Week full of surprises

This week went by way too fast! It was filled with a few surprises (some good and some bad) but overall it was a wonderful Christmas week. My grandma drove 2 hours from the north country and showed up at my parents house last Sunday morning. No one expected her to come for Christmas. That was a very good surprise. Then, my brother and his girlfriend arrived safe and sound from WA after having a little problem with the airlines. It was truly a blessing to see them. We spent a lot of time catching up and playing a ton of Canasta.

In between family time, I was preparing for the big Christmas Eve services. That's where the not-so-good surprise comes in. In all my attempts to be super organized, my worst nightmare happened. See, I started off at church #2 to get everything all set before I went to church #1. Well, I happened to leave my manuscript(sermon) for church #1 at church #2. So, when I arrived at church #1 I freaked out. Here I was, on one of the biggest days of the church year, without my manuscript. So, I calmed down and scribbled on a piece of paper to recall all my key points. All said and done, it all went well and almost everyone had no idea of my mishap. Talk about preaching from the heart!

I tried to shake off what happened at church #1 and walked into church #2, ready for the festivities. Worship went beautifully and it was an added bonus that most of my family was present. After worship, I went home to grab Duke and my packed bags and headed to my parents. It was a wonderful Christmas day and Santa was very good to me. Yet, what made it wonderful was just being with family and friends. I definitely felt the joy of Christmas this year as we recalled old memories and made new ones.

The final surprise was that despite my mishaps, or any of our mistakes, the joy of Christmas comes. It is not dependent upon a perfect evening. It is not dependent upon anything we do or don't do. Christmas comes. Christ comes. Joy comes. Hope comes. One woman, on her way out the door at church #2 said "Thank you. This gave me hope." Why was I surprised to hear such a thing. Why was I surprised that God showed up? Why was I surprised that hope was found? Where have you felt the joy and hope of Christmas?

Jesus in Philadelphia?

I was getting my boots on and getting ready to leave the church when I heard one of the Sunday School kids talking. She was telling some of the other kids that Jesus was coming and he was going to be in Philadelphia! I am not kidding. She was dead serious. I asked her to repeat what I thought I heard her say. She said that Jesus was going to be in Philadelphia next week. Some of the other kids started laughing. She started to get upset and said "I'm not kidding, Jesus is coming to Philadelphia, and I know that it is true because I saw it on the news." She couldn't have been more serious. I would have liked to talk with her more about what she "heard" on the news (maybe she got Jesus and Santa mixed up?!) but I had to run to the other church.

Yet, I started to think about how serious she was, and how positive she was that Jesus was coming. Isn't that what Advent should be all about. Shouldn't we be taking Jesus' coming seriously. We have this time called Advent to prepare our hearts and our lives for Jesus to enter. We hear the story of how God came to earth in a little baby. We have been reading about the second coming of Christ in the lectionary. Yet, how serious do we take it.

How are we really preparing for Christ to come? That little girl on Sunday made me aware of how, as we get older, we grow more skeptical. Maybe we get so skeptical that we fail to see the truth in front of us. That little girl is positive that Jesus is showing up. Are we?

"And a child shall lead them".

Sweet Honey in the Rock

Last night, I attended a concert unlike any other. I saw Sweet Honey In The Rock at SUNY Oswego. It was amazing. The group is made up of six African-American women who blend their voices in a mix of blues, gospel, and jazz. They were awesome. One of my favorites that they sang was "I Remember I Believe" . They were also on NPR recently. In the show, they sing another one of my favorite spirituals with a twist, "Do What the Spirit Say Do" (to hear the song...go about 7:00 minuted into the interview). Most of their music is about freedom, justice, and truth. It was exactly what my spirit needed and I left the concert uplifted and renewed. It was truly a blessing to me. If you ever have the chance to see and experience them I highly recommend that you do so.

I went to the concert with a few people and had a great time. Yet, on the way home, one person made a comment that bothered me. This person said that they liked the concert but thought SHIR talked too much about how 'bad' the white man is. I disagreed with her (that was not the ethos of the concert) but tried to respect where she was coming from. It was just interesting to me that we spent 2 hours listening about freedom and justice (for ALL people) and a few comments were turned into how 'bad' the white man is (because some of the songs reminded us how we need to learn from history). Racism rears its ugly head in many different ways...most of the time it comes from ignorance or failing to recognize that racism is systemic and not something that happened to people long ago.

Sweet Honey In The Rock is a group that evoked so many emotions for me and rekindled my spirit. What lately has rekindled yours?