in just over a week’s time, even though the event took place many centuries ago in a place far removed from us geographically, we may be comforted in knowing that you and I too are always in God’s camera lens. He can see not only our outer image but into our hearts. Even if our accompanying situation now reflects a personal story of a darkened reality – one of pain, loss or disappointment, God is ready to provide a sense of connection with you that will eventually restore the feelings we celebrate this Advent. Our image in God’s camera lens may convey a sense of joy and hope at this time and for this we should give thanks for His gifts and to also pray for the restoration of these emotions to those who are in need of such respite.

Somewhere along the pain – joy emotional continuum, we can also be comforted in knowing that Jesus represents light as predicted by the prophets and this light does shine on each of us. It is a light that can reduce a sense of darkness that may enshroud us at this moment of fear and anxiety while the uncertainty of the pandemic is gradually extinguished. It is a light that can bring us a sense of peace that comforts our troubled spirit in a time of loss. It is also a light that can restore in us a sense of joy and hope knowing that God so loved us that He sent to us a baby born in the humblest of settings and in doing so provides us with a connection between faith and grace now and in the life hereafter.

Merry Christmas from our household to yours.

Prayer:

Lord our God, you sent your Son, the Light of the World into the darkness, which covered the earth and its peoples.
May the brightness of this rising shine in the church, so that the nations may walk towards the light –
Jesus, the Christ, our Lord. Amen.

(A Christmas Prayer, from The Glenstal Book of Prayer)

 

 

Today’s Thought & Prayer is supplied from the weekly Advent Oasis service, happening on zoom on Wednesday evenings at 7:30pm. Please plan to come to this brief (15-20 minute) gathering. Here are the coordinates:

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83561561966?pwd=V1B5ZmtZYktnNDRzRVlWMkpmclp3UT09
Meeting ID: 835 6156 1966
Passcode: 358775

View the 3rd Sunday of Advent service on JOY

Tuesday, December 14

In the chapters and verses prior to this Advent Oasis reading (John 16:16-24), Jesus has been teaching the disciples to prepare for what was coming next – his arrest and crucifixion. The two main themes in this passage are sorrow and joy.

Joy is a small word but is a feeling that there are no words to describe. Joy is not simply being happy. Think for a moment what it will be like when this pandemic is over and we can all be together again and we can hug during the peace. True joy is having that feeling all the time.

In verse 16 Jesus tell his disciples that in a little while they won’t see him but in a little while they will. What? Wait a minute. One of the saddest things to hear, for me. is a friend saying “I am leaving” or “I am moving away. Even though you may stay in touch their leaving changes things. In essence this is what Jesus is saying, and just like those friends who move away, the relationship is going to change. The disciples are confused. These dudes were still hoping that Jesus would mount some sort of military operation and oust the Romans. It wasn’t that long ago that they entered the city of Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna and cheering crowds. Why was Jesus talking about leaving now? The disciples wanted Jesus with them. He was their rabbi, teacher, and friend, they had given up their livelihoods to follow him. His leaving would cause a huge void. Telling them but in a little while after that you will see me only confused them more. Of course, we know Jesus was speaking of the resurrection.

Jesus knew his disciples were confused but his response is not to simply fill in the blanks of what was going to happen but rather to explain how they would feel throughout it.

Jesus acknowledges that they will be sorrowful – not just a little sad – but totally overcome. He goes on to say that the world will rejoice. Here is referring to pharisees and those others who viewed Jesus as a troublemaker and an instigator. They would be saying Yippee, we have got rid of him, we don’t need to worry anymore – WRONG!

Finally, in verse 20, we get some good news – their sorrow will turn into joy. He goes on to give an illustration of this. I have often wondered why Jesus chose to compare the birth process to how sorrow will turn into joy when speaking to men, but I guess it is the miracle of new life and the joy that everybody feels at the event even if you weren’t the one suffering through labour.

Granted there will always be people or circumstances that seem to take away our joy. But that is not the joy Jesus is talking about. The joy Jesus is talking about is the joy we have because we know Jesus and have invited him into our hearts. That joy can not be taken away from us even though we sometimes lose sight of it. This is the Joy that came down at Christmas

Octavius Spencer, a 19th century preacher, summed up joy with these words – I apologize for non inclusive language but this is a quote from the 1800’s:

The religion of Christ is the religion of joy. Christ came to take away our sins, to roll off our curse, to unbind our chains, to open our prison house, to cancel our debt; in a word, to give us the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Is not this joy? Where can we find a joy so real, so deep, so pure, so lasting? There is every element of joy – deep, ecstatic, satisfying, sanctifying joy – in the gospel of Christ. The believer in Jesus is essentially a happy man. The child of God is, from necessity, a joyful man. His sins are forgiven, his soul is justified, his person is adopted, his trials are blessings, his conflicts are victories, his death is immortality, his future is a heaven of inconceivable, unthought-of, untold, and endless blessedness. With such a God, such a Saviour, and such a hope, is he not, ought he not, to be a joyful man?

Prayer: 

Lord God, let your blessing come upon us with the lighting of this candle of JOY. May its light be a sign of Christ’s promise of salvation, in this time of darkness. Now we watch and wait for his coming. Amen.

December 10, 2020

Have you ever wondered why we have so many “special days” between Remembrance Day and Christmas Day? It starts with the celebration of Christ The King (or The Reign of Christ according to the Anglican Church of Canada) on the last Sunday before Advent, continues with the Advent Services with the special lighting of the Advent Candles at the beginning of each service, and is followed by Lessons and Carols Services and, in the UK, Christingle Services. All these services have Jesus as the light of the world as their theme and by the time we reach the Christmas Day reading of the Gospel of John (1:4-5 “In him was life, and that life was the light of mankind.”) we get the message!

To add to these Services, we have had a special feast day this week on December 8th when the Church celebrates The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This festival, in honour of the conception of the mother of Jesus, is celebrated on this day in both the eastern and the western Church. This feast, which dates from the seventh century, acknowledges the preparation by God of his people to receive their Saviour and Lord, bringing heaven to earth and showing that mortal flesh can indeed bring Christ to the world.

So, why all these services and why the theme of light? Well, theologically, we can see that the words of John’s Gospel would inspire the theme, but the surfeit of Services may well have human origins. We have to remember that the early church from its formation in the Acts of Apostles through its spread into the European medieval and middle ages would have had no source of light other than the sun by day and candles/torches by night through the winter months. Hence the need to relieve the gloom of “The Bleak Midwinter” with these extra services. Both the Reign of Christ Service, the Christingle Service, and the Conception of the Blessed Virgin were all introduced into the church in medieval times and serve as a reminder to all of us that the manger baby is indeed the light of the world and our Lord and Saviour, whose reign on earth and in heaven will never cease. Let’s not forget that in this Advent and Christmas season.

Prayer for The Day:
Collect from The Conception of The Blessed Virgin Mary

Almighty and everlasting God, who stooped to raise fallen humanity through the child-bearing of blessed Mary: grant that we, who have seen your glory revealed in our human nature and your love made perfect in our weakness, may daily be renewed in your image and conformed to the pattern of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

P.S. Never heard of Christingle Services? Either come or tune in on Zoom to the Lessons and Carols Service on December 20th and discover for yourselves!