a week of hope

The mysterious season of Advent is almost here.  It is a season of waiting, longing, and calling out for God to be more present in this broken yet beautiful world.  At SALT, we want to make the most of the four weeks leading up to Christmas by lighting candles, reading scripture, praying, and meditating - wanna join us?  

All you have to do is visit us often throughout the next few weeks for ideas, practices, poetry, photography, and fun ideas to get ready for Christmas.  

So, without further adieu, here’s a little service you can do alone, with your spouse, or with your family this Sunday to start the season off right! 

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Read:

Psalm 25:1-10

Light:

One Candle 

Speak Out Loud:

“O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame…do not let those who wait for you be put to shame…”

Meditation:

Advent is a time of waiting, watching, and praying for God to be made more present in the world.  As Christians, we believe that love is stronger than hate, peace more enduring than war, and that God’s hope will extinguish forever the shadows of shame cast by war, sickness, violence, and absence of tenderness.

God buries hope in the tiniest moments – a smile offered to a stranger, a plate of cookies for a lonely neighbor, a prayer lifted up for the people of Rwanda – and the world is never the same!

Pray:

Loving God, during this season of dark, blue shadows, illuminate every heart so that the shadows of shame might take flight, and the light of your hope might take root in our lives.  Amen.

Practice Hope:

Word AIDS Day, Saturday, December 1 – pray without ceasing that the stigma and shame of HIV/AIDS might be lifted and that medicine might be available for everyone.

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Thanks to Anders Ruff Custom Designs for these sweeter than sweet Advent Calendar Printable Mittens.  We heart them!

midwives, mary, and a golden cord

If your church uses Godly Play or Children’s Worship and Wonder, odds are the youngsters in your congregation have heard the story about the Christian year.  In this particular story, the storyteller has two objects: a long golden cord and a circular puzzle full of color.  

The storyteller begins by picking up the cord and stretching it out in a horizontal line, a golden metaphor for chronos time, linear time, the world’s time, with its beginning, middle, and end.  

Then she turns her attention towards the circular puzzle full of deep purples, shimmering whites, and rich greens.  “This,” she says, “is the church’s time, God’s time, kairos time.”  

And then, to top it all off, she lays the golden cord down beside the puzzle, and slowly ties the cord's ends together to make a circle.

“God’s time,” she explains, “is different than the world’s time.  In God’s time there is no beginning, middle, or end, no start or finish.  God’s time is not a straight line. God’s time is a beautiful, golden circle that goes around and around and around.”  

Then she asks one of the most beautiful questions I've ever heard: “I wonder what this makes you think of?”

For my part, it makes me think of the prologue to John’s gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh and lived among us.”

With his signature, circular language, John, like the storyteller in my children’s Sunday School class, ties together the ends of that golden cord:  the Word of God -- who was in the beginning with God -- became flesh, becomes flesh, this coming Christmas day as much as any other.  God’s Word slipped into our world, slipped into our time with its beginning, middle, and end.  

I wonder what this makes you think of?

It makes me think of the midwives in Exodus.  It makes me wonder if the ends of that golden cord were tied so tightly together that Shiphrah and Puah, too, appeared in that stable to help Mary labor, to attend the birth of God incarnate? 

You know the story: the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, “When you’re attending a Hebrew birth, and see a Hebrew woman on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him, lest those people grow in number and fight against us.”  But the midwives, fearing God, did not do as he commanded.  They let life win (Exodus 1:15-17).

Then, thousands of years later, a decree goes out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered and Israel finds herself, once again, hanging by a thread.  It’s true, Pharoah is no longer in charge, but Israel is still languishing, this time under Roman rule, and so is Mary, laboring in a barn, no birthstool in sight.

And so I wonder if Shiphrah and Puah were there, walking and swaying with Mary through her contractions, irregular at first, then stronger and more steady.  I wonder if they supported her, encouraged her, challenged her, and praised her until finally God slipped into our world: God, wet and wrinkly and vulnerable; God, small and screaming; God, the Word made flesh and dwelling now among us.

It’s true: God’s time is not like the world’s time.  God’s time has no beginning, middle, or end.  God’s time is like a golden cord going around and around and around, connecting the stories, the pain, the hope and therefore the whole human family.

I wonder if those Hebrew midwives are with us now as we “get ready” for God to be born again?

I wonder if they are always with us in our seasons of deep purple, shimmering white, and rich green?

I wonder if they are with you now supporting you, encouraging you, challenging you, and praising you -- even and especially when you are hanging by a thread?

I wonder what this makes you think of?  

Leave a comment below and let us know!  Wondering outloud about God's mysteries is one of the best and most beautiful things about the Christian tradition...

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Thanks to the storytelling of Rev. Cheryl Cloar, Minister of Children, Youth, and Families at Central Christian Church in Indianapolis; to Sabrina Tang for photographing this new, little miracle (ten hours old!); and to the Fund for Theological Education for inviting SALT's very own Rev. Elizabeth Myer Boulton to share her words and ideas.

happy chanukah

Thanks to the fine folks over at Aish.com for giving us the Chanukah story in eight hit songs!  

Aish.com, headquartered in Jerusalem near the Western Wall, is the world's largest Jewish website giving everyone the opportunity to explore the Jewish faith in an atmosphere of open inquiry, respect, and often humor.

Thanks again for this video!  Blessings!  Shalom!  Mozel tov!  And, well done!

the sacrament of waiting

 

Slowly
she celebrated the sacrament of letting go.
First she surrendered her green,
then the orange, yellow, and red
finally she let go of her brown.
Shedding her last leaf
she stood empty and silent, stripped bare.
Leaning against the winter sky
she began her vigil of trust.

Shedding her last leaf
she watched its journey to the ground.
She stood in silence
wearing the color of emptiness,
her branches wondering;
How do you give shade with so much gone?

And then,
the sacrament of waiting began.
The sunrise and sunset watched with tenderness.
Clothing her with silhouettes
they kept her hope alive.

They helped her understand that
her vulnerability,
her dependence and need,
her emptiness,
her readiness to receive
were giving her a new kind of beauty.
Every morning and every evening they stood in silence
and celebrated together
the sacrament of waiting.

+ Macrina Wiederkehr

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Advent is the season when we celebrate together the sacramanet of waiting.  May our vulnerability, our dependence, our need, and our emptiness make us ready to receive God who has promised to be with us for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until we are united in death. 

And, as always, thanks to Holly Wolsey Soper for adding this photo to our flickr group.  It's so full of the "vigil of trust" it almost hurts!

here's why we hope

Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness... + 2 Samuel 7: 21

Sometimes, you're hopeful because it's all you have left.  Your options are exhausted, and all you can do is bow your head, cross your fingers, and hope.  That ain't Advent.

Advent is hoping for a reason, and with a purpose.  The reason: God has already wrought all this greatness.  The purpose: So that you can get in on the action.

Here's why we hope: 2000 years ago, God entered the world and took on full humanity so that none of us would ever have to lose ours.

Here's why we hope: 54 years ago today, God entered the world in Rosa Parks, refused to move from her seat, and sparked a movement that continues to help people claim the fullness of their humanity to this day.

Here's why we hope: today is World AIDS Day.  Today, God is entering the world in thousands upon thousands of healthcare professionals and activists and clergy and financial donors and educators and YOU, so that men in America's urban gay ghettos and women in Africa and children born to infected parents and everybody in between who lives with HIV or AIDS might live their full humanity, too.  

Learn more and get in on the action at World AIDS Campaign. 

Sometimes, you hope because it's all you have left.  In Advent, you hope because God has already wrought all this greatness, and because you know God well enough to expect more.

God, grant us the gift of hope in your future, and grant that we might be in on the action of building it.  Amen.

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A big SALT thank you to the honorable and awesome Rev. Quinn G. Caldwell, Associate Minister of Old South Church in Boston, writer for the Stillspeaking Daily Devotionals who originally published this lovely, little devotion, and star of SALT's signature film Bless.  He really is too good to be true!  Also, thanks to Zitona for capturing God's soft and hope-filled light.