On business in the Big Apple visiting with board members and recruiting. This is the view from the top of the Thomson Reuters building. Not bad, eh?
Advent
Garrison Keillor: speaker of truth or Grinch who stole Kitschmas?
UPDATE: Fred Small who is the pastor of the Unitarian church that invited Garrison Keillor to speak has posted a rebuttal.
John is not happy with Garrison’s slam on secular Christmas songs in his oped piece “Nonbelievers, please leave Christmas alone.”
Perhaps it’s just satire when he whales on Jewish songwriters who “trash up the malls with Rudolph” “and the rest of that dreck,” but if so, he mixed in too many value judgments that do not seem satirical at all. Besides, what’s wrong with Rudolph? Jeez Louise, what a Grinch
Keillor of course runs the risk that all satirists, comedians, and public pundits face of being offensive and/or being misunderstood. I agree with John that I am not too bothered with Rudolph
(well, just the once). But I have to agree with GK that those songs that do speak to the sacred story should be left alone.
Unitarians listen to the Inner Voice [espoused by Ralph Waldo Emerson] and so they have no creed that they all stand up and recite in unison, and that’s their perfect right, but it is wrong, wrong, wrong to rewrite “Silent Night.” If you don’t believe Jesus was God, OK, go write your own damn “Silent Night” and leave ours alone. This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism, and we Christians have stood for it long enough.
The sentence that follows is the one that offended John and I will not repeat it but perhaps express the sentiment in a slightly less offensive manner. You don’t find people who are not Jewish or Muslim writing songs for Rosh Hashanah or the Hajj. And to take John’s side against GK, Irving Berlin was not rewriting Silent Night or O Holy Night. He gave us White Christmas. I don’t mind that in the least (but I am bummed that Comcast On Demand does not seem to have Holiday Inn on this year).
On the other hand, and this goes to theology as well, I do take umbrage to those who would remove the birth of Christ from Christmas songs. This is the same as those who remove the doctrine of atonement from Good Friday and Easter. If one does not believe in the creeds and affirm basic Christian tenets that is fine (and a Unitarian Church is likely to be just the place for you), but don’t rewrite Christianity or its hymnody to meet your changing views.
If you are not a Christian but still celebrate the festivities, welcome! I hope and pray that you also learn and understand the “reason for the season,” as they say. But do not, as one colleague urged me this week, require that those of us who are Christians remove “that whole religion thing” from what is, in fact, a Christian festival.
In the meantime, I will shovel my driveway for a second time today and belt out another chorus of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
2nd Sunday of Advent – Expectations & Preparations
[This is sort of a "rough cut," intended as a detailed outline rather than a full narrative exposition. Still, feel free to read and comment!]
Second Sunday of Advent
Year B
RCL
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8
Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
We are just a few weeks away from Christmas Day and the children and perhaps more than a few adults are wondering what they are going to find in their stockings and under their tree when they wake up. What are you expecting? What are you waiting eagerly to unwrap and enjoy?
There is no doubt that anticipation is building. Even with our current economic struggles, people are pouring into the stores to snap up bargains. The ads on television and in the papers make even the most ascetic among us twinge with at least a bit of desire. As much as I would decry commercialism and the excessive lust that such advertisements induce, I think the anticipation and heightened state of expectation that it creates in us can and should serve as a reminder of what this season really is about, yearning for and expecting the coming of Jesus.
This is the season of expectation and preparation. As we discussed last week, advent, the Latin term means “coming,” denotes this season when we await the coming of the Messiah, God’s anointed one, who will bring us salvation from our sins, restoring our relationship with God. On the most obvious level we are, of course, remembering that Jesus the Messiah came to earth as a human baby born in a manger, but this season is also to be a time of preparation and looking forward to his coming again, as Christus victor, the conquerer of death. (more…)
First Sunday of Advent – “Creation groans as a woman in labor”
Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the (western) Christian year, and it was also my first opportunity to perform a baptism. It was a wonderful event made even more special because the baby is the child of some good friends of ours. Advent is a curious season in that we tend to think of it as “Christmas” when in fact Christmas and Epiphany do not begin until, well, Christmas. Advent is the time of expectation for the second coming of Jesus, not his first. I won’t go on more here, because that is the point of the sermon, but the challenge as I saw it was to do justice to our readings and the season while also celebrating the baptism of this child. I leave it up to you do decide how successful I was.
First Sunday of Advent
Year B, RCL
Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37
Baptism of AEC
This morning is the first Sunday of Advent. To many of us it means we have finished off (hopefully) the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers, put up our Christmas tree and decorations, and opened upon the Advent calendar, getting ready to watch Mary and Joseph make their way to Bethlehem. “Advent” means to arrive or come and we can be forgiven for believing that it refers solely to the birth of Jesus the long-awaited Messiah. In fact, this season of waiting and expectation, as our collect suggests, is not only a time when we remember Jesus’ birth on earth, but it is also a time of reflection and preparation for his coming again in the last days. This season is very much like Lent, a time when we are to be in penitential prayer, aware of our sins and Christ’s forgiveness and of God’s promise to bring his justice and judgment to this world when Christ returns again.
So we have our readings from Isaiah and Mark, readings very similar to those from Amos and Matthew when I last preached three weeks ago. Isaiah calls out to God to remember his people and bring judgment upon their enemies.
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence–
Isaiah confesses that the community of faith has sinned, but asks God to remember his people. At the time of this prophecy Israel is living in exile, a community far from their homeland with the Temple of the Lord nothing but a forgotten pile of rubble. The prophet knows that Israel has sinned and that many no longer believe in the Lord and yet he affirms the faith of his people and calls upon God to remember them.
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD,
and do not remember iniquity forever.
Now consider, we are all your people.
We too are a people living in exile, waiting for Christ to return and fulfill his promises. Granted, this is a very comfortable exile. Even in these financially difficult times I saw a lot of wide screen LCD TVs moving out of Walmart and BestBuy this weekend. Most of us in this congregation are well-fed and have warm homes and well-paying jobs. But comfort like suffering can equally drive us away from God. Jesus has been a long time in his return and to suggest that complacency can and has set in would be an understatement. It is to this that Jesus speaks in our Gospel today. (more…)
