With several topics:
We had a nice Thanksgiving Day with the usual menu. But Beth made up some stuffing with tofu to accommodate Nick’s vegetarian wishes. There was also a little bit of ham for me since I am not much of a turkey fan. Growing up we often had potato sausage on the menu too. We made our own and the tradition continues with my sister and her family in Arizona. It was a quieter stay- at-home kind of day, the kind of day we were all desiring. I enjoy the thought of just having ‘all the family home.” I have heard my dad say how nice that is and I wish I had been home more often to give him that good feeling.
I was looking at the Parsonage Open House date (Dec. 9) coming soon----and the fact that swimming would be starting for Nick, Sara would be back to college and Beth had some travels scheduled so I commandeered a work force to get up the outside Christmas lights, pulled the Christmas tree and ornament boxes out of their hiding places, and we got the tree up; all in time for Nick and Sara to invite about 20 high school and college kids over to the house on Saturday night (on short notice!) Actually that was the day we had also decided to clean out closets so I could drop off things at Goodwill. So we had a pile of clothes in the middle of the dining room floor just two hours before the party. But it all got done.
Sunday afternoon after church I was the "college shuttle" driver with student deliveries to the University of Minnesota and to Hamline.
Monday I headed to St Cloud as part of the Fall Gateway Clergy Retreat.
My Gateway group plans to continue with its experiences at the Episcopal House of Prayer.
Here is the Oratory
On Tuesday Bishop Dyck unveiled the new district lines. It will be the Plan B model (see my earlier blog entry for the map.) Brainerd is in the Big Waters District.
The Whittier and Lincoln School closings in Brainerd have been announced and those two schools are very much a part of Beth’s position as The Literacy Collaborative coordinator so we are still uncertain of what that will mean. I know for some in our church and community those school closings have very clear and direct consequences as school staffs and classrooms and identities will be disbanded and lost. Beth used to teach at Lincoln so I got familiar with that building too. Keep this whole thing: people and process in your prayers. We have some in Park church facing loss of employment and I believe that in the church we can model a better sense of respect and sensitivity than what has been displayed in the newspaper’s Vox Pox and the Letters to the Editor.
On another note; there was a letter to the editor in the Dispatch in which a person was threatening to boycott any merchant that said ‘Happy Holidays” to him instead of “Merry Christmas”. I think I understand what the person is trying to say. He is feeling that his Christian faith is being threatened and that would , of course, raise a person's temper. Maybe the person has been listening to John Gibson and Bill O Reilly’s take on the "war on Christmas." I don’t buy the book or the reasoning. Personally I would be very concerned if I felt my faith required the support of the government or some large corporate interests. I would rather think that it can exist without that dependence. Christianity began, and the Christian scriptures were written at a time, and for a setting when the church was certainly not the pre-dominant culture. Our beginnings were in the hostile environment of the Roman empire and the marketplace was a market place of competing religions as well. The gods (under many names) of prosperity, power, success and pleasure were selling well back then too.
I am probably an old fashioned religious conservative because I would just as soon have the merchants of today keep my sacred church language out of their commercialized profit ventures. If Christmas is a holy word, then I would like it to be used in holy ways. For years, even though I know that my local merchants need strong December sales, I have been among (the majority) church voices that have cautioned, moaned and warned us about the commercialized, advertised, consumerized and secularized Christmas (even though I too, participate in it..confession!).
Now that some merchants are actually dropping the religious words we have been trying to protect...we are angry about it!!? Maybe they are finally doing what we have been asking them to do? We might now have a better chance of keeping ‘Christ in Christmas”. If you want Christmas, maybe you should expect to find it at a church or in some expression of Christian servanthood, rather than at a retail center or a public square.
And I really don’t mind “Happy Holidays”. Holidays is short for holy days, and I would like to have someone wish me “Happy Holy Days.” These are Holy Days for me. And, in the generous and loving spirit of Christ, (the real Christmas spirit) I want to practice hospitality toward others and I don’t want to force my religious will over others. That deeper respect for others seems to be the Christ way. Could we especially model that in the month of December? Our nation could use much more of that. We Christians, could perhaps model community and loving respect, within diversity, as a kind of Christmas gift to our multi-cultural country! That would be a great witness. The Peace-making of Christmas. I think Luke's Gospel said that it was included in the message.
Or.....maybe we could simplify the whole thing, and still keep the economy going, by following what I saw in the store windows of Cuba back in 1981. In an officially secular society they had red and green signs that spoke of the Season of Giving. You could support your merchants and add your own interpretation of the giving!
Maybe I will stick with greeting people to have a “ watchful and adventurous advent!” After all this really is advent season before Christmas season. Then when Christmas comes around on December 24/25th. I can start with 'Merry Christmas" just about the time when the stores are moving on to the next sales event!
Pray for peace or steps in the right direction in the Israel/Palestine talks, and in Iraq , Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma/ Myanmar , Congo, Dar fur...and ..and....so many places.
pray for peace in your heart, your life, your own words and actions.
Peace.
Enough “Rambles” for now. Maybe I have raised some issues and eyebrows. You can comment on the blog or can e-mail me at roryswen@gmail.com.
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