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Spiritual readings        "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"

December 2003 Emails

Dec. 2, 2003

Inspired by our “Advent with the Messiah” class (see the website for details) these emails will take a musical theme for Advent 2003.  I got a new CD entitled “From Darkness to Light:  An Advent Procession” by the Choir of Wellington Cathedral, Andrew Cantrill, director.  I love the music of Advent and this seemed like a great collection.  One of the selections is the hymn “Lo, He Comes, with Clouds Descending” and this line caught my attention:

 “Deeply waiting, deeply waiting, shall the true messiah see.”

 One of the elements of the Advent season (the Christian time of four Sundays before Christmas) is waiting, expecting God to come, to do something, to save us.  The first candle on our Advent wreath this year was the candle of waiting.  So, as these words drifted out of my kitchen stereo, I thought, ‘what a great Advent lesson, “deeply waiting.”’  Imagine my disappointment then, to get down to the church and look up the hymn only to find I had heard it incorrectly.  The words are actually “deeply wailing, deeply wailing…etc.”  The hymn verse is talking about being on Calvary while Jesus is being crucified.

Darn!  I thought I had this great Advent insight, about what “deeply waiting” might involve.  I even began to have my own ideas about it too.  Deeply waiting would be something like moving into the deepest part of yourself and taking an attitude of trust towards God, waiting for what God is about to do.  This time of year in our culture militates against both deep things and waiting.  We also rarely think of the crucifixion, even though it lays behind the whole of the Advent/Christmas season.

May that be our Advent insight for today, knowing that even when we get things wrong, deeply waiting for God (who deeply waits for us) will pay off.

Grace & peace

Geoff

Dec. 5, 2003

Our first class of “Advent with The Messiah,” held Wednesday, was joyful and I was struck by these words from Isaiah 40 that Handel sets in the opening section of his musical masterpiece.

 Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall be made straight,

and the rough ways made smooth;

 In church this Sunday, we will be lighting the Second Advent Candle, and our message will encourage each of us to prepare a way in our hearts for God to enter.  We are reminded that God’s love can overcome any obstacle, any difficulty that might keep us from making a place for God in our hearts.  As we light, pray and sing during this Advent season, may God’s love grow in us like a candle growing to full light.  May that presence overflow with love for those around us.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Dec. 9, 2003

Following our theme of Advent music, I found an article that so closely echoed my own thoughts that I’m just going to use much of it.  It is an editorial in the Nov. 29, 2003 issue of “Christian Century” magazine, written by Rev. John M. Buchanan, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and editor/publisher of “The Christian Century.”

“My gratitude for Advent has deepened over the years.  I welcome the shorter days, and love the way the angled light of late November and early December makes everything look different.

I’ve spent a good deal of time trying to explain to parishioners why we aren’t singing Christmas carols yet.  I’m not sure I’ve made much headway on that front.  The culture and the economy are already celebrating Christmas.  The church I serve and the offices of the CHRISTIAN CENTURY are on opposite ends of Michigan Ave. one of Chicago’s retail thoroughfares.  And it has been Christmas on Michigan Ave. since before Halloween.  Those merchants depend on Christmas for as much as 90% of their business.  They’re not taking chances.  The earlier Christmas comes the better.

O come O come Immanuel,

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Song of God appear.

I love this hymn more each year.  Israel mourning in lonely exile is not a bad image of the human condition this Advent, with Palestine and modern Israel both in dreadful captivity to violence and vengeance, and with Americans dying in Iraq at the hands of people they meant to liberate.

It is a time….to sit in the darkness a while, waiting in lonely exile for God’s promise to be kept again.”

Rev. Buchanan reminds me that this season we call Advent is found only in churches and is not really a part of the culture around us.  Advent captures much of the sense of our life with God, waiting for God to fully come into our lives.  Yet we do not wait passively, but expectantly, living out our faith in our daily lives.

May your Advent season be full and deep, awaiting a stronger sense of God in your life.

Grace & peace

Geoff

Dec. 12, 2003

Our selections from Handel’s “Messiah” this week included this text from Isaiah 60:1-3:

Arise, shine; for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

For darkness shall cover the earth,

and thick darkness the peoples;

but the Lord will arise upon you,

and his glory will appear over you.

Nations shall come to your light,

and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

We in the church during Advent like to play with the images of darkness and light and here is a great scripture for that playing.  There is the darkness at this time of year, as the days get shorter.  But there is also the darkness in the soul of each of us and this text speaks to that as well.  The Christian Advent/Christmas seasons reminds us that God came to shine among us humans and that the world will be drawn to that light. 

How does God shine in your life?  How do you serve to attract others to God in Christ?  These are challenging questions that will not leave us alone, no matter how busy we get during this time of year.  We are reminded of God’s presence with us too, no matter how busy we get.

May you sense that presence in your life today.

Grace & Peace

Geoff

Dec. 17, 2003

Our Advent focus this year has been of music.  One of the themes of Advent is waiting.  Here is some material that combines these two foci.  It comes from a Mars Hill Audio Tape, (see www.marshillaudio.org) with an interview with Jeremy Begbie, a theologian at Cambridge University in England.  Begbie’s most recent book is “Theology, Music & Time” published by Cambridge University Press., (paperback date is 2000).  Here are some excerpts from the interview with Begbie on Mars Hill tape #64.

“Waiting is part of the Christian faith.”

“We live in a culture that wants instant gratification.”

“I’ve learned much about waiting and taking time from music.”

“Music takes time, it embodies the truth that things take time to be what they are.”

“Music teaches patience and the value of taking time.  Having to wait is not a bad thing.”

“Music helps us see the good quality of time in God’s world.”

Please excuse my chopping up a coherent interview, but these excerpts convey an Advent message that reminds us of the benefits that can come from waiting.  Indeed this is a message for all year around, for it applies to the spiritual benefits of waiting, waiting on God’s time, waiting on God’s wisdom and guidance.

May your Advent waiting be merely training for the deeper waiting that comes with a life with God.

Grace & Peace

Geoff

Dec. 19, 2003

Our “Advent with “The Messiah”” class ended this week using the following texts:

 He will feed his flock like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs in his arms,

and carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead the mother sheep.  (Isaiah 40:11)

 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

(Matthew 11:28-)30

 This section of Handel’s great musical piece deals with the benefits of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us.  Here the benefits are protection, guidance, rest and support.  As we tell the Christmas story, we don’t often tell about the benefits that come from God becoming flesh in Jesus.  The texts that Handel set tell of just some of the ways God helps us with our daily lives and our challenges.  The gift that speaks most powerfully to me in the list above is “rest”.  How much we need rest at this time of year, huh?  I don’t know if Handel’s world was as busy at Christmas time as ours is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.  The need for rest is brought into “The Messiah” for reasons that we will not know for sure, but the message is as timely now as it has ever been.

May you find some rest in these holy days.

Grace & peace

Geoff

 Dec. 23, 2003

If we work our imaginations, we might think of this day as the day Joseph and Mary found themselves in Bethlehem, looking for lodging.  I bought a Christmas CD a couple years ago, “A Putumayo World Christmas” (Putumayo World Music CD PUT 181-2 ISBN 1587590301) with a beautiful song on it called “Nadal de Luintra” by the Galician group Borguetto.  Galicia is an area of Northeast Spain with strong Celtic roots and musical heritage.  They have taken a Galician Christmas Carol, the story of Joseph & Mary looking for lodging, and given a wonderfully touching rendition of it.  I recommend the whole CD to you in part as evidence that the Christmas story is still taken seriously in many places.

Though a European group and carol, there is reference to the tradition of Joseph & Mary seeking lodging, what we may know in the Western Hemisphere as the tradition of Posada, acted out in many Latin American countries the 9 days before Christmas.  In the Latin American Posada, the scene of Joseph and Mary seeking lodging in acted out in such a way that each of us is asked if we have room in our hearts for the son of God.

That is as timely a question as it ever has been this Christmastime, 2003.  Do YOU have room in your heart for the indwelling of Jesus Christ?  Particularly as Jesus comes to us in the midst of holiday preparations, do we have time and space for him?  I know it’s a struggle for me, as I expect it is for us all.  As the time draws near, let us pause for a moment’s peaceful reflection on what the coming of God to live among us means to each of us.

May your holiday be a holy day and full of blessing.

Grace & peace

Geoff

Dec. 26, 2003

Our local newspaper, the Whittier Daily News, part of the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers group, carried an article on Christmas music last Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003.  In it our own Choir Director/organist, Dr. Williametta Spencer, was quoted at length.  In fitting with the theme of these Advent/Christmas emails, here are some of her words about the music of this season.

“Spencer said holiday music has a special way of reaching our hearts.  “Music is an abstract art form which can touch people, whether it has words or not,” Spencer said.  “Partly, it’s due to our upbringing, what we were used to listening to; and we associate certain beautiful melodies with certain emotions—we do that at Christmas too.  Music, it speaks very, very strongly”

Some of Spencer’s Christmas music favorites are pieces composed during the French baroque period.  “Some of the carols from that period sound really great on…a lovely pipe organ,” she said.  “And you can’t beat the Christmas cantatas of Bach, they’re beautiful beyond belief.””

Having soaked myself in the Advent/Christmas cantatas of Bach for the last three years, I heartily agree with Dr. Spencer’s last statement.  I hope and trust your Advent/Christmas season has had its share of beautiful music and that it has all lifted your spirits.

For a further deepening of the post-Christmas season I’d refer you to the following:  www.whitpresby.org/dec2000_emails.htm and ask you to see the email for Dec. 29, 2000, what I called the Quaker blessing by Gordon Bock.  Someone later corrected me to tell me it was a prayer written by the deep African American theologian Howard Thurman.  Whoever wrote it, it is inspired.

Grace & peace

Geoff

Dec. 30, 2003

Another meditation inspired by a cut from one of my favorite Christmas CDs “A Putumayo World Christmas” (Putumayo World Music CD PUT 181-2 ISBN 1587590301).  The group Chouteira has an original song entitled “O Cometido” inspired by the story of the Three Wise Men.  According to the liner notes:

 “O Cometido” is an original Christmas composition that tells the tale of the Epiphany with a modern twist; the lyrics compare the Three Wise Men to modern immigrants, imagining how difficult it would be today for three travelers from the South to cross borders and avoid discrimination.  The song also reflects on the difficulties of a young couple (Mary & Joseph) that is homeless and unemployed and encourages the listener to apply the morals and meanings of Christmas to the less fortunate in modern society.”

 If there is any doubt that the Christmas story is just as relevant today as it has ever been, this reference in a world music CD can put that doubt to rest.  I continue to find it inspiring that the Christmas story speaks to all kinds of people with a power of its own, that needs no glitzy advertising campaign to promote it.  Like the gospel itself, the Christmas story speaks to deep human needs, hopes and longings.  It also calls us to faith and action that reaches out to the “less fortunate in modern society.”

How are you reaching out in that direction in these Christmas holidays?  May your holy days continue in depth and blessing, not only for you and yours, but for those in need.

Grace & peace,

Geoff