Faith in Progress

First Sunday after Christmas John 1:1-18 I’ve always loved the time before Christmas -- the build-up to the Big Day.   Picking a tree, seeing anew all those wonderful decorations that hold so many memories, baking cookies, humming along to Christmas music, thinking about loved ones and choosing just the right presents, anticipating gatherings with family and friends, watching the Advent wreath growing in light, continuing old traditions and creating new ones.             And then the Big Day arrives.   Everyone is wearing their sparkly clothes and on their best behavior.   The pageant is full of joy.   The carols are sung with gusto.   The candles are more full of light than it would seem possible.   The food is delicious and everyone is loves presents given with such care.   Joy to the world! But ever since I was a little girl, the time after Christmas has always felt a little low....

Christmas Day 2012 Proper I Isaiah 9:2-7, Luke 2:1-14(15-20) In the Washington Post you’ve probably seen the weekly segment where they list five myths about a certain topic.   The segment claims to debunk myths about anything from tax reform to sleep – pretty much whatever issue is in the headlines.   Its official title is “Five Myths: Challenging Everything You Think You Know.”    Maybe because the tag line is so assertive, I’d always assumed that this debunking of myths was reliable and trustworthy.   But then last year around this time, they ran one called “Five Myths about Christmas.”   I read it and was so surprised that I cut it out and kept it, and happened across it last week.   The basic gist of it was to downplay Christmas’ significance to Christianity.   Christmas is ok, the article said essentially, but Easter is the main event.   It argued that Easter, when Christ rose from the dead, has more religious significanc...

   Anyone that read my last post already knows that beginning on December 31, 2012, a group of people (26 so far signed up) from St. Aidan's will be beginning The Bible Challenge.  If you haven't heard of it, it's a challenge to read the entire Bible in a year, encouraged by the Center for Biblical Studies.  The last seminarian at St. Aidan's had gone on to work for a church in California and undertaken the Bible Challenge with a group there and raved about what an amazing adventure it had been for her group -- a great opportunity to talk about faith, work in a small group, share insights and struggles, and deepen their understanding of God and their relationships with God.  I'm looking forward to this journey for myself, and very excited to be walking this path with so many great folks from St. Aidan's!

2 Advent (Year C) December 9, 2012 When I was a little girl, my grandmother was an amateur genealogist and wrote books about our family.   For a book called Guyton’s Galore , she researched and wrote about how her relatives had fled religious persecution in France and eventually made their way by covered wagon to settle in Oregon.   In Schoolmarms , Grandma used her mother’s journals to write about her experience as a teacher in a small one-room school house.   And she wrote a series of books about the town of Shaniko, where she grew up, and how it turned from a wool capital to a ghost town.   I loved her stories, loved picturing how things were for her and her parents and grandparents, loved visiting the places that were part of the stories she told and wrote about.   But while I always thought her stories were interesting, and I thought it was neat that she was a writer, I didn’t think of the stories as having anything to do with me.   Then one da...