Fri Jan. 6 - Window on the Mystery (1 Giant Leap)

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.  I must bring them also.  They, too, will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.  
              - John 10:16


On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they returned home by another road.
         - Matthew 1:11-12

The shepherds get a lot of air time as being God's unexpected chosen guests at the manger - not powerful kings but the poorest of the poor, called upon to receive the Son of God. But what do we make of those other first guests, mysterious foreigners of other faiths who journeyed afar? Not Mary's 'church family' or religious leaders from Joseph's synagogue, but wisdom seekers, star trackers, faith sojourners?

The fact is, those "Wise Men," don't seem to have become 'Christians' in any recognizable sense either before or after they visited the manger - yet they still came to witness, honor, and give gifts to Jesus where he lay.  They were Zoroastrian foreigners who sensed the in-breaking of God in Jesus and worshiped that divinity, ultimately leaving transformed.  So in a way, this shows that Jesus truly and fully embodied the Divine Mystery which lays at the heart of all religions.  Yet rather than making Christ the center, the period on that Mystery, it also makes Christ the window on the Mystery itself.

As we've explored, that first Christmas was full of surprises and reversals, turning people's expectations upside-down. This Epiphany, we might consider the surprising ways in which Christ's coming continues to upend us, razing the boundaries we had in place, upsetting our rules and expectations.  Over and over, what Christmas really show us is that the God we worship is unlimited by our current understandings of the way the world works - and in the story of the "Wise Men" cannot even be tamed by the boundaries of religions we have tried to erect, transforming both us and others in the process.

I Love the Way you Dream by 1 Giant Leap feat. Asha Bohsle, Michael Stipe, et al.  (lyrics HERE)

Note: Brief nudity in the context of religious ritual toward the end of the video.

As we journey forward from Christmastide into the early days of a new year, may we feel Christ's in-dwelling Spirit making all things new, not just in the world, but in our own vision of the world - of its peoples; of its complicated, messy, problematic, blessing-filled faith traditions; and of God's spiraling, upending, all-encompassing plan for us all.

Thanks for journeying with us- and peace in the coming year!

Its been real, its been fun, its been real fun.

-Lindsey and Anna

Mon Jan. 2 Be Made New (Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues)

So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of a new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

-2 Corinthians 5:17

        As we enter the last week of the Advent Music Project and the first week of 2012, AMP is thinking about how all things are being made new. The glow of the manger still warms us and we linger for one more week in the path of Magi, in the stories that will ask us what we have to offer the newborn king. I must confess the metaphor only goes so far for me, as I have trouble conceiving what might be equivalent to frankincense in my spiritual life, but I don't think that is the point anyway. Rather, we encounter the baby of that manger, the embodiment of God's Love, as we are; and in that encounter we are invited to be changed, myrrh or not...

Amazing Grace

       For my money, there is no better song to speak of being changed by Love than Amazing Grace. This week we will explore the theme of all things being made new, but I do believe that the work of making creation new starts in the hearts of women and men as we are made new by grace. So I quite like the verse that Cat Power sings, (though it is a little off script from the old standard), that says "Good people been here more than 10,000 years, every one bright as the shining sun, we've got no less days to sing God's praise from the time that we've begun, it will be grace that will bring us safe and home." There is something in those lines that evokes a sense God's renewing goodness: people shining across the ages, people called good, by the Source of Grace who is journeying us home.  Whether it is the moment we first begin, or it seems thousands of years since we have begun our faith journey, there is something about Grace that invites us to be made new at each encounter. After all, as the poet Denise Levertov says, "But we have only begun to love the earth. We have only begun to imagine the fullness of life. How could we tire of hope?- so much is in bud. How can desire fail? - we have only begun to imagine justice and mercy, only begun to envision," (Beginners).

... So what does it mean for you to come as you are to the manger? How might the baby in the manger invite you to be changed? What do you want to be made new in you?

God With Us, draw us into your grace, into the promise that you are making this world new; draw us in the wild hope that we, too, may be made new.

-Lindsey