Keeping Advent

It's time again for my annual spiritual practice of blogging each day of Advent; not often my own words, but the words and poems and music and artwork and thoughts of others. Advent is a nice time to collect beautiful things, and I've been doing this for a few years running now. This year, though, I'm doing all of my Advent blogging over at my other blog, "Keeping the Season," where I've tried to collect said artwork/poetry/etc. throughout the year, reflecting on the seasons of the church. This blog actually grew out of my Advent practice. So if you want a daily piece of Advent-related beauty, be sure to check in over there every day from now until Christmas...and beyond! :)

Things I love

If you were to take a serious look at my online presence - Facebook, Twitter, Blogger - you would find that I am a horribly predictable person. Every Friday (my day off), there is a greater than 90% chance that I tweet or put up a FB status about what I plan to do with my day. Or a summary tweet in the afternoon talking about what I had already accomplished. Same goes for Saturdays when I have them free.

And that list of activities will always include at least two of the following: knitting, going to the Arboretum, going out for coffee, watching baseball, going to the farmer's market, or cooking/baking

If you were to expand out a bit and look at my day-to-day tweets and status updates, you'd find that more than half of them have to do with coffee (or tea), Bach, reading, writing, and eating.

I am one predictable and easy-to-figure out lady.

But here's the thing. I know what I like. And I know what feeds my soul. And I know what brings me balance.

Reading/writing: An old favorite. I love words. I love finding perfect words to describe what I'm seeing, thinking, or feeling. I love seeing how other people use words. This is probably also why I love writing sermons...

Knitting: It is the only form of visual art that I am good at. I am fascinated by color, I love touching soft things, I like that I can make something beautiful with my own two hands, and I am fascinated by the way that projects take shape. Bonus: I knit to knit, which leaves me with leftover projects without homes, which is GREAT for gift-giving.

Coffee: I blame my genetics for my love of coffee (the substance). I blame a particular group of high school friends for my love of coffee shops. Coffee is delicious, and going out for coffee is a change of pace and a change of scenery. So I use my coffee outings purposefully. I'm also very productive at coffee shops, so much sermon-writing happens there.

Cooking/baking/FOOD: I love eating. And if I love eating good food, then it follows that I love trying my best to MAKE good food. Part of it is the proud, creative, "I made this" feeling that also applies to knitting. And food is how my family celebrates and reunites. So cooking is about food and about sharing.

J.S. Bach: My favorite composer, hands-down. Fun to sing, fun to play, great to listen to. And something about Bach's music strikes me as profoundly ordered...and profoundly creative within that order. So it's definitely balance-restoring for me.

Morton Arboretum: A place I went to as a child, and now a place that is right up the road from where we live. Trees. Flowers. Hiking paths. Lots of land, so that even on crowded days, I can walk and hike and be all by myself. A great place to wander, or to bike, or to have a picnic. A fantastic place to bring my camera and pretend I'm a great nature photographer. And a great place to sit outside for a while, since we don't have a house with a lawn or anything right now.

So anyway, now you know a little more about my favorite things. I don't mind that I do nearly the same thing every weekend. And I don't mind that I tweet about it, even if there's nothing new under the sun to say about it.

How about you? What are the things that you come back to, over and over again, that bring you joy and peace and balance?

Keeping the Season

During this past Advent season, I decided to start a new blog. In previous years, I have used this particular blog space for all sorts of things. Writings, ramblings, sharing personal pictures and stories, sharing pictures and stories and poems and artwork from others...

And in Advent, I decided that it might be nice to collect all of my church-season blog posts in one place. So I started a dedicated blog for poetry, music, pictures, and reflections on the liturgical season. It's called Keeping the Season.

In Advent, I cross-posted those items there and here, but I'm thinking that for Lent, I'll post liturgical season sorts of reflections over there, and other stuff over here (personal stuff, sermons, general thoughts and writings and rantings, etc.) Also, as of yesterday evening, I finally finished transferring over all of the rest of these similar posts from Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Holy Week from years past, so they are now all in one place.

I've put a link to Keeping the Season in the sidebar, so you can always see what's going on in that space. I posted over there yesterday, and am planning to post again today, with further reflections on Ash Wednesday.

Just a little jazz

Fruitlessly flipping channels tonight, late into a Friday evening, when non-cable television has very little to offer...and caught the end of some people singing together on PBS. Intrigued, I kept watching, and discovered that I was watching the "Tony Bennett: Duets II" episode of the PBS Great Performances series. I was hooked. I'm still watching as I write. I was particularly taken by his singing "Speak Low" with Norah Jones:



I have a secret soft spot in my heart for this type of vocal jazz; slow, dreamy, a little sexy, something that you so very much want to slow-dance to. There was a stretch of time when I dreamed of being the one singing these songs. But these days, I think that all I want is to be there, listening, dancing, feeling full of romance and nostalgia and intrigue.

I don't listen to jazz very often, but enjoy it when I do. I listen to far more vocal jazz than any other type. And I love the idea of jazz like you wouldn't believe. It is so very personal. A thin space between creator and creation. And it takes so much skill...to truly embrace and illuminate all the freedom that you have in the music.

So just a little jazz chat for a Friday night... :)

Hope still

It is 4:28 p.m., and I am conscious of the fact that in exactly three hours and thirty-two minutes, confirmation class will be over and it will, officially, be my day off. I am conscious of this fact because I am ready for the day away. It has been a week too full of sadness and pain for too many members of our congregation. It has been an emotional week for me, as we move ahead with more medical tests on our way toward making a baby the hard way, and a tiring week for Matt, because he's been sick. And so I am ready for tomorrow. Ready for a Friday-afternoon walk around the Arboretum, especially if it is snowing (like they say it will be). Ready for another chance to get the kitchen cleaned up and the laundry put away. Ready for a morning of sitting on the couch, in my pjs, knitting and watching PBS travel shows.

As a pastor, I have the peculiar blessing of being invited into sacred and vulnerable places in people's lives. I don't for a moment take this blessing for granted. And I certainly do not resent it. It's beautiful, it's God-given, it's holy.

But even amidst the holy, I find that I need equally holy moments of quiet, of refreshingly empty space, of deep breaths and being still.

This morning, faced with all of the ongoing weight of this week, I turned on a CD of a choir concert from my senior year of college. I picked this CD for its first track, William Billings' setting of Psalm 42. During choir tour, I gave the devotion before one of our concerts, and shared with my fellow choir members the peace that I took from this particular poetic rendering of the psalm, especially the second stanza: "Why restless, why cast down, my soul? Hope still and thou shalt sing the praise of him who is thy God, thy health's eternal spring." I still remember the way that my choir director caught my gaze that evening as we sang those two simple words:

Hope still.

Words I needed to hear this morning, as I started counting hours toward tomorrow's day off and as I yearned for some moment of peace and quiet for my restless soul, and peace for those around me. There was no question about which CD I was going to pull off the shelf, and which track I was going to listen to - even twice in a row. I needed to hear those two words:

Hope still.

Epiphany: The three kings

The Three Kings
words by Laurence Housman
music by Healy Willan

"Who knocks tonight so late?"
the weary porter said.
Three kings stood at the gate,
each with a crown on head.

The serving man bowed down,
the Inn was full, he knew.
Said he, "In all this town
is no fit place for you."

A light in the manger lit;
there lay the Mother meek.
"This place is fit.
Here is the rest we seek."

"Come, come."
They loosed their latchet strings,
so stood they all unshod
"Come in, come in, ye kings,
and kiss the feet of God."

Christmas: Saturday (New Year's Eve)

Eternal God, you have placed us in a world of space and time, and through the events of our lives you bless us with your love. Grant that in the new year we may know your presence, see your love at work, and live in the light of the event that gives us joy forever—the coming of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Evangelical Lutheran Worship)

Ecclesiastes 3:1–13
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

    a time to be born, and a time to die;
        a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
    a time to kill, and a time to heal;
        a time to break down, and a time to build up;
    a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
        a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
    a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
        a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
    a time to seek, and a time to lose;
        a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
    a time to tear, and a time to sew;
        a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
    a time to love, and a time to hate;
        a time for war, and a time for peace.

What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.

Christmas: Thursday

Hey Guys! It's Christmas Time!
by Sufjan Stevens

We can walk out after dark
Because it's Christmas time
Colored lights glow from the park
Because it's Christmas time
And the bells on the reindeer sled say
It's Christmas time
And the quilts on the back of the bed say
It's Christmas time

I think about how we could run away
Now that it's Christmas time
We travel in a one-horse open sleigh
Now that it's Christmas time

There's your father with his pipe
He says it's Christmas time
He might let us stay up all night
Because it's Christmas time
I might wish you all the best
Because it's Christmas time
I might kiss you on the back of your neck
Because it's Christmas time

I think about how we could run away
Now that it's Christmas time
We travel in a one-horse open sleigh
Now that it's Christmas time

It's Christmas time

Christmas: Tuesday

In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

Christmas Eve

When the church sings "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," we are singing a very old text and tradition. That Advent hymn illuminates each of the seven O Antiphons, which are ancient pieces of the evening vespers liturgy during the end of Advent. For each of the last seven days before Christmas, a different attribute or characteristic of Jesus for whom we wait is highlighted:

December 17: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
December 18: O Adonai (O Lord)
December 19: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
December 20: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
December 21: O Oriens (O Dayspring)
December 22: O Rex Gentium (O King of the nations)
December 23: O Emmanuel (O God-with-us)

The O Antiphons help us put voice to all of our Advent hopes and dreams, as we watch and wait and pray for Christ to come to us.

Maggie Dawn writes about the hidden message in the O Antiphons - that as we wait for Christ who is all these things, Christ promises us, "Tomorrow, I come!" And this is very good news for us. She goes on to tell us that,

Before you look forward for the answer to prayer, look backwards to the waiting. Somewhere, hidden in your conversation with God, even though it feels like a monologue, there is the whisper of an answer.

Tonight, as we celebrate the light of Christ being born into darkness, we remember that God's whisper of an answer to us is that in Christ is the light and life of all the world. Our whisper of an answer to our prayers is that Christ is come!

Advent 4: Wednesday

Gabriel's Message
Basque carol, paraphrased by Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924)
Originally based on Angelus Ad Virginem, Anonymous 13th or 14th Century Latin
performed by Sting

The angel Gabriel from heaven came
His wings as drifted snow his eyes as flame
"All hail" said he "thou lowly maiden Mary,
Most highly favored lady," Gloria!

"For know a blessed mother thou shalt be,
All generations laud and honor thee,
Thy Son shall be Emanuel, by seers foretold
Most highly favored lady," Gloria!

Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head
"To me be as it pleaseth God," she said,
"My soul shall laud and magnify his holy name."
Most highly favored lady. Gloria!

Advent 3: Monday

"With eyes of faith which look backward through the years we, too, see the angels and hear their heavenly song. We kneel at the manger-cradle to behold and adore the child. Dare we ask what this vision means? ...In spite of all our fears, and all the dismal signs, and all the disheartening facts that confront us in a world at war – a world where force is the God of nations, and cruelty is a virtue – still the message rings down the ages telling us that these things need not be...."

- Bates G. Burt, from his sermon on Christmas morning, 1940

Prayer for Peace
(text: Abbie Burt Betinis/Bates G. Burt)

Peace, the breath of peace is near, it calms and cheers,
As we, with eyes of faith, look backward through the years...
Peace, it was the Angels' song when He was born,
Peace and Good-will to all, they sang, on Christmas morn.

Gloria! Et in terra pax!

Lovely, oh so lovely, the reflected star,
The star of Hope in every eye that sought so far...
Far, they sought to love him: Bethl'hem, Calvary...
That from their want and fear all people shall be free.

Gloria! Et in terra pax!

Softly, o'er the snow so softly comes the sign,
A better peace descends to us at Christmastime.
Softly, o'er the snow so softly, then is gone –
So we wait in hope, and fear, to see our century dawn.

Gloria! Et in terra pax!

Angels, o'er the broken, spread your silver wings,
And help us to keep sacred all the love He brings.

- text © Abbie B. Betinis, 2004

Advent 2: Friday

One more "waiting for light and comfort" sort of post: Coldplay's song, "Christmas Lights."



Christmas night, another fight
Tears we cried a flood
Got all kinds of poison in
Poison in my blood

I took my feet
To Oxford Street
Trying to right a wrong
Just walk away
Those windows say
But I can't believe she's gone

When you're still waiting for the snow to fall
Doesn't really feel like Christmas at all

Up above candles on air flicker
Oh they flicker and they float
But I'm up here holding on
To all those chandeliers of hope

Like some drunken Elvis singing
I go singing out of tune
Saying how I always loved you darling
And I always will

Oh when you're still waiting for the snow to fall
Doesn't really feel like Christmas at all

Still waiting for the snow to fall
It doesn't really feel like Christmas at all

Those Christmas lights
Light up the street
Down where the sea and city meet
May all your troubles soon be gone
Oh Christmas lights keep shining on

Those Christmas lights
Light up the street
Maybe they'll bring her back to me
Then all my troubles will be gone
Oh Christmas lights keep shining on

Oh Christmas lights
Light up the street
Light up the fireworks in me
May all your troubles soon be gone
Those Christmas lights keep shining on

Advent 2: Wednesday

While I was growing up, it was about this time every year that my sisters and I would camp out at church on a Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon, while my father rehearsed a giant choir (that my mother sang in) to perform the first section of Handel's Messiah.

If you are at all familiar with Handel's Messiah, then it must have been impossible for you to hear last Sunday's Old Testament reading - the opening verses of Isaiah 40 - without hearing a tenor's voice ringing in your head.

I was thinking today about the amazing choice that Handel made when he decided to open his oratorio with the words "Comfort ye." Here we have a major choral and orchestral work that chronicles the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Messiah, Jesus Christ...and the first thing that Handel decides you need to hear are the words "Comfort ye."

What a beautiful theological statement. For whatever else Jesus is, he is our comforter. For whatever else we look for Jesus to do and be, he is the one who will change the direction of the world, making the high low and the low high, making the crooked straight, making the rough places smooth. Handel lets the tenor be that "voice crying in the wilderness," to proclaim to all who might listen that God is about to do a new thing, changing the world, bringing comfort to aching souls and changing the fortunes of all humanity.

The purpose of the coming of the Messiah, as prophesied by Isaiah, as composed by Handel, and in the words of a number of social activists and religious leaders, might indeed be "to comfort the afflicted, and to afflict the comfortable."

In this Advent, may you find comfort in all of your rough places, and may God shake things up for you in your comfortable places, that you may know the true good news of Jesus, bringer of both comfort and justice.

(And just so I can get a little Handel stuck in you head, here are two videos, one of the opening tenor recitative and one of the aria. You have to get over the fact that the tenor soloist looks a little like Woody Harrelson... But he has a beautiful voice. Worth the listen. Also, pay attention to the astute and beautiful commentary that accompanies the musical selections. Some great things are said in the way of introduction!)

Advent 1: Friday

In silent night, when all is calm and all is bright,
In silent night, O holy night,
The Baby from heaven is born on this night.
The Child, innocent Child is born.

In silent night, as darkness flies and all is light
In silent night, O holy night,
The Baby in radiance lay sleep on this night.
The Child, the holy Child is born.

In silent night, this Son of God and son of man
Shall one day cry and later die
Upon a cross for you and me.
The Child, the Prince of Peace, is born.

--"In Silent Night" by Mitchell B. Southall

Advent 1: Thursday

There are plenty of catchy songs out there that stick in your brain for hours and even days after you listen to them. Some of these songs are great and you are happy for them to run on repeat in your head. Others are horrible and you do everything in your power to will their words and melodies away.

One of the good songs that gets stuck in my head whenever I listen to it is a song called "Dark Blue" by Jack's Mannequin. In it, he sings:

Slow down...this night's a perfect shade of
Dark blue, dark blue
Have you ever been alone in a crowded room when I'm here with you
I said the world could be burning down
Dark blue dark blue
Have you ever been alone in a crowded room well I'm here with you
I said the world could be burning 'til there's nothing but dark blue...
Just dark blue

This song, I suppose, could be a theme song for the season of Advent. After all, the church dresses up in blue for Advent and we talk a lot about darkness and blueness and waiting.

Why blue, you might ask? Here is one answer to that question:

At seven o’clock on a Monday morning in early December, two young children take their place at the breakfast table. Heat rises from their bowls of oatmeal and cups of hot chocolate, teasing their still-sleepy eyes awake. The younger child looks upward and notices the view out a high window. The sky is an inky blue, a deep indigo, and the silhouette of a great tree in the cuts across the almost emerging dawn as a rough black stripe. “Mom,” he says, suddenly alert, “look at the sky. It’s the same color as the Advent candles!”

In Advent, we turn our eyes upward. The smoky blue threshold of night that blankets North America during these weeks can feel oppressive, so that emotionally we may feel “blue.” But this vast celestial canopy can also inspire awe. Advent blue marks this tension between our own smallness, our sleepiness, our vulnerable place in the cosmos and the way the heavenly promise of redemption stirs and quickens us. As the scriptures urge us to “keep awake,” we respond with vigilance.

excerpted from “Environment and Art for the Season [of Advent],” Sundays and Seasons 2002, Year A, (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2001), p. 25. (ht: Clayfire Curator blog)

Here is another answer:

But still, why not red? Everyone else is using red, including most churches. Red is our culture’s go-to color. Red symbolizes heat, fire, blood, passion, love, warmth, power, excitement and aggression. Researchers say it can elevate blood pressure and respiratory rates. It has the effect of stimulating people to make quick decisions and increase expectations. Red is an attention grabber. Words and objects in red capture people ‘s attention immediately. Red is an emotionally intense and very extreme color.

Blue, by contrast, is more complicated, the experts say. Blue represents solitude, sadness, and depression–Blue Monday–but it also signifies wisdom, trust and loyalty. Wearing blue to job interviews, they say, indicates dedication and loyalty. Blue relaxes our nervous system, while red excites it. Blue has a sobering effect on the mind and can cause people to be more contemplative, which is the opposite of our reaction to red. Peaceful, tranquil blue, is a good color for bedrooms, causing the body to produce calming chemicals. Darker shades of blue, however, can feel cold and depressing.

So, what is the Church trying to tell us by using the color blue–lighter shades of blue, to be sure–during the Season of Advent? In a word, hope! In two words: divine hope!

At the outset of the Advent season, the church “hopes for more than we have yet seen.” Think about this. There is a profound difference in the message we have to deliver in this season of the year, versus the predominant message of our culture. To be sure, both church and culture look to the coming of Christmas and say, Jesus has come! But only the Church looks to this annual celebration and says, Christ will come again! To deliver this startling message, we need all the resources we can command–both sight and sound.

Sid Burgess, excerpted from “Blue vs. Red,” a sermon for the 1st Sunday of Advent, December 1, 2002, Edgewood Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, AL. (ht: Clayfire Curator blog)

Here is wishing you a dark blue Advent, full of days where you slow down, where you feel alone in crowded rooms, where the world is the perfect shade of dark blue for you to hope for far more than you have yet seen.

We Gather Together

I heard this arrangement of the hymn, "We Gather Together," on the radio last night and thought it was GORGEOUS. Score one for Stephen Paulus.

Come to the water

O let all who thirst, let them come to the water.
And let all who have nothing, let them come to the Lord:
without money, without price.
Why should you pay the price, except for the Lord?

And let all who seek, let them come to the water.
And let all who have nothing, let them come to the Lord:
without money, without strife.
Why should you spend your life, except for the Lord?

And let all who toil, let them come to the water.
And let all who are weary, let them come to the Lord:
all who labor, without rest.
How can your soul find rest, except for the Lord?

And let all the poor, let them come to the water,
Bring the ones who are laden, bring them all to the Lord:
bring the children without might.
Easy the load and light: come to the Lord.

-John Foley

Keeping Christmas, day twelve

No night could be darker than this night,
No cold so cold,
As the blood snaps like a wire,
And the heart’s sap stills,
And the year seems defeated.

O never again, it seems, can green things run,
Or sky birds fly,
Or the grass exhale its humming breath
Powdered with pimpernels,
From this dark lung of winter.

Yet here are lessons for the final mile
Of pilgim kings;
The mile still left when all have reached
Their tether’s end: that mile
Where the Child lies hid

For see, beneath the hand, the earth already
Warms and glows;
For men with shepherd’s eyes there are
Signs in the dark, the turning stars,
The lamb’s returning time.

Out of this utter death he’s born again,
His birth our saviour;
From terror’s equinox he climbs and grows,
Drawing his finger’s light across our blood –
The sun of heaven, and the son of god."

--"Twelfth Night", by Laurie Lee
Musical setting by Samuel Barber

Keeping Christmas, day six

As the "day" of 2010 is quickly drawing toward a close...



Stay with us, Lord Jesus.
It soon is evening and night is falling.

Jesus Christ, the world's true light,
shine where the darkness cannot overcome it.

Let your light pierce the darkness
and fill the Church with its glory.

"Stay with us," Egil Hovland