by Christine Sine
As I prepare for the new year and my intended focus “Let God’s newness emerge” I am constantly looking for prayers I can use regularly to keep my focus on God and God’s purposes for me. Today’s prayer, which I understand Mother Theresa used every day is a beautiful prayer from the 19th century Catholic theologian John Henry Newman.
The line that particularly held my attention and which I have spent time reflecting on this morning is “be in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul.” What I wonder do I need to commit to in the new year so that others are able to sense God’s presence in my soul at all times? I think it is a question that all of us should ponder at this season.
Help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly,
that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in
contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others; The light, O Jesus will be
all from You; none of it will be mine;
It will be you shining on others through me. (John Henry Newman.)
For those that wonder why I post so many prayers like this, and why poetry is such an important part of Godspace I suggest you read this article: Why Reading Poetry Is Good For Your Brain Evidently poetry helps us reflect and is good for our memory and cognitive health. No wonder there is a resurgence of interest in poetry. No wonder so many of us still love to recite poems we learned as kids and no wonder a growing number of us like to write poetry.
What kind of poetry do you love to listen to, recite or write?
The day after Christmas is a letdown for many of us. Perhaps we are despondent for simple reasons – we didn’t get what we wanted, we ate too much, the day passed too quickly. Others lament the loss of loved ones and the aching loneliness it brought to the Christmas season. Some lament the political struggles of the last year and the growing chaos of our world. Others lament the overwhelming impact of climate change.
Whatever saddens this day after Christmas for you, read through this poem by Ana Lisa De Jong and be refreshed.
Many blessings
Are you waiting in the blue?
Is blue the colour of your heart.
Or blue the light that
falls upon your path.
Is blue the weight
that sits upon your frame.
Or blue the echo to resonate
within your chest.
Is blue the hue that covers you like snow,
or clouds carrying rain.
Is blue the light that envelops you,
or in the pain that pushes at your chest.
Remember blue is another colour with which
you are held close.
Loss lengthening like shadows in the longest night,
is always the underside of life lived to its full.
Until its treasure all consumed for now,
is wrung out like rain washed clothes.
Then blue is the light that covers you,
while what is waiting in the wings takes some unseen shape.
Grows ready like the burning sun to come round,
and burn through the vestiges of what remains.
Blue, the space between the old and new,
is the gentle pallbearer of your pain,
whose job is done when life
restored enters in,
to lift the covering edge
and do its alchemy of love,
absorbing the blue
in its rainbow hues.
Yes, are you walking blue?
Has blue become the weight in your step.
Grief that knows its season
will recede back, to greet the sun.
And if not yet,
then be assured of shortening nights to come.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
December 2018
Lord Jesus,
Master of both the light and the darkness,
send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.
We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.
We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.
We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom.
We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.
We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.
To you we say, “Come Lord Jesus!”
Tom and I wish you and yours a blessed Advent, a Joyous Christmas and a new year filled with hope. Join us in this invitation issued by Walter Brueggemann to sing a song of hope in troubled times.
Sing to the Lord a New Song
“Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth! Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the tops of the mountains.” Isaiah 42:10-11
Can you imagine writing this poem and singing this song in exile? Can you imagine defying the empire by sketching out this daring alternative? Can you dare to sing this song under the nose of Babylonian soldiers, about a new reality that counters the empire? Think of it, new reality conjured in worship, by the choir, inviting to new courage, new faith, new energy, new obedience, new joy.
The new song is a protest. The new song is also a bold assertion, innocently declaring that the God of the gospel has plans and purposes and a will to reorder the world, to bring wholeness and health to the blind, the poor, the needy, to the nations os fearful and to the entire creation now so under killing assault. The song asserts God’s future against our present tense.
It is no wonder, once the singing begins, that all creation sings and dances and claps with us. The whole creation sings about God’s new world. Heaven and nature sing and earth repeats a loud amen. We sing the song, even in exile, then we live the new reality. The Babylonians can not stop us, because the song is true and more powerful that the tearfulness of the world. The exiles are indeed on their way— rejoicing.”
Celebrating Abundance, Second Monday of Advent, Walter Brueggemann December 10, 2018
Celebrate with Us
We are celebrating a growing chorus of voices on Godspace during this season of Advent. Thirty voices from 9 different countries herald the very good news, for a time like this, that not only a child is born, but hope is come anew.
Gift of Wonder
We also celebrate the news that on March 26 InterVarsity Press will release Christine’s new book, The Gift of Wonder. This book offers readers the opportunity to view this gift of wonder and hope through the eyes of children. I can’t imagine a better way to begin 2019 than entering into the wonder of our young.
We celebrate our delightful pup Goldie, now 18 months old and a joy to our lives. However she has developed a concerning addiction to socks, shoes, plastic and Tom’s cough lozenges. She even managed to dissect the remote control to our Christmas candles a few days ago.
We celebrate what Mustard Seed Associates, now renamed Circlewood (www.circlewood.online) is becoming under the able leadership of James Amadon. We are excited by James passionate belief that care for the earth is meant to be integrated into God’s redemptive mission. We look forward to seeing how this is lived out through the development of the property on Camano Island as a program center for education and leadership.
We celebrate the small community at the Mustard Seed House – Hilary and Trevor with their 2 kids Ephraim and Abram upstairs, us on the middle floor, Dan and Lisa in the basement apartment and Luke in the monk cell. We share meals together, have great conversations and continue to garden together. As a result we had one of the most successful vegetable growing seasons of many years.
Tom and Christine speaking in Pennsylvania
We celebrate continuing opportunities to share our passion and concerns for a new generation. We are just back from being with Jill Young and a new generation of Christian College leaders at the Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. We enjoyed the opportunity to speak at the annual banquet of Protestant Campus Ministry and were impressed that virtually all these young are Christians completing educational programs to become chaplains, work with hearing impaired or educate the next generation. However we are concerned at how few Christians over 40 realize how much more expensive it is for this generation to launch.
Several students have school debt of over $80,000 for a public college education. They will also spend considerably more on housing as they launch their lives than their parents or grandparents typically spent. As we race into the 2020s we urge all parents and grandparents to start savings programs as soon as possible not only for your own children but other children of promise so they have every possibility of launching their lives to be agents of compassion and hope.
Also consider renting rooms in your home for students of promise at significantly reduced rates to help them launch. Let’s all find ways to help Gen Next launch particularly those that are committed to investing their lives in having an impact in a world that needs a little hope. Let’s be God’s messengers of hope for Gen Next
We would love to hear what you and your church are doing to help those in Gen Next, who want to use their lives to make a difference in our troubled world in the 2020s, launch their lives.
We would also love to hear what brings rejoicing to your life and to your loved ones in this season of anticipation. We would love to hear what you are celebrating.
Tom and I and all of us at the Mustard Seed House, ask you to keep us in your prayers in troubled times.
Tom, Christine & Goldie
Mustard Seed House Community
by Christine Sine
I love images that help us understand the Jesus story from the perspective of different cultures. The image above for instance, though depicting a Native American Jesus was actually painted by John Guiliani, an Italian.
Several years ago I came across another interesting photo from the Huffington post article Muslim “Last Supper” Photo Offers Interfaith Tribute to Da Vinci’s Masterpiece. It made me think even more deeply about the face of Jesus and how, not just we but people of other cultures and faiths see him.
Last Supper – Fatimah Ali
The organizer Fatima Ali commented:
“For this year’s photo, we wanted to do something that, in its own humble way, aimed to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western cultural and religious norms. We looked up the painting, assigned each person a character, and meticulously tried to mimic the image, while also making it our own.”
The pictured group enjoyed the process of putting a different spin on the the iconic artwork. “Most of the people pictured in this photo have been active members of the Islamic Center at NYU, and I think one of the greatest values we all have shared is this overwhelming sense of community and religious unity,” Ali said. “I don’t mean just Muslim unity or Muslim community, I mean on a more universal level, being respectful and considerate of all faiths and religious communities.”
Not surprisingly, the photo elicited a varied response from Christians. Some are delighted by this depiction of Christ and his followers with faces that look more authentic than the white faces we usually see. Others are appalled by Muslims depicting what they view as a sacred Christian event.
Why am I posting a photo of the Last Supper you may ask when we are getting ready to celebrate the birth of Christ? Arn’t I getting to the end of the story before we have seen the beginning? No. In so many ways this photo epitomizes Christmas. When I first posted this, also in the Christmas season, I added a quote from Monastery Journey to Christmas by Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette. He writes: Jesus is the Prince of Peace whose face the whole world longs to see. I think that in the hearts of all humankind there is indeed a deep ache for the coming of a saviour. More than that there is a deep ache to see the face of Jesus in the faces and actions of his followers, and in the faces of all who long for peace where there is violence, abundance where there is starvation and healing where there is disease.
Nativity Varghese – Malaysia
As I look out at my seemingly dead Seattle garden, wet and soggy after another storm, I can fully appreciate this. Winter seems to have destroyed all life, yet hidden in the earth, the roots still live, growing stronger, reaching deeper ready to emerge in the coming spring. For the Jewish people there was a long winter of centuries before Jesse’s Root, sprouted forth with the coming of Christ, the Messiah. For us there have been even more centuries of longing, of hoping and of anticipation.
Madona – Saincilus Ismael
When Christ first appeared he was like the first sprouts of spring growth – weak, vulnerable, tiny compared to the tree that would grow. This is the Christ whose remembrance we celebrate at Christmas. Yet in that tiny shoot lay the hope and promise of what was and still is to come – a tree that could spread over all the earth, a saviour for the whole world whose power and scope is far greater than any of us could ever imagine. This is the Christ for whose coming we wait with joyful anticipation. This is the Christ whose tree has already spread across the whole earth, yet we still see so much of the darkness that it is meant to overcome. We still wait in anticipation for the full unveiling of this Christ who fills our hearts with longing for the future in which all things will be made new. In the meantime it is wonderful to catch glimpses of it in the depiction of Christ’s birth from many cultures.
Nativity – Lu Lan China 1994
I love what Brueggemann says about the coming of Christ
There was something unreal about him: no pretense, no ambition, no limousine no army, no coercion, no royal marking. Wise and intelligent people are turned toward the regal. Kings and prophets want to penetrate the mystery. But the Jesus who showed up amid royal hopes and royal songs was of another ilk, powerful in weakness, rich in poverty, wise in foolishness, confounding the wisdom of the Greeks and bewildering the Jews.
He is beyond all usual categories of power, because he embodies the gentle, gracious, resilient, demanding power of God. He does not trifle in temples and cities and dynasties but in the power and truth of the creator God.
This tender shoot, this vulnerable child whose very birth reveals the upside down nature of God’s kingdom is an ensign for the nations, a flag towards which all people will be drawn and that includes the Muslims and people of other faiths. The word we translate as “nations” had a very different meaning for the Jews. “Gentiles” were everyone who was not Jewish. It encompassed all peoples outside Israel, opening God’s promise of salvation to all cultures and countries. The new kingdom Christ ushered in is open to the entire world. Christ the Messiah, the tiny Branch which is slowly becoming a mighty tree will break down walls and barriers between all people.
What Is Your Response?
I love this children’s depiction of the birth of Jesus. It is fun, but also I think there are things that we can learn as we listen to children tell the story. Watch it prayerfully. What stands out for you? Is there something new that strikes you about the story of the birth of Christ?
by Christine Sine
Some of you might be looking for something longer than the prayers I have been posting over the last few days to use during the Christmas season so I thought I would repost this litany from Waiting for the Light. Enjoy
Christmas Litany
God of joy and celebration
God of love and mercy
God of peace and righteousness
We sing aloud and dance with the angels.
The ruler of all worlds, the shepherd of creation
Jesus Christ has come among us.
Our Savior Christ has come,
Not in power, not in might, but in the tenderness of love,
The promise of life hidden in a mother’s womb.
In this season of God with us we celebrate with the angels
We are graced by the wonder of God’s presence
We are filled with the tenderness of Christ’s love,
Pause to light Christ candles
Love and faithfulness meet together,
Righteousness and peace kiss each other,
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth
Shout aloud Hallelujah! God’s faithfulness comes down from heaven,
God has kept his promise, the Savior has been born and a new world begun.
This is the time we believe once more that perfect love casts out fear,
That generosity transforms scarcity into abundance,
That righteousness overcomes oppression with justice.
Shout aloud Hallelujah! God’s faithfulness comes down from heaven,
God has kept his promise, the Savior has been born and a new world begun.
We are graced by Christ’s presence and filled with his love,
May we become bearers of God’s light,
And go out to transform our troubled world.
Shout aloud Hallelujah! God’s faithfulness comes down from heaven
God has kept his promise, the Savior has been born and a new world begun .
Read scriptures of the day from the daily lectionary
The whole earth shouts with joy to God,
The world declares God’s praise.
Praise to the compassionate and gracious One,
Who sent the son to dwell among us.
Praise to the incarnate One, Jesus Christ our Redeemer,
Who fulfills God’s covenant of love to all people.
Praise to the indwelling one, the Holy Spirit giver of life,
Who proclaims God’s mercy and justice throughout the earth.
Praise to the three in One, the One in Three,
Praise to God on high.
Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
Pause for a time of prayer and thanksgiving
Jesus you come,
In the voice of the poor,
In the hurting of the sick,
In the anguish of the oppressed.
Open our eyes that we may see you.
Jesus you come,
In the weakness of the vulnerable,
In the questions of the doubting,
In the fears of the dying.
Open our ears that we might hear you.
Jesus you come,
In the celebration of the saints,
In the generosity of the faithful,
In the compassion of the caring.
Open our hearts that we might embrace you.
Almighty God whose great love and compassion came into our world in the person of your incarnate son, Jesus Christ, plant in every heart your concern and care for all humankind. May the light of Christ ignite our hearts and shine out brightly from our lives, proclaiming your salvation to all the earth.
May the light of God shine on us,
May the love of Christ shine in us,
May the life of the Spirit shine through us.
This day and evermore,
Amen.
Advent Podcast #4
- Story by Tom & Christine Sine
- Music by Lacey Brown, In Mansions and Church of the Beloved
- Reflection by Tom Sine
- Meditation by Christine Sine, from Light for the Journey
- Produced by Ryan Marsh, Church of the Beloved
Listen now:
Join us here at the Mustard Seed House as we celebrate our annual Advent Homecoming party. Listen to Tom Sine reflect on coming home to the kingdom of God and Lacey Brown’s beautiful song What Happens When God Comes Close.
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