Resources for the Season

This afternoon I thought I would pass along some links that might be of help to you or to someone you care about during this Advent and Christmas season. I am not going to suggest every possible resource out there, just a few good quality sites. Some provide daily readings, prayers, and other personal devotional materials. Other sites give ideas for creative ways of loving Christ and our neighbors during the holiday season.

Links to Resources for Advent and Christmas

Lift Up Your Hearts: Advent, Christmas, & Epiphany Resources from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

The Text This Week

Online Devotionals for Advent

Online Advent Calendar by Mark D. Roberts. This year, Roberts is featuring “Advent Doodles” for each day by his wife, Linda.

Following the Star: A Daily Online Advent Devotional Guide. Includes a centering time, a look at Scripture, a devotional thought, a time for prayer, and a benediction.

Advent Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries. Read or listen to daily devotions online. You can also download the devotions in a printable booklet.

Advent 2011 Calendar from EWTN. On the same page you will also find information about other Advent and Christmas traditions and practices.

Opportunities to Make a Difference this Christmas

Advent Conspiracy. The concept is based on four simple ideas: (1) Worship Fully — put worshiping Jesus at the center of the season, (2) Spend Less — buy one less gift this Christmas, (3) Give More — make Christmas a time to love others in memorable ways, (4) Love All — find ways to give resources to those who need it most.

Rethinking Christmas. This is a community site for you to share your stories and ideas for the season of advent. To particpate, contribute your gift ideas, and post questions and comments in the forum. You must create an account to participate.

Want to get really “radical” for Jesus this Christmas? [We love that word at IM!] Check out Buy Nothing Christmas, an initiative started by Canadian Mennonites.

OK, iMonks. Feel free to give testimony to any of these or add your own suggestions.

Another Look: Living in the In-Between

NOTE: Advent started Sunday, and the sky has been falling here ever since. Rain, rain, and more rain; followed by falling temperatures and snow. It has been all haze and fog and spray coming up off the road on my windshield. Perpetual gray. Gloom. Each day has been a “I want to crawl under the covers and spend the whole day there” kind of day. Reading through the archives, I noticed that exactly one year ago today, I had a similarly sour outlook. So today, let me do what writers do — foist my gloom upon you again!

• • •

We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

• Hebrews 6:11-12 (NIV)

I am going to confess something here that I normally would not say in general conversation. I’m not always a happy person. I’m just not. I struggle with discontent, anger, regret, bitterness, impatience, discouragement, and wanting to give up. I whine a lot. There are moments when oaths and curses explode through my lips. Some days I just want to go back to bed. There are many times, I’m sure, when people avoid me. They see the sour look on my face and cross the street to walk on the other side. I’ve been known to throw or kick things occasionally. In quieter moments, I may just let out a series of sighs, clench my jaw till my teeth hurt, pace the floor, flip relentlessly through the TV channels, or putter around the house without purpose.

Why? Because I hate to wait.

Continue reading “Another Look: Living in the In-Between”

A Witness to Vulgar Grace

The following is from Brennan Manning’s memoir, All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir.

Drink deep and savor. This is the good stuff.

My life is a witness to vulgar grace — a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wage as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party, no ifs, ands, or buts. A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief’s request — “Please, remember me” — and assures him, “You bet!”…This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion. It works without asking anything of us. It’s not cheap. It’s free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the orthodox foot and a fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility. Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone that it cannot cover. Grace is enough…

Sin and forgiveness and falling and getting back up and losing the pearl of great price in the couch cushions but then finding it again, and again, and again? Those are the stumbling steps to becoming Real, the only script that’s really worth following in this world or the one that’s coming. Some may be offended by this ragamuffin memoir, a tale told by quite possibly the repeat of all repeat prodigals. Some might even go so far as to call it ugly. But you see that doesn’t matter, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly except to people who don’t understand…that yes, all is grace. It is enough. And it’s beautiful.

Why Some Don’t Observe the Christian Year

As regular readers of Internet Monk know, I am an enthusiastic proponent of following the Christian Year as a way of keeping our churches Jesus and Gospel-centered and as a salutary program for enabling individual Christians and congregations to become spiritually formed by the story of Christ.

I am fully aware not everyone agrees.

So today, I would like to give opportunity to those who are of the opinion that we should NOT observe the Christian Year to express the reasons for their stance.

• • •

People may oppose or think little of keeping the church calendar of holy seasons and days for various reasons.

Here are some comments from a discussion called,  “Do You Follow the Liturgical Calendar?”, posted on the Christianity Today website:

“A church’s program of preaching and teaching needs to have a ‘prophetic’ angle with regard to the church, with the leadership discerning which topics and sections of Scripture are most needed at particular times. Close observance of a liturgical pattern does not allow room for that.”

• Tim Ward, Holy Trinity Hinckley, UK (Church of England)

“If I saw instruction in the New Testament that Christians should observe celebrations at certain times, or thought New Testament evidence reflected a pattern of the early Christians doing so, I would adopt it. The only calendrical pattern I see is the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Day.”

• Jim Hamilton, Kenwood Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky

“I’ve been around the church a long time and never heard the word used. The liturgical calendar is not at the forefront of what we’re trying to accomplish. I’ve never heard a person say anything negative about it; it’s just not mentioned.”

• Paul Helbig, Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church, Katy, Texas

There are branches of historic traditions, such as Puritanism, that have long rejected keeping a liturgical calendar or observing holy days, based on their understanding of what the Bible teaches. In general, these churches hold to a “regulative principle” of worship — whatever is not specifically commanded or exemplified in the New Testament should not be permitted in Christian worship.

“Festival days, vulgarly called holy-days, having no warrant in the Word of God, are not to be continued.”

• Westminster Assembly, Directory for Publick Worship (1645)

Q. Is there any other day holy besides this day [i.e., the Lord’s day]?

A. No day but this is holy by institution of the Lord; yet days of humiliation and thanksgiving may be lawfully set apart by men on a call of providence; but popish holidays are not warrantable, nor to be observed. (Gal. 4:10. Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.)

• John Flavel, An Exposition of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism (1692)

More common than strict opposition, I would assume, is the opinion that how we “do church” or how individuals pursue spiritual formation is a matter of Christian liberty and preference. Some may have never even heard of the practice because their churches have never considered it. Others may see it as legitimate but not necessary and therefore they choose not to observe it. Still others may be reacting against traditions they have left, in which the church year was observed.

At any rate, whatever your reason, I’d like to hear from those who DO NOT OBSERVE the Christian Year.

Then, as we get responses, it is perfectly OK for others to join in the discussion and ask questions, too.

“Lego” Bible too Graphic for Sam’s Club Parents

David Dancing in His Skivvies

I never saw our kids do this with Legos. Maybe I was naive.

According to an article in the Christian Post, “Sam’s Club stores are no longer selling The Brick Bible: A New Spin on The Old Testament, which tells Bible stories through 1,400 images of toy Lego pieces, after ‘numerous concerns’ were received about some of the book’s content.”

Sam’s Clubs stores said they were responding to complaints from parents who found many of the Lego depictions of Bible stories objectionable. The Lego dioramas in the book portray nudity, sex, and violence (well, Lego nudity, sex, and violence) that many find too graphic for children.

The book’s illustrator, Brendan Powell Smith, says he was not necessarily creating a book for young children, despite the use of Lego blocks. “From the start, my goal was to create an illustrated Bible that stood out from all others – not just because it was illustrated in LEGO, but because I would be using only direct quotes of scripture to retell the stories just as the Bible tells them. I also endeavored not to water down the stories or censor them for content. If it was in the Bible, my thinking was, it was worth illustrating. That decision has meant, though, that not everyone considers The Brick Testament appropriate for all children, since the Bible is chock full of graphic violence throughout, and contains a few stories with sexual content.”

Adam & Eve Doing What Lego Couples Do

He has stated he thinks it should be up to parents whether or not they share The Brick Bible with their children.

Smith also claims that his publisher offered to remove any sexual illustrations from the book at the request of representatives from Sam’s Club and Walmart.

You can view the illustrations and access books, posters, and other materials that use his Lego art at “The Brick Testament”.

[Psst…Wait ’til you see Bathsheba. Va va va voom! Hottest Lego chick I’ve seen.]

There is a clear content notice on the site that reads:

– CONTENT NOTICE –

The Bible contains material some may consider morally objectionable and/or inappropriate for children. These labels identify stories containing:

= nudity  = sexual content  = violence   = cursing

Question: Why don’t publishers post the same notice on the covers of regular print Bibles?

 

The Anguished Seriousness of Advent

Monday Merton Musings, November 28, 2011
The Anguished Seriousness of Advent

Today, we hear some of Thomas Merton’s thoughts on the Advent season.

The certainty of Christian hope lies beyond passion and beyond knowledge. Therefore we must sometimes expect our hope to come in conflict with darkness, desperation and ignorance. Therefore, too, we must remember that Christian optimism is not a perpetual sense of euphoria, an indefectible comfort in whose presence neither anguish nor tragedy can possibly exist. We must not strive to maintain a climate of optimism by the mere suppression of tragic realities. Christian optimism lies in a hope of victory that transcends all tragedy: a victory in which we pass beyond tragedy to glory with Christ crucified and risen.

It is important to remember the deep, in some ways anguished seriousness of Advent, when the mendacious celebrations of our marketing culture so easily harmonize with our tendency to regard Christmas, consciously or otherwise, as a return to our own innocence and our own infancy. Advent should remind us that the “King Who is to Come” is more than a charming infant smiling (or if you prefer a dolorous spirituality, weeping) in the straw. There is certainly nothing wrong with the traditional family joys of Christmas, nor need we be ashamed to find ourselves still able to anticipate them without too much ambivalence. After all, that in itself is no mean feat.

But the Church in preparing us for the birth of a “great prophet,” a Savior and a King of Peace, has more in mind than seasonal cheer. The Advent mystery focuses the light of faith upon the very meaning of life, of history, of man, of the world and of our own being. In Advent we celebrate the coming and indeed the presence of Christ in our world. We witness to His presence even in the midst of all its inscrutable problems and tragedies. Our Advent faith is not an escape from the world to a misty realm of slogans and comforts which declare our problems to be unreal, our tragedies inexistent.

from Seasons of Celebration: Meditations on the Cycle of Liturgical Feasts
by Thomas Merton

New Missal Introduced — What Do You Think?

Today, on this first Sunday in Advent, the traditional beginning of the Church Year, the Roman Catholic Church began using a new Missal in the mass.

Priests have been preparing congregations throughout the autumn months for the introduction of the new mass translation. Catholic News Agency has had a website available that contains a number of resources, news reports, and commentaries to help people get familiar with it. “The Pope and many bishops are calling this new translation a perfect time for a new ‘eucharistic catechesis.’ It’s a chance for all of us to reflect and pray about what the Mass means and what happens in our celebration of the Eucharist,” said David Scott, editor-in-chief of CNA.

I’d like to give our Roman Catholic readers a chance to give us their first impressions of the new changes in the liturgy.

What do you think? How was the new mass translation received today?

Advent I: What Fruit Remains

First Sunday of Advent
November 27, 2011

Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37

Prayer of the Day
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection waken us to the threatening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of your new day, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6b)

• • •

a sonnet for advent I

what fruit remains lies rotted on the ground
cold wind and rains have stripped the branches bare
all color washed away, save gray and brown
a few stray leaves lie trembling ‘neath the stair
the sun’s pale light hangs lower in the sky
and soon it falls beneath the crushing night
and time itself grows ossified and chill…
so long we have to wait for morning light!
i pull the covers close around my neck
my mind a muddled, melancholy mess
in dawn’s still dark, i hesitate to rise
full knowing i must shiver as i dress
the deck wood cracks beneath my halting tread
a redbird flashes by, i lift my head

iMonk Classic: Michael Spencer Helps Us Prepare for Advent

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
From November, 2008

Original Title: “Riffs: Joseph Bottum on the End of Advent (and the horror of our version of Christmas)”

Many years ago, we made a decision to, as much as possible, speak of Advent and not of Christmas, until Christmas. I’ve never been able to hold off the Christmas music, but as much as possible we’ve stayed with that commitment.

It’s also amusing to watch my co-workers get the puzzled look when I start referring to “advent,” something some/most of the have never heard of. They often assume I’m one of the “Christmas is a Babylonian occultic festival” whack jobs, which we usually have somewhere in the gallery.

It’s really very simple: Christmas is the feast of the incarnation and the season following that event. Advent is the recognition that we need a savior and the longing for that savior to come, according to God’s promises.

Christmas is joyous, but the joy comes after weeks of waiting, watching, lamenting and calling upon God. Advent is that season of waiting; of looking for the signs and promises of the savior in the scriptures and in the world.

That distinction should save us. We think we can manufacture our own salvation by going shopping. Advent says we cannot save ourselves, that only God can save us and that in his own time and in his own way.

First Advent and First Candle is Lit, Ola Wiberg

Christmas is the return of the pagan festivals that we Christianized; the triumph of the commercial invention of a “holiday as shopping season” to end the year. It is the pagan, secular, godless imagination creating its own world of blessed wonder by way of its own story and its own magic. Christmas has become, in many ways, as spiritually dangerous as any of the recognized belief systems that apologists spend their time dismantling.

Joseph Bottum takes on the loss of Advent in the rise of the secular Christmas in an essay that continues to demonstrate his skill and importance as a writer. While I wish that Bottum had acknowledged the rediscovery of Advent by many evangelicals and the potential of the rediscovery to introduce the Christian year as a counterbalance to the pragmatic manipulation of time at the heart of our culture, it’s still an outstanding essay.

Read Joseph Bottum: The End of Advent.

I have written about the celebration of Advent in our family with suggestions for that celebration in your family: Observing Advent and Christmas: Thoughts for the Christian Family.

I’ve also written on “The Mood of Advent.”

I hope all of this helps you get off to a good start with Advent this year.

Saturday Ramblings 11.26.11

Are you just waking up from your turkey coma? Or are you just coming off of your shopping high? Then get ready to be brought back to life, real life (at least really funny life) with our post-Thanksgiving version of Saturday Ramblings.

By the way, Mr. Bones has the week off to visit his favorite dumpster for a Thanksgiving treat. In his place the agency sent over King Kat to pose for our Saturday Ramblings picture. Are you going to laugh at this cat? I’m not going to …

Oh my, but that Pat Robertson is funny. What a kidder. Now he wants to know if “mac and cheese” is a “black thing.” What’s next? Will he want to know if Dave’s Hot and Juicy burgers at Wendy’s are Asian things? If chicken wings are an Eskimo thing? You know, some of the funniest TV is not meant to be funny, which just makes it all the more funny.

And Father James Martin says we can’t make it through the holidays with our sanity intact if we don’t laugh. iMonks, let’s not take this time of year—or ourselves—too seriously, ok? It’s all right to laugh. It’s all right to watch Christmas Vacation and roar instead of watching Christmas Shoes and cry. Just sayin’…

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings 11.26.11”