by Christine Sine
One of Tom’s and my Christmas traditions is to attend the Messiah. It is, I think the most inspired Christmas music I have ever heard. However it can be a little remote for many people these days so I thought I would post this wonderful version of a Food Court Flash Mob Hallelujah which gives me the sense that it is music not for the remote and disconnected but for all of us.
By Hilary Horn ––
I have a confession, I have a soft spot for cheesy Christmas movies. Any other time of the year I steer clear of predictable chick flicks (for the most part), but at Christmas time all bets are off…
This season has been no different.
I’ve watched the similar plot line of an unbelieving cynic discover the “meaning of Christmas” time and time again. I’ve cried and laughed alongside the predictable characters. Wishing they would get it….
In our Western society that Christmas “meaning” translates into quality time with family and time off from work. Occasionally you’ll see a snippet of a church choir or the advent scene, but Hollywood typically steers clear of the “J” word. I don’t mean this as a soap box, only as a reminder of how flimsy this set is…
In James, chapter one, we are told that we will face many trials and temptations as Christians. We are reminded that these trials and temptations will produce steadfastness. Next, the author states, (vs.16)”Do not be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting lights.”
I don’t know what this Christmas season is like for you. For some, it’s a straight out of a Christmas movie, with sugar cookies, family, and mistletoe. For others, it’s a reminder of pain- a lost loved one whose stocking didn’t get hung this year. Visions of sugarplums have been replaced with hard, cold reality.
Yet, there is good news for you, no matter what this Christmas morning is like. For every good and perfect gift is from above, and we celebrate the ultimate gift this December. Not with a fake smile and red hat. Celebrating for you may be singing Hallelujiah through tears as looking through photo albums. I pray, however, that God will remind you today of His gift. However it’s translated. For it’s a gift that cannot fail you. It’s a gift that will not change. It’s a gift that will comfort, protect, and love you. It’s a gift that is not flimsy or full of false hope. Its a gift that will allow raw, real emotions… That ultimately lead to true joy (James 1:2).
For we have received Jesus.
The best gift ever.
by Christine Sine
This morning I have been thinking again about the rainbow colours of the body of Christ and our need for songs and dance that represent that. I love this Christmas dance, first from India where I encourage you to take notice of the delight and radiance of the little girl in the front. Rise Up And Dance with her as we move towards Christmas.
I am including this second version from Sri Lanka partly because it is easier to hear the words and I think we all need to be encouraged to Rise Up And Dance over and over. I understand that a number of followers did just that when they listened to the African Little Drummer Boy on Saturday. Enjoy.
By Ana Lisa de Jong —
My God is the God of small things.
Seeds.
Newborn babies.
Nutshells that contain multiple truths
in humble small containers.
My God is the God of small beginnings.
Like breathing
or opening eyelids.
If we but move today
we can accomplish what he asks.
God my God of swaddled babes
that fumble for the breast
He teaches us the worth of
lying still in trust.
My God is the God of humble things.
Caves.
Beds of straw.
Lives that don’t amount to much
if judged upon their origins.
My God, is the God of silent things.
Wombs.
Passages in the dark.
Quiet incubators, within which cells divide
and muscles stretch towards the light.
God my God of birth pangs
and pain that finds release
He teaches us that the dark
often precedes new life.
My God is the god of honed things
Parred down.
Simplified.
A carpenter sanding back the wood
to reveal the grain beneath.
My God, is the God of beloved things.
Neglected.
Abandoned.
Rescued for nothing they have done,
but because of a plan of redemption.
God, my God of Christmas coming
somehow the wonder of Advent
is knowing we need do nothing
but let new life be birthed in us.
By Britni D’Eliso —
After surviving the birth of my first child, I have been fascinated by hearing other women’s birth stories. I soak up all the birthing lingo like dilated and effaced, transition, placenta encapsulation and postpartum. I groan in sympathetic agony over the 20+ hours of labor stories, and sit bewildered at hearing of women who popped out their little one after only a push or two. The experience of giving birth is one of beauty, mystery, and instant grounds for bonding between two mothers.
Here we find ourselves with THE long-awaited, feverishly prayed for birth of the Messiah finally taking place. And what do we read?
“While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:6-7
…and?
That’s it. The Savior has arrived.
To be honest, I was surprised to discover such a lackluster birth-story account for the Son of God. I have been primed with the romanticized “Nativity Story” version with the sympathetic innkeeper and the talking animals. However, those Westernized additions to the story just serve as distractions from the main event, really.
Jesus, the holy Redeemer, has enacted the most extreme picture of love in the most humble fashion imaginable. He made himself nothing, by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man…
It’s simply Jesus, and He is enough.
Philippians 2:6-8: “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
I have been reading this beautiful Advent poem by Walter Brueggemann every day this last week and wanted to share it with you. It is published in his book Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth.
In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.
And in this privileged place
we are surrounded by witnesses who yearn more than do we
and by those who despair more deeply than do we.
Look upon your church and its pastors
in this season of hope
which runs so quickly to fatigue
and this season of yearning
which becomes so easily quarrelsome.
Give us the grace and the impatience
to wait for your coming to the bottom of our toes,
to the edge of our finger tips.
We do not want our several worlds to end.
Come in your power
and come in your weakness
in any case and make all things new.
Amen.
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by Christine Sine
Yesterday I lit the joy candle on my Advent wreath. This is the only pink candle, surrounded by three purple candles in my wreath. It glows with light and life even when the other candles seem a little dim. And behind it stands my jade plant, just beginning to flower with pink tinted blossoms also a symbol of joy.
I have really been craving light this Advent season and have thoroughly enjoyed my morning practice of lighting each of the candles in my circle of light this week. They connect me in a special way to my family, friends and neighbours near and far as well as to special places and God’s beautiful light filled created world. They fill me with joy yet there is still something lacking. What is this joy I am celebrating as I enter this third week of Advent I find myself asking?
Let the Colours of Joy Flame.
Nativity by He Qi
As I sit in my circle of light I am reminded that white light is not really white at all, it is made up of all the colours of the rainbow. And it reminds me that in Jesus too are all the colours of the rainbow. That it why over the last couple of days I have found myself hunting for images of Christ and Christmas music from different cultures. I have looked at Ethiopian icons, and black madonnas, He Qi‘s Chinese images and Hanna Varghese’s Malaysian images. I have reflected on beautiful scenes from the Cameroons. I have browsed Paul Neeley’s site Global Christian Worship for Christmas music and images from around the world. This has connected me in an even deeper way to the coming of Christ and the richness of God’s children “from every tribe and nation”.
Hanna Varghese – Unto Us A Child Is Born
Now I sit and meditate on John O’Donohue’s words in his book The Invisible Embrace of Beauty
the very breath of life breathes into things until their individual colours flame. Such is the generosity of air, self-effacing and unseen it asks nothing of the eye, yet it offers life to the invisible fields where light can unfold its scriptures of colour. We dwell between the air and the earth, guests of that middle kingdom where light and colour embrace (84)
As I ponder the different images of Christ’s birth I have looked at this week I sit in awe of the rainbow hues that make up the light of Christ. I do feel I live in that place between the air and the earth, guests of that middle kingdom where light and colour embrace. I realize I will never appreciate the light of Christ until I fully embrace the colours of God’s rainbow of joy that are all the tribes and nations and cultures of our earth.
What Is Your Response.
Watch the video below (my apologies for the age and poor quality) or visit Matt Stone’s website and browse his collection of Asian and African Christian art. What impresses you about the Jesus you see depicted in these images? What do these images teach you about the coming of Christ into our world?
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