Preparing the Way of Hope

A couple of years ago Anna had a promoting that our family should take part in the twelve days of Christmas. Instead of doing the twelve days following Christmas, as is traditionally done, she thought we ought to do it before, and do it in such a way as to be a blessing to others around us. 

Anna took the song and reworked the lyrics into brief poems. She also assembled small gifts that represented the theme. Then the kids and I struck out to play the part of a Secret Santa, dropping off notes and packages in hopes of being undetected. 

There was great excitement with each day, the poem creation, the gift acquisition, the drop off. We were experiencing the delightful expectancy of Christmas at a whole new level. 

We felt like we were participating in the Christmas story, of God’s incarnation and blessing of all the world, in a similar fashion as John the Baptist and his parents. 

In Luke’s Gospel, John’s birth story precedes Jesus’. John would be a forerunner -someone who helped prepare the way for Jesus. But there was more to John than the the role of a wildly dressed preacher with a crazy diet in the wilderness. He was an answer to a prayer by his longing parents. He was a source of delight for a couple who had quit praying for a child. When hope was gone, God’s grace entered in, and John appeared.

John had a big role to fill. He turned the hearts of fathers to their children and vice-versa. Maybe John's theatrical preaching would prompt fathers to tell bed time stories to their kids about the preacher they saw on their way home. Or maybe it was something else, like his own father doubting, being unable to speak and then finding joy. Whatever it was, John's birth was a means of preparing people, the members of his family, for an incredible expressions of God’s nearness and blessing.

As you and your family live into your gathered traditions of Christ’s birth, how might you prepare the way for Christ’s birth in a new and unexpected way? How could you be a part of preparing the way of joy for others in our community? How could you be a forerunner of all that God would like to do in the life of someone who  could use some hope? 

Sad Songs of Christmas

Listening to NPR's morning edition on December 19th, they shared the following story, Have Yourself a Sullen Little Christmas. 
A good reminder that many experience Christmas with a significant amount of melancholy.

Grown Up Christmas List - No More Lives Torn Apart

Asa after looking out at the battle field at Little Big Horn.

During Advent Schweitzer UMC is using the song Grown Up Christmas List as a thematic element in worship planning. Accompanying our bulletins is a devotional guide. I was asked to reflect on the text from Isaiah for the first week. That writing is what follows.
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No More Lives Torn Apart & Wars Would Never Start
Isaiah 61.1-4,7

Taking a tour of the northern mid-west one of the sights we stopped at in eastern Montana was The Battle of Little BigHorn. The battle location is a
National Park with a museum and monuments on the hills. After a historical presentation we walked among the monuments, we saw the markers that displayed where those who fought fell in battle. On the beautiful, windy, wide open prairie our souls ached for the story that was historical and yet so vividly close. Our eyes could see the lasting effects of lives torn apart. We gave expression as we drove away; we hope this does not happen again.

Isaiah the prophet wrote in the midst of a horrific battle. He wrote when history was being made and Israel was being torn apart. He carried a prayer for the people, that the tragedy would end. Along the way The Lord filled Isaiah with a message and a promise, of a deliverer who would bring healing, freedom, joy, and a beautiful land. The promise begins to be unwrapped in Jesus. In some spaces we experience the fruit of Jesus' work. Sitting atop Little Big Horn we found ourselves waiting and praying for the fullness of the promise. The Kingdom has broken in, yet we wait and pray for it to come in totality.