Faith in Progress

Christmas Day (Year A) December 25, 2010 Luke 2:1-14 Opening presents on Christmas morning when I was a girl was always a slow and wondrous thing. They were opened one at a time, each of us taking turns, with lots of hugs and appreciation in between. When it was my dad’s turn he would hold up the gift, turn it around, shake it and feel it and try to guess what it was. He was really good at it – it was very hard to surprise him. He would have done really well at our recent moms’ group Christmas gathering. It was a White Elephant party, or some people call it a Yankee gift exchange. Where each person wraps up some wacky item that has been taking up space in their house and they get piled together. (These should be the kind of gifts about which my father would jokingly exclaim: “Ahh…. Just what I always knew I never needed!”) Then everyone draws a number and in order you can either pick a new unwrapped gift and open it, or you can choose to steal something that someone else has alre...

Advent 2, Year A December 5, 2010 Advent is about waiting, and preparing ourselves. And so I love this morning’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah with its reassuring promises: The wolf shall live with the lamb…. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together…. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp…. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Now that is a promise worth waiting for this Advent season. I picture my children cuddling with Aslan from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. What a sweet Christmas card photo that would be! And on a day like today I really wish we had one of those pull down screens so that I could project onto the wall a painting of Isaiah’s vision by a Quaker artist and minister from the 19th century named Edward Hicks. It’s got to be out there somewhere on Christmas cards. Hicks painted what he called “the peaceab...

Last night we had a gathering at the Church - dinner and the St. Nicholas story.  It was my bright idea, so it was up to me to tell the story.  I have a complicated relationship with Santa Claus.  I think kids get too focused on Santa and Jesus goes out the window.  Plus, there's so much about Santa that seems like really terrible God theology.  (Like, he's always watching from afar and sees what you're doing wrong or right and deciding how to reward you based on that.  But he's not someone you're actually in relationship with.  Ugh.)  In my house, I talk about Jesus and murmur vaguely if asked about Santa.  Last week, my 4 year old asked, "So is Santa real and the Grinch pretend?"  Me: "Uh, I wonder... what do you think?"  (Thank you, Godly Play, for the wonderful resource of "wondering questions" as a valid way to deal with difficult questions from children!) Anyway, I intended to use the Godly Play story of St. Nicholas, beca...