By Carol Dixon —
My Swedish penfriend and I began corresponding when we were 12 years old and we continue to keep in touch 60 years on (these days usually by email) and it was interesting and exciting to learn about each other’s customs and traditions especially at special times of the year. It was from her I first heard about the lovely tradition of Luciadagen – Saint Lucy’s Day when the light of Christ conquering the darkness is celebrated. This is what she told me about the festival.
“Tradition has it that Lucia is to wear “light in her hair”, which in practice means a crown of electric candles in a wreath on her head. Lucia wears a white gown with a red ribbon around her waist. Each of her handmaidens carries a candle too. The star boys, who like the handmaidens are dressed in white gowns, carry stars on sticks and have tall paper cones on their heads. The gingerbread men bring up the rear, carrying small lanterns. There is always a special atmosphere in the morning of Lucia day when the lights are dimmed and the sound of the singing grows as the Lucia procession enters the room. Schools and old people’s homes and other institutions have a Lucia procession. All Swedes know the Lucia song by heart and the many Lucia songs have the same theme:
‘ The night treads heavily around yards and dwellings
In places unreached by the sun, the shadows brood.
Into our dark house she comes, bearing lighted candles, Saint Lucia, Saint Lucia. ‘
St Lucia lived around 280 AD and came from Sicily. She was known for her charity to the Christians hiding in the catacombs to avoid persecution. Lucy wore candles in her hair to leave her hands free to carry food to those in need. Missionaries to the Vikings brought her story to the far north and her feast day is celebrated in both the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches. St Lucia’s day was originally celebrated on the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year as a reminder that even in the deepest darkness the light of Christ shines. “
I discovered too that when the elderly people in the village who live alone receive a visit from St Lucia and her attendants they are often given a special surprise, a small gift of food – ginger biscuits and sweet saffron flavoured buns ‘Lucia katter’ in the shape of curled up cats with raisin eyes and are invited to join in the singing.
This reminded me of the lovely old hymn ”Surprised by joy’ by William Cowper.
“Sometimes a light surprises
the Christian while s/he sings;
it is the Lord who rises
with healing in his wings:
when comforts are declining,
he grants the soul again
a season of clear shining,
to cheer it after rain.”
The 18th century poet and hymn writer, William Cowper suffered from mental illness and went through many periods of spiritual darkness yet his writing speaks of God’s love shining through. A poem of his (which became the hymn ‘ God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform’ ) was written after a suicide attempt and is entitled ‘Light shining out of darkness’.
In Advent we read many encouraging passages from the Bible concerning the coming of light and hope. Isaiah surprised his fellow exiles in Babylon with his words of God’s promise ‘ The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light’ (Is 9 v2) and John in his Gospel (Chapter 1 v 4-9) tells of the fruition of the promise in the coming of Jesus, a reading we often hear in church at this time of year.
Jesus himself told the people of his time who walked in the darkest of foreign oppression ‘ I have come into the world so that no-one who believes in me should remain in darkness.’ (John 12 v46) and St Paul in times of persecution wrote to the Corinthian Christians (in 2 Cor 4 V6) ”For God who said “let light shine out of darkness” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ’.
Advent gives us a wonderful opportunity to share the light of Christ with those around us, to surprise our friends and neighbours with the message of the light of Christ in dark times as one of my favourite childrens’ hymn reminds us.
1. Jesus bids us shine with a pure, clear light,
like a little candle burning in the night.
In the world is darkness, so we must shine,
you in your small corner, and I in mine.
2. Jesus bids us shine, first of all for him;
well he sees and knows it if our light grows dim.
He looks down from heaven to see us shine,
you in your small corner, and I in mine.
3. Jesus bids us shine, then, for all around;
many kinds of darkness in this world are found:
sin and want and sorrow; so we must shine,
you in your small corner, and I in mine.
A couple of years ago I wrote an Advent prayer after hearing Bernadette Farrell’s beautiful song ‘Christ be our light’
Festival of Light – Advent
Come, loving God,
into our worship and into our world;
Come with the light of love,
Come with the light of peace,
Come with the light of hope.
Come, loving God,
into our worship and into our world
and banish the darkness of night
with the dawn of your coming.
by Lilly Lewin
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one of a kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John 1: 14 The Message
Life is messy in so many ways… Our lives are filled with bills to pay, dogs to walk, kids to care for… illnesses, loss, suffering… sleepless nights, conflict in relationships, political disagreements….death, violence, abuse. And the messiness of Christmas!
Everything from dirty dishes in the sink, to wrapping paper piled in the corner…from simple messes ,to horrific ones we cannot fix or comprehend. From the forgotten phone calls, to missed flights, Jesus is with us. Immanuel.
Jesus is Born Into the Mess. Into the Middle of Real Life.
Jesus wasn’t born in a sanitized hospital.
He was born in a dirty stable, perhaps even a cave, where the animals were housed. Or as recent scholarship suggests, Jesus was born in the messiness of the household, in the midst of the messiness of community.
Into the mess of real life, the God of the universe became flesh to dwell among us.
Jesus gets visited by dirty shepherds, the outcasts of Jewish society, not the cream of the crop. Jesus doesn’t grow up in a palace, but rather the son of a carpenter doing manual labor.
He lived with sweat, pain, and disappointment & ultimately betrayal and criminal conviction.
Jesus knows we have pain and brokenness. He gets that we are a mess and live in a messy world.
And Jesus came to be with us in the midst of all the messiness of life.
Jesus is the gift of hope in the midst of the mess.
SIT DOWN and consider the birth of this Baby into the mess of life. If you have a nativity scene, a manger, a baby bed or crib sit down beside it.
Talk To God about Jesus coming to Earth as a Baby in into the Mess of Life.
Or if you are in the midst of doing dishes or laundry, or taking out the trash, or picking up after kids, STOP, PAUSE and consider that Jesus came into the midst of our messy world to be with you and me!
Talk to Jesus about your life right now.
What feels Messy? What feels hard or out of control? Tell Jesus about this.
How does it feel to know that Jesus loves you in the midst of the mess of your life?
How does it feel to know that Jesus understands the Mess in your life & loves you anyway?
Will you let Jesus be with you in the mess? Can you choose to receive his love and peace in the middle of the messiness? Are you willing to be willing to receive the gift in the mess and know that Jesus is with you?
As you clean up messes in your home or office this week, pray for the messy world we live in to see more of God’s love and light. Use the messes in your home as Gifts, rather than frustration. Use them as reminders to pray for friends and family who are dealing with messes much bigger than yours. Ask Jesus to fill them with his hope and love, and even joy in their day and in the middle of the mess.
If you happen to be a someone who is never messy, consider leaving something unclean or out of place, as a reminder to pray for the mess in the world.
Allow Jesus to Love you in the Mess of Life this week! In the midst of all the messiness of the holidays, Let the Love of Jesus hold you! and Heal you! And open your heart to his gift of joy even in the messiness.
The idea of Jesus in the Mess, is from a prayer station in the Christmas Incarnation Sacred Space Prayer Experience at Freerangeworship.com
By Mary Harwell Sayler –
When God Gave Us Jesus
—the One Who would save us—
Heaven could not contain itself.
Light spilled from a star,
heralding His arrival.
The earth burst into life.
Birds called for revival.
And frightened shepherds
trembled like sheep
when angels awakened
their sleep with song
as light as snowflakes,
as powerful as
a tsunami of harmony
pouring onto earth
at Jesus’ birth.
Oh, praise Him!
This poem comes from the book PRAISE by Mary Harwell Sayler
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by Christine Sine
Last week when I created my Advent garden, I commented that I expected it would change and grow as the season progressed and that is just what has happened.
One person commented that the rocks reminded them of the pathway we all walk towards the Christ child. I immediately had visions of a rocky pathway, and and arduous to negotiate. Then it occurred to me – the pathway towards Christ is not all hard going. There are gems and precious stones along the way. There are “rocks” that light up our lives as well as those that make life difficult. So I added some of the beautiful rocks I have collected over the years and now my garden sparkles with color.
I appreciate those who comment on what I write, it is often the inspiration I need for future ideas and posts. Thank you for helping me on this journey through Advent.
By Ana Lisa de Jong —
You can do this without us.
Move the earth through its orbit,
the courses of the stars you keep on track.
The galaxies whose music you orchestrate,
sing from millennium to millennium.
That you can do this without us
we so know.
Which is why we are amazed still
that you don’t.
Have not left us alone,
to navigate through the courses of our lives,
to hold on to this spinning earth which,
but for your gravity, we could not survive.
You can do this without us
we understand,
which is why we stand in awe still
that you’ve chosen otherwise.
That instead, you have not only not left,
but you’ve come as close as we each allow.
In Immanuel, God with us,
our unwrapping forever gift.
Oh, you can so do this without us.
Move the earth through its orbit,
the courses of the stars on track.
The galaxies, whose music you orchestrate,
singing from millennium to millennium.
That you would not just visit,
this one planet out of trillions,
but would form us each in your own image,
and then give to us yourself.
Yes, what wonder is this,
that the smallest treasure laid in a haystack,
is the maker and sustainer of all this,
and made his way to stay with us.
What love that keeps us,
while still in awareness of our solitariness,
in remembrance of a connection
with the One who keeps everything.
You can so do this without us,
and that is why we love you the more,
that you have not,
but rather made a path direct to your heart.
Though the universes circle us all.
Today is the anniversary of Thomas Merton’s death in 1968. He was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist, and scholar of comparative religion. He has influenced many of us with his profound insights about faith, and contemplation. The quote below seemed a fitting post as we walk through the season of Advent. It resonated with me because of my desire to see all of us make more room for those we have excluded – a sentiment that I expressed in the poem in my post Come Thou Unexpected Jesus
“Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ comes uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, his place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst.”
Thomas Merton, “The Time of the End Is the Time of No Room” in Raids on the Unspeakable, pages 51-52
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By Hilary Horn —
As Christmas approaches and our advent season has arrived, one word that has been sticking out to me in particular is the word hope. I love this video from the bible project that breaks down the biblical hope:
Isn’t that video good?!
What I think is so different than the hope that the world presents us, is that hope in the bible is not just happy optimism but a choice to wait on God to bring about a future. This feeling of tension and expectation as we wait because we know Gods past faithfulness is what motivates us to look forward in the hope we have in Him. We trust nothing other than God’s character.
As a mother I can only imagine Mary during this time. Many young woman have a hope (this happy optimism) in our future. For many of us, that involves hopes for a future spouse and most likely children. We day dream about what our life may look like, what we hope it does many years down the road. 2 kids? Maybe 3? 6? Maybe we hope to own a house, have some sort of stability in our careers. Maybe we want a natural birth. We scroll Pinterest and get way over our heads on all the baby stuff we want to get one day and how we want to decorate our nursery. We think of things like clothe diapers or disposable? Breastfed or bottles? We dream of what our child could be, what they may look like. Will they have my eyes or their dad’s? Will they be funny or sensible? You wonder endlessly.
Then often, our perfect optimistic dreams are jaded. Life happens and most of us don’t always get the ideals we dreamt of.
Mary sure didn’t.
She was a young, single mother at first. No husband. No home. No stability. She was probably afraid, ostracized and abandoned. She went off to her cousins house. I’m sure she was worried more about the outcome of her life, let alone what crib she wanted to purchase. She didn’t even have a clue what to dream up about the incarnate God and what he would look like. Would this baby even look or be like her?
But one thing she did have. She had the living hope of Jesus in her. A hope that isn’t just a feeling of optimism, a hope that can be crushed. But a hope that is an eternal, a faithful hope. A hope of who God is and what he will do.
She lived and breathed the waiting tension and expectation of hope. She knew she carried the savior of the world. What a weight! To mother Jesus? Can you imagine this young girls thoughts? But she trusted full heartedly in who God was in the past and who she knew he was going to be in the future.
She resinates the hope in her soul when she proclaims this song in Luke 1:46-55:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
She remembered God’s faithfulness, his mercy and power. And she was confident in the hope for what was her future and the baby that she now carried. Even though her life was in what most of us would see as utter shambles – she trusted in the hope because she knew Gods past faithfulness and his future. She even called herself blessed.
Whatever season you are in – a joyful one or maybe one that looks like unmet expectations, chaotic, broken, afraid, a lone…
We may not have the hope that the world gives us, but we can be confident in the hope that God is.
Jesus is our living, eternal hope. I am choosing to hope and wait in this tension for the now and not yet Kingdom until he returns once again.
So as advent continues I am reminded that hope is not that God guarantees a life of bliss and perfection, but that in all seasons, trials and circumstances, God is with us.
In seasons that are hard, I want to proclaim the truth of God’s promises and be like Mary, calling myself, “blessed” because I rest in the biblical hope of Jesus…God with us.
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