The geese in the storm

It's still Christmas! Happy eleventh day of this joyous season.

I wanted to post this link earlier, but I had left it at work ... and I haven't been at work for quite a while. Now that I'm back, here it is.

The Eighth Day of Christmas/ The Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ: January 1

What’s in a name? In Judaism and Christianity, everything. It was a specifically named God, YHWH, who called Abram, and who renamed him Abraham. Angels told Zechariah to name his son John, and told Mary and Joseph to name their son Jesus, Emmanuel, the Messiah, the Christ. It was the Risen Jesus who met Saul and renamed him Paul. Isaiah said, “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” The name YHWH is derived from the word “to be.” Jesus means, “He who saves.” Emmanuel means, “God with us.” Messiah means “Sent by God”—in Greek, Christ.

Maybe it started out with one group of people thinking their God was bigger than everyone else’s god. In a manner of speaking, they were right. They found that YHWH was everywhere they went—not in a single location, as was supposed of other ancient gods.

As time went by, this people had the gall to proclaim that their God was actually everyone else’s God, too—that there never were many gods, but only one, the one who announced to Moses, “I AM that I AM.” God is the one who simply Is—undeniably, irrefutably, and so present at all times and in all places that we can be fooled into thinking God is absent. Does a fish ever say, “Hey, I’m in water”? So, too, are we in God’s presence.

And yet, God has a name—has many names. The ancient Israelites were not allowed to pronounce God’s name—YHWH—out loud. In their sacred writings, they substituted the Word “Elohim”—in English, the LORD—which, curiously, is plural. The people had known God for so long that the earliest continuous references refer to God as Gods. It took time for it to sink in that there was only One. But the plural name, Elohim, stuck.


In Muslim tradition, there are 99 Names of God. In Zoroastrianism, there are 101 Names, or even 1001.

In Christianity's Trinitarian theology, the One God is both singular and plural—three and one simultaneously. God cannot even be limited by number. God is solitary and in community with Godself.

For many of us, it may be second nature simply to talk to God, to talk to Jesus, to shout, “Holy Spirit, come!” This is a great gift—to be able and invited to speak God’s name and enter a conversation.

“You are in my heart/ I can feel your beat/ And you move my mind/ From behind the wheel / When I lose control/ I can only breathe your name/ I can only breathe your name.” Here’s Sixpence None the Richer.

The Seventh Day of Christmas: December 31

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, "At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!

-    2 Corinthians 5:16 - 6:2

It’s the last day of the year. I love to think of life as “working together with God.” We’re in the middle of a big project, and another year of our time has come and gone. It’s always a struggle … but often, it is also a delight. Have faith that the delight will be worth the struggle.

This sweeping masterpiece by Sufjan Stevens is called “All Delighted People.” I think it’s about taking stock and choosing to continue the struggle of loving and working with God. (I also enjoy the way he pays homage to Simon & Garfunkel.) Note that the lyrics are available if you expand the text segment below the screen.

The Sixth Day of Christmas: December 30

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the LORD has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the LORD for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

-    Isaiah 25 

 

One of the main functions of prophecy is to sustain hope. Here’s one of the prophets of our own time, Stevie Wonder, with “Someday at Christmas.”

The Fifth Day of Christmas/ the Feast of the Holy Innocents (transferred): December 29

When the wise men had departed, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

"A voice was heard in Ramah,
    wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
    she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."

-    Matthew 2:13-18

The quote is from Jeremiah 31. I had written the other day that Stephen was the first Christian martyr, but another claim could be made for the Holy Innocents.

However, my hope is that this incident is a literary device, and that there was no such slaughter in history. As a literary device, it calls to mind the Pharaoh’s massacre of Hebrew children in Exodus 1. And by referencing Jeremiah, it brings in corporate memory of the Babylonian exile. Jesus the Messiah is the new Moses, once again saving his people. And he is also leading them out of exile and back to their home in God.

Nevertheless, slaughters of innocents have occurred throughout history and are still occurring today.

Along with the Matthew and Jeremiah readings, we hear today the fulfillment of hope in the Revelation to John:

I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."

And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

-    Revelation 21:1-7

In 1988, before Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was ousted from power, Sting released “They Dance Alone,” a tribute to the women who danced the Cueca, the national dance of Chile, as a protest after the men in their lives—husbands, fathers, sons—were disappeared by the government. As many as 3,000 men may have been eliminated by Pinochet’s regime. As do our lectionary readings, this video begins with the grim and terrible but ends with the promise of hope.

The Fourth Day of Christmas/ the Feast of St. John (transferred): December 28

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

-    1 John 5

When December 26 falls on a Sunday, a few important feasts each get bumped forward one day: St. Stephen to the 27th, St. John to the 28th, and the Holy Innocents to the 29th.

Today is the Feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist. One of the twelve main disciples, John is also usually identified as “the one whom Jesus loved.” This indication only occurs in John’s Gospel, suggesting that the author (or attributed author) had a very special relationship with Jesus. In the New Testament there are also three letters attributed to John, though scholars disagree about whether this is the same John. There is also the Revelation to John (of Patmos), who is most certainly a different John.

With so many Johns, it can be difficult to sort out exactly whom we are celebrating today! But I do like this reading from today’s lectionary. I took one quarter of Greek at Seattle University last year, and during that quarter we began working our way slowly through the First Letter of John. We learned that John’s Greek was rather clunky and halting, but also basic and free of fancy vocabulary, which is why we beginners were able to delve into it pretty easily. It seems Greek was not John’s first language either.

“For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments.” That seems odd, doesn’t it? Since when does love depend on obeying commandments? Yet I think our inclination is to put the cart before the horse. I believe the intent is to show that when we obey God’s commandments, it’s a sign that we have loved God all along—that this is a natural response to that love. If we love God, what else would we want to do?

And what does John mean by “his commandments”? Whether or not he is the same person as the author of the Gospel of John, he most certainly means, “Love one another.” Jesus came into the world and proclaimed that there is, in essence, only one commandment: love. If we place love at the center of our lives every day, we have “conquered the world.” We have got it all figured out. That doesn’t make life easy, but in a very real way, love is the key to every door.

Today is also the fourth day of Christmas. Here’s the band Jars of Clay with “Love Came Down at Christmas.”

The Second Day of Christmas: December 26

Upon your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have posted sentinels;
all day and all night
they shall never be silent.
You who remind the LORD,
take no rest,
and give him no rest
until he establishes Jerusalem
and makes it renowned throughout the earth.

-    Isaiah 62:6-7

Jesus the Messiah did not come to knock heads together. Jesus came to be in a relationship with us. As contemporary authors like Brian McLaren and Robert Farrar Capon remind us, and as Jesus told us in the first place, the Kingdom of God is not merely something that will happen after we die. It is alive and active among us today. The only question is whether we choose to participate in it. How do we do so? We get beyond our fear and love one another.


Here’s Garth Brooks’ take on this reality: “Belleau Wood.” “Heaven’s not beyond the clouds. It’s just beyond the fear.”

And here’s Wikipedia’s entry on the real story behind the song “Belleau Wood.”

A YouTube Advent Calendar: December 25

Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the LORD. Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in your midst. And you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all people, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.

- Zechariah 2:10-13 (NRSV)

I grew up on this Christmas carol by John Denver and the Muppets. I love the way it addresses the bleakness of the world around us and the Christian hope of redemption. It also elegantly portrays the forgiveness Christ brings: all the pain of the world can simply be laid aside as irrelevant in the light of the Incarnation. God is with us, and we have nothing to fear.

The Peace Carol

The garment of life, be it tattered and torn

The cloak of the soldier is weathered and worn
But what Child is this that was poverty-born

The peace of Christmas Day

The branch that bears the bright holly

The dove that rests in yonder tree

The light that shines for all to see

The peace of Christmas Day

The hope that has slumbered for two thousand years

A promise that silenced a thousand fears

A faith that can hollow an ocean of tears

The peace of Christmas Day

Add all the grief that people may bear

Total the strife and the trouble and care
Put them in columns and leave them right there
The peace of Christmas Day

The branch that bears the bright holly

The dove that rests in yonder tree

The light that shines for all to see

The peace of Christmas Day