Pray, Ponder, and Preach for December 2016

A Sign will be given you…a baby…

Carla Mae Streeter, OP, Promoter of Preaching

What?! A baby??? A baby is the long-awaited sign of God’s answer to millions of prayers for a redeemer…for thousands of years? Yes. And come to think of it, how ingenious. Not lightning from Mt. Saini, not a warrior on a white stallion, not even a powerful prophet thundering words of warning. A baby…a baby as a sign of God.

What newness might grasp us as we gaze at the crib? What might we see that we haven’t noticed before? If this baby is the visible sign of the invisible God, we need to take a long, loving look.

This child is the bridge, the restored link between the Divine and our humanness. This baby, wanting to play patty-cake on my cheeks until I scoop it up and cover it with kisses…is this the peek-a-boo God who knows just how to get a rise out of me? A rise out of its mother? An anonymous writer put it this way…

    
“The soul’s prayer of union is something like a baby in its mother’s arms. Eagerly it lets itself be gathered up into her outstretched arms, curling itself up to be cuddled at her breast. The mother clasps it, glues it, so to speak, to herself…kisses it. Her darling, won by caresses, concurs in this union. It clings to her, presses as hard as it can against her, against her face, as though it meant to bury, to hide itself in its mother, creating a union, a state to which mother and child each contribute. The little one does what it can, tries hard to join itself to its mother by its tiny efforts. The Lord does to the soul what the mother does to the child. The soul, captivated by the delights of these favors, not only assents, not only yields to the union God affords. With all its might, it acts in concert, striving to join itself and cling ever closer to the divine goodness.”

Yes, a baby. A sign has been given to us…

You knew.

You knew exactly how to get to me.

Pudgy hands playing patty-cake on my cheeks.

Your toothless giggle rising up as I peek from behind your smiling mother.

Yes. I get your message. Yes. I read your sign.

Healing, forgiveness, restoration, mercy…all in the love-bundle that is a baby.

Thanks to associate Jean Gfall for these reflections

December 4, 2016 – Second Sunday of Advent – IS 11:1-10 – ROM 15:4-9 – MT 3:1-12
MORE THAN WE CAN ASK OR IMAGINE

John’s message, as hell fire and brimstone as it was (even as he announced this new thing God was doing) set up a contrast to what would come beyond him. It set people to thinking. The election has set many of us to thinking, wondering what in the world is going on. But we trust that in God’s big picture, something is, even if it’s only to set more of us to thinking. That’s how God works, of course, in ways we wouldn’t think to ask or imagine. So it is. So it has always been….and, thank God, so it will always be. Don’t you think?

         

December 11 – Third Sunday of Advent – IS 35:1-6A, 10 – JAS 5:7-10 – MT 11:2-11
IT’S HARD TO BE “LEAST”

One of the hardest things for me to be – and to admit to being – is “least.” How about you? I really like to be listened to as though I have some authority because of my vast knowledge and expertise. I don’t know about you but I LOVE it when someone searches me out because they believe (and often then, so do I) that I know more about some topic than many others. Anyone that wants to compliment me is certainly welcome to do so because it makes me feel really good!

Then I read these words and find that it’s the PARCHED land that will bloom. It’s being patient and waiting to see what God will do that brings life rather than the instant gratification of knowing and being known. I guess I don’t have to like being least but clearly I’m going to have to get used to it because it’s at the bottom of the heap where we see God face to face. I don’t want to miss it!

December 18 – Fourth Sunday of Advent – IS 7:10-14 – ROM 1:1-7– MT 1:18-24
CALLED TO BE HOLY

We’ve heard Mary’s story of her willingness to bear a child that could have left her in shame. We’re told that Joseph said “it came to him in a dream” that he should still marry her and he did. Not an easy place for either of them. But, like you and me, they were called to be HOLY and they did their best. We talk about being holy or at least what it means to be holy, but what does that really mean? Most of the time we just say it, assuming we know what “holy” is. I wasn’t sure I did so I looked it up. It means morally and spiritually excellent. Hmmmm….. Mary and Joseph had their own challenges. We have a whole different set of challenges in this time and place. How will we find our way into being holy today, I wonder.

December 25 – The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) – IS 62:11-12 – TI 3:4-7 – LK 2:15-20
WHAT MIRACLE NEXT?

So this day we celebrate the birth of a child, Jesus of Nazareth, that would change the world forever. I sincerely doubt that my birthday will ever be celebrated much beyond my family and friends, although some people’s are. Yet, I believe that on December 7, 1948, my parents believed they witnessed a miracle as I came to them safe and secure, unharmed by my journey into this world. We see miracles so often that we miss them, be it the birth of a child or the last breath of one who has brought us into this world and now leaves it for another. But the kindness and generous love of God is forever giving us one miracle after another. This day, in particular, reminds us to keep our eyes and our hearts wide open lest we miss even one small one.

Blessings on this day when we celebrate
the God of Endless Miracles.

Carla Mae Streeter