burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

Sat. Dec. 29, 2012

Hey, Shoshana, it snowed! in December! :)

Also, you were right -- I finished Glory Season this morning. (Having this much free time is weird. I feel like I should have stocked up on library books -- though I do own fiction I haven't read, and I only have a few days of vacation left.)

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

⁵ Thus says YHWH,
who formed me in the womb to be God's Servant,
who destined me to bring back the children of Jacob
and gather again the people of Israel:
⁶ "It is not enough for you to do my bidding,
to restore the tribes of Jacob, of Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah,
and bring back the survivors of Israel;
I will make you the light of nations,
so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth."

⁷ Thus says YHWH,
the Redeenmer of Israel, the Holy One,
to the one deeply despised,
the one abhorred by nations,
the one enslaved by despots:
"Rulers will rise when you walk in the room
and court officials will pay homage
because of YHWH, who is faithful,
because of the Holy One of Israel, who chose you."
⁸ Thus says YHWH:
"At the time of my favor I will answer you,
on the day of salvation I will help you.
I will keep you,
and appoint you to be a covenant people.
I will restore the land
and assign you the properties that have lain waste.
⁹ I will say to the prisoners, "Come out!"
and to those who are in darkness, "Show yourselves!"
Congested roadways will become
places where they can safely graze,
and barren heights will become
lush pastureland for them,
¹⁰ They will never hunger or thirst,
and scorching wind and sun will never plague them;
for the One who has compassion on them
will lead and guide them to springs of water.
¹¹ I will make roads through all the mountains,
and my highways will be raised up,
¹² because they are on their way from afar,
some from the north or the west,
others from the land of Aswan.
¹³ Shout for joy, you heavens! Exult, you earth!
You mountains, break into happy cries!
For YHWH consoles the people
and takes pity on those who are afflicted.
¹⁴ But Zion said,
'YHWH has abandoned me,
Adonai has forgotten me.'
¹⁵ Does a mother forget her baby at the breast,
or fail to cherish the child of her womb?
Yet even if these forget,
I will never forget you.

(Isaiah 49:5-15, The Inclusive Bible, alt.)

My Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings book says one of the assigned readings for December 29 [edit: I was accidentally looking in Year B rather than Year C -- but I like this reading better anyway] is:

Isaiah 49:5-15
God like a nursing mother

+

when love comes to town posted:

Reflections on the holy family...

Here are my worship notes for this coming Sunday, December 30th 2012 on the Holy Family. [...]
Introduction
In some of the high church traditions of Christianity, this Sunday is known as the Feast of the Holy Family: a quiet and gentle time offered to us for the consideration of family life from the perspective of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

[NB: I have some answers to "Why do you think worshipping as a family is important? If dad - or mom or one partner - doesn’t go, what does that teach our children?" which are perhaps not exactly what he's looking for.]


( joy sadhana )

On Friday I posted a link to "We Are Young" by Fun, featuring ft. Janelle Monáe to facebook, saying, "I don't really love this video, but the chorus has been recurrently playing in my brain for some time. (Happy almost Pentecost?)"

We are young / so let's set the world on fire...

It felt too warm today for a long-sleeved shirt, and I don't love the one short-sleeved red shirt I have (plus, I'd rather be wearing a red shirt with black pants, but my weekend usual is blue jeans) so I decided to wear my red dress* and maroon tights ... and I wasn't wearing my rainbow Pride heels** to bicycle, so I wore my black ~Vans with the ~glow-in-the-dark stars on them (they're not actually Vans, they're just laceup flats in that style -- they were on like closeout sale at Berks for $10/pair or something).
*When not worn with black knee-high boots with ~3-inch heels, this dress totally doesn't feel like a hooker dress. [No one has ever called it a hooker dress to me, I just frequently think of it as such, b/c of aforementioned footwear pairing.]
**I got an Urban Outfitters email this afternoon which included these shoes [Jeffrey Campbell Rainbow Starlight Eva Sandal marked down to $99 from $139].

***

(from the FCS bulletin this morning)

Unison Prayer of Confession

God,

We confess that we find Christmas and Easter more exciting than the urgency of Pentecost.
We confess that our worst nightmare is sounding drunk or folish.
We confess that this birthday-church isn't always a party.
We confess that we rarely listen to the speakers of other languages, and almost never try to learn their words ourselves.
Holy One, we are heart-cut and frightened by strong winds.
Make us new, and ready for Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

-Maren Tirabassi, adapted

+

Meditation [a longer piece was printed in the bulletin]

I believe the church can have an integral role in the development of the self, but also of the self in covenantal relation to others. I believe the church should always adapt and change and grow with each person; in other words, to a certain degree, when a person becomes a part of a church community, that church should never be quite the same as it was. And as change happens to the church, I should change, too. I want church to help me to be me, to help me figure out what that means as a child pf God, and to help me figure out what that means as a citizen of God's green earth with neighbors all about. I want church to help me to understand what it is to be loved, to feel loved, and to love. I want church to help me to recognize God around me and others, to see God at work in and through me, to assure me of my place in God's grace.

-from Rev. Kaji Spellman, Yale Divinity School Reflections Fall 2009

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

And those chapters, again, must be read in the context of the entire book of Acts, which begins with Pentecost — bringing together people “from every nation under heaven … Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to the Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs” — and continues inexorably outward to include and embrace European tradeswomen and African eunuchs and anyone else the author can imagine the reader otherwise being tempted to exclude or reject. The book reads like an after-school special on celebrating diversity.
-slacktivist

( Read more... )