Wednesday, December 28, 2016

                As a gift from a farmer friend from whom we bought our usual humongous turkey (28 plus lbs.) we received a goose – not a live one, sillies, but one all ready for the oven.  My maternal grandmother often prepared a very tasty, cooked goose over the Christmas holidays. I can’t wait until I dig in.

                My grandparents had a farm in Prince Edward County. They always raised a few geese over the year. As a child, I was deathly afraid of those geese, especially the ganders.  The ganders were always mean and nasty bullies. They would chase me all over the farm yard, nipping and pecking at my hind quarters and honking their disdain for me. I ran as fast as my little legs would take me. I swear that they were hiding behind the bushes just waiting and hoping that I was coming outside.

Fortunately, my grandfather had no such fear of these beasties. He’d warn them by shouting at them to “Shoo! Get away!”, and if that wasn’t enough to chase them away he’d pick up the gander by whatever appendage he could grab and fling the offending goose in the opposite direction.  That would always do it and I was free to trot off to the barn.

                I can eat any goose with an unwavering relish and joy!

                So here we are at the end of 2016 - what, if anything, is chasing you? What memory, what burden, what incident, what loss, what change, what argument, what injury, what event, what grievance, what wounded pride, what complaint, what gripe, what sorrow, what frustration, what disappointment, what discontent is pecking and nipping at your heart and spirit?  What are you running from or what, at least, what would you like to run away from? How often have you said: “I’ll be glad when 2016 is over” or “I hope that 2017 will be better?” Are you fearing what 2017 may bring, what’s hiding in the bushes?

I hope and pray that that all of you are anticipating the New Year with assurance, confidence, hope, fearlessness and courage.  But some of us, I know, hear honking right behind us!

                As often as the gander chased me, I still don’t remember that one ever actually caught me and hurt me; mostly thanks to my grandfather whom I trusted to intervene. It can end up sounding so facile and simplistic to proclaim that we need to trust God and everything will turn out right and fine.  Mature people, including mature Christians, know better.  But I also know that God will help me to make sure that no bullying factor of life will get the best of me – not without a fight at least. Sometimes, God has my back while I am running, but God also helps me face the backbiting, nasty, noisy, challenging, frightening, tormenting situations in which I may find myself. Sometimes, God chases the dark away; sometimes God leads me through it; sometimes God sends me people who get in the way and save me; sometimes God binds my wounds.  I could not run this race of living without my relationship with God.  Jesus taught me that! I am grateful.

                So, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and I are waiting upon the future – 2017. I haven’t much of a clue what the year will bring, But I know that I am never alone; I am not without a Defender. I am not without an Encourager.  I am not without a Friend. I am not without Help.

                “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:6).

                Therefore, have a Happy New Year! Have a drum stick on me!

Dale

Christmas Eve /Christmas, 2016

              In our family everyone has a Christmas stocking, even the adults. When I was a boy (said the old geezer) I simply used one of my father’s work socks. It worked just fine. But now, each stocking has the name of the person to whom it belongs, either embroidered or spelt in glitter. Part of the stocking tradition is that we, for some reason, are the guardians of the Christmas Stockings, once Christmas is over. (At least that way, we get invited back for next year.)

As our family grows through marriage or grandchildren, a new stocking is added to the bunch. Some of them are a little tattered and worn. Some are real fancy. Susan still has hers from her childhood although it is makes only a token appearance on Christmas Eve.  A newer one has replaced it to be filled. All of them go up on Christmas Eve. The fireplace is getting a little crowded.

My older brother once put up a pair of our Dad’s fishing waders. I was young enough to be quite chagrined. In the morning, he found it full of newspaper, except for a few things at the very bottom. Served him right!

                There is always something mysterious about Christmas stockings no matter how old one gets.  On Christmas Eve, they are set out or hung up and very empty, at first.  Then by morning, they are bursting at the seams with good things. Some of the stocking stuffers are practical and useful like a hair brush or pairs of socks. But sometimes, too, they have little surprises in them – some techno gizmo or a favourite magazine. Sometimes there is jewelry. Sometimes, it’s a puzzle toy. And always, there are candies and chocolate and other sweet treats. In our tradition, we drop a clementine or orange in the toe of each stocking.  There are usually a few other gifts set beside the stockings, as well.

                On Christmas morning, we all enter into the living room together at the same time. Sometimes, we have drawn names  for the filling of the stockings, with a set price limit. Each person looks for the stocking with their name. And the fun begins.  It is as much fun to see what each other “got in their stockings” as it is opening one’s own. Our kids are very creative and ingenious when it comes to the filling of these stockings.

                On Christmas Eve, the manger in Bethlehem is just an empty, unfilled, normal, old manger, nothing very special about it. One probably could have found others in town that night. The wind may have whistled through the cracks in the walls. There may have been holes in the roof.  There may have been mice in the cattle feed. There may have been that eye-watering aroma that comes with a barn full of animals. That empty manger was all that Mary and Joseph had in which to lay their new born child, Jesus, down.

                But on Christmas morning the manger is transformed and is full of good news and joy, of peace and goodwill. As we unpack the meaning of what happened over night we find our names embroidered in the sparkle of God’s Love.  Here in a manger God bestows to the world the One who will lead the Way to new hope, new faith, new life, new justice, new creation. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life,” (John3:16).

                I pray that all your hearts and spirits will be filled this Christmas with the Love, Compassion and Grace of God in Jesus.

                Blessings, one and all!

Dale

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

                Yikes - it’s only four days until Christmas! Sound the alarm! Hit the panic button! Run around in circles. Pull your hair out! What am I doing sitting here writing this? I’ve got things to do, presents still to buy, lists to check and presents to wrap and…and…and. 

O Christmas cookies! How am I ever going to get it all done in so little time?

Why, oh why, didn’t I start weeks ago?

Why do I always wait until the last minute?

Why do I procrastinate about Christmas? Why do I put Christmas off until it becomes so stressful? The stores have been telling me for weeks that this Day was coming. But I ignored the signs.  There have been TV Christmas specials and everything. That should have been a clue. The radio has been playing the same six Christmas songs for weeks. That should have alerted me that Christmas was just around the corner.  Yikes, here IS the corner and I don’t know how to steer this thing, this Christmas runaway leviathan.   I think I am going to crash. You go on ahead; just leave me here on the side of the road to Bethlehem; there’s no reason both of us have to perish.

                Mary and Joseph would have a rueful laugh at my expense, I think. “In those days, a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered… All went to their own homes to be registered,” (Luke 2:1,3).  It is hard to tell how much warning that the couple had before they needed to be in Bethlehem. But it would seem that it had to be a rather short and demanding timeline if Mary was due any day.  It’s not like they could get in a car and be in Bethlehem in a few hours and get back home quickly. It might have taken several days by donkey and foot, and we just assume a donkey since there is no actual mention of one in the story.

Maybe they kept putting the trip off as long as they could, hoping the baby would arrive before they had to go. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning, I promise,” said Joseph. “I don’t feel up to travelling today,” said Mary. “I have  to finish this last carpentry job,” said Joseph. “Hee Haw,” said the donkey.

                Then they had to leave in hurry and totally forgot to go on-line and make hotel reservations. The Emperor won’t be kept waiting.

                Sounds like my kind of Christmas. Talk about last minute stress. Talk about poor timing.

                Yet despite it all, Christmas happens. “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger,” (Luke 2:7).  It may not have been the ideal place to have a baby; it may not be the start that Mary and Joseph had hoped for their child; it may not have been according to their plans, but nonetheless Jesus was born. All is calm; all is bright.

                Let us encourage each other to remember this. Christmas happens. It may not be as perfect as you would have liked, but neither was the first Christmas in some ways. The ribbons might not curl just right; you run out of adhesive tape when wrapping; the wrong colour arrives; the cookies burn; the dog eats the Christmas cake and is sick; you have a fight with your toddler; you  can’t find the Christmas wrapping paper you bought last year; it’s freezing rain outside; you forgot to buy the figgy pudding; you really need to find time to see old, great Auntie Bertha at the home; the parcel hasn’t arrived yet from Amazon; and… and… and.

                All is calm; all is bright.

                Christmas is going to happen.

                All is calm; all is bright.

                Repeat after me: All is calm; all is bright.

           

Dale

Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 18, 2016

                O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,

                Won’t you stand up for me?

                O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,

                It would save my sanity.

                Why do you lean so far away

                After all I had to pay?

                O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,

                Next year I’m going artificially.

                Yes, it’s that time of year again – putting up our real, Christmas tree.  Over the years, I have bought several kinds of Christmas Tree stands all of which despite their promises of easy, first-time- straight-up tree-raising usually left me reaching for the fishing line and eye-hooks. If I can get a tree up in under a half-hour without blue-smoke and uncharitable language it is considered a small miracle. Just ask my kids, all who, I think, now have artificial trees!  Hmm, I wonder if there is a connection.

                We actually seriously discussed whether we would put up a Christmas tree at all, this year. But very briefly. Even I would agree that the house would feel empty without its annual visit of a Christmas tree. We don’t go crazy in decorating the house for Christmas anymore but a Christmas tree is a no-brainer, a must. It will be a smaller one than the kind we had when the children were small. It’s snowing today, so it’s the typical sort of day when I go out to buy the tree. There are just some traditions, no matter how painful, that make the spirit bright.

                It strikes me how tempting it might be to set aside the meanings of a real Christmas. It becomes easy to leave it all boxed up in the attic or basement of our emotions and feelings. We begin to make excuses or rationalize why we are doing less to celebrate this unique event of a child born in a manger. Too many times, we grit our teeth and put on a happy face (which is hard to do at the same time) and persevere just to get through the holidays.

We lose Christmas bit by bit and convince ourselves that we are becoming too old, too busy, too sad, too overwhelmed, too unhappy, too poor, too sophisticated, too grown-up, too doubtful, too progressive, too skeptical to run to the manger with the shepherds and see that which has come to pass. So, we downsize Christmas to fit our moods and circumstances. We want Christmas to fit our lifestyles and beliefs.

“I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people,” (Luke 2:10). The angel said this to a bunch of hardened, tough, cold, grumpy, cynical shepherds who perhaps had seen it all out there in the wilds and wastelands. They had fought off wild animals and looked for lost sheep. Some good news on a cold night while tending their ungrateful, wandering sheep would be welcome. Good News might be interpreted as a hot coffee, a warm blanket and home fires burning. But look at what they would have missed if they had just hunkered down by their campfire and hadn’t run off and looked for a “child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger,” (Luke 2:12).

It might take a little work on our behalf to get to the Good News of Jesus’ birth. There are stones, sticks and potholes on the road to Bethlehem, especially in the dark, no matter how brightly shone the stars that night.  It’s Good News, not because it fits us, but rather because it doesn’t fit where we are or what we are or what is happening to us. It’s odd and unusual. That’s the point!  But at the end of this road is the One who incarnates the Love of God. For everybody, including and maybe especially you, this Christmas.

So, pass me the fishing line and the eye hooks, I have a Christmas tree to put up!

Dale

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

                Oh dear! The Weather Network is reporting that due to climate change the reindeer in Norway are becoming smaller. I don’t know why but the consequences are staggering!

What is Santa going to do if he ever has to replace old, dependable Donner or Blitzen?  The good, old boy may have to shed more than a few pounds to ease the load on the reindeer pulling his sleigh.  Maybe, he is going to have to make two or three trips on Christmas Eve so as not to weigh his sleigh down because the smaller reindeer can’t pull as much.  That will wreak havoc with an already tight schedule.  Maybe, Santa is going to have to add an extra team of reindeer, like Bob and Sally the reindeer couple.   Then his overhead costs go up due to extra feed, grooming and practice, training runs. Can those tiny, little feet and spindly legs handle roof landings safely? Is PETA aware of all the added burden on these vulnerable animals?

Oh dear, something else to worry about and add anxiety over this Christmas Season. Like I needed more! Wasn’t Donald Trump enough for one year?

Although my tongue is planted firmly in my cheek, I will admit there have been a number of very real concerns which have added tangible worry and stress to our Christmas this year.  By and large, I think that we are handling it with faithfulness and confidence but it is emotionally draining and strenuous nonetheless.  It has been difficult to fully engage in the Christmas Spirit, so far. Susan and I are telling each other that the main thing is for our family to be together on Christmas Day. I heard on the radio that this sentiment is a popular one for the majority of those polled. I don’t necessarily think that is such a bad thing.

It makes me think about Joseph, tossing and turning on his bed, worrying about his engagement with Mary and what he should do. It was humiliating that she was pregnant and he was not the father. It was complicated enough that he was much older. He lived in a small village and gossip could be malicious. He and she would both face public disgrace. So, he fretted. So, he worried. So, he fussed.  So, he agonized. Perhaps then, he should just walk away from it all and “dismiss her quietly”. (Matthew 1: 18 – 24)

Except that running away from his problems was not the best solution.  Joseph would only find peace and rest if he leaned into the set of circumstances that was before him.  “Joseph, son of David (a not so subtle reminder of the history of his family responsibilities), do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife…” (Matthew 1:20). The messenger doesn’t take away the source of Joseph’s responsibility but adds to his obligation to proceed with the marriage. “For she will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins, (1:21).

There are a number of times where it is said “be not afraid” in the Christmas story. They come with a call to action, a summons to do or go. They arise when the tasks are overwhelming and daunting. The words are spoken when important choices are to be made.   The challenge and the comfort of these words come from someone who in the angels’ speaking reminds us that we are not alone as we move forward.

Be not afraid. God knows that you have cancer. God is aware that you are a widow. God will guide you through single parenting.

Be not afraid. You can handle this, God promises. God knows it will be hard, but you will become stronger. The Holy Spirit is nearby.

Be not afraid.  God recognizes your caution and reluctance but God will give you the strength.

“When Joseph awoke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him,” (1:22). And it became the right answer to what he thought was a bad problem. Not easy, but necessary! "Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you," (Ephesians 5: 14).

Dale

Third Sunday in Advent, December 10, 2016

                Christmas music via the radio or streamed on-line is fertile ground for ear-worms – those words and tunes which you can’t get out of your head once they worm their way in.  

I’ve got chestnuts roasting on an open fire or sleigh bells jing-jing-jingling, or Rudolph with his nose-so-bright burned into my memory bank. I really don’t to want to Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! But I keep humming it anyway. Over and over and over again.

Frosty won’t stop thumpity-thump-thumping in my mind.

Somebody, please take the little drummer boy’s drum sticks away; no more rumpa-pum-pum.

I’ve rocked around the Christmas tree until my legs gave out.

Help, I’m stuck in a Christmas music vortex and I can’t get out.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like Christmas music, both secular and religious Christmas music. Give me Bing Crosby, Perry Como (I love his version of Ave Maria) or Frank Sinatra singing a Christmas classic. This week, I heard the great Ella Fitzgerald sing a version of Silent Night that knocked my socks off. But who knew that every music artist that has ever lived has done a version of Mel Torme’s The Christmas Song? And it almost seems that I have heard them all in the past week. Please keep Jack frost from nipping at my nose one more time.

Seriously, music is very much a part of the Christmas Story, ever since Mary put her tender young feelings into a psalm of praise, “My soul magnifies the Lord…,” (Luke 1: 46 -55) or Zechariah added his creaky, old voice to the Christmas chorus, “Blessed be the God of Israel…,” (Luke 1:67). The sleepy shepherds were the audience for a heavenly host singing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours,” (Luke 2:14).  I wouldn’t wonder if they didn’t get that tune or words out of their heads any time soon.

Our expressions of faith are not always rendered in stuffy dogma and dry theological premises. Faith comes alive in poetry, music, art, and deeply personal outbursts of beauty and creative imaginations.  Be it George Handel’s classic Messiah or Mahalia Jackson Christmas comes alive through such talent and gifts.  But even the most out-of-tune voice will loudly join in a Christmas song like Joy to the World without embarrassment.  Nobody cares whether you’re on key or not.

I know that a lot of Christmas music becomes noisy, background music while we shop. We stop listening and tune it out. But every once in a while, there will be a Christmas song that stops me in the aisle for a moment and catches my attention. More than likely it will come back to me during the day. I will sing some of the words to myself, and a little piece of Christmas sticks to me like tinsel on a Christmas tree.

Christmas music evokes memories and feelings, calms frayed nerves, gives us inner harmony, stirs joy, makes us smile, is shared with others and opens the door to Christmas celebrations.

So, turn the radio on; sing along at the top of your lungs; and somebody, please pass the chestnuts.

Dale

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

                When I was a kid, I can recall that there were two significant, Christmas catalogues that found their way into our home. Both Sears and Eaton’s department stores produced thick, glossy catalogues. It goes to show old I am becoming to remember that.  But back then in the good ol’ days I do remember how I loved to pour through the big, toy sections in each of them. They were just enough differences to allow for the maximum potential for creating my Christmas list for Santa. They were well-thumbed and ear-marked by Christmas day.

                I thought that this year’s Wish Book was a bit skimpy measured by the standards of my childhood. It just seems to lack something. For one thing, it seems smaller and not as much in it. I skimmed through it just once and it now sits in the magazine pile. In fact, I am not sure even where it really is. I would have to go digging for it in order to find it.  But there are so many other alternatives, especially on-line, that I probably don’t need it anyway.

                Expectations can be very high about Christmas celebrations especially when we compare them with the ones that stand out in our memories. So, I am really thinking about those of us who may be finding Christmas a little skimpy this year. It doesn’t seem as full as it used to be. Where did the anticipation go?  When did the merry in Christmas disappear? Why is there no jingle in our Jingle Bells?  Why do we sometimes forget where we threw Christmas and what pile of stuff it is buried under? Why do some of us have to go digging through old piles of old news to find Christmas Good News? What are the alternatives that offer happiness, wishes and contentment?

Perhaps, some are haunted by past disappointments, sadness and stress which they associate with Christmas. Indeed, that is one catalogue of emotions which one would really like to dump in the recycle bin.

                God’s answer go the challenges and even dismay of living has always been freshly creative.  “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland,” (Isaiah 43:19). God shakes it up. God stirs it up. God does not settle for last year’s wish lists. 

In Advent and Christmas, in the anticipation of the coming of Jesus into the world, God sends us a dynamic liberation from the old, tired, skimpy forms of living.  One might even say that there is an Advent/ Christmas message in Jesus’ words, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” (Matthew 11:8) Or as The Message renders this verse, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest.”

It might sound somewhat trite to say that it isn’t Christmas that has changed as much as we have. We have lets its commercialism, its pace, its busyness, its demands pile up and some of us get to the point that we would like to toss it and almost forget it.  Mind you, thankfully, there are many wondrous, inspiring souls who delight in every measure of Christmas and their example is a guiding  star right to Bethlehem.

                So, go find your Christmas again! Open up the pages of this Story and let it fill you will anticipation, hope, energy, peace, joy, love and even merriment. That’s a pretty good wish list…

Dale

Second Sunday of Advent, December 4, 2016

                When my Mom was living in her own apartment, it has become obvious that she was a very generous person. She gave small amounts of money to several charities and organizations. I can’t really fault her for her choices. All of them were worthy, not a swindler among them.

                Now how do I know this, you may be thinking?

                When Mom lived briefly here in Peterborough we had all her mail transferred to our home address. And even though she has been living in Kingston now for a few years, we still get some of her mail – especially at this time of year, Christmas. All those charities and organizations have begun to send us their Christmas pleas for donations and help. And that’s how we discovered just how many there were; several to say the least. Hey, it’s her money and I appreciate her generosity.  She has been good to my family when needed, so I don’t begrudge a few bucks helping kids or animals.

                What intrigues me is the number of “gifts” that come with these packages at Christmas –  free pens, free Christmas cards, free Christmas stickers, free reusable bags, etc. Some say that these things come as a thank-you for past donations. But I am sure that these freebies are meant to spur us to give again, because the letter by itself isn’t very effective and easily disregarded.

But it raises an interesting, if small, ethical dilemma. Should I use the Christmas cards, for example, even though I won’t be sending them any money? Also, there is a piece of me that would prefer that these organizations spend the tens of thousands of dollars they must pay out for this Christmas promotional swag on the real causes they support. But I expect this strategy must work, or they wouldn’t keep doing it.

                Then I think that God’s Gift to humanity was free, too.  The Advent of Love and Grace in a wee baby arrived unexpectedly and gave himself to the world and for the world. He came as an unconditional gift because just the letter of the law by itself hadn’t had the desired effect that God had wanted from his people.

So, God personalized his Love with an embodied appeal, hoping to inspire us, once and for all, to act out of love, hospitality, generosity and peace.

We have a choice – we don’t have to respond at all if we don’t want, just like I don’t have to give a cent to the organizations my Mom used to support.

But in and through Jesus Christ God has given us a gift of wholeness and well-being, God’s shalom, and it is utterly free. “But when the fulfillment of the time came, God sent his Son, born through a woman, and born under the Law. This was so he could redeem those under the Law so that we could be adopted.  Because you are sons and daughters, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father’” (Galatians 4: 4-6, Common English Bible)

If you are not a Christian or religious or ever care to be, this might sound like a lot of seasonal mumbo-jumbo and it is all going to end up in some recycle bin which is where I usually put the letters that ask for Mom’s money, yet I hang on to most of the free stuff. It’s too good just to throw away.

So, whether or not the message that Jesus is somehow, someway, the Son of God, rings true to you, the gift of the power of incarnational (therefore embodied, tangible and physical) Love that he will always represent is still yours to keep and use.  

Love is always something that you or I can use!

Dale