by Joy Lenton
It’s dawn on Christmas Day. A sense of anticipation builds. Children are already fumbling for their lumpy, weighty stockings and emitting excited squeals before hurrying to show their sleep-deprived parents what Santa has brought them.
Come with me to a quiet, sleepy city street. Here we find a woman who rarely surfaces early or feels remotely half-awake until coffee time or later, slowly and gently being nudged out of slumber.
She doesn’t have a child disturbing her rest, instead there’s a thrill of hope racing through her veins. A feeling of awe stirs her to rouse and remember Christmas Day has dawned. A sudden splurge of energy propels her toward the bedroom window.
Here she spots the muted glow of street lights still visible behind the curtains. Yet something invites her to draw them back a notch and look beyond the environs of her home, the street corner, houses and trees. This is what she sees…
Dawn
She wakes with the dawn,
which is unusual
because her weary body rarely
comes alive before coffee time,
at least, but now she is drawn
to part the curtains on the day,
where she witnesses
a golden-ridged, rippled cloud
of applause echoing through the sky
as if to celebrate
this Christmas Day, this wondrous
event when Christ arrives.
It seems as if the heavens
are joining earth
in exultation, rejoicing
in their King
being revealed to mortal eyes.
And in this glorious
display it feels like angels
are singing again,
unheard by human ears, and yet
they leave vestiges
of royal love and joy threading
like wafts of shining cotton wool
lining the acreage of sky.
Her heart lifts, too,
as she admires
the spectacle of glory clouds
and ponders on
how marvellous the first Christmas
must have been
to its small audience,
unseen hosts
and awed participants,
while heaven touched earth
irrefutably, through a baby’s
breath, a tiny heartbeat
that still resounds—now softly
bound within her own.
© joylenton
Photo by Joy Lenton
“The Word became
a human being
and lived here with us.
We saw his true glory,
the glory of the only Son
of the Father.
From him the complete gifts
of undeserved grace and truth
have come down to us.”
— John 1:14 CEV
A Christmas Day prayer
Dear Lord Jesus,
Today we celebrate Your birth, how You came and dwelt among us here on earth. Although we might be overfamiliar with the biblical narrative, help us retain a sense of awe at the wonder of it all as we remember how You inhabited our humanity.
May our hearts reignite with the anticipation, hope, expectation, awe and joy of a child on Christmas morning, one who can’t wait to unwrap the wonderful gifts You bring us.
Help us to notice the majestic and the marvellous wrapped up in the mundane. As we go about our humdrum, ordinary days, may they be filled with a deep-seated awareness of Your gifts of joy and peace and saturated with Your grace.
May we learn to rejoice, even in the challenging and hard, because You came down to earth and You love us so much. You are with us through the good times and the bad. You live in our hearts by faith, a new life birthing made possible because of your own.
Amen
Over the last several years we have posted numerous Christmas prayers. In fact, I realized today that with the addition of T.S. Eliot’s great reading of the Journey of the Magi there are indeed 12 poems to share. Enjoy
- A Christmas Creed
- Irish Christmas blessing
- At the End of the Year – A Poem by John O’Donohue
- Aaron Neville – A Christmas Prayer
- Christmas Prayer by Mother Theresa
- Christmas Prayer by Bebe Winan
- Christmas Prayer by Henri Nouwen
- The Mood of Christmas by Howard Thurman
- First Coming by Madeliene L’Angle
- Amazing Peace by Maya Angelou
- A Christmas prayer by Christine Sine
This year many of us in America are receiving the Gift of Interruption for Christmas due to the wild winter weather we are having. Many have had to rearrange travel plans or reschedule gatherings due to the blizzard conditions and subzero temperatures. This is so frustrating! We really don’t like interruptions and after two years of having to regroup and change things due to the pandemic, we really don’t have the bandwidth or margin needed to regroup yet again.
But what if we could be willing to receive the interruptions this Christmas, as Gifts, rather than curses?
How can we be willing to let God surprise us this Christmas? Even in the interruptions or change in plans?
For many years, I worked on a church staff at Christmastime. This meant that often the tree was decorated later than planned, or cookies didn’t get baked til after the 25th. The church happened to be a very traditional Episcopal church where we didn’t really sing Christmas carols or decorate the church until Christmas Eve! This is because Advent is the season of the Church year that lasts until Christmas Eve. And the SEASON of CHRISTMAS begins on CHRISTMAS DAY, December 25! And since I was on staff and had to work Christmas Eve, our celebration really didn’t happen until Christmas Day and afterwards. We learned to receive the gift of the Season of Christmas.
And it really is a SEASON of the Church year, not just ONE DAY! You’ve probably sung the 12 Days of Christmas Song or at least heard it somewhere, well the 12 DAYS of Christmas are AFTER the 25th of December. The Christmas Season runs until January 6th which is Feast of Epiphany.
SO YOU ARE NOT LATE! YOU ARE NOT BEHIND! It is totally OK not to have everything ready or feel like you need more time! By embracing the SEASON of Christmas, you have 12 whole days to celebrate! Now you may not have all that time off from work, but give yourself the gift of doing Christmas over time rather than all at once this year. Write cards next week, deliver gifts as New Year’s presents or even for Epiphany or Three Kings Day!
Give yourself permission to celebrate the SEASON of Christmas!
What things can happen during the days after the 25th? Are you willing to let them?
And what about the Christmas spirit? maybe it’s been hard to embrace or engage in the holidays this year. That’s totally ok. Every year is different. We have seasons of our lives just as the calendar has seasons. Embrace the season you are in right now. It won’t be like this forever. We are all in different places so that will change how we celebrate and embrace the holiday. You are allowed to be sad at Christmas. It’s totally fine to choose to be alone rather than in a group if that is what feels best to you. Listen to yourself and what your heart needs this Christmas.
Find the things that bring you joy and do those things. Eliminate the things that bring you sadness or cause you anxiety or stress. ASK FOR HELP! Don’t try to do it all yourself this week!
I am going to watch “Charlie Brown’s Christmas” which always reminds me of the REAL reason for the season. And watch the old cartoon version of “The Grinch“because it makes me smile and our family have all the lines memorized. This morning I found the Amy Grant Christmas play list on I Tunes and listened to all her Christmas albums in a row!
MAKE A LIST of the things that bring you JOY and pick one to do each day.
TAKE TIME OUT and SLOW DOWN. EMBRACE the interruptions. OPEN THE GIFT of REST! BREATHE deeply.
TAKE TIME TO JUST BE WITH JESUS… HE came to be with YOU!
To help you continue the Celebration, Join us on January 7th!
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
As you know from my posts we are big fans of Gen X& Z because a higher percentage of these two generations are much more concerned about the issues of environmental, racial and economic justice than those of us in older generations. Pew Research reports that these two generations are much more active in addressing environmental and social issues than older generations.
Over the past 30 years I have found that most church leaders love and delight in each new generation of young people. However, while they they delight in them, they often don’t realize that our newest Generations, Gen Y & Z, are much more active in working for environmental, racial and social justice than older generations. Also, they are often not aware of how much more expensive it is for Gen Y & Z to launch their lives than it was for older generations.
For example, when I attended Cascade College way back in the 50s I made enough at a modest Summer Recreation job to pay all my tuition, fees and books for a year. Students these days find that their summer jobs may help pay for some of their books but do little to reduce the costs of tuition and campus housing.
Working as professor for Fuller Theological Seminary for almost 30 years at their Seattle extension I became aware that rising college costs were dramatically increasing their school debt. In addition to this, the rising cost of housing is dramatically raising the cost for students to launch their lives after they graduate. Housing is particularly expensive in cities like Seattle.
When I went house hunting in Seattle over 30 years ago, housing was much less expensive. I was surprised to find an ancient house in Seattle that was constructed back in 1910. Essentially it is three separate 2 bedroom houses stacked on top of each other with a very large back yard.
Christine and I decided 30 years ago to transform these three ancient 2 bedroom apartments into a Christian co-living Community called Mustard Seed House. Even though rent has become quite high in Seattle we have been able to keep our rent below the going rate here.
Christine and I have so enjoyed getting to know a number of younger couples and singles who welcomed the opportunity to be a part of a Christian co-living community. What we offer to all of our co-living friends is the opportunity to share a meal every week where we also take time to reflect on our faith journey. We also share an opportunity once a month to work in our community garden together.
Last year we all harvested and shared 100 pounds of tomatoes and 400 pounds of apples. Before Covid we used to periodically host large groups of friends at events in our backyard. However, to be responsible hosts we have cut back to much smaller groups.
Christine and I decided to let all her readers know that our largest apartment on our top floor is currently available to a couple, small family or 2 to 4 singles who would like to experience a co-living experience in the Mustard Seed House in Seattle.
The top floor apartment is the largest of the three residences. It includes 2 large bedrooms, a small office, a kitchen with a living area and a large living room. It also has remarkable views of downtown Seattle and the Olympic Mountains and is in very good condition. Contact Christine Sine to take a tour. Many members of Gen Y & Z find co-living in places like Seattle is not only less expensive, young people tell us it is also more engaging.
Finally do let us know if you would like to view the apartment in person or have a Zoom visit.
Wishing you and you and yours a blessed Advent and a Joyous Christmas
Or attend our next retreat – Following The Star Into the New Year
In January we celebrate Epiphany and the coming of the Magi to visit Jesus. Like them, many of us feel we are on a long journey following a star that is sometimes bright and shining, sometimes completely hidden yet still guiding us towards Christ. 2022 taught us important lessons that will shape the coming year. We sense God wants to do something new in our lives and we want to follow in the right direction.
Join Lilly Lewin and Christine Sine online Saturday, January 7th 2023 from 9:30 am PT to 12:30pm PT as they help us reflect on the past year and take time to hope, dream and pray for the year ahead. We will engage in some fun practices like chalking the door and interact with each other in ways that strengthen our faith and draw us closer to God.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship.
As I have said before, Joseph is one of my favourite unsung heroes of the Christmas story. He never says a word. He questions, wants to follow the law 100% – what with Mary being pregnant and all that. As a lawful man he should have had her stoned to death. Funny things laws at times, but that is probably for another post entirely around women’s rights, etc.
The other day I was reading through the Genealogies in Matthew 1:1-17, encouraged by the Red Letter Christians advent calendar. Now this is Joseph’s genealogy because the prophets said that the Messiah would come through the line of David and that was Joseph’s line, hence why Joseph took the pregnant Mary with him to register for the census in Bethlehem, the town of David. So again I am struck by how important it is to God that Joseph is included in the story of Jesus. In the first two chapters of Matthew Joseph is actually the lead protagonist of the tale. It is his actions that keep the story moving and keep Jesus from being killed – first by potential stoning of Mary and then by Herod’s massacre of the baby boys.
The prompt was “which name stands out?” Now I was surprised that it was Jehoiachin [read more about him and his demise in 2 Kings 24:14-15 and 2 Chronicles 36:10]. He is the last king of Judah who gets taken away to captivity in Babylon. Though, he does get treated well by the son of his capture. So Joseph is from a line of kings and there is that royal connection. It makes me wonder how he felt about that. Proud? Disillusioned? Did he ignore it?
In the UK we have a tradition of royal households being dispossessed by other royal household, and countries like France and Russia have lost their royal households due to revolutions. Once in the UK there was a DNA investigation that found someone who allegedly had more of a claim to the British throne through an older royal household than the present royal family, who were actually invited in by the British government because they didn’t want a Catholic on the throne back in the 18th century.
So here is Joseph, of a royal household that was dispossessed by an oppressive regime, who still knows his lineage .
Back in the First book of Samuel God uses Samuel to tell the people that having a king isn’t a good idea and that they won’t be happy with one. If they just followed God they would have freedom but a king would expect things of them: tithes, to be his army and fight for him, to work in his household, etc.
Now here’s the twist for me – God says that having a king isn’t a good idea, then brings in the saviour of not just the Jews but of the whole world through a lineage that God said was not a good plan. Now that is an interesting plot twist. I find this whole thing fascinating and I think it gives great hope to all of us.
We too often do what we really shouldn’t do. It is not like it is a bad thing but it isn’t God’s best for our lives. Often we can feel or are made to feel that we’ve missed it and so we don’t see the restoration, the redemption, the way we could be part of something so much more than just us and our little clique.
I’d like to think that once Joseph got his head round that idea that he, a descendant of the royal house of Judah, was now going to be the link between the royal line and Jesus’s kingship over the whole world that he had this huge smile on his face. I wonder if that was why he was able to leave his reputation, his job, his town, and not just go to Bethlehem but then go on to Egypt to be part of making sure God’s plan came to fruition. He was willing not to need to be in the foreground; he could take an active part in Jesus’s early upbringing but be willing take a backseat in the Christmas story.
As I stay pondering this I hope that I am willing to take a backseat and not have to hog the limelight when God allows me to be part of sometimes in the lives of those around me. To not expect that I will get my recognition, my five minutes of fame, but that I will be ready and willing to do as I am being asked by the Creator of the Universe and just let it be.
That is my hope for me through this Advent season and into the unknowing of what 2023 beings.
Writing was originally posted on Aspirational Adventures on December 4th, 2022.
Or attend our next retreat – Following The Star Into the New Year
In January we celebrate Epiphany and the coming of the Magi to visit Jesus. Like them, many of us feel we are on a long journey following a star that is sometimes bright and shining, sometimes completely hidden yet still guiding us towards Christ. 2022 taught us important lessons that will shape the coming year. We sense God wants to do something new in our lives and we want to follow in the right direction.
Join Lilly Lewin and Christine Sine online Saturday, January 7th 2023 from 9:30 am PT to 12:30pm PT as they help us reflect on the past year and take time to hope, dream and pray for the year ahead. We will engage in some fun practices like chalking the door and interact with each other in ways that strengthen our faith and draw us closer to God.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship.
“The solstice is the time when light is born out of the womb of winter’s darkness.” So writes Mara Freeman in her book entitled, Kindling A Celtic Spirit As a Celtic Christian, I have been celebrating the winter solstice since my first pilgrimage to Ireland in 2008.
Of course, the solstice is an astronomical event. Happening around December 21 or 22 in the Northern Hemisphere, the Earth is at its farthest point from the sun, giving us the longest night and the shortest day of the year. Because the Earth is tilted, the sun appears to us to “stand still.” Our ancient forbears must have at first observed this phenomenon with some amount of fear. Would the sun continue to move away from the Earth plunging the planet into perpetual darkness?
It is no wonder then that rituals, celebrations and feasts were created to welcome back the light. Fires were built on hilltops and our forbears danced and chanted hymns to awaken the sun lest there be an endless winter. Across Europe and the world there are ancient monuments which many believe were created to mark the solstices.
I had the incredible experience to visit one such monument, Newgrange, in Ireland in 2008. Believed to be a burial site (human cremains have been found in its interior), Newgrange is best known for the illumination of its passage and chamber by the rising sun at the winter solstice. On mornings during that time, a beam of light penetrates through a box on the top of the roof. It travels through a nineteen-meter passage and into an inner chamber. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens so that the whole chamber is dramatically illuminated. For visiting tourists they have recreated the solstice light electronically. It was an awesome experience to be standing in absolute darkness and then suddenly to be bathed in light. The light enabled us to see that we were in a cave-like structure with walls illuminated with ancient depictions of spirals. It would be incredible to actually be inside the Newgrange monument at the time of the winter solstice.
Newgrange Passage Tomb, Boyne Valley, Ireland
Our ancient forbears saw in the cosmic event of the winter solstice the death of the old sun and the birth of an infant sun. The Christian church however, marks this time of year to celebrate the birth of the “Light from Light” Jesus Christ, the Son of God. While I certainly celebrate that fact on Christmas Eve and Day, my experience in Ireland inspired me to create my own ritual of welcoming the light back around the time of winter solstice. I celebrate the winter solstice to better align myself with the movement of the Earth and the rest of the cosmos as well as with “ancient ones,” my own ancestors. Additionally, a solstice celebration also gives me a special connection and reminder of my own Christian faith.
In medieval Christianity, the Feast of the Nativity of Jesus was a multi-layered mystery and celebration of the Holy Trinity. Three divine births were celebrated. At the midnight mass, on December 24, the birth of the Word in the Godhead was celebrated. At the first mass at the break of day, the birth of Jesus out of the womb of Mary was celebrated. A mass was also celebrated midday on Christmas Day, celebrating the birth of the divine in the soul of the individual Christian. Over the years, the church has emphasized only one of the birthing stories, that of the child Jesus. The winter solstice service I have crafted explores the other two birthing stories as gives thanks for the light of the Trinity and the light of Christ within humanity.
What follows are some of the elements I will use for my celebration of the solstice this year as I gather with friends in my home. You may wish to do something similar.
Weather permitting, we will first gather outdoors in darkness to light a small fire. Participants are invited to bring a stick or small piece of wood to make the fire. The fire will be lit and blessed. A script that I use comes in part from one written by Edward Hayes in his book, Prayers of a Planetary Pilgrim.
“Blessed are you, God of all creation. You have called us out of darkness into light. Let us bless the sacred solstice fire. We pray on this night of ancient fear, remembering our ancestors who feared what was outside the ring of fire of light and warmth: all evil, disease, death, beasts that might destroy them. As we bless this fire, we ask God who is the fullness of light, to protect each of us from what we fear most. May we be encircled by the mystery of fire, by the warmth of the light and love of God, by the flames of our friendship with one another. May we who gather this night be protected from all harm and disease, all evil and wickedness.
We will then gather indoors and share the light with one another by lighting a wreath of candles saying,
Arise, shine, for the rays of God’s glory touch the earth. We welcome the light that burns in the rising sun. We welcome the light that dawns through the Holy Child of God. We welcome the light that gleams through the growing earth. We welcome the light that shines through saints and signs.
We welcome the light you kindle in our souls.
–A Holy Island Prayer Book, Ray Simpson
An Advent wreathe can serve as a simple solstice fire.
We will share readings from the Prologue of John’s Gospel 1:1-15 using The Message by Eugene Peterson. There will be a reading from the contemporary Celtic tradition by John Philip Newell. From the medieval tradition we will hear a reading by Meister Eckhart. We will share music and other prayers together and then enjoy a dessert and tea.
Taking a holy pause one night around the solstice is a beautiful way to align our hearts and souls with God and God’s creation. As we approach the longest night of the year, may yours be blessed with the knowledge and blessing of God’s light.
“Kindle in our hearts, O God, the flame of love that never ceases that it may burn in us, giving light to others. May we shine forever in your temple, set on fire with your eternal light, even your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. Amen.”
–St. Columba, A Holy Island Prayer Book, Ray Simpson
Looking for hospitality inspiration? We have an entire resource page dedicated to hospitality. Find recipes and reflections on numerous hospitality topics, including Celtic hospitality, prayers, and liturgies. Click on Hospitality for more!
by Kate Kennington Steer
… And if, as autumn deepens and darkens
I feel the pain of falling leaves, and stems that break in storms
and trouble and dissolution and distress,
and then the softness of deep shadows folding, folding
around my soul and spirit, around my lips,so sweet, like a swoon, or more like the drowse of a low, sad song
singing darker than the nightingale, on, on to the solstice
and the silence of short days, the silence of the year, the shadow,
then I shall know that my life is moving stillwith the dark earth, and drenched
with the deep oblivion of earth’s lapse and renewal.
from ‘Shadows’
DH Lawrence
I suspect that many of us have been feeling the ‘pain of falling leaves, and stems that break in storms’ this year. The news seems to be full of people in pain, in so many countries, around our globe. Some countries, like China, still have stringent ‘lockdown’ Covid-19 regimes, with all the increased social isolation and mental health breakdowns such restrictions bring. Others are besieged by open warfare, either as an act of national aggression like Russia on Ukraine, or as a result of civil war, like Syria and South Sudan. Some countries are rigidly imposing religious laws that restrict freedoms of speech and movement, like Iran and Afghanistan. Elsewhere, natural disasters are on the increase, a direct result of our human consumption and unjust exploitation which has induced climates to change and seas to rise. There are droughts and famines and wildfires. There are floods and landslides and earthquakes. There are corrupt politicians who, in their hunger for power, trample the poor, the sick and the elderly. There are financial crises which put educational, welfare and health systems under strain. There are energy crises…the list seems endless. And behind every one of these global, international, or national level crises, there is are thousands of individuals living in want, in need, in grief and sorrow and strain. There seems so much to fear, so much to mourn. Where is the God of Peace, of Justice, in all this?
A persistent phrase has kept re-emerging in my mind over the last six months:
light is in the horizon yet
I first came across this phrase hearing Eddi Reader’s song ‘light is on the horizon yet’.
This song title was inspired by ‘Do not say that life is waning’, a sixteenth century poem by Sir Thomas Moore, the first stanza of which reads:
Do not say that life is waning,
Or that hope‘s sweet day is set;
While I’ve thee and love remaining,
Life is in the horizon yet.
By changing ‘life’ to ‘light’, and ‘in’ to ‘on’, Reader expands the nature of the ‘hope’ beyond Moore’s confined use for two lifetimes in love. Reader’s phrase provides us with a wider, less corporeal, more naturalistic hope; hope which is both of the earth and of the sky. Her image focuses my eyes away from individualistic emotion onto planetary ecology, onto heavenly spirituality.
Predictably, my mind conflated both Moore and Reader by misremembering the line. None the less, over the intervening months I have repeated it to myself many times as a reassuring thread. I find it a reminder to look up and out, but even more than that, a reminder to look for what is often unseen (perhaps particularly for those of us who do not live in a place where a wide vista is possible).
Grief, loss, and pain often makes it impossible to remember to look for this unseen light, the elusive light, the dark light. Suffering of any kind blurs, blinds and fogs both my mind and spirit so that I lose my belief in this thin line of light, of life, existing in my own circumstances. At these times I do not even know how to pray this hope into the lives of those who suffer unimaginable conditions elsewhere.
photo by Kate Kennington Steer
And yet, deep down, there is a knowing in me: there is light in the horizon yet.
God is present in the matter and substance of the rocks, earth, hills, plains, prairies, deserts, rivers and seas of that horizon. God is equally present within my details, God is within my every cell. God is a part of how I deal with the pains and problems chronic illness and depression bring. God is a participant in every conversation I have, God is the Source of every prayer I utter.
I find in these long dark nights around the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, that looking for the unseen light on the horizon is an excellent spiritual practice. It helps me better appreciate the riches of the palpable dark, and the rest provided by the very ‘fallowness’ of the season. For within these unseen treasures is the life which does not wane, but renews. That is the secret of these phrases ‘Life is in the horizon yet’/ ‘Light is on the horizon yet’ – the power of that small word ‘yet’.
D.H. Lawrence’s poem (above) hints that it is in the places of silence and shadow, those places of ‘low, sad song’ where absence and darkness are at their most potentially fear-inducing, that I shall know that ‘my life is moving still /with the dark earth’. ‘Yet’ may mean waiting through the time of being ‘drenched/ with the deep oblivion of earth’s lapse’, until ‘renewal’ comes, as in the natural turning of the seasons. But ‘yet’ can also mean enduring. I may feel ‘drenched/ with the deep oblivion of earth’s lapse’, mired in the pit of depression with no hope to wait for, but that ‘yet’ points to a deep mystery: light and life endures, whether I can perceive it or not.
That is the heart of the ‘hope’ which Blue Christmas enshrines. And those of us who may this year be able to lift our heads, to look into the horizon, and see both life and light, we pray the blessings of that hope over all who cannot pray it for themselves at this time.
All photos are copyright Kate Kennington Steer
Cookbook BundlesJust in time for the season of giving, we are offering beautiful giftable cookbook bundles! Pair our community cookbook with Graham Kerr’s classic The Gathering Place for the gourmand in your life. Or pair the cookbook with a copy of Christine Sine’s latest book Digging Deeper and a set of beautiful prayer cards. All the details are in the shop!
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