There is a rather large elephant in the room and I just need to address it. And no, I am not going to be talked down or convinced otherwise. This is simply so obvious, so glaringly apparent, and so tremendously clear that I need to dedicate this particular flash to it.
GOD’S DARING PLAN
God saw the mess the world was in and decided to do something about it. As He drew up the plan, he noticed that babies were the one exception to the mess the world had made of itself.
“Babies did not got to war,” Barbara Brown Taylor dreamily writes. “They never made hate speeches or littered or refused to play with each other because they belonged to different political parties… In fact, almost everyone seemed to love them. And that gave God an idea. Why not create himself as one of these delightful creatures?”
PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TOWARD ALL
Can we talk for a moment about the relationships of different faiths? If we do it right, it will be an exchange of views done with respect, awe, wonder, patience, expectation, curiosity, and joy. As Will Willmon describes, a widespread misperception is afoot that religious differences are the worst sort of possible differences, and the most deadly.
THE TANTRUMS OF GROWN-UPS
This Sunday we light the Second Advent candle, that of peace. And peace is always contextual, isn’t it? The stolid German household of my youth contrasted with my friend’s effusive Italian home. “Why do you all shout at each other?” I once asked him. “What? We are not shouting.”
GUIDING YOUR ADVENT JOURNEY
Everyone knows what Christmas is, or we used to know before layers of mass commercialism and nebulous celebration emerged to replace it. Few know what Advent is about, even those of us in the church, who attend these Sundays, and see the four candles lit each of the Sundays. Hope, peace, love and joy are candle-themes, right? It is about anticipation, preparation, right?
LOVING THE LEFTOVERS
Many know by now my deep love for the holidays that occur in October, November, and December. I proudly wore my Halloween costume to church this year, and I have spoken openly about my love for pumpkins. I celebrated the first snow with some sparkly snowflake earrings from my mother-in-law, and purchased a pair of ice skates at the Fall Fair.