A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 10

Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

-    Isaiah 7

“Immanuel” (also spelled “Emmanuel”) means “God with us.” God doesn’t just hang back and wait for us to straighten the world out. God doesn’t come rushing in to help, either. God comes in due time—at the right time—and we need to wait.

But waiting doesn’t have to mean sitting around in the doctor’s office reading outdated magazines. Waiting in prayer and expectation is a very active kind of waiting.

Here is Sufjan Stevens’ recording of the ancient hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”

A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 9

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it." They asked him, "Where do you want us to make preparations for it?" "Listen," he said to them, "when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house he enters and say to the owner of the house, 'The teacher asks you, "Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"' He will show you a large room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there." So they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

- Luke 22

About four years ago, I was teaching a group of kids about the Eucharist. I brought them up for a view from the church’s altar; most of them had never been in that space before. It’s a big altar, and I talked about how it’s also a table. The ancient place for sacrificing animals is also for us a place to eat a family Thanksgiving meal together.

I asked, “How many people do you think could fit around this table?”

“Ten!” shouted one kid.

“Twenty!” shouted another.

And then a quiet little first grader spoke up just loud enough for everyone to hear her distinctly: “This table is big enough for the whole world.”

Well. How big a table do you need? How big a house? How big an upper room? How big a heart? Here’s my one country music offering this Advent season: “Love’s the Only House” by Martina McBride.

A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 8

Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate; until the LORD sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. Even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump.

-      Isaiah 6

Disaster is all around us. Where is our deliverance? Where is justice? How long must we wait?

We lose the ones we love—to disease, to violence, to natural disaster.

Advent is a time of waiting—waiting for the Messiah, waiting for the one who will save us and be our king. The king who was coming into the world is still coming … a deep mystery. How long must we wait?

In 2006, U2 and Green Day teamed up for an anguished anthem about Hurricane Katrina: “The Saints Are Coming.”

And way back in 1971, John Lennon urged us to “Imagine” a different world.

Too many people live their lives trying to get to heaven, as if anything they did could earn them a ticket. Too many people try to avoid hell, as if they could avoid God’s judgment completely. Ironically, this excessive focus on the afterlife often leads to fear, hate, and the mistreatment of others -- whether it's Al-Qaeda or Fred Phelps. What if we took heaven and hell out of consideration? How would we live our lives then?

Religion can be defined not simply as all human dealings with God, but more narrowly as the useless systems we create to try to "get right" with God ... not realizing that God already loves us infinitely, and that nothing can change that. What if we really believed this? How would it change the way we act toward God and toward everyone else on the planet?

John Lennon was assassinated thirty years ago today. Remember him in your prayers. Remember the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Remember Elizabeth Edwards. Pray for all those God is calling you to pray for.

The holy seed is its stump. Something new will grow from the ashes of our lives’ disasters. How long will it take? Wait for it.

A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 7

But we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who labor among you, and have charge of you in the Lord and admonish you; esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.

-      1 Thessalonians 5

One of my favorite cartoons shows a group of European Pilgrims arriving at Plymouth Rock only to discover that the Native Americans are constructing a giant wall to keep them out. The explanation? “They say we won’t learn their language or assimilate into their culture.”

In September, the Episcopal House of Bishops met in Arizona for their annual meeting. During their time there, the bishops took a trip to the Mexican border. Bishop Mark Beckwith of Newark wrote this reflection.

I learned a lot about these issues myself on a 2009 pilgrimage to Skagit Valley, Washington, where migrant workers live right in our backyard in third-world living conditions. These conditions are allowed to continue because those who live there are afraid to speak out for fear of being deported. They want to feed their families. They want to give their children a chance for a better life. Many people in our country illegally were brought here as children, unable to determine their own immigration status. Many people have also been lured here by false promises from corporations that offered them work in exchange for a green card--then reneged and had them deported before they could be paid.

My friend Jackie Grove submitted a song idea for this Advent calendar, and I think it’s most appropriate for reminding us of the aliens who work among us, whom both our Old and New Testaments urge us to respect and embrace. Here are Queen and David Bowie, together in 1982 with “Under Pressure.” “Splits a family in two … puts people on streets … Love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night, and love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves … This is ourselves, under pressure.”

It is time to extend social justice to at least some of those who, for one reason or another, are in our country illegally. It is not a simple, black-and-white matter of lawbreaking. Read here about the DREAM Act, which could come up for a vote in the Senate and the House soon. This is a very timely way you can defend from injustice those who cannot defend themselves.

A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 6

So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.

Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

- 1 Thessalonians 5 (NRSV)

I was talking with a friend yesterday who’s been having a hard time in life. She said, “I’m not making any long-term plans right now; I’m just living from one moment to the next.”

I replied, “Well, I guess you’re living life the way it really is, then! We like to fool ourselves into thinking we can make long-term plans, but what do we know?” As the words left my mouth, I worried they may have been tactless. To my surprise, though, my friend said she took great comfort in them and would keep remembering them from day to day.

Life really is like that. It’s not bad to make long-term plans—in fact, it’s a great idea—as long as we realize that plans must change. We need to stay awake to the possibilities that sudden, surprising change offers. Anthony de Mello wrote: “Change that is real is change that is not willed.” Any other change, then, is change we create, that we have control over. Since it comes only from ourselves, it cannot hold as many possibilities as the kind of change that is forced upon us.

Most of us remember from our childhood this encouragement to stay awake. Of course, it’s ironic—it’s meant to lull us to sleep, and that’s the fun of it.

So I got to thinking: in an ironic twist on irony, what if we sucked all the irony out of that song and gave it more of an Advent flavor? It would need to sound not only straightforward, but even a little creepy—uncomfortable—not the kind of staying awake we would prefer to do. But it’s Mary Poppins, right? So even if we don’t want to stay awake, she must really mean it, and it must be really be good for us.

Here’s my take (in mp3 form; right-click to download) of Mary Poppins really urging us to stay awake for Advent, with some musical help from Sufjan Stevens.

A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 5

Jesus said, "I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." (And all the people who heard this, including the tax collectors, acknowledged the justice of God, because they had been baptized with John's baptism. But by refusing to be baptized by him, the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves.)

"To what then will I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.' For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon'; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Nevertheless, wisdom is vindicated by all her children."  -    Luke 7:28-35 (NRSV)


Jesus’ parables are, by nature, hard to swallow in one bite. But I find this one in particular to be a little weird. Why are some children wailing and weeping (and others refusing to do so), when they were skipping and dancing a moment before? I've heard it suggested that the children may have been “playing wedding” and “playing funeral”—two common occurrences that children might imitate in their play. In Eugene Peterson’s Bible paraphrase The Message, he seems to hold a similar understanding of children’s play:

Jesus said, "Let me lay it out for you as plainly as I can: No one in history surpasses John the Baptizer, but in the kingdom he prepared you for, the lowliest person is ahead of him. The ordinary and disreputable people who heard John, by being baptized by him into the kingdom, are the clearest evidence; the Pharisees and religious officials would have nothing to do with such a baptism, wouldn't think of giving up their place in line to their inferiors.

"How can I account for the people of this generation? They're like spoiled children complaining to their parents, 'We wanted to skip rope and you were always too tired; we wanted to talk but you were always too busy.' John the Baptizer came fasting and you called him crazy. The Son of Man came feasting and you called him a lush. Opinion polls don't count for much, do they? The proof of the pudding is in the eating." - Luke 7:28-35 (The Message)

I often find that The Message gives me refreshing perspective on passages I thought I understood—or, in this case, passages I had never understood. On the other hand, I rather like what Peterson’s children are saying here—I don’t think they’re spoiled! Maybe nobody really understands this parable.

My interpretation is that Jesus is upholding the ordinary folks who sought baptism from John because they really want a relationship with God. They want to play and dance. The other children, the ones who refuse to do so, are the Pharisees. One minute they say, “John the Baptist is too austere,” and the next, “Jesus of Nazareth is too relaxed!” Do they want to play with God, or don’t they? Nobody likes to play with someone who cries “foul” every time the game doesn’t go his way.

In lieu of a pop music video today, here’s one of my own: my daughter dancing at a wedding a couple years ago. The thing is, since it was a Free Methodist wedding, there was no dancing allowed! At age 3, my daughter became an activist, dancing because she couldn’t imagine not doing so. And of course, it didn’t bother anybody at all.

As you light the second candle on your Advent wreath, make a point to relax and play and dance with God today. But don’t insist on playing by your own rules!

A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 4

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.

-    1 Thessalonians 4

Jesus said, “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls."

-    Luke 21

The basic claim of religion is that there is something going on that is deeper than the surface appearance. We are not mere creatures of instinct. We have a divine origin, and this is expressed in our creativity and in our ability to love. Religion seeks to take away the fear of death, and it provides motivation to live a life of value, not just of survival.

In Christian thought, Jesus went ahead of us into death and came back to show us that death not only isn’t that bad—it’s necessary to the value of life.

Sometimes religious beliefs are expressed in talk of angels and demons, of “powers and principalities,” or even of cosmic warfare. Is not all of life a battle, a struggle to find the deeper meaning that surely exists? Some people take these metaphors quite literally, and this has scared many people away from religion completely. But if you feel religion is not an option for you, where does the meaning come from? How do you explain creativity and love without using metaphors?

I believe there is something deeper—as Sting puts it, “there is a deeper wave than this.” And Sting has his own metaphor: “Love Is the Seventh Wave.” The thread that never fails to bind believers and non-believers together is love. Love, love, love. Focus on love, and all our differences in metaphor become far less important. Forget about love, and our differences only cause pain and destruction.

Today and every day, love somebody. Love the lovable, and also love your enemies. Look beyond the boundaries of your own creature-ness and catch the divine spark in the eyes of another person. The Buddhists say “Namaste”—“I honor the God in you.” The Christians say, “I see Jesus in your face.”

A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 3

O my people, your leaders mislead you, and confuse the course of your paths. The LORD rises to argue his case; he stands to judge the peoples. The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord GOD of hosts.

-    Isaiah 3

The Bible shifts back and forth in emphasizing judgment on those in power and sustenance for those who are oppressed. One clear message handed down to us by our ancestors is that God expects us to take care of each other rather than exploit each other. When God is portrayed as angry, it’s almost always because this isn’t happening.

The #1 sign of a godly society is not a government-mandated faith … not radical individual freedom … not the Ten Commandments posted on government property … but social justice lived out every day. The people are free, but the people choose to use their freedom in service to those who have less. They hold themselves accountable to God and to each other.

The ancient heroes, like Moses and Noah, are heroes because they did God’s will. They had their doubts and struggles, but they put God’s wishes ahead of their own.

In 1985, a new band called the Hooters released a strange, compelling song about Moses and Noah … and zombies. Who are the zombies in this song? I think they are those who doubt, who fear, who hurt, and who suffer. The singer shouts to them: “You don’t have to hide anymore! All you zombies, show your faces.” Here are the Hooters with “All You Zombies.”

A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 2

The breakers of death rolled over me,

and the torrents of oblivion made me afraid.

The cords of hell entangled me,

and the snares of death were set for me.

I called upon the LORD in my distress

and cried out to my God for help.

He heard my voice from his heavenly dwelling;

my cry of anguish came to his ears. 

-          Psalm 18

What is salvation? Many people limit their imaginations by imagining salvation merely as something that may occur when you die. But Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” By no means does this point to the currently popular “prosperity gospel” that insists Jesus wants to make you rich!

Rather, Jesus wants us to be able to live a life of wholeness, acting out of a realization that we are loved and wanted. Our fellow humans are bearers of this godly sacrament when they are in relationship with us, when they make themselves vulnerable to us.

Get a group of friends together to watch the 1999 film Magnolia, which the Internet Movie Database describes as “an epic mosaic of several interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.” From the soundtrack of that film, our YouTube clip of the day is “Save Me” by Aimee Mann.

I heard this quote once from an unknown source: “You can kill a man with a gun, or you can kill him with an apartment.” One of the biggest plagues of American society during the holidays is loneliness. Extreme individualism and a worship of self-reliance have decimated the lives of millions of people. Are we merely a collection of individuals, eking out a little sliver of sanity in a crazy world? How will you work against the demon that whispers that you don’t actually need anyone else?

If we are Christ’s hands and heart in the world, then we are also instruments of salvation. We don't get to decide who needs saving, but we can remain open to the Holy Spirit's potential use for us in any given situation. What might it mean to throw in your lot with “the freaks who suspect they could never love anyone”?

A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 1

In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

- Isaiah 2:3-4

I have a distinct memory of my mother playing me this song on her ukelele: "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" by Simon & Garfunkel. On this and many other occasions, her example gave me hope for peace in the world, and I committed myself to helping people understand one another.

Do I believe that we, of our own human effort, can bring about world peace? No. I think I used to, but I don't now. Is this a descent into cynicism, or even a hardened realism? No.

I read an article once that described Dick Cheney's worldview: that human beings simply must wage war on each other, so it's best to maintain your dominance at all costs or risk being eliminated. Now, that is the kind of cynicism that leads to self-perpetuating, never-ending violence. Dick Cheney's view is anti-Christian.

My view is different, and it is inspired by the words and actions of Jesus. "Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends." If we do not remain at least somewhat vulnerable, leave open some risk of being destroyed, we can never really understand love.

This isn't doe-eyed pacifism, either. It's one thing to defend your family from danger. It is quite another to build up safeguards all around you, believing that your lifestyle and wealth will protect you from all potential pain and loss. Pain and loss are inevitable. They are a part of the joy of life, and they are what make love possible.

Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is among you." Today, I will choose to live in the Kingdom the Prophet Isaiah described. I will lay down my weapons and do something more useful than protecting myself ... like feeding people, for instance.

This Advent, consider making a donation to a local food bank or public service provider. The need is greater now than ever before. And on a personal level, invite a friend to dinner -- maybe someone you've been concerned about lately. Share your life with that person as well as your food.

Today is also World AIDS day. Consider making a donation to help eliminate AIDS. When we cure people and heal people, we also help bring about peace.

Jesus gives a different kind of peace than the world gives: not the absence or denial of conflict, but the transformation of it. Allow this Advent season to transform you.