Pop Rock Christmas

Pop Rock Christmas CD on Amazon.


These days I buy very few CDs and even have given away quite a few, but I got this CD after Christmas for a great price and I'm glad I did. "The First Noel" alone is worth far more than the price I paid and well worthy of many, many listenings; "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing" isn't far behind. In 1998 Tom Wanca produced and arranged as well as playing keyboards and organ and singing background vocals for Sheer Panic. With a touch of rock and more than a hint of classic country, the designation "Pop Rock" fits well as the arrangements basically rock the rhythm and skew the harmonizations most people are used to.


Liner notes provide performance and production details and in the interest of accommodating anyone who may have turned off browser images and/or are relying on an app to read the screen to them, here's the playlist that you can see contains non-exotic secular and more sacred songs for Christmas:

1. Angels We Have Heard On High
2. Up On The Housetop
3. Over The River And Through The Woods
4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
5. The First Noel
6. I Saw Three Ships





7. Jolly Old St. Nicholas / Jingle Bells
8. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
9. Silent Night! Holy Night!
10. What Child Is This?

my amazon review: country, rock, and pop for Christmas

Friday Five: LOVE!

Today it's a Friday 5 about LOVE! hosted by revkjarla. With her instructions,

It's Valentine's Day on Tuesday.... So, Share 5 Valentines you would like to give this year, and why—but here is the hitch,
Can't give them G-d, Jesus, Holy Spirit...
or your mom, your beloved, your sweet child(ren)...tell us about the other amazing beings in your life.

I was reluctant to play because of the ongoing lack of real community that knows me and where I can participate (oh, I know, 21^st century, southern california and all those factors), yet I'm still able to be thankful for what has been going right and as seriously as I lack (basic life is lived locally and the gospel is something you can hear, touch, taste, smell and see), I still have valentines to celebrate, at least the first two revived due to the wonder of internet communications.

1. I met Heather, another artist, during the time I spent with my mother during her unexpectedly last 18 months on earth. Heather has a currently inactive facebook page and external site for her fine art and she recently began a new journey with Painting Pain (site no longer live).

2. Trisha from A Former City and I reconnected through Facebook; she has several blogs, but I'll highlight clearing the space where she actually referred to me as a "dear friend" in a post a few months ago!

3. Without a doubt I badly need to find a local church that will be a place that will provide a place for me, but still I appreciate the weekly eucharist and outstanding preaching at Church up the Hill from Here. It is very true the liturgy and the sacraments connect me with the people of God in every time and every place, but it's almost equally so that sometimes that's simply not sufficient, though the reality prevails in my head and even in my heart.

4. Jane, my now long-time friend, neighbor, cat sitter and all-around cool person. Her ability to listen, hug, be there and not judge is a rare gift.

5. In the words of that old band Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild, I'll continue to "Take the world in a love embrace" every step along the way and celebrate the Creation that still loves and hugs me back, despite global warming, melting ice, rainforest devastation and urban decay.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone and thanks, revkjarla!

Awaken Your Senses: Taste

The Awaken Your Senses Contest on Facebook began yesterday—with Taste!

Brent's intro—TASTE: The sense of the week!

"Have you ever thought about tasting God in what you put in your mouth? The idea that food can remind us of the different attributes, ways and stories of God is a novel thought for most of us. If we are open to letting God teach us the ways of faith through our bodies, though, then we can learn the ways of faith through our taste buds as well as our brain. The sweetness of a freshly baked cinnamon roll can remind us of the sweetness of God's love in the same way that horseradish at Passover reminds Jews of the bitterness of slavery." Awaken Your Senses, pg. 26 (adapted)

I love this idea! Our central Christian hermeneutic is God's incarnation, enfleshment, in a physical body formed from the substance of the ground. My particular Reformation tradition emphasizes the ongoing Divine presence and God's continued self-giving in the sacraments. But baptism and holy communion are far more than something we do in a ritualized way when we gather—they are lively signs to the world of our seeking and working for justice for all peoples and all the earth everywhere. Sacraments also signify the sacredness of all life as they form a microcosm of the promised time of the fullness of redemption for all creation. Real food is not manufactured in laboratory-like factories; real food comes from the earth and for celebrating sacramental ordinances we use flowing water, juice or wine from the fruit of the grapevine and (ideally recently homemade) bread baked from natural ingredients, so we need to be friends of the earth to continue celebrating sacraments. That's my own intro to this series, and here's a reflection on recent tastes.

Although I live in a central city location of a major metropolitan area, I don't often get to any of the nearby farmer's markets, so I've been buying a lot of ripe red tomatoes on the vine from the grocery store. The first thing I savor is the fragrant scent of the soil that still clings to parts of vine and fruit. Or maybe the first thing I notice is the shiny, intense orangey-red color of the tomato fruit that forms a wonderful contrast to the vine's deep green—in color theory red and green are complementary colors, which used adjacent to each other tend to buzz a little in the observer's eyes! Their solid heft and pleasant "just right" weight in my hand is the second or maybe third or was that the very first aspect of these tomatoes I noticed when I picked them up in the store?

But how do these tomatoes taste and feel in my mouth? First the satin-smooth outside skin, next fluid juicy insides along with a few small seeds to add texture. The small meaty chunks barely need chewing, but as I do, hints of sweet and sour and a slightly bitter undertone add up to a lovely tang. I want the fresh tomato experience to last almost forever, but I know there are a few more waiting for tomorrow and the next day, more in the store and more growing out of the ground for when I'm ready.

But there is more! The aroma, the feel, the appearance and the flavors of my daily tomatoes awaken memories of visiting my grandmother and picking a ripe, warm, sun-kissed tomato from her garden and bringing it into the house to slice: for lunch in a tomato or tuna sandwich on recently out of the oven bread; for dinner or supper as part of a classic salad with any variety of garden lettuce, cucumbers, onions and homemade vinaigrette. During this Heart Month of February, I'm loving tomatoes and loving the earth.

my Awaken Your Senses blog and Amazon review

I won a gift certificate for this tomato blog post! Thanks, Brent!

image association 5

Just returned from Big Event 5.0, Songbird hosts an image association 5; here's the drill:

For today's Friday Five, let's have a mini-BE 5.0 workshop. Take a look at these five portions from the gospel lections for this Sunday and next, and share with us the images that come to mind for you. Feel free to use words or pictures.

Needless to say, I'd love to crunch these texts and design my own images, but Friday 5 is supposed to be a quick, fun play and a way to get to know each other a little better—so I won't but I will give it a touch of local context. I love how this instant replay of a chunk of Mark 1 that amounts to only 1/3 of the chapter shows the evangelist's excited and exciting style that will pervade his gospel and become its hallmark. As I worked through these brief pericopes, I realized they do need either artistic images or acted imagery to convey what I'm trying to say, but here's my play anyway.

1. As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. (Mark 1:29-31)

image: A worriedly concerned group of amigos, amigas y familiares gather around her bed, wondering whether she will die or just may live. As soon as the fever leaves and she realizes she's well, Simon's MIL scurries to the cocina and pulls together a fiesta of nachos, fajitas, tamales, cerveza and tortas and serves everyone; as soon as she's able, she responds well to God's first call of hospitality !

2. That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. (Mark 1:32-34)

image: "The whole city" is a LOT of peeps and brings to mind some paintings of the Day of Pentecost that feature a crowd gathered outdoors. Close to day's end, a microcosm of humanity from toda la ciudad completely surround in a circle the adobe house where Jesus stays. Patiently, one by one, he touches them with his hand, his word, his glance or all three, when necessary addressing demons and the demonic by name and rendering them without power. As one by one they leave to return to their more normal lives, the ambient air in toda la ciudad entera assumes a sense of the fullness of shalom.

3. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." (Mark 1:35-37)

image: Jesus leaves the adobe house before first light, makes his way to the nearest patch of desierto, finds an east-facing bench and soon becomes intently caught up in prayer. Very soon he hears footsteps and perceives a change in the air. In a sense he feels annoyed because the hombres still don't quite get what he's about, but he's also happy they consider him safe and trusted enough to seek him out whenever.

4. He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. (Mark 1:38-39)

image: You know everyone is dressed in Baja Hoodies and obeys the scriptural charge to "wear sandals" as they set out together and although the text has Jesus suggesting "we" and "us" as in together, he also says "that I may proclaim" (sorry this is Friday 5 and I'm not checking the Greek) every one of them excitedly, in the mildly manic style of Mark, begin practicing proclaiming in nearby pequeñas ciudades.

5. A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter. (Mark 1:40-45)

image: This hombre contemporáneo long has been overcome and overrun with all kinds of health and *other* concerns. This again is a situation of someone's infinite trust in Jesus and Jesus' corresponding joy that someone has come to him. Healing of every kind visibly ripples through the guy and oh yes, on some level he heard Jesus say he only was supposed to fulfill the levitical requirement to visit the ecclesiastical authorities and please, nothing more at this time since Jesus' time has not yet quite arrived, but what incomparably great news has this healing into new life been?! He also wants to practice the gymnastics he'd learned as a niño, so he tells his entire known world of nearby pequeñas ciudades.

remembering dreams

My Facebook status update a few weeks ago: "writing my own anamnesis... for epiphany? no, for January 2012" my own comment (since no one else almost ever seems to notice or care, I feel like a critter hoping for death at the local kill shelter): as Walter Brueggemann insists, "it all depends upon a memory..." listen to the nearly-incessant charge to "remember" throughout scripture.



These days one needs an online presence, but a local community of recognition, acknowledgment and participation is as essential as food, water and sleep. OK, some kind of shelter from meteorological storms, though my earlier insistence it doesn't need to be a house, apartment, condo, or tent is correct. Without community a person dies. I want my life back. I need my life back.

Look back, take a long, soft glance? I be looking back yet *again* right now, taking a wistful, still cautious overview and remembering as well as possibly anyone can. So very well I know that it's not simply about the style of a parish, congregation, local church; the professional and lay leadership play a huge part in terms of inviting, not inviting, allowing and literally forbidding anyone's participation.

On one of the Thursday Ask The Matriarch – ATM – parish ministry advice columns, someone emphasized do not announce the pastor's or the pastor's wife's pregnancy as a petition in the intercessions! Many many people struggle silently with infertility and would not perceive it as good news—although on another level they would rejoice with you.

I've long been agonizing over a different kind of infertility, with soil prepared, seeds sown, rains given and received, shoots sprung up, all after a bleak long winter that apparently hasn't quite departed yet. I've written about spending time on the land and in the recurrent cycles of the liturgical year, and how they've helped me learn to trust death. To quote Ansel Adams,

Love is a seeking for a way of life; the way that cannot be followed alone; the resonance of all spiritual and physical things. Children are not only of flesh and blood—children may be ideas, thoughts, emotions. The person of the one who is loved is a form composed of a myriad mirrors reflecting and illuminating the powers and thoughts and the emotions that are within you, and flashing another kind of light from within. No words or deeds may encompass it.

Without social context writing and creating has become close to impossible. A few years ago I told someone I was delighted that I got back to writing, and I know that happened because of the online theology forums I started participating in 10+ years ago. Right now my cry and my question is about how to find local community that will want to get to know me? It's not simply a matter of style; assumptions and insecurities of peeps who already are there come hugely into the picture. For sure the feeling and reality of "uprooted" tends to be in the late 20^th, early 21^st centuries, even for people who, unlike many of us, have lived in the same geographical place and in a similar culture.

It's one thing accurately to state most of the theology I do will be online, but real life is lived locally. The online stuff can be wonderful, but it's an addition to the real thing. Clearly I'm an idealist in some ways, but at this stage I am way far beyond seeking any semblance of ideal and happily will embrace a workable reality.

odds & ends friday 5

Today on Rev Gal Blog Pals Sally hosts an odds and ends 5 and asks, even in the busyness of the week what has:

1. Colour, pattern, line and design continue to inspire me. I've been updating my suntreeriver design blog and truly enjoying my own creativity.

2. I'm still tremendously challenged by the absence of real life local community and ministry opps and by the lack of human connections who might be able to suggest options and let others know about my needs, background and abilities.

3. After a couple weeks of chilly weather, warmer, longer days have been making me smile.

4. The political insanities in the pre-presidential race in the USA have made me cross and made me need (not just want) to weep.

5. Remembering past experiences of God's faithfulness in spite of me and in spite of everyone else too has kept me going again... scripture constantly encourages - commands! - us to remember and as Walter Brueggemann says, "It all depends on a memory."

Thanks, Sally!

Awaken Your Senses

Ways to reconnect, or maybe truly connect for the first time—with God, nature and self...a workshop and a book! some related sites:

Awaken Your Senses on Amazon

Beth Booram

Brent Bill

To help more of us experience more of the Divine, to be more present to everything in our surroundings and to ourselves throughout each entire day, Beth Booram and Brent Bill offer a handbook of their own stories, reflections, and exercises for activating more of the creative, intuitive right side of the brain and living more fully through tasting, seeing, touching, hearing and smelling. Since God engages us as whole people with bodies, spirits, senses, intellects and histories, to move closer to a "self-disclosing God," we need to engage that wholeness. We cannot do without the more familiar (to most of us), intellectual aspects of faith, but scripture study, prayer, activism and worship are only part of a multi-dimensional experience. A quote from Marcel Proust, "Not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes [noses, ears, skin, tastebuds]" describes a goal of praying, playing, feeling, and working through this book.

Brent and Beth alternate writing each of the short chapters within each larger section titled after one of the five human senses; each chapter begins with a thematic superscription, most often scripture verses, occasionally from a well-known author. The authors' own stories easily relate to regular everyday lives and for the most part, you can do the exercises for each emphasis in the context of your ongoing journey, or you can set aside a time and place to concentrate on one or more that especially appeals to you. I'm not sure I'd have used the word exercise, but it may be an apt one for the kind of practice that gradually leads to near-mastery and I can't think of a better one right now. Some might enjoy taking 30 consecutive days or more (I'm thinking the liturgical seasons of approximately month-long Advent or the 6 weeks of Lent) and making Awaken Your Senses a life- and world-improvement project. Each activity helps ground us in our bodily sensuousness and in the gifts of creation.

It's very true that a tremendous amount of what we plan to do and then do in the course of any day necessarily is future-oriented; for a multitude of reasons, considerations of the past also are essential, but I love the observation that our senses bring us straightaway into real time. There's a feeling of Sabbath, of simply being, drinking in and savoring who you've become thus far in living more fully with - and trusting - your senses! You find yourself smack dab in this very moment, ceasing any thoughts of any of the past, quieting worries or even plans for the future, releasing anxieties about the here and now when you "relax into observing details."

Additional resources for sensory awakening, acknowledgments, contact information and endnotes conclude the book.

my amazon review: awakening your 5 senses

movies friday 5

Today Jan hosts movies 5. This is a quick, easy play for me, since in general I don't do fiction, film, legitimate theater or cinema—I know, surprising since I am sooooo theological and I know I'm missing out on lots of crappy junk and a lot of sublime interpretive experiences, too.

Thinking of movie-watching, what do you prefer?

1. At home or a theater is fine, depending on the cleanness and ambiance of the theater and related complex. The larger screen is good, too, but never ever movie food (for many reasons) and at home you can pause and restart as well as get food from the kitchen. Short answer: both/and.

2. I'll go with anyone willing to accompany me (I'd be almost embarrassed to say when I last took myself to a movie) since going to the theater always is at someone's suggestion.

3. Right no there's no particular movie I look forward to seeing, but I go for beautiful natural, wilderness, and urban visuals rather than narrative, meaning or consummate acting, so invite me and I'll tag along with you—really!

4. The only two movies I've gone back to the cinema to see again, rented and back in the day actually bought (but haven't considered updating to DVD) were Joy Luck Club and White Nights.

5. For food with a movie, if I'm at home or in someone's place probably none, none ever whatsoever in the theater, but a savory or sweet snack or substantial meal afterwards always rings true.

paradox, hope and revival

For this first synchroblog ot 2012, Provoketive Magazine is featuring a a synchroblog on hope.

• Here's this Paradox, Hope and Revival post on Provoketive.

Hope is the synchroblog theme for this first month of the new year and as I talk about what gives me hope, how I keep returning to hope despite evidence and experience, why not begin by introducing myself for my first post on provoketive?

A few weeks ago a Facebook friend status updated asking about our identity. Mine? I am a daughter of the church, claimed by God in baptism. And I added, "now what?" Last Wednesday evening I let myself into the dark church building to prepare for playing liturgy for our celebration of the Baptism of Jesus.

As I always do, I walked toward the entry way and the baptismal font and as always, I signed myself with the cross. What gives me hope? I am baptized, sealed with the sign of the cross forever. Being baptized means an identity and lifestyle shaped according to the contours, demands and relentless grace of the gospel that seeks justice, freedom and shalom for all creation.

It is life sourced from Word and Sacrament, modeled by the order of creation, the actions and words of the prophets, the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Christ.

What gives me hope? That in choosing, claiming and trusting me in baptism, God has brought me into an ecumenical community that is supposed to be home wherever I journey, that is supposed to hold me accountable. In his song "The Ark," from City to City, Gerry Rafferty sings, "We’ll take the road that leads down to the waterside // And set out on the journey // Find a ship to take us on the way. // And we’ll sail out on the water // we’ll meet out on the water // Where are all strangers are known."

I prepared for a life of service to church and world, and surprisingly found myself on the other side of mainstream culture and on the subverse of mainline church for longer than I'd anticipated. In the above paragraph I made a couple of transparent comments about what the summoned assembly of forgiven sinners is "supposed" to be and do, and that simply doesn't always or even often happen.

Abram was an ivri, a Hebrew, someone from the other side. In Jesus of Nazareth, we encounter the God from the exceedingly "other side," who even arrived on earth in a manner very "other" from usual expectations and spent most of his life and ministry on the other side of – or at least on the edges of – established religious and social systems, accredited authorities and conventional cultural boundaries. During his brief public ministry, Jesus invited everyone to become part of his insider circle. In my own baptism, has God not called me to live as an outsider to politely authorized, tamed, predictable structures of most kinds? Is that not how the Body of Christ is supposed to be and to live? As an insider to the way of Jesus?

What brings me hope? Sacraments and liturgy are ways to remember who I am and Whose I am. The eucharistic liturgy that retells and re-enacts the history of salvation brings me into an ordered place within those arrays. Like water in the font, bread on the table, wine in the cup, I am an organic part of creation, birthed out of the substance of earth, sky, sea and air. Liturgy and sacraments remind me that God's presence is not something far off, invisible and unattainable; it's as close to us, as sensibly (smell, taste, touch, vision, hearing) apparent and as paradoxical as water, bread and wine, as the neighbor next door, the colleague at the next computer.

I've found myself on the other side of mainline church and midstream society for a painfully long while. But isn't the covenanted community supposed to be an upside down image of prevailing economic, political (and ecclesiastical) realities? Is it not supposed to challenge and subvert the status quo? Is it not supposed to live counter-culturally to the prevailing culture of consumerism and objectification? "The Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World" is one of the PC(USA)'s Great Ends of the Church.

The worldview of the bible is open-ended, no longer the endless, predictable recycling of the same thing, yet there is a sense of constancy, of divine design and purpose to the order of nature and creation. Similar to the way hue shifts, layer styles, filters and effects reveal previously unseen aspects of an image I'm editing, the Holy Spirit edits, styles, filters, re-colors and reformats people, communities, and institutions and brings prophetic promises and broken hopes to life. In large part because of the continued liveliness of the Church, the Christ and the Spirit are active in the world.

So I'm hoping to emerge from my current location and back into the embrace of the called-out, covenanted community because I know I cannot do life on my own, cannot revive and reformat my own life; that only can come to me as gift. God has claimed me in baptism; I am a daughter of the church.

Other January Synchroblog Participants on Provoketive and their home blogs:

• The Trouble With Hope // John Ptacek
• Hope = Possibility x Imagination // Wayne Rumsby
• Little Reminders // Mike Victorino
• Where Is My Hope // Jonathan Brink
• Hope for Hypocrites // Jeremy Myers
• Now These Three Remain // Sonny Lemmons
• Perplexed, But Still Hopeful // Carol Kuniholm
• A Hope that Lives // Amy Mitchell
• Generations Come and Generations Go // Adam Gonnerman
• Demystifying Hope // Glenn Hager
• God in the Dark: On Hope // Renee Ronika Klug
• Keeping Hope Alive // Maurice Broaddus
• Are We Afraid to Hope? // Christine Sine
• On Wobbly Wheels, Split Churches and Fear // Laura Droege
• Hope is Held Between Us // Ellen Haroutunian
• Hope: In the Hands of the Creatively Maladjusted // Mihee Kim-Kort
• Good Theology Saves // Reverend Robyn
• Linear: Never Was, Never Will Be // Kathy Escobar
• Better Than Hope // Liz Dyer
• Caroline for Congress: Hope for the Future // Wendy McCaig
• Fumbling the Ball on Hope // KW Leslie
• Hope: Oh, the Humanity! // Deanna Ogle

5 recommendations

On the Rev Gals today revkjarla hosts a recommendation Friday 5 because she's inundated with requests to write recommendations for future camp counselors, though this 5 has almost zero to do with camps and conferences.

For my first blog post and first Friday 5 of 2012, here are today's 5 recommendations:

1. a favorite worship resource or devotional book, Reflections for Ragamuffins: Daily Devotions from the Writings of Brennan Manning. A single page or less for each day, always something relevant for the current time, place and condition.

2. for a blog I like that others might enjoy, Idube Game Reserve is the most active of several I enjoy from the Sabi Sands, Wildtuin, South Africa. I particularly love following the individual leopards of Sabi Sands Game Reserve; several have their own facebook pages.

3. a fiction book recommendation is a tough one for me, since I read so little fiction, but I'll go with a classic, Light in August by William Faulkner. As someone southern-born, in many ways I resonate with the humanity, complexity and brokenness of Faulkner's characters, but more than anything, I adore his writing.

4. edited almost four years later: I'd recommended a favorite recipe/cooking site from from Trisha, a friend from A Former City I recently reconnected with (yay, facebook!), she deleted her 364 days of eating blogspot and several other blogs in a simplification quest.

5. it's bloggers' choice! Make a recommendation for anything! Of course I'll give a shoutout to my Facebook design page, suntreeriver design. I know lots of peeps from this ring have officially become fans, or "Likers," and I realize a few folks aren't on facebook or don't really do facebook, so given that reality, a second shoutout to my closely related design blog, suntreeriver design on blogspot. Sun and Tree and River are persistent biblical images.

covenant prayer

Covenant Prayer From John Wesley's Covenant Service, 1780

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
... exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

still waiting for redemption...

Jesus is here and I'm still waiting for redemption, yes I am! Plus, as I pulled together some scattered thoughts and notes, I realized most of them would work better for another, separate blog, possibly during early epiphany. Absolutely for sure I have a lot to say about ways following Jesus leads us into places and situations we wouldn't have guessed, and truly hope to do so soon.

Christmas synchroblog on wordpress and some [serving] suggestions:

"And Jesus doesn't always give us what we expect either. We welcome him as a cute little baby but if we continue to journey with him, we soon realize that he wants to turn our world upside down. A child born in a stable is much easier to cope with than a revolutionary leader. This month's synchroblog is centered around the unexpected consequences of our journey with Jesus. Where has it led us that we never anticipated? In what ways has it really turned our world upside down?"

Moving from my advent blog, gifts from the ground; hope for the earth to realizing even before the liturgical and popular celebrations of Jesus' birth on 24 and 25 December we've long known so much beyond the fulfillment of the Advent texts we've been hearing...

Before a baby arrives, we usually have a clue about the baby's parents, about some of their other relatives along with their backgrounds and experiences; we have more than a hint about the baby's geographical place on the planet along with their social and cultural milieu. Despite the quantifiable info, there's so much we don't know about ways that baby become child become teenager and then adult will engage the world, make a name in the news or on the street or possibly fade into oblivion. On the surface, the life of Jesus of Nazareth is pretty much parallel to almost anyone else's in that time and place. You know the narrative!

To quote from my Advent blog, "Though it's common to hear Christianity referred to as 'spiritual' practice, the way of Jesus is heavily economic, highly political and hardly ascetic in its celebration of gifts from the ground, in its perspective that insists on the interdependence of all life, in its historical affirmation of human sexuality and in its charge to care for all creation..."

Maybe especially though for sure hardly exclusively, as church bodies that grew out of the Reformation, we engage the public square and live as political, cultural and economic beings every bit as fully in the world as within the gathered assembly of the church. It's not solely "Jesus and me" but more expansively "Jesus and me in the world and for the world!" from Advent 2B: "...in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home." 2 Peter 3:13

Unexpected consequences of my journey with Jesus? Like Jesus, I was born into linear time and measurable geography. Forget about Christmas 2011—have I been getting what I expected? No, hardly in the least. I prepared for a life of service to church and world, expecting to participate in the economic, political and not ascetic way of Jesus that celebrates all creation; academically and practically I prepared to engage the public square, to challenge and maybe subvert the status quo; I expected to live at least somewhat counter-culturally. I knew the road would be rocky, but never expected to journey alone for so many years and fully expected eventually to come out on the other side of death into a relatively broad space where my participation would be welcomed and valued.

At the end of my Advent synchroblog, I mentioned "a world that cries out for cooperation, interdependence and redemption." Will no one cooperate with, depend upon me, so I might be redeemed, bought back into the land of the living? How else can we live but with each other? How else will I live again?

other synchroblog participants:

• Glenn Hager, Breathe, Underwear for Christmas

• Jeremy Myers, Till He Comes, Unexpected Gifts from Jesus

• Jeff Goins, GoinsWriter, Day After Christmas

• Wendy McCaig, Unwanted gifts...

• Christine Sine, GodSpace, The Wait Is Over - What Did I Get?

• M Kettleson, The Real Journey, Following the Baby We Just Celebrated

• Kathy Escobar, pain relief not pain removal

• Ellen Haroutunian, Jesus came, did you get what you expected?...

• Carol Kuniholm, Words Half Heard, What the Magi Found

• Sally Coleman, Eternal Echoes, unexpected...

to-do list friday 5

to-do list Friday 5

Jan hosts again today and like me she doesn't "...have church services to plan, but there is much left to be done." In addition, she knows, "No matter how organized you are, there must be some things you still need to do. For this Friday Five, tell us five things on your Christmas 'To Do' List. Include anything you have decided to skip doing this year. As a bonus, give us something that helps you remember why this season even exists."

1. I need to display a few more Christmas decorations like this Nauset Lighthouse at Christmas; so far the only one is the starry lights I won a few years ago at Presbyterian bingo that always goes in one of the front windows.

2. I'm trying to remember that it doesn't need to be like this...

3. I've been noticing Salvation Army commercials on tv (not sure if they're locally specific or not) and for sure those people remind me of myself. I'm thinking of trying to connect with the local Salvation Army and try to get some services that will help me stand and walk again, though that likely would be an after Christmas endeavor.

4. Start playing some fave Christmas music CDs again very very soon! A couple weeks ago I began listening evenings to local KyXy radio when I've been home and really enjoy their selections, especially "Mary, Did You Know?"

5. Trying not to count the years, but instead still be amazed at my accomplishments in so many areas despite everything.

bonus To remember the why of this season, I only need to be aware that in the northern hemisphere we're approaching the darkest, shortest days, and the darker it is, the better to notice and appreciate even the tiniest light.

random 5

At the stroke of midnight revkjarla posted today's random 5, "I invite you share five random things about you, or five random thoughts, or five random surprises in your life." Here's my play:

1. I'm astonished at my abilities to survive and produce quality art and theology despite everything. Oh, of course, I always perform well in public at the drop of a hint, so that one's no surprise, but musical performances do not depend on my own creativity and inner resourcefulness as writing and designing do. As I observed on facebook yesterday, Oprah pointed out to a teenager long ago that no one can do life on their own. Your abilities, dreams, desires and hard work matter not at all, without that others, those others, community and context it's all a no go.

2. I'm surprised to find myself both in the usual countdown to winter solstice (you know how quickly the days seem to get longer with more sunshine!) plus actually enjoying the shorter days and happy to be in an unusual southern californian chill as well as a cool, dry Santa Ana. The stereotypical Santa Ana condition features high winds, low humidity and very high ambient temps. I love celebrating the Feast of the Unvanquished Sun followed by the birth of the Sun of Righteousness a few days later.

3. I'm trying to keep this positive, but the trend of ignoring emails, phone calls, snail mail and other inquiries that once was considered a southern california habit (as in "I'll chillax at this job until surf's up and then I am soooo out of here") seems to have extended to everyone, everywhere and that does surprise me.

4. Although I knew there would be exceptions and way back when during the showdown between our church council and the judicatory staff if you'd asked me closely I'd have admitted there would be many exceptions, I remain astonished at my ongoing inability to connect with opps related to my background (gifts, education, experience), esp since for the most part I've simply tried plugging into existing ministries.

5. I played Friday 5 today, yay!