learning to walk in the dark

Learning to Walk in the Dark BBT

“Our light bulbs have burned out, and the fixtures are hanging from the ceiling by a bare wire. Before we get more artificial light, see if there is a message in the dark. God has done some of his best work in the dark, including resurrection.” Barbara Brown Taylor, Festival of Homiletics, Nashville 2013, from Learning to Walk in the Dark.

 I have learned so much from Barbara Brown Taylor. I read her first book of sermons on the gospel of Matthew, The Seeds of Heaven, in a book group in the 1980s. She magnetized all of us by her use of words and her intimate gospel message. She taught me how to be a narrative preacher, seeing God at work in the stories of the Bible, and how these stories are true in our lives. I attended every conference she led for years about preaching and writing, especially at the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral and Kanuga. I have read almost everything she has published that I could get my hands on. In recent years, she has taught me about seeing God in the world, pluralism, seeing God in people of other faiths, and seeing God in the dark.

Finally, she has taught me to be me, not a Barbara Brown Taylor copy, but to find my own voice and be the person God created me to be. Likewise, as spiritual friends, it is our job to help each other become the person God created us to be, not what we think our parents, children, or spouses want us to be, not even the person we most admire. However, a person we admire may give us a clue about some qualities that may be hidden in us that are part of the person God created us to be. We are called daily to thank people like Barbara Brown Taylor for this insight.

The darkness of Advent with shorter sunlight and the darkness of those times in the pandemic taught us much about being the person God created us to be.

The days are shorter.

We are starkly aware of the possible shortness of life.

Now is the time to take off the masks we have worn for so many years and become our true selves, who God created us to be.

Joanna   joannaseibert.com  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Advent as Countercultural

Advent as Countercultural

“To pray for your enemies, to worry about the poor when you have worries enough of your own, to start becoming yourself fully by giving of yourself prodigally to whoever needs you, to love your neighbors when an intelligent 4th grader could tell you that the way to get ahead in the world is to beat your neighbors to the draw every chance you get—that was what this God asked, Paul wrote.”—Frederick Buechner, Quote of the Day, first published in The Clown in the Belfry.

Buechner reminds us how countercultural the Christian faith was from the get-go as well as today. There is no better time to experience this than in the season of Advent. Advent is the four weeks before Christmas at the beginning of the church year. Our culture during December is hurrying, overloaded, frantic, and caught up in commercial craziness. Meanwhile, the season of Advent calls us to a quiet preparedness, watching, waiting, and pausing.

One year, the staff at our church even made “pause, breathe, wait, watching for the Christ child” our theme for the season. “Pause, Breathe, Wait, Watching for the Christ Child.”

We may have had less activity in Advent during the pandemic, which is now becoming an endemic season. Still, the overriding anxiety and isolation of this long season of illness and death called us away from Advent quietness even more than our own busyness does.

 Advent is still my favorite season. This call to quietness is even more needed in our present time. We put on pause the cacophony of anxiety inside and outside of our heads, sit in a favorite chair, read or write, look or walk outside, light candles, feel something moving inside of our body as we move from our head to our body, and become grounded to the present moment. The air we breathe in and out is full of anticipation of new birth in us and the world. The Christ Child already within us awakens, opens its eyes, and smiles as it sees the light of Christ across the room in someone we want to know better.

Mike Chapman St. Martins in the Field London

Remembering December 14

December 14

Remember the names of children and teachers killed at Sandy Hook Elementary twelve years ago, on December 14th, 2012.

“Holding these persons in our broken-open hearts, we are less likely to forget.”—“Advent Message for Today,” from St. Mary’s Cathedral, Memphis, December 10, 2018.

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Daniel Barden, 7

Olivia Engel, 6

Josephine Gay, 7

Ana Marquez-Greene, 6

Dylan Hockley, 6

Madeleine Hsu, 6

Catherine Hubbard, 6

Chase Kowalski, 7

Jesse Lewis, 6

James Mattioli, 6

Grace McDonnell, 7

Emilie Parker, 6

Jack Pinto, 6

Noah Pozner, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Jesica Rekos, 6

Avielle Richman, 6

Benjamin Wheeler, 6

Allison Wyatt, 6

Rachel Davino, 29 (Teacher)

Dawn Hochsprung, 47 (School Principal)

Nancy Lanza, 52 (Mother of gunman)

Anne Marie Murphy, 52 (Teacher)

Lauren Rousseau, 30 (Teacher)

Mary Sherlach, 56 (School psychologist)

Victoria Soto, 27 (Teacher)

Adam Lanza (shooter)

 “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”—Elie Wiesel.

This “Advent Meditation for Today” from St. Mary’s Cathedral in Memphis listed the names of the children and teachers killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School twelve years ago. Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, keeps reminding us in his writings, which live on after him, that remembering those who have died, especially their names, helps us keep them alive. These “Holy Innocents” call us to keep their memory alive, as well as the memory of so many others, to remind us how guns and assault weapons are out of control in our country. These children and their teachers cry out for us to remember the lives of the children they will never have.

As we pray for peace this Advent, may we pray for courage, sacrifice, forgiveness, compassion, and discernment to answer this question for our country. May we be guided by what we can learn from so many other countries that have found solutions to this issue.

So, what do the children and teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary School have to do with our spiritual lives? The God of love calls us daily to spread the love we learn as we connect to the God within ourselves and God in our neighbor. We know our God grieves with all these children and their families. God’s love also calls us to connect in some unknown way to their grief. Our love and grief call us to honor those who have died by working to prevent such acts of violence. Discernment and action are just as important parts of the spiritual life as prayer, silence, contemplation, and forgiveness.

Joanna   https://www.joannaseibert.com/