Through Stained Glass: Christmas--Good News

(Today's Christmas Word of the Day post comes from our very own, Cathy Maciariello. If you are interested in contributing for the remainder of the Christmas season, I would very much so appreciate whatever you submit. Photos, poems, words, or whatever! What does Good News mean to you?)

Good News

When thinking of good news in the context of Advent, it’s difficult to avoid the first thing that pops into your head…the angel in Luke who tells the shepherds, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people…”  But it’s what comes next that interests me, the choice of the words “for to you is born….”

This was taken after the Christmas Eve service last Thursday

evening. Light amidst darkness. Hope amidst despair. 

Maybe because we are so event-oriented in our culture today, we tend to think of the good news of Christ’s birth as something that happened two thousand years ago—or that will be realized in some distant future when Christ comes again to claim us.  We’re really good at focusing on it once a year during Advent, but not quite so good at living it during the year.  We put away the Nativity Scene in January, and that’s that.  Yet this announcement to the shepherds is radically personal; this is not an arbitrary birth or an arms-distant relationship, or something to be objectified in art, literature and liturgy; rather, it is immediate and relational.  The Messiah is ours from the very beginning—not someone who is simply for us and who acts as an indifferent advocate on our behalf, but someone who comes to us, and is therefore in us, part of us.  I wonder how ready we really are to embrace that message.

Some days ago, a friend told me a story of a conversation she overheard between a mother and four-year-old child who were shopping together.  The little girl looked at her mother and said, “Oh, Mommy, every day is just the very best day!”  Now that is something to think about.  No wonder Jesus liked children and admonished us to be like them.  In these few words—from the mouth of a child—the good news of Advent resonates in all its beauty and simplicity.

Just imagine what it would be like if we could say every morning, “Today is just the very best day!”  Isn’t that what Christ himself tells us over and over again to believe.  “Don’t be afraid.  I am with you….I was born to you.”

If we could truly live the promise of Advent, we would be incapable of judging others because we would naturally see only the best in everyone; we would stop worrying about the future because we would know that Christ is clinging to us in this moment.   Like the child, we would feel the connection without having to think about it.  Sadness and despair would turn to hope; life’s inevitable challenges would become opportunities for growth; fear would turn to courage; anxiety and frustration would turn to commitment; and hesitation and apathy would turn to action and discipleship.

And that would be very good news indeed—for us and for the world!

Through Stained Glass: Advent--child

Become like a child tonight.

Use your imagination to dream of a different way of being.

The same way God did when God became a child.

Receive the world for all it has to offer.

Receive the world in love.

Receive the Word of love.

Receive the word of Love.

Become a child of the Light.

Tonight, become like a child again.

Listen to your children.

Learn from the children.

Then, become one.

Be creative. Be imaginative. Be hopeful. Be daring. Dream BIG dreams.

“For unto us a child is born…”

Funny how God chose a child, not an adult, not an emperor or a president, not a doctor or a lawyer, not a teacher or a pastor…

But to save the world once and for all God

                  Became

                           A

                                             Child.

Little children, Christ will later say, come to me.

Tonight, become a child.

Tonight, with the joy, excitement, expectation, and laughter, become a child.

For Christ’s sake, become a child.

After all, beloved, you are a child of God.

Always.

Forever.

“The soul is healed by being with children.” 
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Through Stained Glass: Advent--come

Over the years the church (universal! not local!) has gotten a bad rap.

Honestly, most of the time it deserved it.

But, and this is coming from someone who had one of those bad experiences with a church, don’t let 1 bad experience ruin church for you.

Here’s the deal—the church as wonderful as it is—is still a community of people, who, are you ready for this…are HUMAN like you and me.

The church will mess up. There is no getting around that. The church has, is, and will probably let you down at some point. Unfortunately, this is the very real possibility when living with other people.

Why then would someone, say a pastor, commit their life to serving God through God’s church?

Here is why there is hope in the church because as broken as the church is, it is also quite beautiful—like a mosaic. And it is beautiful because you are beautiful. Your story is one the church, the community of faith, needs in order to be that city on the hill scripture invites us to be.

This is why I love God—this is why I can’t give up on my faith:  God didn’t give up on humanity and God will never give up on humanity.

Plus—how did God come to us?

In a child—a human being—fleshy, bloody, and all the other fluids that come with being a human.

Oh friends, we are better because of you. And when you aren’t with us, we lack something. We are incomplete.

Don’t give up on us. Don’t give up on God.

But also, don’t think you are alone in your doubts and struggles about the church. I’ve been there. And many more are and will be there.

Here is the good news—the church, with Gods help, with YOUR help, can make a difference in the lives of many.

So, friend, come. Come share your story with us. Come and teach us about love, faith, hope, and joy. Come.

You are welcome in this place.

I leave you with a beautiful quote one of my parishioners shared with me today. It is from Kathleen Norris’ book Amazing Grace.

“The church is still a sinful institution,” a Benedictine monk wrote to me when I was struggling over whether or not to join a church. “How could it be otherwise?” he asked, and I was startled into recognition of simple truth. The church is like the Incarnation itself, a shaky proposition. It is a human institution, full of ordinary people, sinners like me, who say and do cruel, stupid things. But it is also a divinely inspired institution, full of good purpose, which partakes of a unity far greater than the sum of its parts. That is why it is called the body of Christ.”

And so we pray, Come, Lord Jesus, come….

Hebrews 10.5-10

⁵Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
   but a body you have prepared for me;
⁶ in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings
   you have taken no pleasure.
⁷ Then I said, “See, God, I have come to do your will, O God”
   (in the scroll of the book it is written of me).’
⁸When he said above, ‘You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt-offerings and sin-offerings’ (these are offered according to the law), ⁹then he added, ‘See, I have come to do your will.’ He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Through Stained Glass: Advent--produce

“We see with our eyes. We know with our hearts. Outside…Inside.”
Jim Henson

I have a dream.

I’m hesitant to share with so many people.

Some of you already know.

Without giving too much of it away, I want to produce a piece of art.

Produce—that makes it so, oh what is the word I’m looking for, manufactured and not very creative.

Produce though means something like “make from components or raw materials.”

Which makes me think of the creative process and the use of imagination.

Imagination. Creation.

Imagination is when we form mental images or experience them.

Creativity is then turning these mental images into reality.

The end result is a piece of art—a created experience.

We produce art when we imagine and create.

Recently we heard John the Baptist encourage God’s people to produce fruits of their lives that indicate transformation.

“Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives…”

or as the NRSV translates it

“Bear fruit worthy of repentance…”

God has gifted us with the ability to produce fruit that can change the world. Fruit like kindness and gentleness, compassion and generosity, gratitude and tenderness. 

Like any good piece of art, it takes time to create and produce. In fact John uses the image of an ax lying next to a tree to teach how sometimes we need to be pruned in order for fruit to be produced.

The pruning process can be painful but it is indispensable.

To produce the hopes and dreams of God takes time too but it is possible. That is what we are preparing for. God has gifted us with all we need to produce God’s reign here on earth. But it requires work. It requires a selfless approach to life together. It requires us to trim back the parts in our lives that may be preventing others to receive the nutrients needed to grow.

As I enter further into the project I’ve started, I’m realizing that sometimes I need to remove parts I thought were the best lines I’ve ever written. It is painful to cut back. It is frustrating to let go of something I thought for sure was stellar. But, for the sake of the larger piece, the piece of art I hope to produce, I had to let it go.

Are there ideas/thoughts/habits in your life you need to reexamine for the benefit of the larger community?

What are you producing?

Why aren’t you producing?

What stories or lies are you telling yourself that is preventing you from sharing with the world the gifts God has given you?

As we continue to prepare for the coming of the Christ child, let us not remain only in our imagination. Let us not concede to the fear of creating beauty, art, or love. Instead, let us produce with our lives the world God birthed into being…