Advent: Looking at the "Holidays" from a Different Perspective

How'd you like a $1 million Advent calendar? I was listening to a pod cast of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" this evening while walking the dogs. One of the questions was about an Advent calendar on sale at Harrod's in London for $1 million. Seriously? I can't find it online, but I'm guessing this isn't the sort of thing you simply put on your credit card. I mean, what would it cost to ship that?

Given that astounding example on how so many of us in Western culture see (and value) the Christmas season, this video, Advent Conspiracy Promo on YouTube, needs no explanation or extra commentary from me. Click on it and take a look. It's a good reminder of what this season is all about.

Want to learn more? Check out Advent Conspiracy on the web.

(Thanks to the Rev. Annie Thornberg for sending this link to me earlier today.)

E’en So Lord Jesus Quickly Come: Another Advent Begins

This post is adapted from a column I wrote for the December 2010 edition of the Christ Church, Exeter monthly newsletter, "The Anchor"

And so it is Advent, the season of joyful anticipation of the coming of Christ . . . finally!

We need this season, I think, and not simply for the carols and the lights and the trees and the merriment that mark the secular holiday season. We need this season to give us hope in the face of some of the realities of life that could lead us to despair: the young men and women we pray for at Christ Church each Sunday who have died in service to their country in Iraq and Afghanistan;, the brave 6^th grade girl who has endured a stem cell transplant as she fights cancer with the support of her family, parish community, friends, and neighbors; people we know who are out of work and wondering how they will survive when their unemployment benefits run out; and national and global problems that seem too big to solve.

Ironically, it is during this season of deepest darkness in the northern hemisphere that we are invited to look toward the horizon with hope. Advent reminds us that Christ is coming . . . no matter what may be happening in the world or in our lives. Jesus—who was and is and is to come—brings the promise of the future into the present, not so much to fix all that ails our world but to raise our eyes so they can focus beyond today, looking with hope and faith toward the horizon.

When this happens—when we look at the world through the lens of Advent hope—the way we live and the actions we take today are transformed. We are filled with joy and we share that joy with others.

One of my favorite pieces of music during Advent is "E'en so Lord Jesus quickly come" by Paul Manz. The text is an adaptation of Revelation 21:1-4 (adapted by Ruth Manz). This, always, is my prayer for Advent. In the face of darkness and doubt, of uncertainty and isolation, of whatever may be troubling any of us, this is my response.

Peace be to you and grace from him
Who freed us from our sins,
Who loved us all and shed his blood
That we might saved be.

Sing holy, holy to our Lord,
The Lord, Almighty God,
Who was and is and is to come;
Sing holy, holy, Lord!

Rejoice in heaven, all ye that dwell therein,
Rejoice on earth, ye saints below,
For Christ is coming, is coming soon,
For Christ is coming soon!

E'en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come,
And night shall be no more;
They need no light nor lamp nor sun,
For Christ will be their All!

(To truly experience the power of this text, I encourage you to listen to "E'en so Lord Jesus quickly come")

A Thanksgiving Proclamation Continues to Ring True

There is not arguing that on this Thanksgiving Day 2010 Americans are gathering together under a cloud of anxiety such as we've rarely, if ever, experienced since the Great Depression in the 1930s. While it may be true that technically the Great Recession is over, too many Americans are unemployed and even more live in fear of the future. The economy, terrorism, continued war in Afghanistan, a federal government so caught in partisanship that nothing can get done: all this and more causes Americans to believe that the country our children are inheriting will be worse than the one in which many of us grew up.

How is one to be thankful in the midst of this sort of anxiety and with so many insurmountable problems?

Perhaps we can learn a bit from the past. Lincoln Caplan writes in today's New York Times about the Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1936 written by Wilbur Cross, the Governor of Connecticut from 1931-1939. In the midst of the Depression, in a year in which Connecticut had suffered from disastrous floods, labor strife, and the struggles to make ends meet day in and day out, Cross (to quote Caplan) lifted "his gaze to the stars" so the citizens of Connecticut could "rediscover their hopes and dreams."

All of which is to say that in the midst of dark and anxious times, we need Thanksgiving Day to remind us that we are blessed by God and that gratitude is a key ingredient to moving forward with hope.

In his Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1936, Cross reminded the people of Connecticut (and anyone reading his proclamation today) to be thankful "for all the creature comforts, . . . for all those things, as dear as breath to the body, that quicken a man's faith in his manhood, . . . for the brotherly word and act; . . . for honor held above price; for steadfast courage and zeal in the long, long search after truth; for liberty and for justice granted by each to his fellow . . .; and for the crowning glory and mercy of peace upon our land . . ."

Good words to remember this Thanksgiving Day.

Despite all that is happening in our world, we are blessed in countless ways. Thanks be to God!

Another Look at Thanksgiving: Beyond Turkey and Extra Pie

This post is adapted from a column I wrote for "The Anchor," the monthly newsletter of Christ Church, Exeter, New Hampshire

As we anticipate the Thanksgiving holiday this week, I am struck by the disconnect between the way we celebrate the day in American culture and the collect in the Prayer Book for Thanksgiving Day.

In the United States, Thanksgiving has primarily become a holiday in which we prepare more food than we need, eat more food than our bodies can comfortably hold, and prepare for the general indulgence that often marks the "holiday season." I'm not trying to be judgmental here. I love the excuse the Thanksgiving feast gives me to get second and third helpings and to enjoy some extra dessert! I also love the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years, and not only for the holy parts associated with church.

Yet, I find the collect appointed for Thanksgiving Day a good correction for my cultural bias. It refocuses me on what this day is supposed to be about, at least from a Christian perspective.

Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

After giving thanks, the collect asks that God make us "faithful stewards . . . for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need." This is, I believe, the heart of the prayer and words that are well worth praying over and over and over. Note that we are asking God to empower us to use the bounty of the earth so that our needs and the needs of others can be met. We are not giving thanks to God for the opportunity to indulge ourselves.

We live in a narcissistic culture in which we generally confuse our wants with our needs. There is a tremendous difference between what we want and what we need and it is important for us to differentiate them. When we confuse the two, when we begin to believe that what we want is what we need, we risk indulging ourselves at the cost of the needs of others.

The collect for Thanksgiving Day reminds us that we cannot live solely for ourselves. We are called to live for others. This does not mean sacrificing our own needs. It means we need to weigh our wants with the needs of others. The gospel paradox is that by doing so—by satisfying both our own needs and the needs of others—we create a "great bounty" for all.

One of the characteristics of the church as a "new commons" is that we commit ourselves to a common good, a good for society that seeks to lift everyone up so that all can experience the "great bounty" that God provides. For this to happen, we must listen carefully to the words of the collect and seek to make them real in our actions.

I'm not advocating here for some sort of holy austerity. I have more than I need in my life and I believe that as human beings it is important to treat ourselves now and then. I plan to enjoy indulging in a second helping of turkey and stuffing on Thanksgiving Day (perhaps I'll even have a second piece of pie).

Yet I hope I do so with the knowledge that I am enjoying a want, not satisfying a need. And I hope that I might be inspired—after enjoying this great bounty—to be a faithful steward for the relief of all who are in need not only at Thanksgiving but throughout my life.

Skepticism to Faith?

One of the things I love about reading an actual newspaper is that I find interesting articles by flipping the pages that I would never read if I had to click on the title on my computer. Today, my journey through the New York Times took me to Life's Work Is a Talmud Accessible to All Jews. The article focuses on Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz who has just completed a translation of the Talmud into modern Hebrew. It took him 45 years!

I could write about his dedication (not too dissimilar from the Episcopal saint, Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky who spent decades translating the Bible into Chinese, but I'll leave that for another time).

What I found interesting in the article today was this quote by Rabbi Steinsaltz. Having grown up in a non-religious home, his religious belief developed during his teenage years. "By nature," the rabbi said, "I am a skeptical person, and people with a lot of skepticism start to question atheism."

Really? I've always heard it the other way around, that skeptical people question religion, thus becoming atheists (or agnostics or some other religion or something).

Somehow this strikes me as refreshing, that someone came to a religious faith not through grand experiences or because of acceptance of doctrine. He became a faithful person by asking questions. And then he dedicated most of his life to translating volumes of the questions and answers and questions and answers and questions that make up the Talmud.

Skepticism leading to faith. Now, there's a concept!

Prayer on Generosity

Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann prayed this prayer during a chapel service at Columbia Theological Seminary on September 26, 2002. As we draw closer to the end of the church's annual pledge campaign, it seems a good prayer to quote here. I'll let the prayer speak for itself.

On our own, we conclude:
that there is not enough to go around
we are going to run short
of money
of love
of grades
of publications
of sex
of beer
of members
of years
of life
we should seize the day
seize the goods
seize our neighbor's goods
because there is not enough to go around.

And in the midst of our perceived deficit:
You come
You come giving bread in the wilderness
You come giving children at the 11th hour
You come giving homes to exiles
You come giving futures to the shut-down
You come giving Easter joy to the dead
You come -- fleshed in Jesus.

And we watch while
the blind receive their sight
the lame walk
the lepers are cleansed
the deaf hear
the dead are raised
the poor dance and sing.

We watch
and we take food we did not grow and
life we did not invent and
future that is gift and gift and gift and
families and neighbors who sustain us
when we do not deserve it.

It dawns on us -- late rather than soon --
that "you give food in due season
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing."

By your giving, break our cycles of imagined scarcity
override our presumed deficits
quiet our anxieties of lack
transform our perceptual field to see
the abundance ... mercy upon mercy
blessing upon blessing.

Sink your generosity deep into our lives
that your muchness may expose our false lack
that endlessly receiving, we may endlessly give,
so that the world may be made Easter new,
without greedy lack, but only wonder
without coercive need, but only love
without destructive greed, but only praise
without aggression and invasiveness . . .
all things made Easter new . . .
all around us, towards us and by us
all things Easter new.

Finish your creation . . . in wonder, love, and praise. Amen.