by Christine Sine
A couple of weeks ago in my Advent post Light Emerges in the Darkness I included a prayer/poem that I wrote on a recent trip to Pennsylvania. That prayer and the photos I took from the plane on that trip continue to revolve in my mind to such an extend that over the last week I had some fun putting them into this short video reflection. I have been using it to help me focus as I think about and plan for the new year. I thought you might find it helpful too.
Enjoy!
Today’s Christmas poem which Maya Angelou first read at the 2005 White House tree-lighting ceremony, makes me very aware of how much we lack peace in our world. In some ways peace is an ideal, a seemingly unattainable goal, at least in the world as a whole. Yet for each of peace is attainable every day. This is the glad and hopeful season as Maya Angelou says.
Peace is like happiness. It’s an ideal. And yet it’s not. It’s attainable everyday. I can find peace for a moment or an hour somehow, somewhere. I can actually create peace. Maybe only for a moment. Maybe only for an hour. Somehow, somewhere. Maybe more?
We can create peace. For someone. For ourselves. Maybe only for a moment. Maybe for an hour. Somehow, somewhere. Let’s do that. If we all just do that. (Daily Kos)
So whether you are reading this in Advent or in Christmas, go out and create some peace today – for yourself, for your neighbor, for our world.
Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem by Dr. Maya Angelou
Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.
Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.
We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?
Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.
It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.
Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.
In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.
We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.
We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.
It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.
On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.
At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth’s tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.
We, Angels and Mortal’s, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.
Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.
― Maya Angelou (2005)
This beautiful poem has been made into a children’s book Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem. I have not read it yet but it is on my list for next year.
And don’t forget as an Amazon Affiliate I do get a small amount if you purchase through this link)
Today’s poems are by African American theologian Howard Thurman (November 18, 1899 – April 10, 1981) an influential American author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. He was Dean of Chapel at Howard University and Boston University for more than two decades, wrote 21 books, and in 1944 Thurman cofounded San Francisco’s Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, the first integrated, interfaith religious congregation in the United States. I am posting both because they are so powerful I could not choose between them. They are from the book The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations
“The Work of Christmas”
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.
in The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations (1985)
Christmas Is Waiting to be Born
Where refugees seek deliverance that never comes
And the heart consumes itself as if it would live,
Where children age before their time
And life wears down the edges of the mind,
Where the old man sits with mind grown cold,
While bones and sinew, blood and cell, go slowly down to death,
Where fear companions each day’s life,
And Perfect Love seems long delayed.
CHRISTMAS IS WAITING TO BE BORN:
In you, in me, in all mankind.
The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations (1985)
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by Lilly Lewin
I love that the season of Christmas really starts on December 25th and runs til Epiphany on January 6th when we celebrate the Light coming to the Gentiles and the arrival of the Magi. It gives us all extra time to consider this Light, the Prince of Peace who comes for all the world.
How are you receiving the Light so far this Christmas? If you are like me, you are still in recovery mode from family festivities and you need more space to reflect on Jesus and all the Incarnation actually means for yourself and our planet.
How are you receiving the Prince of Peace? How do you need to receive Him? Pause. Consider how you can receive his peace today.
Take a few minutes to breathe in the peace of Jesus before you read on. Picture Jesus placing a blanket of peace and protection on your shoulders, surrounding you in his love. What color is the blanket? What’s the texture like? How does this blanket make you feel? Breathe in his peace, breathe out any stress or fear you may be carrying in your body. This may take several deep breaths and several minutes to actually sink in. Receive the Prince of Peace.
What does it look like to bring Light and Peace to our broken world today?
Do you know what it really means to be a peacemaker in your neighborhood, in your city, your family, etc?
I know that Jesus says that peacemakers are blessed, but I’m not sure I really know how to live this out well in my everyday world. One of the people who is teaching me more about peacemaking and bringing peace to our world is Jon Huckins. Jon is the co-founder of the Global Immersion project. The mission of Global Immersion Project “is training people of faith to engage our divided world in restorative ways.” Jon lives in San Diego and crosses the border on a regular basis. He has built friendships with Border Agents, refugees and the people on the ground working in Mexico and the States. Jon leads teams to the border to learn more and listen to real people, to see and hear their stories, not just the sound bites on the news.
Today Jon posted this on facebook:
“As we celebrate the birth of a deliverer born in Bethlehem (Palestine) under the weight of violent occupation, I am grateful for my dear Palestinian friends who show us what peace looks like as they follow Jesus under occupation in Bethlehem today. We see you and, in you, we see Jesus.
As we celebrate the selfless courage of a mother, Mary, fleeing violence while seeking safety, hope and welcome, I am grateful for immigrant friends who teach me to trust in the liberating power of Jesus in ways I can hardly imagine. We see you and, in you, we see Jesus.
The Jesus story didn’t just happen. It is happening. It isn’t only a passive celebration of the past, it is an active participation in God’s (and our) future.
May we have the eyes to see Jesus born in and around us everyday. May our seeing disrupt our assumptions of who is “in” and who is “out,” uncover our false allegiances to any kingdom other than God’s and liberate us to live like the Jesus we talk about.”
That’s my prayer this Christmas and the New Year ahead. To have the eyes to see Jesus born in and around me everyday! I want to see Jesus in the people and places I go in my neighborhood. I want to have eyes to see and ears to hear what Jesus hears and see what Jesus sees, not be blind, and not just see what my bias and privilege sees.
I want to BE a peacemaker not just wish for peace! and I want live in the reality that everyone is welcome at the manger!
If you want to learn more about peacemaking, check out Mending the Divides: Creative Love in a Conflicted World by Jon Huckins and Jer Swigart
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I don’t usually post multiple times (except when I am having fun with prayers!) but I wanted to make you aware of this special opportunity before the early bird tickets are all gone.
March 29-31st, 2019 I will be in Austin Tx for The New Story Festival. This is my first official speaking engagement after my new book The Gift of Wonder is released. I will facilitate a 90 minute workshop around the topic of my book. I would love it if you can join me. And here’s the deal – sign up using my special code NSF1187 and you will get a special $20 discount and I will get $40 towards my travel expenses. So NSF1187 for a special deal. But hurry the Early Bird Special ends in a few days.
Presenters and performers like Nadia Bolz-Weber, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Charles Eisenstein, Over the Rhine, Carrie Rodriguez, Brian McLaren, Amparo Garcia-Crow, and so many more will be there at the New Story Festival, March 29-31, 2019, in Austin, Texas!
Early Bird Tickets Fly Away on Dec. 31st!
We just wanted to give you this quick reminder that Early Bird Tickets are available right now for just $179, and that this special deal ends on Monday, December 31st. Purchase your tickets for the New Story Festival now for the lowest available price. Don’t forget to use the special code NSF1187 so that everyone knows you are one of my friends!!!
Hope that you can join me – and bring your friends too!!!
I love this Christmas poem by Madeleine L’Engle. It is a perfect one to reflect on as we continue our walk either through Advent or through the 12 days of Christmas and prepare our hearts for the new year. You might also like to check out one of my favourite Christmas books by Madeleine L”Engle The Glorious Impossible with wonderful frescos from the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto
First Coming
By Madeleine L’Engle
He did not wait till the world was ready,
till men and nations were at peace
He came when the Heavens were unsteady
and prisoners cried out for release.
He did not wait for the perfect time.
He came when the need was deep and great.
He dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine. He did not wait
till hearts were pure. In joy he came
to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of anguished shame
He came, and his Light would not go out.
He came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!
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Thank you for helping make 2018 such a successful year for us on Godspace. For many of you Godspace has become the go to place for daily devotions and church resources. Our 30 authors from 5 countries have worked hard to provide you with reflections, poetry and liturgies from a variety of perspectives and you have responded with many encouraging remarks, expressions of thanks, and support.
We appreciate those who tell us how much they enjoy our regular features – Meditation Monday and Freerange Friday. Others delight in the rich array of poetic offerings and the resources we make available for church services and other gatherings.
I am amazed that over 600 of you have downloaded our free resources with Advent in a Jar and our Maundy Thursday Agape Liturgy being the most popular. Dozens more have emailed me about the prayers and liturgies they use in meetings and services. Godspace is increasingly known as more than a blog. It is an important resource center.
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3 Ways You Can Help Us
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May you continue to grow towards the light of Christ and deepen your relationship with the One who came to renew, restore and make all things new.
Merry Christmas to all of you, to your families and to your church communities.
God bless,
Christine Sine
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