Friday, December 25, 2015

Micah 4: 1-5; 5: 2-4

Psalm 2, 85

1John 4: 7-16

John 3: 31-36

Merry Christmas!  I pray that as we have prepared our hearts, minds, and souls for the coming of God in Christ on this glorious day, we may rejoice and be glad that he has indeed arrived.  The Incarnation of the maker of heaven and earth is the binding of heaven to earth.  This means that we are not alone.  The baby that was born so many centuries ago walks maturely with us persistently offering us connection with all that is holy.  This is our hope and our assurance, that God did not seek to be separate and above, but instead present and with us here below.  We have a tender God, a comforting God, and a vulnerable God.  Why would the One who is above all else, become low in such a way?  We cannot know the depth of why God has done this for us, we can only know that we are loved by God so much that He has done this beautiful and wonderful thing.  So, as you rest in the glory of Christmas Day, I invite you to ponder this Good News and accept the love of Jesus who has eternally connected us to our God in such an intimate way.  May God be born to you this day and fill you with the hope of Christmas.

The Rev. Joshua Condon

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Isaiah 59:15b-21

Psalm 89: 1-29

Romans 5: 1-11

Philippians 2: 5-11

Can you imagine the amount of love that would be required for God, the infinite, the unimaginable, the powerful, to become a tiny, dirty, powerless little baby? Thinking of it is amazingly overwhelming. Madeleine L'Engle writes, "The incarnation is called the “scandal of the particular;” it is scandalous that the Lord should condescend to be an ordinary man." What a scandal! Mary the good Jewish daughter is having a baby out of wedlock, her fiancé is still going to marry her, and then, the claim comes that this scandalous baby is the Messiah! The Chosen One! Immanuel. God with us! And here we are, two millennia later, having a party for him. God, condescending to be an ordinary man! I can see Miss Manners having to politely excuse herself from the room.

Today Christians gather together across the world to celebrate the birth of this one child. This birth is an invitation to each of us. An invitation into the story of the relationship between God and humanity. Each of us has our own nativity story, our own birth narrative, and the act of sharing those stories is an act of invitation into each other’s lives. Not all of our birth stories are scandalous, but all of our stories are washed with God’s steadfast and enduring love. God’s love is like that. It is scandalously open to each and every one of us.

The Reverend Elizabeth Yale

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Psalm 72

Titus 2:11-3:8a

Luke 1:39-48a (48b-56)

Advent is a waiting time and the Jesse Tree reminds me that God’s timing can be across generations. This Advent, sing Mary’s praises preparing and waiting for Jesus. 

”.. according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.”     Luke 1:39-48a, 48b-56.

Eleanor Sheldon

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

1Samuel 2:1b-10

Psalm 66, 67

Titus 2:1-10

Luke 1:26-38

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”

Today’s gospel reading tells the story of the Annunciation. The angel Gabriel arrives to an unsuspecting Jewish girl and tells her she’s been chosen to be the mother of God. Mary has trouble understanding the message, but she obediently accepts her fate with humility, placing her trust in God.

Parenting is an exercise in humility. When pregnant with our first child, I placed my faith in medical experts, friends’ advice, and a small mountain of books. I was foolish enough to think that, with enough information, I would be in control of the situation. I wasn’t…. and I’m still not.

Lately, I’ve become obsessed with watching the live panda cam at our National Zoo in Washington. I frequently check the feed online, and I’ve watched a baby panda change from a hairless, blind creature the size of a stick of butter, to his present cute and fluffy self. I’ve often asked myself why I’m so captivated. And I’ve come to understand that my attraction is maternal. I am fascinated by how this mother panda just knows how to care for this baby. In the wild, there are no doctors and no expert advice. The mother panda instinctively understands what is expected of her. The baby panda grows and thrives, as God intends, just as we do when we put our trust in God.

Evelyn Snow

Monday, December 21, 2015

Zephaniah 3: 14-20

Psalm 66,67

Titus 2: 1-10

Luke 1: 1-25

A French friend taught me a Provençal Christmas blessing:

“Allègre ! allègre ! mes beaux enfants, que Dieu vous rende joyeux et que l'an prochain si nous n'y sommes pas plus que nous n'y soyons pas moins.”

“God give us grace to be joyous, and for next year, if we are not more, let us not be less." 

We are all in different places in our lives: some like my sons, leaving the family circle to strike out on their own, others forming new families and experiencing the blessings of births, others looking after aging parents or discovering new ways to keep busy in retirement.  Christmas is an ever-changing feast in each new phase of our lives, sometimes surrounded by mayhem and sometimes by quiet solitude.  This year is going to be especially hard for me because my family lost a dear loved one this fall, and his absence at our Christmas dinner table will be hard. More difficult Christmases are to come, I know, as we may become “less” before we become “more.”  The psalm for today says, “My soul finds rest in God alone.” That is never truer than as we worship the birth of the most famous baby in history, Jesus Christ. Let the light he brought to the world shine on us and be our refuge.

Treanor Baring