The link for the Zoom gatherings is available in our weekly E-news, in our Facebook group St. Dunstan’s MadCity, or by emailing Rev. Miranda: .
THREE WAYS TO USE AN ONLINE BULLETIN…1
1. Print it out!
2. Open the bulletin on one device (smartphone or tablet) while joining Zoom worship on another device (tablet or computer).
3. On a computer, open the bulletin in a separate browser window or download and open separately, and view it next to your Zoom window
It’s one week till Christmas Day!
That means it’s almost time for our pageant.
Every year on Christmas Eve we do a special little play of the Christmas story. Some of you are here, some of you are traveling to see family. (So we usually do another pageant in January.)
This year we’re trying something new – instead of acting it out, we’re going to have our performers make pictures of the different scenes – not by drawing but with their bodies – costumes, etc.
Getting ready for this – interesting to think about what people in the story would have been feeling.
Chance for our actors to really think about that – not just to stand in a particular place or pose, but how to show with their faces and their bodies how they would have been feeling.
I thought today maybe we could practice that a little bit.
Let me give an example.
First scene in the story the way we usually tell it: An angel comes to Mary to ask her if she is willing to become pregnant with God’s son who is also God, Jesus.
What do angels look like?…
In pictures they usually look like very pretty people, with wings, right?
Angels are messengers for God – that’s what the word angel means. They are God’s helpers.
In the Bible sometimes they look like people, like in the Tobit story. Sometimes they are invisible, like in the Balaam story. Sometimes they look blindingly bright and strange and terrifying!
One thing people have noticed is that a lot of the time, when an angel appears to a person, the first thing the angel has to say is:
Fear not! Don’t be afraid!
Which makes it seem like something about angels must be kind of scary, at least at first!
Here is one of my favorite pictures of this scene when the angel comes to talk to Mary.
The artist is named Henry Ossawa Tanner.
What choice did he make about how to show the angel?…
I like that part of the picture.
But what I really like about the picture is how he painted Mary.
Look at her face and her body. What feelings do you think she is feeling? …
I like how this painting invites us to think about all the big mixed-up feelings Mary might have been having, when the angel asked her to do this big thing for God.
Let’s try on a couple of those feelings with our faces and bodies.
Mary might have been afraid of what the angel was asking her to do, and what it would mean for her.
Not, like, I just saw a ghost afraid, but, this changes everything about my life, afraid.
How can we show afraid with our faces?…
With our bodies?….
At the same time, Mary feels hopeful!
That’s why she says Yes!
We hear that later when she sings her bold song of hope to her cousin Elizabeth, about how she will be remembered and blessed by future generations because of what she is doing, and how God is working to raise up the lowly and feed the hungry.
Can we show hopeful with our faces? Our bodies? …
Mary says Yes, to the angel, right? She agrees to do it. To become God’s mother. What a huge thing to do!
But then Joseph comes into the story.
Mary is engaged to get married to Joseph, but now she is pregnant and Joseph doesn’t know anything about it. He’s upset!
Maybe he doesn’t believe her story about what happened.
So God sends an angel – maybe the same angel? – to talk to Joseph too. To tell him, It’s OK. Go ahead and get married. This baby who is also God will need a human daddy.
I wonder what Joseph would have been feeling?
I think he was probably kind of sad.
Getting married is a big deal, and this wasn’t how he thought things were going to go.
Can we show Sad with our faces?
Our bodies?….
He was probably also confused, right?
He didn’t know what to think!
Mary’s story didn’t make sense.
The angel’s story didn’t make sense but it’s hard to argue with an angel.
How could God have a baby, or be a baby?
Why would his fiancé be chosen to be involved?
Why would HE be chosen to be involved?
It’s a lot to take in and figure out!!
Let’s show confused with our faces… and our bodies.
Okay, let’s do one more scene! Later, in the story, after the baby is born, the angel shows up AGAIN to tell some shepherds all about it, and that they should go visit the baby and worship him.
God wants ordinary, poor people to be the first to know the good news about God coming into the world to dwell among us and share our lives.
The shepherds were just sitting around, waiting for the next sheep to be ready to have her lambs so they could help her, and making sure wolves or lions don’t come steal the lambs that have already been born.
And suddenly there’s an ANGEL!
And then there are a LOT MORE ANGELS!
How would they have felt?….
We already did Scared; let’s show SURPRISED with our faces and bodies! ….
And then when the angel tells them that God is doing a wonderful thing, and that they should go visit the baby Jesus, they feel so EXCITED! They can’t wait to go!
Let’s show EXCITED with our faces and our bodies!….
There are so many feelings in this story! Lots more than we’ve talked about today. I think that’s one reason why even though we tell this story every year, I’m always glad to see it again.
Thanks for exploring those feelings with me! Maybe this will help some of our pageant actors when we start our work later today.
Now, I have something I want to say to the bigger kids, before we go on. So while I’m doing that, I have a little project for you.
I thought you might like to make some angel ornaments.
We talked about how in pictures and paintings, people usually make angels look like pretty people with wings.
But some people have found that there are some pretty weird descriptions of angels in the Bible. Like, angels that have six wings instead of two, and are entirely covered with eyes!
So if you’d like, you can take these ornament bases, and use some sticky dots to stick on feathers for wings, and some eyes… and make a biblically accurate angel ornament for your family.
* * * * * *
Okay, now I want to say a few words to the bigger kids.
I gave a longer version of this sermon a few years ago but I think maybe it’s important to talk about now and then.
There’s a word we’re going to hear a lot over the next couple of weeks.
That word is Virgin.
We heard it once today already, in our Gospel.
Matthew thinks he’s quoting Isaiah, though actually the word in Isaiah is just “young woman.”
And we’ll hear that word a lot in hymns and carols, as Christmas approaches. “Round yon virgin tender and mild,” and so on.
We know several things about Mary.
God chose her to bear Godself as a human infant.
God respected her enough to ask her permission.
She was bold enough to say Yes.
In the song of faith we call the Magnificat,
She celebrates being chosen by God –
“All generations will call me blessed! How cool is that!!”
And she talks about the things she hopes to see God do:
Tear down the powerful from their thrones!
Raise up the powerless!
Fill the hungry with good food and send the rich away empty!
Nothing mild about all that.
Much later in the Gospels, we see her struggling with her son’s mission. Fearing for him.
Later, she follows him to the cross and watches him die.
She goes on to be one of those who tells his story.
And, yes, at the very beginning, here, she is a virgin.
Somebody who has not yet had that special kind of physical closeness with another person that they teach you about in … is that sixth grade Health?
She says so herself in Luke’s Gospel:
“How exactly am I going to get pregnant with this special baby? Because….”
Out of all the things that we could say about Mary, the fact that she is a virgin is what churches have chosen to say over and over again, down through the centuries.
It’s kind of strange that the historical Church managed to make Mary this icon of purity, when in Matthew’s Gospel, Joseph nearly abandons Mary because he doesn’t know how she got pregnant!
That shame and struggle is part of what Mary agreed to face,
when she said Yes to the angel.
It’s important to Matthew, our Gospel writer, that God works through situations that humans find awkward and shameful.
We learned that through the stories we heard last week, of the women Matthew names in his genealogy of Jesus.
But somehow, through the ages, that’s not the message that churches have taken.
And churches have not only obsessively focused on Mary’s virginity; they have made it an ideal for all young people – especially for those categorized as girls and young women.
Many of our sibling churches still put a heavy emphasis on virginity and purity. You may meet people who are wrestling with those “purity culture” messages as they try to build healthy intimate relationships.
Physical intimacy and our choices about it matter, of course.
But I think a lot of the reasons for this focus among some churches and church leaders, over the centuries, are more people-reasons than God-reasons.
Reasons like controlling young women’s behavior, and making sure men know whose children they’re raising.
When the word virgin starts cropping up all over the place in our churches as Christmas approaches, it’s weird because it can evoke or trigger all that stuff.
And it’s weird because out there in the culture virgin is also often used as an insult, especially for young men and amab folks.
When I was in my teens, the message was pretty clearly that girls are bad if they’re not virgins and boys are bad if they are – which was a heck of a double-bind, especially for the straight kids.
My sense is that today the cultural messaging around all that is more complicated, but not necessarily better.
And that there’s still a lot of potential for confusion and shame.
Here’s what I want for the youth and young people of this church. I want physical intimacy to be something you are able to choose freely, if and when you want it, with joy and curiosity and safety, and with somebody who thinks you’re amazing.
I want you to know that your value, your worth, in church and in the world and before God, does not depend on what you have or have not done with your body.
And I want you to be able look to Mary, the mother of God, and not see some icon of purity and perfection we can never live up to, but a young woman – youth group aged! – whom we honor for her courage, her faith in God’s purposes, and her vision for a better world.
The link for the Zoom gatherings is available in our weekly E-news, in our Facebook group St. Dunstan’s MadCity, or by emailing Rev. Miranda: .
THREE WAYS TO USE AN ONLINE BULLETIN…1
1. Print it out!
2. Open the bulletin on one device (smartphone or tablet) while joining Zoom worship on another device (tablet or computer).
3. On a computer, open the bulletin in a separate browser window or download and open separately, and view it next to your Zoom window
The link for the Zoom gatherings is available in our weekly E-news, in our Facebook group St. Dunstan’s MadCity, or by emailing Rev. Miranda: .
THREE WAYS TO USE AN ONLINE BULLETIN…1
1. Print it out!
2. Open the bulletin on one device (smartphone or tablet) while joining Zoom worship on another device (tablet or computer).
3. On a computer, open the bulletin in a separate browser window or download and open separately, and view it next to your Zoom window
The readings for today, the second Sunday in Advent, call us to attend to the relationship between Christians, Jews and Judaism.
While perhaps not as loaded as Holy Week, Advent and Christmas raise these questions too: do we think Jesus fulfilled Judaism, completely and finally? If so, do we see Jews as irrelevant, spiritually extinct? And if we don’t think that: Are we using language in church that suggests that we do?
These questions matter. The consequences range from the kind of causal Christian cultural supremacy that results in public school classrooms being decorated for Christmas – to the kind of violence that means synagogues routinely hire armed guards to watch their doors during worship. And that my rabbi colleagues are still tending to the pastoral needs of families shattered across generations by the experience of the Holocaust.
Today each of our Scripture readings raise questions of how Christians think about Judaism – in three different ways. We’ll start with our Gospel reading, from Matthew.
In our 3 year cycle of Sunday Scripture readings, which we share with many churches, we have readings from one primary gospel each year – with chunks of John, the fourth gospel, scattered all around. We just started a new church year on the first Sunday in Advent, last week; and our gospel for this year is Matthew.
Let me confess right now: Matthew is my least favorite Gospel – in part because of his often violent and frightening language.
Why is Matthew like this? About thirty years after Jesus’ death, in the year 66, some of the Jews of Judea began to rebel against Roman colonial rule. The rebels never really had a chance against Rome’s military might, and the revolt quickly turned bloody. Rome crushed the rebels and burned Jerusalem. The Great Temple was destroyed. Many people died; many lost everything.
This earth-shaking event profoundly shaped both Christianity and Judaism, from that moment onward. All the Gospels are marked by it – but perhaps Matthew most of all. His Gospel text boils over at times with his grief and rage. He seems to blame the Jewish leadership for what happened – feeling that it’s their rejection of Jesus that brought down this destruction, rather than the predictable eruption of the tensions inherent in colonial rule always and everywhere.
Turning to today’s passage: Matthew introduces John the Baptist. The Gospels are pretty consistent in their picture of John: A preacher who separated himself from society to live in the wilderness, wearing simple clothes he made himself and eating what he could find, and proclaiming that people need to change their hearts and their lives and turn back towards God and God’s ways – and to be baptized, a ritual washing, in the Jordan River.
To all that, Matthew adds this angry speech against the Pharisees and the Sadducees. We know this is Matthew, because later, in chapter 12 and again in chapter 23, Matthew’s Jesus says almost the exact same thing, calling groups of Pharisees and Sadducees “brood of vipers” and yelling at them: “How can you speak good things, when you are evil?” And “how can you escape being sentenced to hell?” Those passages are NOT echoed in the other Gospels.
Who were the Pharisees and the Sadducees? The Pharisees were a reform movement within Judaism at the time of Jesus, focused primarily on the common people. The Sadducees were an elite and privileged group who more or less ran the Great Temple in Jerusalem. The Pharisees and Sadducees would not have been natural friends; I suspect it’s Matthew throwing them together as enemies of Christianity in his eyes.
Far too much of Matthew’s hatred of these groups seeped into Christianity as a general suspicion and hatred towards Jews – which in turn has spawned unimaginable violence. I read this passage with pain and repentance.
It’s ours, but it’s not comfortable, and it shouldn’t be.
Then there’s our Epistle – a portion of the apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, written in the late 50s. Paul is writing here to the Christians of Rome, who included both Jewish and non-Jewish Christians, and he’s trying to help them respect one another and get along.
Before he became a Christian, Paul was not just any Jew. He had studied Jewish texts and scholarship deeply. He had become a Pharisee, a member of that reform movement that sought to spread more active and heartfelt Jewish practice among the folk of Judea. He was an up and coming young Jewish leader, when Jesus called his name and changed his life on the road to Damascus.
Scholars have wondered, over the centuries, what to make of the fact that Paul was a Roman citizen, as we learn in the book of Acts. Maybe one of his parents was a Roman. Maybe his family was gifted citizenship, a major privilege, as thanks for service to the Empire.
Either way, perhaps young Paul threw himself into his Jewish faith as a way to resolve the tensions of divided allegiances, of having ties to both subjects and empire. And perhaps it’s by growing up both Roman and Jew that Paul learned some of the skills of both/and living. Of holding ambiguities within yourself; of finding the value in different worlds and ways – even when they seem at odds.
That’s the wisdom that Paul brings to this letter to the church in Rome, as he urges Jewish and non-Jewish Christians to welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed them. In today’s passage, he is trying to help the Jewish members of the Roman church see that it’s right and joyful! for God’s saving work to extend to non-Jews – without their having to first convert to Judaism. He quotes a series of texts from the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures, that mention God’s intentions to also bring Gentiles – the nations, the goyim – into God’s saving purposes.
A few chapters earlier he was urging Gentiles, in turn, to feel humbled and grateful for being grafted onto the living tree of God’s covenant people, the Jews.
He concludes this passage with this beautiful prayer for the Roman Christian community in its diversity: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Paul is dealing here specifically with Jews who have become Christian, like himself. But Paul’s attitude towards Judaism is nuanced and interesting. He knows that he was called to something different – something more; but he honors the beauty and integrity of what he came from. He’d like other Jews to become Christians too, but I think he’d also like to see Christianity stay pretty Jewish.
It’s complicated! But I do think a truly Pauline Christianity would have a much more open and humble heart towards Judaism than historical Christianity has had.
For Matthew, Christianity fulfills Jewish faith – and leaves Jews behind. For Paul, it’s less clear: he loves his Jewish heritage and kin, but feels called to a new way of faith beyond Judaism.
Who’s right about God and salvation: Jews or Christians? What if it’s not up to us to decide – or even to know?
One of the texts Paul quotes is today’s Isaiah passage: “The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope.”
Back in Lent of this past year, Father Tom McAlpine led us in a study of how Christians read the book of Isaiah. We were looking specifically at a set of texts from much later in Isaiah, known as the Suffering Servant songs. Today’s passage is somewhat different – focusing on a wise and righteous leader who will bring peace to God’s people – but it raises similar questions.
Historically, the prophet Isaiah and his eighth-century-before-Christ audience probably thought this prophecy was about King Hezekiah of Judah. Hezekiah was a young king who called his people back to exclusive and faithful worship of God. But it’s the nature of prophetic language not to be fulfilled or exhausted by any given historical figure or event. Hezekiah did big things – but his reign did not usher in a cosmic realm of peace. It’s possible to see elements of a prophecy fulfilled, while other parts still hang in the air, waiting and shining.
This text is here, in our Advent lectionary, because Christians have assumed for millennia that it’s about Jesus. That he is the “shoot of Jesse” – meaning, a descendant of Israel’s great king David, whose father was named Jesse.
Now, Matthew and Luke both make a point of the fact that Jesus is born into a family with links to King David. But listen: David lived in Judea a thousand years before Jesus. And he had a lot of kids. By sheer dint of math and time, a heck of a lot of Judeans could have claimed Davidic ancestry by the time Jesus was born.
It’s so, so hard for us not to read these Old Testament texts backwards from Christianity, as as inevitably and exclusively pointing to Jesus. In Father Tom’s class we kept tripping over that, how deeply-seated our impulse was to read these texts and think: “Well, this is obviously about Jesus; how could it not be? What else could it possibly mean?”
Texts from the Old Testament, and especially from Isaiah, shaped the language and hopes of the Jewish people for centuries. The way they thought and spoke about a coming Messiah, a holy leader sent by God to save and restore God’s people. And these texts likewise shaped the ideas and language of the first Christians, especially those steeped in the Hebrew Bible – like Matthew, like Paul. They used Isaiah and other Hebrew Scriptures to help them make sense of what they had experienced in Jesus’ life and ministry, and in his death and resurrection.
We think we recognize Jesus in these Old Testament texts because how Christians think and talk about Jesus has been shaped by these Old Testament texts, literally from day one.
I would rather say that everybody’s right than that everybody’s wrong. And I think that’s more faithful to the mystery of how holy texts can speak and speak again in new times and places.
This passage is about Hezekiah and it’s about Jesus and it’s about the promised Messiah whom our Jewish siblings still await and it’s about the second coming of Christ that we still await.
What passages like this tell us about God’s purposes for Israel and for the world can help us understand the person and work of Jesus. We can rightly treasure these texts as Christians. But we need to hold them carefully, with an awareness that they don’t only belong to us.
At the Beth Israel Center across town, when my friend Betsy’s congregation opens the ark where the scrolls of Scripture are kept, and take out the scroll of the Nevi’im, the Prophets, and remove its silver end caps and its embroidered velvet cover and unroll it on the altar and chant it aloud in Hebrew – Isaiah’s words resonate differently in that space than they do here.
Not entirely differently, to be sure. But importantly differently. And some of the difference is history and humanity – and some of it is holiness and mystery.
It’s important for Christians to grapple with the anti-Judaism embedded in our history, our texts, our practices. Good citizenship and good ally-ship are part of our call to love our neighbors and serve the common good.
But for me there’s something more here too – something a little hard to put my finger on, but I’ll try.
I find a sense of joy and freedom and possibility in the idea that God’s saving purposes are bigger and broader and honestly messier than any human mapping. We can’t pin down the meanings of ancient prophecy, or the mechanics of salvation, to fit within our categories of belonging and belief, doctrine and truth.
This is one of the fundamental themes of Advent: The God who came among us as Jesus of Nazareth is coming again.
We are people of expectation.
People called to expect mystery.
To expect disruption.
To expect redemption.
To expect, someday, whether in this world or the next, to come face to face with the Living One who both fulfills and transcends all our scriptures and theologies.
May it be so. Come, Lord Jesus.
The fourth week of Advent, December 18 – 24
This Week’s Song: “Enter, enter, holy pilgrims!” Traditional
Enter, enter, holy pilgrims! Welcome to my humble home!
Though ’tis little I can offer, all I have please call your own!
Entren, santo peregrinos, peregrinos! Reciban este rincón.
Aunque es pobre la morada, la morada, os la doy de corazón.
Learn the tune here:
(Note that the English translation of the Spanish words is a little bit different than ours, in this video.)
About the song
Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
– Luke chapter 2, verses 4 – 7
The word posada means inn or lodging, and traditionally posadas are a celebration of the Christmas story. They take place on nine nights from December 16 to 24 and commemorate the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph’s search for a place to stay where Jesus could be born. At the beginning of a posada, people are divided in two groups, the ones “outside” representing Mary and Joseph, and the ones “inside” representing innkeepers. Sometimes two people dress up to represent Mary and Joseph. Then everyone sings the posada litany/song together, re-enacting Mary and Joseph’s search, going back and forth until they are finally “admitted” to an inn. After this tradition, the party proper starts. Posadas parties in Mexico feature hot food and drinks, sweets, music, and piñatas. Throughout Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, churches and communities celebrate these festivities with their traditional, religious elements. Today almost any party held around Christmas is called a posada. Schools often host posadas as end-of-the-year parties for students and teachers.
Source: https://www.journeymexico.com/blog/posadas-in-mexico-christmas-tradition
The Posadas song has verses that go back and forth between the pilgrims and the innkeepers. The first innkeepers are suspicious and don’t want to let in Mary and Joseph. But finally Joseph sings, “My wife, Mary, is the Queen of Heaven, and she is going to be the mother of the Divine Word.” The innkeepers sing back, “Are you Joseph? Your wife is Mary? Come in, pilgrims! I didn’t know who you were!” Then everyone sings a welcome song – the song above: “Enter, enter, holy pilgrims! Welcome to my humble home! Though ’tis little I can offer, all I have please call your own!”
Watch a video of a wonderful storybook about Posadas here:
(Or go to YouTube and search for “The Night of Las Posadas”.)
WORD FOR THE WEEK: WELCOME
How to say “Welcome” in American Sign Language…
The sign “WELCOME” is done by holding one hand out from your body, flat with your palm up, off to the right a bit, and then bringing the hand in toward your torso/belly.
(Note that this is different from “You’re welcome,” which is a sign some people might know. To say “You’re welcome,” hold your flat hand to your mouth and then drop it down.)
PRAYER PRACTICE for this week…
Christmas and the days before Christmas can be very busy. We may be wrapping things up at work or school, preparing for travel, finishing buying or making gifts, preparing for guests or special events, and much more. Some of those things may be joyful, some may be stressful, some may be both!
Christmas is a lot of things. It’s a secular holiday as well as a religious holiday. It’s a time when many people have a break from work or school. It’s a time when many folks travel to spend time with family, which may be joyful and/or hard; and when many people are missing loved ones who are not present. There are so many feelings and so many things to do.
The good news of the Feast of the Nativity, the Feast of the Incarnation (God becoming embodied), is that God is with us in the messiness of our human lives. We are not alone. We are known, loved, held, and accompanied.
As a prayer practice, take a little time this week to ask yourself or each other what would help you feel ready to receive and celebrate the good news that God is always with us. Maybe it’s a quiet walk around the block (even if there are things to do). Maybe it’s a conversation or reflective time around the Advent wreath one evening. Maybe it’s listening to some favorite music, or reading Scripture or Christmas poetry, to help you hold in your heart what this time means for us as Christians.
HANDS-ON PROJECT:
When we welcome someone we let them know they are cared for and that they matter. Brainstorm one simple way you can show care to somebody, in the days leading up to Christmas – or in the days after it: remember that Christmas is 12 days long! Here are some ideas.
SOMETHING TO LEARN…
Why is Advent four weeks long?
Advent always has four Sundays in it. This year (2022) Advent as long as it can possibly be, since Christmas Day is on a Sunday!
The Church developed special holy seasons during the first few centuries after the time of Jesus. When Advent (which is based on the Latin word for “Coming”, because Jesus is coming!) was first established, maybe about 1600 years ago, it was the same length as Lent, the season of preparation before Easter. Lent is forty days long, not counting Sundays, based on Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness in the Bible.
Advent and Lent were both observed as penitential seasons, meaning people would focus on simplifying their lives, repenting and making amends for their sins, and giving to those in need.
Eventually Advent was shortened from about seven weeks to four weeks, and began to become more different from Lent – just as Christmas is very different from Easter. But we still make sure to give to those in need, in this season, and we reflect on the ways the world continues to need God’s presence among us.
RESONATING TEXTS
These texts offers another perspective on welcome.
Poem: O Sapienta by Malcolm Guite
https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/tag/o-sapientia/
Poem: A Tale Begun by Wislawa Szymborska, 1923 – 2012
This poem uses lots of strange allusions; you don’t have to understand them all to understand and enjoy the poem!
http://inwardboundpoetry.blogspot.com/2007/05/410-tale-begun-wislawa-szymborska.html
Poem: Advent Calendar (Rowan Williams, b. 1950)
The third week of Advent, December 11 – 17
This Week’s Song: “Honor the Dark”
Learn this song and the ASL signs that go with it on YouTube:
About the song
Lea Morris (who also performs as LEA) is as Unitarian Universalist songwriter and musician. This song was composed recently, during the Covid pandemic. This is a great song for this time of year when the nights are getting longer and it may be dark by the time we leave work or school. While we may prefer the light, the dark can also be holy and have gifts for us.
WORD FOR THE WEEK: DARK
How to say “Dark” in American Sign Language… If you watch the song video you will see it!
Hold your arms out to each side with your upper arms a little below your shoulders and your lower arms pointing towards the ceiling, palms flat and towards your face.
Then swing your lower arms inward so that your flat palms cross each other in front of your face. Your hands end lined up in front of your chest, elbows out.
The sign expresses not being able to see, as your hands briefly cover your face.
SOMETHING TO LEARN… What is the solstice?
We live on the Earth, which goes around the Sun. The Earth also spins as it goes around the sun – each spin is one day and night. The Earth tilts on its axis as it spins, which is why in many parts of the world the days are sometimes longer and sometimes shorter. (There is a belt around the middle of the Earth – the Equator – where days and nights are always about the same length!)
Every year has two solstices, a day/night when the Earth is tilted as far as it can tilt. In the summer, in the northern hemisphere (the half of the Earth that’s closest to the North Pole; we live in the northern hemisphere) is tilted TOWARDS the sun. That means we have the LONGEST day of the year – the summer solstice – on June 21st. (That’s also the SHORTEST day of the year in Australia!) In the northern hemisphere, we have the winter solstice – the longest NIGHT of the year – on December 21. It’s coming up, next week!
Even though it is early in the winter, after the solstice, the nights will start getting a tiny bit shorter – bit by bit – and the days will start getting a tiny bit longer – bit by bit. We can honor the dark, and also be glad to see the light beginning to return.
PRAYER PRACTICE for this week…
Take a walk in the dark.
Walk in a familiar area, like the street or block where you live. Be safe; use a flashlight, or go for a walk when it’s not fully dark yet so that you can see. Wear something light-colored if you are walking where there might be traffic.
If walking isn’t a good idea for you, you could sit in the dark on your porch or in your home and see what you can notice there.
If you can find a red flashlight (or tape something transparent and red over a normal flashlight), that can be a good tool for a night walk, because the red light will help your eyes adjust to the dark so you can see better.
Before you set out, ask God to help you notice the gifts of the dark, and to walk with you.
What can you see, in the dark? What can you hear? What can you smell? What do you notice that is different from what you notice in the daytime?
Does it feel different inside of you to walk in the dark?
At the end of your walk give thanks to God for what you noticed or felt on your walk. You could sing this week’s song, “Honor the dark”!
(The Emily Dickinson poem on the Resonating Texts page goes well with this activity.)
HANDS-ON PROJECT:
Gather some things that are shiny in interesting ways, or colorful and translucent. Suggestions: colored clear or translucent glass or plastic cups, vases, and so on – even things that look solid may be translucent, meaning light can shine through them; shiny/reflective things – mirrors or an old CD or two. If you have a prism or a crystal paperweight, that might be interesting too!
Arrange everything a table. Find a couple of light sources – a flashlight or phone light, a headlamp or small portable lamp that you can point in a particular direction. Glow sticks could be fun too.
Turn off the lights and use your flashlights or lamps to explore how all those things look when you shine a light on or near them in the dark. Can you cast their shadows on the wall?
2. Learn some winter constellations!
A constellation is a group of stars that people have thought for a long time look like a particular shape or creature. There are apps and websites that can help you figure out where to look – or Rev. Miranda can send you files for some constellation pages for winter constellations here in the northern hemisphere.
BONUS ACTIVITY:
Celebrate the Feast of St. Lucy, on December 13!
St. Lucy was one of the earliest Christian martyrs, meaning someone who died for her Christian faith. Lucy was a young woman who became a Christian. She made a vow that she would never marry, so she could commit her whole life to following Jesus. She was killed for her faith during persecution under the Roman emperor Diocletian in the year 304.
St. Lucia’s Day is celebrated as a festival of lights in many parts of Scandinavia. Traditionally, a young girl will dress in white and wear a wreath with lit candles on her head. (We do not recommend this!) The wreath with candles comes from a story about St. Lucy. During her life it is said that she brought food and blankets to prisoners in a dark underground prison. Because she wanted to use her arms to carry as many supplies as possible, she made a wreath for the top of her head and inserted candles so she wouldn’t have to carry her candle. (Source: https://www.catholicicing.com/st-lucy/)
The traditional foods for the day are coffee, saffron bread, and ginger cookies. It’s also a traditional time to make gingerbread cookies or houses.
A gory detail: Legend has it that Saint Lucy either plucked out her own eyes to avoid marriage to a pagan, or had her eyes put out by the Emperor Diocletian as part of her martyrdom. Sometimes images of St. Lucy have her holding her own eyeballs on a platter. She is the patron saint of the blind.
RESONATING TEXTS
These texts offers another perspective on the dark.
We grow accustomed to the Dark Emily Dickinson
We grow accustomed to the Dark –
When Light is put away –
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye –
A Moment – We uncertain step
For newness of the night –
Then – fit our Vision to the Dark –
And meet the Road – erect –
And so of larger – Darknesses –
Those Evenings of the Brain –
When not a Moon disclose a sign –
Or Star – come out– within –
The Bravest – grope a little –
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead –
But as they learn to see –
Either the Darkness alters –
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight –
And Life steps almost straight.
Ode to Winter – Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales – link here:
http://beingtransformed-bonnie.blogspot.com/2013/02/winter-poem.html
Cwtsh: Welsh word for a cubbyhole. It also means a hug!
Hiraeth; a sense of longing for something you cannot find.
The link for the Zoom gatherings is available in our weekly E-news, in our Facebook group St. Dunstan’s MadCity, or by emailing Rev. Miranda: .
THREE WAYS TO USE AN ONLINE BULLETIN…1
1. Print it out!
2. Open the bulletin on one device (smartphone or tablet) while joining Zoom worship on another device (tablet or computer).
3. On a computer, open the bulletin in a separate browser window or download and open separately, and view it next to your Zoom window
Jesus has just told the disciples that the Great Temple in Jerusalem will be torn down. And they want to know: what will be the sign that that’s about to happen? How will we know when you’re coming back and it’s the end of the age? Which means, the end of this chapter of the world, and the beginning of God’s time.
The disciples are jumbling some things together. For the people of Judea, the Great Temple was the most important place to worship God. So even though it had already been destroyed and rebuilt once before, the disciples think that the Temple being destroyed must also be the end of everything.
It turns out that the Temple WAS destroyed, about 30 years later; but that was not the end of this age of the world. Lots of things have changed in 2000 years but we’re still living in human time and waiting for God’s time.
It’s easy for us to look at the big dramatic or scary things happening in the world right now – whenever “right now” happens to be – and think, This is IT. Things can’t possibly go on from here. Everything has to either COMPLETELY change – or end.
And so far, over all the centuries people have been thinking that, we’ve been wrong.
And that’s part of what Jesus is saying here. People are anxious, and don’t know how to understand what’s happening in the world. And there are always going to be people who try to take advantage of other people’s fear and confusion. Who’ll say things like, I know what’s going on! Or, I have the solution!
There’s a sentence in here that isn’t in the assigned text for this Sunday but I included it because I like it: “Where the carcass is, there the vultures will gather.”
Did you know that Jesus said that? Does anyone have that embroidered on a pillow at home? Maybe a tattoo? …
What’s a carcass?
What’s a vulture? …
“Where the carcass is, there the vultures will gather” is a true statement. It’s also a metaphor – that means something besides what it says.
So what’s the carcass and who are the vultures?
I think the carcass is anything that’s dead or dying in the world as it is. Old ways of being. Things that don’t work anymore.
And the vultures are the people who think they can get something out of that death, to their advantage.
I can give you an example. I know a lot of young people, including some in this congregation, who are helping us old people understand that gender is a little more complicated than everybody told us when we were kids.
When I was a kid, your body parts meant you were a boy or a girl, and if you were a boy you got blue shirts with trucks on them, and if you were a girl you got pink with frills, and if any of that didn’t feel right for you, good luck.
Now we are realizing that there could be a lot more freedom for people to express who they are on the inside. That it’s really not important to have people divided up into Truck people and Pink people. Some old ideas about gender and about what it means to be a person are dying.
Who are the vultures here, the people trying to take advantage of people who feel confused by all this? I think the vultures are the politicians and media personalities who want to make people feel afraid about those changes. Who say things like “I know what’s going on! I have the solution!” Because they think that people’s fear will give them power.
A question Jesus has for us in today’s Gospel is: How do we know what voices to trust? When the world seems strange or scary, when it seems like the times are changing so fast, when we feel confused or uncertain or afraid: How do we tell the vultures from the prophets? How do we avoid running after or listening to voices that are just seizing this moment for their own purposes?
There are a lot of ways to approach that question. But the answer Jesus gives right here in today’s Gospel is: Trust me, and wait for me. You’ll know me when you see me. You’ll recognize my voice when you hear it. Things may get weird; things may get scary. Don’t be easily shaken or swayed. Wait and trust.
The second week of Advent, December 4 – 10
This Week’s Song: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” verses 1 & 2
This song is #56 in our church’s hymnal.
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 thee, O Israel!
O come, thou Wisdom from on high, who orderest all things mightily.
To us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!
ABOUT THE SONG…
EMMANUEL is a Hebrew name that means, “God with us.”
This is an old song! The words are based on a poem that might be as much as 1500 years old. The tune is from the 15th century, about 600 years ago. We usually sing this song (and its many verses) spread out on the Sundays of Advent, as we light the Advent candles at church.
The verses of this song are based on the O Antiphons, which are an ancient Christian text, going back perhaps as far as the 500s. They are a series of verses for the days before Christmas, calling on Jesus to come and save us – and using different images from the Bible to describe Jesus, like Wisdom, Key, Dayspring, and so on. They are called the “O Antiphons” because each one starts with the exclamation, O! There are some O Antiphons in our Advent prayer booklet.
WORD FOR THE WEEK: REJOICE
How to say “Rejoice” in American Sign Language… Hold your hands in front of your shoulders, palms towards you, fingers together and thumbs up. Then make a circle outward with your hands and bring them back to place, twice.
ASL is an expressive language! Show joy with your movement and your face.
Note there are several versions of this sign; this one seems to be the most common. Here’s a video!
BONUS ACTIVITY: Celebrate the Feast of St. Nicholas!
Santa Claus is based on a saint – a man named Nicholas who was a bishop, a church leader, in a city in Turkey, about 1700 years ago. December 6 is the feast day for Saint Nicholas. One custom is for children to leave out their shoes on the night of December 5 – and find them filled with candy the next morning. Chocolate coins are a good St. Nicholas Day gift – in memory of how St. Nicholas shared coins with those in need!
Here is the beginning of a story about Nicholas, written by Rev. Miranda’s mother, Pamela Grenfell Smith:
Long before your grandparents’ grandparents’ grandparents were born, back when years were counted in only three numbers, in the city of Myra there lived a fine and generous Bishop named Nicholas. He was in charge of every church in Myra – every single one. He lived in a fine house in the nicest part of town, and he never had to worry much about money. When he could not finish his dinner he would say to his cook, “Here, Cook, give these leftovers to some hungry family.” If he had old clothes he would say to his washerwoman, “Here, Washerwoman! I don’t need these things any more. Let them be given to some poor fellow!”
Every year on Easter Sunday a grand procession of deacons, acolytes and torch-bearers paraded out of the great church at the top of the hill and all around the streets of the city. Bishop Nicholas walked at the end of the procession, the position of greatest honor, wearing a splendid cloak of silk brocade and carrying a mighty silver-and-cedarwood staff. On these occasions, if he saw beggars in the streets he would tell his deacons, “Come, brothers, toss those poor souls a coin or two.”
Oh yes, Nicholas lived in comfort and ease, but it was his daily habit to turn his heart and mind towards the great mystery at the center of all things, the mystery that loves us and knows our names. This mystery was working a change in him. As Nicholas sat down to his meat and wine he found himself wondering if anyone in the city of Myra had only a crust of bread for dinner. As he went to sleep in his soft bed with its warm woolen blankets, he wondered if anyone in Myra had to sleep on the hard, cold ground…
To read the rest of the story and learn more about St. Nicholas, go to http://www.baba-yaga.org/Nicholas-A-Garland.pdf .
SOMETHING TO LEARN… Seeking Joy.
Joy is a special feeling. The American Psychological Association defines joy as “a feeling of extreme gladness, delight, or exaltation of the spirit arising from a sense of well-being or satisfaction.” It’s different from happiness, although they are related. The author J.D. Salinger wrote, “The most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy is a liquid.” One of the things that is special about joy is that we can feel joy at the same time as we feel more negative emotions, like grief or pain.
The author Ingrid Fetell Lee has spent several years investigating joy and where people find joy. Here are some of the kinds of experiences that many people find joyful. Read over the list; does it bring any joyful moments to mind?
SOURCE: https://badgesforall.org/2020/03/30/the-science-of-joy-and-happiness/
PRAYER PRACTICE for this week…
Naming Joys.
Joy is holy; it’s something that God wants for us. Noticing where there is joy in our lives can help us feel gratitude – and be more alert to opportunities for joy. You can reflect on these questions quietly, discuss them with a friend or family member, or write or draw your responses.
HANDS-ON PROJECT: Plan and do something that gives you joy!
Think of something you would really like to do, either on your own or with your household or a loved one or friend. It could be an outing – or a special treat – or a small project that would feel good to do. Here are some ideas:
Make a concrete plan to do something, even if it’s not this week, and try to follow through.
RESONATING TEXTS
These texts offers another perspective on Advent/Christmas joy.
Poem: The Glory, by Madeline L’Engle
Poem: Mary’s Dream, by Lucille Clifton
An Orthodox prayer to St. Nicholas
Let us all say: Rejoice, O guardian of the people of Myra,
Their head and honored counsellor,
The pillar of the church which cannot be shaken.
Rejoice, O light full of brightness,
That makes the ends of the world shine with brightness.
Rejoice, O divine delight of the afflicted,
The fervent advocate of those who suffer from injustice.
And now, O all-blessed Nicholas,
Never cease praying to Christ our God
For those who honor the festival of your memory with faith and with love.
“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!”
– Martin Luther King, Jr., April 3, 1968