Searching for a light…

Just over two weeks ago two light bulbs went in my kitchen. They were not normal 60watt bulbs or halogen spots which are easily sourced and replaced. Rather they are those little tube bulbs that are mounted underneath your units to illuminate your worktop surfaces. Until relatively recently in my life I would have been happy to have let this all go ‘unnoticed’ for a matter of months before replacing them but this is no longer the case in my life. The dead bulbs had to be replaced and so I started my own little journey for some light. And what a journey. Did you know that each company that makes those little lights under your kitchen units makes them in different sizes and shapes? I didn’t. I thought that it was just going to be a simple journey to Homebase to pick up the tubes and job would be done. Homebase didn’t have them. Neither did B&Q or my local electrical goods supplier. I found another supplier on Boucher Crescent who informed me that the manufacturing company no longer deal in Northern Ireland. Basically I have been around the city of Belfast searching for a light and still with no joy.

In this story I don’t know if I am going to get the bulbs or not (the manufacturing company have not e-mailed me back in over a week) However in the wider story that all of us are journeying in, we know that the light is coming. I started out this particular advent journey more diligently than normal in the hope of spotting signs of the light of the coming Christ child. Some days I have been aware of what’s going on but more often than not I haven’t and I have possibly missed ’sightings.’ I can see how looking for signs in Advent can be like my searching for an elusive light bulb. But the wonderful difference is this. Whether I see signs of the Christ child coming or not, He is coming and that will make the difference in my life as I let it. The people walking in my kitchen may be in darkness, but that does not take away from the inextinguishable light of the Christ child.

People Make Too Much of Christmas on the Prairie

For a gentle laugh and some mental snack food on the run up to Christmas, check out what is happening at Lake Wobegon on the edge of the prairie, with Garrison Keillor’s podcast news this week.

the world is about to turn

Thanks jrlaw3n2 for the mention of The Canticle of the Turning. While I certainly know the Star of the County Down (primarily through Belfast native son Van the man), I don’t believe I’ve heard “Canticle. . .” But after checking it out, it is fast becoming my favorite Christmas song this year. One website ascribed the lyrics to St Patrick, any truth to that? Here is one of the few youtube versions.

Now here is the funny part: I’ve been humming the tune “Kingsfold,” an instrumental version of which I’d heard on the radio, but couldn’t place the song. Come to find out (through investigating “Canticle”) that Kingsfold is a nearly identical English tune, which you likely know as another Christmas/advent song, “I heard the voice of Jesus Say.” And so a version of that.

Both capture the longing of advent for me. Not just the coming of the Christ child, but the the turning of the world that the babe in the manger will bring.

Doing ordinary things

Today I had errands. I turned 60 yesterday, and woke up thinking I was too old to get up and too weary from the weekend long party (as much of a party as an old preacher gets).  I got up anyway.  

It was my usual bulletin-building, outline shaping, catch-up-writing day. However, routine things I needed to do stole what I thought was God’s work time.  God had another plan.  On three stops, I had three very different types of ‘real’ conversations instead of the usual “thank you for your business Mrs. so and so.”  Two of the three times I really got to listen and then speak to the other person meaningfully about faith and life.  All of this dialogue was with total strangers.  

Eight phone conversations I had today were with four people addicted to drugs or scamming churches (or affected by someone who did these things).   I didn’t want to have any of those calls either as they were interruptions in my ability to do ordinary things.  

I wish God had kicked my butt at 20 and taught me to lean totally on God’s conversations and planning!  Think how many times I have wasted kingdom time because I wouldn’t let God shake up my time doing ordinary things.   

As an aside, last weekend we had a Celtic Christmas service based on Mary’s Song in Luke.  Mark Charles read a prayer I sent him and we played it.  We sang “I cannot know” to the tune of Danny Boy and finished with Canticle of Turning from the Upper Room Hymnal sung to the tune of “Star of the County Down”.  Not very ancient Celtic Christian stuff, but we tried to do that in the words and sermon.  I was thinking of this group last week as that developed.  Blessings on your Christmas.

A prison cell…

A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes … and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
German pastor and philosopher (1906-1945) imprisoned and executed for his attempt to overthrow Adolf Hitler.

From: Sojourners Verse & Voice

Unfolding dramas

Inside we curl up on the sofa, curtains drawn, fire lit, watching the lastest X-Factor/Strictly drama unfold, totally oblivious to the specatcle unfolding outside as the full moon, against a midnight blue sky, pours its light in a silvery pool over Belfast Lough and makes frosty footpaths sparkle.

Waiting for the big event

Littl’un has been asking about when she’ll turn four since January. Being in a nursery class with three and four year olds means that she’s been aware of her age. And her third birthday and last Christmas was a bit of an anti-climax due to her being under the weather.

So we’ve endured the near-daily countdown to December 15. So many days have begun with her proclamation that “It’s Zeddy’s birthday today” … her trusty zebra will soon be getting a telegram from the Queen at this rate! There have been hopes for a cake, and hopes for a party.

Her drive towards her mid-December anniversary has been endless. And this morning, a couple of friends from nursery came around to the house, Pass the Parcel was played, and top hats were consumed.

Does her anticipation not put many of us to shame when it comes to our waiting during Advent?

Thoughts of others

Some thoughts of others on the mystery of the incarnation …

“He who fills the world lay in a manger, great in the form of God but tiny in the form of a servant.”

‘The meaning of the word made flesh is not that the divine nature was changed into flesh, but that the divine nature assumed our flesh.’

‘Christ added to himself that which he was not; he did not lose what he was.’

all St Augustine of Hippo

Jesus Christ, in his infinite love, has become what we are, in order that he may make us entirely what he is.
Irenaeus of Lyons

Many men have sought to be God. But only one God has sought to be man.
Anonymous

The heresies of the church all have their source in the often well-meaning attempt to rationalize or resolve the Christological paradox. They generally constitute an attempt to exalt one nature to the detriment of the other.
Donald Bloesch

bright lights

Yesterday I went to the eye doctor.  New glasses ordered now for serious loss of eye power last year.  Went to the dentist today.  (What a fun week!) Routine visit, go back in six months.

Both places I found myself required to stare straight into very bright lights, not little holiday twinkles, super bright examination lights.  It feels so good to watch for and share the happy twinkling moments.  But, it dawned on me as I went to meet my daughter and a friend wanting help to start a new ministry because they don’t like the old ones, maybe this advent I need the arrival of the bright examination light.  Maybe it is time to sit beneath that light so bright it allows me not to see, but to be examined and healed–again.   peace

Christmas on the High Street

My wife currently works for a well-known chain of coffee shops who have been celebrating Christmas in their stores since November 2. As a result putting up our Christmas tree at home feels like a bit of a chore this year!

The Christmas shopping season can steal a lot of the joy of advent from those working in the service industry, with little payback for many come the new year when economic reality will hit the High street again.