Do you hate Christmas?

I realised that many Christians hate Christmas. Here are some of the reasons:

1. The commercialism feels too hard to fight.
2. Gift-giving often functions self-centeredly. People give to not be shamed rather than generosity.
3. We watch our Christian brothers and sisters get sucked into this world shamelessly.
4. Families become such a power over people they act in ways they’d otherwise not.
5. Copious amounts of alcohol were consumed – although I was secretly impressed by my families this year.
6. People write off our faith as cute, cuddly, and irrelevant.
7. Our pastors preach to us as if we are non-Christians (TWTL).
8. ...
   

I’ve been thinking long and hard how to not hate Christmas. For many years I have ignored Christmas only surfacing for the day to remember Jesus birth thinking that was the godly thing. A couple years I even took a shift on Christmas day to avoid it. Being married to a non-ministry family where Christian festivals are not work days has slowly challenged me.

I preached on the first Sunday in advent on Jesus 2nd coming (advent). I realised that Christians are people of patient endurance. It is in the midst of waiting that peace, joy, hope, and love come. Surely advent reminds us of waiting for the saviour. During this season we focus on the beginning of Matthew or Luke – the waiting passages. The Christmas season is Christian not just Christmas, although we forget.

I found that patience enabled me to be joyful this Christmas – through crowds, repetitive music, pushy drivers, petulant family, etc – and I celebrated Jesus the saviour in this world, not closeted in a grotto or with my head in the sand.

Bara Din Mabarak Ho (as the say in Pakistan)

the office taketh, the office giveth away

mum, dad, old friends,
another snippet? Another glimpse?
The lord giveth, the lord taketh away.

A relax, some space, sanity
another conference, another roster
the office taketh, the office giveth away

john muir speaks scripture to the mountains
crag temples and forest altar.
City has no market for such heresy.

Come to me all you who are weary
and I will give you
away

academia

a bloody big black hole
when you left your soul for a few marks
then they take them from you.
so go and fill it
shovel shit and soil
empty in your flouro shirt
while they wonder why your ears are shut
on sunday

Tips for getting through moore college

1. Have a university education. Preferably in something handy like law, computing, medicine or teaching. This isn't because the course requires it intellectually, but it means you are less likely to have to do exhausting factory work in your 'holidays' to stay alive. Or alternately....

2. Have alot of money. (of course1. can lead to 2.) College is expensive. You need to be moderately middle class to survive. That way when you make a 'big sacrifice' to come to college, you'll still be living on more than a labourer You don't need to think you are rich, as long as you have access to the cash. Which leads to

3. Have private health insurance. The stresses and strains of college will make you sick. Days and days spent sitting round in public hospitals and the public health system are lost to your studies and you never get them back. Which leads to ...

4. Live near newtown. Not just during college, but before as well. That way you might still have a network of friends after moving home and church three to four times in three to four years. (they'll visit when you are sick too!)

any other tips?

Poetry and Preaching

During a recent interview I remarked that I wanted to improve my preaching by reading poetry. I got some rather bemused looks from my interviewers. For all our talk of wanting to be good communicators, poets seem to be overlooked. I guess poetry seems a little too high brow.

This weekend I found a great book that explores both classic and postmodern poetry, specifically in the USA, and the interaction between Jazz, folk and soul music and poetry. Some of the lines in there are exactly the kinds of things I'd love to be able to achieve with a sermon.

Try substituting "sermon" for "poem" in this paragraph


"...What the reader craves, and I've spoken here already about the reader's primacy, are beautiful accidents, surprise and astonishment in the poem, doors opening outward to true vistas for the first time. Something built up from within, not merely extracted from the exterior. The connective tissue is the evanescent need to become part of something that is larger than humans or mere language, but parts of both compressed into radioactive poetry; the right words in the right order, lending light. A poem is an animal big enough to ride, teeming with unexpected energy, charting a course into the unknown, moments of agility and delight that do not throw the rider off its back, but serve as reminders of the exquisite muscularity and nimbleness of the animal, and the reader is made more beautiful as well, by having ridden it."

The Rhythm Method, Razzmatazz and Memory:
How To Make Your Poetry Swing
Keith Flynn