The Awfulness of Christmas

Have you ever described your experience of something negative as awful i.e. isn’t that awful?  I’m sure you probably have or at the least heard someone else do it.  That is a perfectly appropriate use of the word ‘awful’.  One on-line source defines it as:

1.       very bad or unpleasant. "the place smelled awful"

2.       used to emphasize the extent of something, especially something unpleasant or negative. "I've made an awful fool of myself"

Now if I was to describe my experience of Christmas as awful, it might be correct if that season of peace on earth and goodwill to all did not live up to my expectations that Christmas would be just that – peaceful and full of good will.  That can happen to people especially when the culture places such high expectations on Christmas being the ‘most wonderful time of the year’, as the Christmas song goes.

However, there is a more traditional meaning to ‘awful’ which fits very well with the season of Christmas.  Google provided an appropriate summary of this:

The traditional, archaic definition of awful was "arousing or inspiring awe" or "worthy of profound respect or fear". It described something that was solemnly impressive, majestic, or terrifying in a way that commanded reverence, such as "the awful majesty of alpine peaks".

In effect awe means just what it says i.e. that we are full of awe.  As is often the case, Richard Rohr is helpful by providing some clarity on having a sense of awe:

We have is a sense of awe and radical amazement in the face of a mystery that staggers our ability to sense it.  Awe is more than an emotion; it is a way of understanding, insight into a meaning greater than ourselves. The beginning of awe is wonder, and the beginning of wisdom is awe.

Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for the … mystery beyond all things. It enables us … to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal. What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe. 

I try not to object too strongly each year to the growing secularization of Christmas as the emphasis becomes less and less on the Christ Child and more on the Bacchanalia of excessive materialization and making the season just right from going into debt to outdo last year’s extravagance.  I believe the key difference between the secular Christmas and the real Christmas is that the secular Christmas lacks a sense of awe.  Again, Richard Rohr is helpful on what happens when the sense of awe is missing:

Forfeit your sense of awe, let your conceit diminish your ability to revere, and the universe becomes a market place for you. The loss of awe is the avoidance of insight. A return to reverence is the first prerequisite for a revival of wisdom, for the discovery of the world as an allusion to God. 

In this season of Christmas – yes, it is still Christmas until at least Epiphany when we celebrate the visit of the Wise Men aka the Three Kings – may you experience the awfulness of Christmas. 

Reflections on the Dark Night of the Soul

 As Advent draws to a close and Christmas is upon us, I thought it would be helpful during these hectic days to reflect on the darkness of Advent in our time of preparation.  Darkness can reveal much that is obscured in the light.

The Incarnation always brings good news, but it never minimizes the realness of our pain. Advent declares the hope that a light is coming, but first it declares the truth that the world right now is so very dark. —Stephanie Duncan Smith

Song of the Soul  By John of the Cross, trans. By Mirabai Starr

On a dark night, inflamed by love-longing. O exquisite risk.  Undetected, I slipped away. My house, at last, grown still.

Secure in the darkness, I climb the secret ladder in disguise.  O exquisite risk. Concealed by the darkness, my house, at last, grown still.

That sweet night, a secret, nobody saw me. I did not see a thing.  No other light, no other guide than the one burning in my heart.

This light leads the way more clearly than the risen son to where he was waiting for me. The one I knew so intimately, in a place where no one could find us.

O night that guided me. O night, sweeter than sunrise.  O night that joins lover with beloved. Lover transformed in beloved.

Upon my blossoming breast, which I cultivated just for him, he drifted into sleep.  And while I caressed him, a cedar breeze touched the air.

Wind blew down from the tower, parting the locks of his hair.  With his gentle hand he wounded my neck, and all my senses were suspended.

I lost myself, forgot myself. I lay my face against the beloved’s face.  Everything fell away. And I left myself behind, abandoning my cares among the lilies, forgotten. 

Have a blessed and Merry Christmas

What Has God Ever Done for Us?

Lorna and I were rewatching Monty Python’s, The Life of Brian recently and enjoying it immensely.   One question that comes to mind every time I watch it is, where was the sense of humor and appreciation of satire of Malcolm Muggeridge, and the Anglican Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood who debated the Monty Python members in that famous debate that you can see here, https://www.bbc.com/videos/cyxe9180z84o.

This time watching it, what stood out amongst the many hilarious sketches was, "What have the Romans ever done for us?"   Here is a summary of the dialogue for those who aren’t familiar with it or for those who would like a reminder. 

The iconic "What have the Romans ever done for us?" dialogue from Monty Python's Life of Brian features Reg leading a revolutionary group that complains about Roman rule, only for members to list numerous Roman contributions:

REG: Yeah. All right, Stan. Don't labour the point. And what have they (the Romans) ever given us in return?!

XERXES: The aqueduct?

REG: What?

XERXES: The aqueduct.

REG: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that's true. Yeah.

COMMANDO #3: And the sanitation.

LORETTA: Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like?

REG: Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the aqueduct and the sanitation are two things that the Romans have done.

MATTHIAS: And the roads.

REG: Well, yeah. Obviously, the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don't they? But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads--

COMMANDO: Irrigation.

XERXES: Medicine.

COMMANDO #2: Education.

REG: Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough.

And so on until Reg makes his final point, "Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the freshwater system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"

XERXES: Brought peace.

REG: Oh. Peace? Shut up!

On reflection, I think that it would be quite appropriate to apply this scenario to God rather than the Romans i.e. What has God ever done for us?  Here’s my attempt at this:

 Reg: Anyway, what has God ever done for us?

Commando 1:  He did create the universe.

Reg:  well yes, That true but that was a long time ago.

Commando 2: He did create us in his own image – male and female He created us.

Reg: O all right but what did He do ne after that?

Commando 3: He did give us the Ten Commandments as the original rules to live by.

Reg: That hasn’t worked out that well a lot of the time.  Who wants a bunch of rules to follow.  It just gets in the way of what I want to do. 

Commando 1:  He did improve on that by sending His son to be one of us.

Reg: Okay, but he did get himself killed didn’t he.  And why would he choose to be born in a stable in a poor country ruled by the Romans anyway.  That showed rather poor judgement.

Commando 2:  He did show us how to live a life doing God’s will.  

Commando 3: Yah, and he gave us a new set of rules when he preached the sermon on the mount.  They are pretty good suggestion about how to live together. 

Reg:  yes, yes, but they seem to be even harder to do that the original commandment.

Commando 2: So rather than a list of different rules such as blessed are the peacemakers – not cheesemakers by the way, He summed it up with, love one another others as he loves us. 

Commando 1:  Also, he did give us the forgiveness of sins when we don’t follow them.

Reg:  Well, I guess so but what’s it all about anyway?

Commandos:  Peace, the peace that passes all understanding. 

Reg: O well, I guess that would be pretty good. 

Commando 1:  Didn’t he say something like: Go and do likewise? 

Reg: Yes, well all right – if I have to, I guess. 

Have a blessed Advent preparing for the Prince of Peace to be born again in that stable in the insignificant little country.

 

 

Letting God Love Me More

The issue – if I can call it that – of what we can do when God seems to be absent in our lives, has been presented to me frequently in the past week or so.  This is true in my personal life and with a couple of people raising that with me.  This has also come up a few places in the messages I receive regularly from different sources.  There are times when God does not seem to be making God’s presence known to me.  These raises (or perhaps begs) the question, how can I help God to be more present in my life?

One of the Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr from last week was on point: 

Seeking to experience God’s love more fully, spiritual director Colette Lafia asks a monk with whom she is friends, “How do I let God love me more?”:  

Without missing a beat, Brother Paul answered in his joyful tone, "God cannot love you more. God already loves you infinitely. You just need to become more aware of [God’s] love … by becoming more present to it. It’s like hearing birdcalls. By paying attention and delighting in it.”  

The Advent Reflection by the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine was also applicable:

If we aren't paying attention then that narrow space between pleasure and anxiety can trip us up, and just like a crack in the pavement, cause our steps to stumble and our resolve to falter. Henri Nouwen reminds us, "The Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord." SSJD Advent Reflection 2025

This brought to mind the line from Leonard Cohen’s song, Anthem, “there is a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in.”

I have believed – known - for quite a while, that God is always present n our lives.  God makes Godself known to us in many ways.  However, because of who we are and how God created us to be - ironically – we are blind and deaf and dumb to many of these ways.  Due to who and how we are, we are not open to many of the ways in which God is present to us.  This is, in part, because of our personalities and in part because we are often unavailable to God presence in our lives.  If we quiet ourselves and pay attention, we may be able to discern more clearly God’s presence in ways that are familiar to us or even ways that are not familiar to us.  For me, I am not usually attuned to the outer world around me – walking in nature does not do much for me but I am working on that. 

I will close with another message that I received this morning from Richard Rohr:

Marabi Starr offers this stirring description of the Dark Night of the Soul, in which God moves from dynamic presence to loving absence:

Say what’s secretly going on is that the Beloved is loving you back. That your first glimpse of the Absolute was God’s first great gift to you. That your years of revelation inside his many vessels was his second gift, wherein, like a mother, he was holding you, like a child, close to his breast, tenderly feeding you. And that this darkness of the soul you have come upon and cannot seem to come out of is his final and greatest gift to you.

I would disagree on one point.  It is not a case of God {the Beloved} loving us back.  It is a case that God always loves us, and we have to opportunity to love God back.  It is not a question of God being more present in my life?  The question is, how can I be more aware or God’s presence in my life?  When I do, how can I respond? 

I hope we can be blessed to do that on our journey. 

 

 

 

The Most Important Word

Today we are beginning the season of Advent in which we Christians prepare for the birth of the Christ Child.  The question I have for you today is, “what is the most important word in this season of the coming of the Christ Child to be with us?”  Any guesses?  Of course there are lots of possible answers - Love? Mission? God? Sin? Mercy?  Which one is the one that resonates with you?

Well, if you look at the opening verse of the Gospel of John we have the answer, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God”.  The Word was with God.  The most important word in the bible is ‘with’.  This idea doesn’t originate with me.  For this idea I must credit Samuel Wells, a theologian from Duke University and a priest currently working in England. 

I came across the question and answer in an article by Sara Miles on the web site Episcopal Café.  She notes that the idea of the Word being with God is based on the foundation of the Trinity.  ‘The Trinity is, at heart, about ‘with’: about what Christians call “perichoresis.” This is the dance in which Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one being, existing through their mutual relationship. And God is always gathering all humanity into that undivided relationship, bringing us all into life with God.  The Anglican worship service opens with, ‘The Lord be with you’.  The response is,…. ‘and also with you’.  That is the hope and promise that we Christians have.  It was promised to us by Jesus – staying with John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever” (John 14:16). 

What then does it mean to be with another person?  We are all on the journey to be reunited with the source of life when our time on this earth has run its course.  Part of the answer is to not come to someone with expectations about them.  This came home to me for the first time most clearly when I was doing my unit of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) during my seminary training.  I was doing it in a hospital, and my assignment divided my time between a General Medicine Ward and a ward for people with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.  I had – shall we say – quite a difficult making cold calls in the General Medicine ward.  I knew I was there to help the patient – probably whether they wanted help or not.  I was sure I probably wouldn’t say the right thing or do the right thing. 

The Alzheimer’s ward was an entirely different situation.  I arrived there not knowing who I would be or where I would be.  I might be someone’s father, brother, son or just a friend.  I might be sitting by a riverbank or in someone’s home.  It could be a year ago or five years ago or fifty.  All I had to do was show up and be with that person and be whomever they saw me to be.  I was able to let go and let God – sorry for the cliché - I couldn’t resist.  In any case, with the Alzheimer’s ward, I was able to be with the other person and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

Above all we need to learn to truly be with each other and to enable God to be with us more fully in that journey.  The Lord be with you. 

 

Removing the Blinders

Have you ever been driving along a familiar route – or walking for that matter – and see something, a building or something natural, like a distinctive tree that you had never seen before?  I certainly have and I think that it is a general experience for most people.  It is as if we do not have eyes to see certain things in certain places.  We have natural filters or lenses that only allow certain things to penetrate our consciousness.  This is true of more than the visual.  We are naturally open to sights and sounds and even ideas and who knows what else.  Richard Rohr addressed this recently in one of his Daily Meditations:

Everybody looks at the world through their own lens, a matrix of culturally inherited qualities, family influences, and other life experiences. This lens, or worldview, truly determines what we bring to every discussion. 

Rohr quotes theologian Brian McLaren who has identified the reason for this as Confirmation Bias:  

We judge new ideas based on the ease with which they fit in with and confirm the only standard we have: old ideas, old information, and trusted authorities. As a result, our framing story, belief system, or paradigm excludes whatever doesn’t fit. We must never presume that we see “all” or accurately. We must always be ready to see anew.

I think this also happens due to our personality types.  In the Myers Briggs Personality Types, I am an INFJ which is shorthand for Introvert Intuitive Feeling Judging type.  My weakest function is Sensing which is paired with Intuition. So, I am not attuned to the outside world as much as someone who is a Sensing Type.  I must make a conscious effort to take in the world around me. (sorry to get into the Myers Briggs weeds a bit but if you are interested you can find out more – there are many sites online)

 I believe that these biases we all have – to use McLaren's term – is also true for our awareness of the Divine in our lives.  We are attuned or open naturally to some ways that we connect with the Divine – however that is identified in your life.  There are many other ways in which the Divine is present in our lives which we are not aware of because of biases. 

If you want to deepen your connection with the Divine you can start out by becoming more aware of when this connection happens – it might be hearing beautiful music or reading inspirational writing such as the bible or other holy books, or walking in nature, or paying attention to your dreams.  Once you have a better awareness of what is natural to you, consider expanding ways which do not come naturally to you.  For me this is going on walks in nature.  It takes some effort, but it is definitely worthwhile.

I will close with a prayer

 Source of all truth, help me to hunger for truth, even if it upsets, modifies, or overturns what I already think is true. Guide me into all the truth I can bear and stretch me to bear more, so that I may always choose the whole truth, even with disruption, over half- truths with self-deception. Grant me the passion to follow wisdom wherever it leads. Thank you.  (Adapted from Brian McLaren, Learning How to See, podcast, season 2, ep. 1, “The Big Ditch,” July 2, 2021).

 

The Cloud of Unknowing Yesterday, Today and Always

I have recently returned to a classic writing on Spiritual Direction - The Cloud of Knowing by Anonymous.  It is a 14^th century classic of Contemplative Spirituality by an unnamed author who was probably a cleric.  It is written to a 24-year-old novice whom he is advising.  It is an early classic in Spiritual Direction and was formative for such people as Julian of Norwich, Friedrick von Hugel, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila.  It was also formative in the development of modern Centering Prayer by Thomas Keating. 

In reading it again. What strikes me about it is its modern feel.  This is in part probably due to the masterful translation.  However, it also seems to be dealing with themes that resonate with today’s culture.  Anonymous speaks of the desire by people to solve problems through intellect and advises that this approach is not going to work for spiritual issues and our relationship with God.  He (we know that anonymous was a man) notes, “The self-important, hyper analytical intellect must always and in every way be quashed.  Stomp it under foot, if you want to do the work of contemplation with integrity”.  In this I believe it is a wonderful tonic to the approach today which believes that intellect and the products of intellect can solve all the world’s problems. 

Anonymous has a very dim view of the problems caused by what can be seen today as people being ego-centric, “You’re human, so watch out for that enemy, pride. Never think you're holier or better than anyone else.  Never confuse the worthiness of your calling with who you are”.  The more I experience life and observe what is going on in the world the more convinced I am that ego plays a central role in many of the problems in relationships between individuals and groups.  To overcome our ego-centric position has been the challenge that people have faced ever since humankind was exiled from the Garden.  Anonymous certainly seems to have identified it as a significant block to our relationship to God. 

I will close today with the prayer that Anonymous uses to close the preface to his book:

Dear spiritual friend in God, examine your life.  Pay careful attention to the way you live your calling.  With all your heart, thank God for your blessings, and his grace will help you stand strong in the face or subtle attacks from within and without, until you win the everlasting crown of life.  Amen