Month: December 2015

Categories
Quotations

Missing Out of the Orchestra – De Mello

Flickr Credit: Gerry Dincher - North Carolina Symphony
Flickr Credit: Gerry Dincher – North Carolina Symphony

I never tire of Jesuit Anthony De Mello’s thoughts and challenges. Here is one that I have been reflecting on recently:

Now think of yourself listening to an orchestra in which the sound of the drum is so loud that nothing else can be heard. To enjoy the symphony you must be responsive to every instrument in the orchestra. To be in the state called love you must be sensitive to the uniqueness and beauty of every single thing and person around you. You can hardly be said to love what you do not even notice; and if you notice only a few beings to the exclusion of others, that is not love at all, for love excludes no one at all; it embraces the whole of life; it listens to the symphony as a whole, not to just one or the other of the musical instruments.

Stop for a while now to see how your attachments drain life’s symphony no less than the politician’s attachment to power and the businessman’s attachment to money have hardened them to the melody of life.

 

Categories
Sermons

Advent, John the Baptist and Preparing for a Break

IMG_20151213_105931

“John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7–9 NRSV)

This is the message I gave at Spring Friends Meeting Dec. 13, 2015

The Force of Togetherness

Usually, when we think and talk about Christmas, we think of it as a time to be together with loved ones. Christmas is the time when school shut down and students return home. It’s a time when the airports are full of hustle and bustle as sons and daughters try to make their way back home with the grandchildren in tow. It’s a time of the equally loved and hated office Christmas parties. There’s carol singing with friends. And at least for me, I can count on gaining at least a few pounds, because of all the baked goods that enter circulation. It’s also a time of great family tradition and religious traditions. I really do love this time of year, I love the opportunity to reflect on the biblical texts that surround this particular narrative. I love considering the Spirit of Christmas.

I love Christmas eve services and yes, I love all the Trader Joe’s Christmas cookies.

If we are fortunate, if things have gone more or less okay in our lives than most of us don’t have to do any of these things alone.

Christmas really is a time of togetherness.

But togetherness is not all it’s cracked up to be.

Continue reading “Advent, John the Baptist and Preparing for a Break”
Categories
Blog Entries Guest Post

Seth Martin on Fireweed and Advent

The fireweed flower loves the hurting and dying places. It helps to heal the ground…

During Advent, I want to remember that the frozen soil never forgets Spring.

I want to never forget the light within, and the reality of Jesus in all life, and live into Heaven here and now, as it is, and in so doing to anticipate and feel the truth of Jesus’ words, that it is already here, and that it is coming.

And here and now, I think it looks and feels a lot like bomb craters and industrial clear-cuts ablaze with Fireweed’s purples and reds and greens. And Korean elders singing, holding hands and standing in the way of cement trucks trying to lay foundations for a new naval base on top of their home, Gangjeong Village (Jeju Island, South Korea). And standing in the streets of every major city in the US, demanding a better and more just society in which Black Lives Matter. And learning traditional ways and affirming elders on Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota, while crying for the earth and future generations and swearing to do everything in one’s power to stand up to the Keystone Oil snake trying to illegally run through native lands against the people’s wills.

And it looks a whole lot like eating and singing and telling stories together. Face to face.

Source: Advent Reader for December 12th (Seth Martin)