Elizabeth's 118th Birthday

Elizabeth’s 118th birthday

“But Ruth said, ‘Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.’”—Ruth 1:16.

 During Advent, we hear the story of Elizabeth and her family. Our family also has a unique Elizabeth. In August, we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 118th birthday. She was born in 1907 and died at 81. Our church tradition remembers people on the day of their death. However, our family still remembers those we love on their birthday. Perhaps this is because we recall how we celebrated their birthdays, or maybe their love and presence seem closer on their birthday for some unknown reason. My daughter and our youngest granddaughter are named after her. Elizabeth taught school and second grade for over forty years. Her class was called Happy Town. I keep wondering if any of her thousands of students remember her. They do not know that August 30th is her birthday.

 I tried to Google her to find out the exact day she died. But, unfortunately, I do not find her. There is no Google picture of her either. But my life was changed by knowing her, her kindness and acceptance from that first Christmas night we met, and her unconditional love for her grandchildren. So many saints like Elizabeth changed many people’s lives, but they have become unknown. When Elizabeth died, I remember asking her in my prayers to watch over our children like a guardian angel, and I promised I would care for her husband, Bob, whom she so loved, who was left behind. But, unfortunately, Elizabeth did a much better job watching over our children than I did for her Bob.

Whenever our children were gone from home, I would pray for Elizabeth to be with them. I truly know she was, in some way, reminding them that they were loved, keeping them out of harm’s way. I feel her presence today, telling me that all shall be well, all shall be well. I pray that others may remember and feel the Elizabeth Seiberts, who taught them about unconditional love in Happy Town.

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

God's Inside and Outside Voice

Inside voice

Quiet

“For whatever reason, God never seems to shout when trying to get my attention. God always uses his ‘inside voice,’ as my mother used to call it. Shouting, calling, crying out, and throwing people off their horses is great stuff, but that’s not how I hear God. I hear God in a whisper; in a look; in a turn of the head; in a subtle expression on a face.”—Br. James Koester, Brother, Give Us a Word, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, Daily Email, SSJE.org, friends@ssje.org

The irony is that, as we read in SSJE about God speaking to us in God’s inside voice, I am practicing preaching with all my might in my outside voice. My voice is soft. It is a legacy from my soft-spoken father. It is a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing, as I talk to people and can more easily relate to them as a softer listener.

But when I stand in the pulpit to preach the word of God or speak out to a group, I have always had difficulty projecting that message, even with suitable amplification. My husband always sits in the back of any congregation or meeting, giving me signs to increase my volume. I spent years working with a fantastic speech pathologist, but I still have to push my voice. If someone has a hearing impairment, they may especially have difficulty hearing me.

My former rector took me on as a project to increase my volume. He let me read prayers outside at a burial office as an “audition” to see if I had an outside voice. After that, I think he gave up on me! Recently, I preached at a church without amplification. I felt as if I were shouting the entire time.

So, what is the point of all this regarding our relationship with God? First, I have become acutely aware of what an inside voice sounds like and the volume of my outside voice. My connection to God comes through an inside voice, quietly slipping in. But we often hear these soft messages when we least suspect God, usually in interruptions in our daily routine.

God seems to speak most clearly in Advent in an inside voice, while the world shouts more than ever in an outside voice mode.

I wonder, however, if God also speaks to us at times with an outside voice, and we may never hear it because we expect only the quiet inside connection.

Does God’s outside voice also speak at unexpected times by the least expected people we rarely listen to or don’t even want to listen to?

For the present, my best experience with God’s outside voice is in my dreams. Eventually, my dreams become louder, more memorable, and messier if I ignore them.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/

The Longest Night

The Longest Night

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:5)

            Guest Writer: Paula Franck

The contrast between light and darkness is a familiar theme in spiritual life – especially during Advent and Christmas. Darkness represents sin, ignorance, and the absence of God, whereas light calls forth life-giving images of God’s glorious presence. In the Gospel of John, Jesus proclaims, “I am the light of the world.” (Jn 8:12).

However, there is a natural rhythm of light and darkness, night and day, and, as Barbara Brown Taylor explains in Learning to Walk in the Dark (HarperOne, 2014), much we can learn from the dark. “Darkness is shorthand for anything that scares me – either because I am sure I do not have the resources to survive or because I do not want to find out. If I had my way, I would eliminate everything from chronic back pain to the fear of the devil from my life and the lives of those I love. At least, I think I would.

The problem is this: when, despite all my best efforts, the lights have gone off in my life, plunging me into the kind of darkness that turns my knees to water, I have not died. The monsters have not dragged me out of bed and taken me back to their lair. Instead, I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.”

Much happens in the dark. In Genesis, “darkness covered the face of the deep” (1:2) until God separated the light from the dark. Seeds germinate underground; babies grow in the darkness of the womb; the Resurrection happened in the darkness before sunrise on Easter morning. Thus, no matter how dark circumstances in our lives may seem, there is the potential for new life to spring forth out of that darkness. Madeline L’Engle reminds us: “Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.”

December 21 is the Winter Solstice – the longest night of the year and the beginning of winter. But just when we experience the darkest night, the days once again begin to become longer. This rebirth of the sun has been celebrated since ancient times across cultures worldwide. On the Julian calendar, the winter solstice was always observed on December 25. Thus, the early Christian church chose that date to commemorate the birth of God’s son, who would be a “light to the world.”

Thus, in all life circumstances, we can rely on the promise inherent in the Incarnation: “In him, there is no darkness at all. The night and the day are both alike.” (Hymnbook 1982, The Church Pension Fund, 1985).

Paula Franck

Longest Night Service

Saint Mark’s observed a special healing Holy Eucharist last night on Saturday, December 20th, at 6:00 p.m., for all those who are experiencing grief, suffering from mental or physical illnesses, or are simply less than jolly around Christmas.

Joanna. joannaseibert.com