religion

What I Really, Really Want for Christmas

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I thought about calling this my grown-up Christmas list, but for that to work, I’d have to feel grown-up. Most of the time, I still feel like a 10-year old stuck in a 30-something year old body, a la Tom Hanks in the movie Big. So that bit of nonsense is to lead in to the fact that I do have a Christmas list for 2011.

Instead of tolerance, I want love. I want all people to know that they are loved. God loves all those He made and His love makes you loveable, even if nothing you do or say does. That love makes you valuable, even if you don’t have worth or value according to the current standards that weigh everything by money and power.

I want more forgiveness and second chances. Not just for the ones who are in the wrong. The ones forgiving find such freedom in the act that they will wonder why they didn’t do it sooner. Forgiveness is hard, but I think not forgiving and holding onto the bitterness that eats you alive is harder. It certainly takes more out of you.

I want people to look past the surface more and see real beauty. God is the master of wrapping the best presents in homely packages. True beauty is seen with the heart and not with the eyes.

I want people to get out of their comfort zones and cliques and go to those who are lonely and hurting this Christmas season. If God has a special place in His heart for the outcast, broken, needy, poor, and destitute, then why shouldn’t we. If we want to be like Christ, we will have that same heart He has. After all, we all were once broken and needy and poor and destitute.

I want it to be that if there is to be any finger-pointing, it should be into a mirror. We all are to blame for the mess the world is in and the sooner we say, “I am responsible,” the better. Then we can say truthfully, “I am only one person. I can’t undo all the wrong that’s been done, but I can do one right thing. I can’t change the world, but I can change one person’s world, and, by the grace of God, I will.”

Most of all, I really want people to see themselves as God sees them. I want to see that God loves them. I want them to understand that God likes them. I want them to know that God offers healing and freedom and ultimate forgiveness for sins. I want them to see that it’s never too late to turn around and be all that God made you to be.

That’s really all I want for Christmas.

That, and maybe a set of Ginzu knifes, ’cause they can cut through tin cans and still slice a tomato. That’s just sheer awesomeness!

Word Now Breaking Heaven’s Silence

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Bring your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven’s silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world” (Chris Rice)

Maybe you’ve experienced silence recently. The kind of silence that is almost deafening and that pervades every part of you.

The silence of a friend who deserted and abandoned you and you’re still wondering why.

The silence of a parent who cut you off and doesn’t want anything more to do with you.

The silence of a prodigal son or daughter who, despite all your pleas and prayers, still won’t come home.

The silence of a spouse who decided you weren’t worth the effort anymore and left you.

The silence of a loved one who left you too soon and you had to say your final goobyes to a marble headstone.

The silence you feel in the middle of the night that keeps you awake with the fear that all that you are and have and do will never be enough and you will never be good enough for anyone, not even yourself. Much less God.

This Advent season, we celebrate the end of Heaven’s silence. For 400 years, God didn’t speak through prophets. For 400 years, the people waited and waited. Some lost hope. Some were barely holding on.

Then on a dark night in a remote village, a sound broke through the silence once and for all. It was the cry of an infant born to an infant virgin teenager in a backwoods village just south of Nowhere.

In that tiny cry, God was speaking to you, saying, “I’m here. I will be your God and you will be my people. I will never ever leave you or forsake you. I have set my affections on you and I will never take them away.”

It is the still small voice that speaks good things about you, that says that you are more than good enough– you are worth dying for. The voice that calls you Beloved. The voice of your Abba Father.

Remember this Christmas, we celebrate more than just a day. We celebrate the one event in history that changed absolutely everything. We celebrate the birth of hope that never dies, of joy that no one can take away, of peace nothing can shake, and of love that never lets you go or leaves you. We celebrate Jesus, the Word breaking Heaven’s silence.

Of All the Gifts You Get This Christmas . . . . .

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

Out of all the many Christmas presents you receive this year, I pray that most of all you get Jesus. I pray you get as much of Jesus as you can possibly stand — and then some — until He’s running out your ears and eyes and pouring out of your conversations and eminating from your actions.

I pray you get His peace that can’t be understood, but only experienced. I pray this peace will guard your hearts and minds tonight so that fear and doubt can’t creep in.

I pray you get His love that is wider than your imagination, deeper than your experience, longer than your history, and wilder than any love you have ever known before. I pray this love fills you up and spills out on to every single person you meet.

I pray you get the Everlasting Arms underneath and above and all around you. I pray you know that there is never a moment where you are outside of the Father’s watchful providential care. Not one sparrow lands without Him knowing it, so you can rest assured He knows where you are, even when you don’t.

I pray you get the same joy you first had on the first Christmas you can remember. I pray for the joy that overwhelmed you in those first moments of your salvation. I pray that uncontainable, unexplainable, unlimited joy will be yours.

I pray you can love yourself as your Abba loves you and love others the same. I pray you love God most of all, with every cell you have in your body. Mostly, I pray you can receive the Love that won’t let you go and let that Love flow through you to those who need it most.

I pray you cherish each moment as the gift it really is and the people in your life. Never take anything or anyone for granted and may your life be one big THANK YOU back to Jesus for all He’s done for you, not only this Christmas, but every single day of your life.

Amen.

The O Antiphons (With Much Thanks to Wikipedia)

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

99.9% of what you are about to read I got from Wikipedia or from other sources. You are reading the .1% that is mine right now. Just for the record.

The O Antiphons are used in the more liturgical denominations in their services in the week leading up to Christmas Day. They are as follows (and I copy and paste):

  • December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
  • December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)
  • December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
  • December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
  • December 21: O Oriens (O Dayspring)
  • December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
  • December 23: O Emmanuel (O With Us is God)

Each is a name and attribute of Christ. The best part is that if you take the first letter of each and spell it out backwards, you get “Ero cras,” which means “Tomorrow, I will come.”

How fitting is it that on December 23, you get Emmanuel, God with us. For truly we celebrate the fact that in Jesus, God took on flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood (to borrow from The Message this time).

It’s easy to get caught up in the periphery of Christmas and lose the meaning and focus and purpose of it all. Sometimes, you have to step outside your denominational comfort zone and find the truth in other religious traditions.

For me, being a born and raised Baptist, that meant looking to Catholicism and Anglicanism and other liturgical traditions to find Advent and the O Antiphons to remember that Christmas isn’t just a one day event, but a season of waiting and anticipation that culminated in the arrival of God in infant form.

Don’t get so caught up in the glitzy packaging and fancy wrappings that you forget the gift itself. As I saw on a church sign recently, the first gift of Christmas wasn’t from the wise men. Mary wrapped the first gift herself in strips of rags and laid Him in a feeding trough.

Emmanuel. God with us, on ourside, and for us. Forever. Amen.

 

 

A Very Un-Christmasy Blog, Or Hard Lessons I Learned Again

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

This isn’t the ususal yuletide greetings and jolly fat wishes for a happy and merry Christmas. This is what I had to learn yet again because my head is harder than that fruit cake you’lll probably get from FedEx, courtesty of Aunt Marge.

You can’t make anyone like you or be interested in you. You can only be who God has called you to be and run as hard as you can after Jesus. If God has someone for you, you’ll find them running just as hard as you in the same direction.

You can’t make anyone return your friendship. You can only be a friend for your part and keep being a friend, whether the kindly gesture is returned or not.

In fact, the truest love gives without expecting anything back. Love seeks the best for the other, no matter what it costs the giver, and never seeks what’s best for self over the other person.

Jesus loved like that. He came and gave all His love to a world that either rejected it, or –much worse than that– ignored it. Jesus died for ungrateful people who have yet to acknowledge His gift, much less receive it.

So maybe this is a kind of Christmas blog. It comes with a Yuletide Challenge: Find one person to give a gift to who you know won’t repay the favor. Seek out those who are unloveable and love them. Seek out those who are unwanted, and show them Christ wants them. Give not just presents or money or time, but you– your life, your aspirations and goals and dreams, everything you are. Give yourself away this Christmas.

I will probably need to re-learn these lessons again, but hopefully not for a while. They’re not the kind that are easy to learn. But every now and then, we need to be reminded.

I love what I heard someone say when explaining why we sing to God every week. It’s not that He needs to be reminded, but we do. We’re the ones who forget who we are and how much we need God and how faithful God has been, is, and will ever be toward those who trust in Him.

Now go drink some wassail.

An Advent Plea: The Final Day

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!”

For us who see a broken world filled with broken homes and broken families, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who see wars and rumors of more wars and neverending strife and conflict in every corner of the globe, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who can’t seem to quiet the inner chaose and noise inside and are drowning in a sea of voices telling us who and what we are, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who have lost nearly all hope and are hanging on to our faith by a very slim thread, come to us, Emmanuel.

Come in the midst of the conflicts among nations and bring peace on earth, good will to men. Come in the midst of broken homes and bring wholeness and healing and restoration. Come in the midst of inner chaos and bring Your calm to the midst of our raging storms within.

For us who know that we don’t work right and never will until You come with healing wings, come to us Emmanuel.

“Bring Your peace into our violence Bid our hungry souls be filled

Word now breaking Heaven’s silence Welcome to our world, Welcome to our World”

(Chris Rice).

An Advent Plea Day 4

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

“Oh, come O Rod of Jesse’s stem,
From ev’ry foe deliver them
That trust your mighty pow’r to save;
Bring them in vict’ry through the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!”

For us who have listened to our fears and doubts yet again when we should have listened to You, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who trusted in friends and family who are just as frail and human and we are when we should have trusted in You and You alone, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who have felt abandoned and alone in our greatest hour of need, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who failed to see You in the person who spoke encouragement to us or gave us a helping hand or comfort, come to us, Emmauel.

For us who fear too much the grave and do not fear the One who overcame the grave (for a reverent fear of You is the beginning of wisdom), come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who too easily forget that You have already won the victory and overcome any foe we will ever face and that Your victory is our victory, come to us, Emmanuel.

Come to our fears and transform them into faith by your perfect love. Come to our doubts and transform them into wonder and awe by Your steadfast love and faithfulness. Come to our needs and be the God who is enough.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

An Advent Plea Day 3

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

“Oh, come, oh, come, our Lord of might,
Who to your tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times gave holy law,
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!”

For us who are weak and frail, come to us, Emmanuel, in Your power and might.

For us who keep making promises that we fail to keep and vows that we never fulfill, come to us, Emmanuel, who fulfilled both Your end and our end of the Law.

For us who struggle through bad days where everything goes wrong and nothing goes as planned, where it is all we can do to survive through the next moment, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who have come to realize that we will never change or break old habits or start new godly ones without Your indwelling Life lived inside us, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who have a path littered with little golden calves and homemade idols of power, success, fame, popularity and all the other gods we’ve tried to replace you with, come to us, Emmanuel.

We who stumble in the dark need Your Light. We who are drowning in a sea of voices all around us that confuse us and cause us to lose our own identity need to hear Your still small voice that can silence all the other voices and remind us of our true selves, who we are in You. Only You can bid the chaotic waves in our hearts and minds be still and bring peace to our inner world.

Come, Lord Jesus, come to us.

An Advent Plea Day 2

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

“Oh, come, our Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!”

For us who have lost our way again and again and need once more to be taught the way in which we should walk, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who feel crowded and bombarded by all the voices telling us a myriad of different things, telling us who they think we are and who they think we should be, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who lack wisdom and understanding, who often feel more like victims than victors, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who just need to hear once more the Voice that says good things about us and calls us Beloved and can drown out all the other voices with a whisper, come to us, Emmanuel.

Come be our Wisdom. Come be our Strength. Come be our Confidence and Security. Come show us the way to go and guide us in it, for You Yourself are the way. Come reveal truth to us, for You Yourself are the truth. Come and make our lives full and abundant and overflowing, for You Yourself are the life. Our life.

Come, Jesus, Come.

An Advent Plea Day 1

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

“O, come, O, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!”

For us who are exiles from Home and wander through the wilderness of our shame and guilt, please come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who live in the land of Now-And-Not-Yet, where both Good Friday and Easter Sunday co-exist and joys and sorrows meet in a beautifully broken mess, come to us, Emmanuel.

For us who long to escape the trials and tribulations and temptations of the world we live in, who no longer are captive to the shallow philosphies of life around us, who yearn to see with our eyes the Promise fulfilled completely, come to us, Emmanuel.

Come, Lord Jesus, into our brokenness and make it whole. Come into our darkness and bring Your light. Come into our weariness and bring the fresh strength of eagles in flight.

Come, rescue us from ourselves and our weaknesses. Be our joy, our peace, our strength and our song through these evil days. Walk beside us through all our troubles and carry us when we can no longer walk. Sing to us in the valley of the deepest darkest shadows that we may hear Your voice and find our way through.

Come, O come, Emmanuel. God for us. God with us. God in us. Come.