The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
My Advent series this year will follow the Words Matter Advent study from the National Council of Churches. Download the whole booklet if you’d like, and follow along with the writings for each day. I’d love to discuss them with you. Also, here is a link to the Advent readings from the Inclusive Bible. I prefer the more inclusive language here, than the NRSV texts used in the study booklet (be sure to read the note on page 6).
John 1:1-14
When I was a child my grandfather always used to go downstairs first to light the fires and warm up the house, and all the siblings and cousins had to wait upstairs to see what Santa Claus had brought. Gankie always came back upstairs and told us, “He didn’t come.” The older kids always would look sad, and giggle, but my youngest sister collapsed in tears the first time she was old enough to understand.
But we know!
We’ve known all along!
He came! and not just Santa Claus – Jesus Christ has come to us again!
The time we’ve been waiting for (even though we’ve had it all along).
The baby has been born.
The shepherds have come, the kings are on their way.
Stockings have been emptied, presents have been unwrapped, carols have been sung, dinner has been eaten!
We are now settled in to enjoy all the good things that have been promised through the preceding weeks.
My Advent series this year will follow the Words Matter Advent study from the National Council of Churches. Download the whole booklet if you’d like, and follow along with the writings for each day. I’d love to discuss them with you. Also, here is a link to the Advent readings from the Inclusive Bible. I prefer the more inclusive language here, than the NRSV texts used in the study booklet (be sure to read the note on page 6).
Luke 1:26-38
And now we come to it. Here is our responsibility in all of this.
How am I, and how are you saying “no” to G-d?
I have ideas, talents, and gifts, and I know that often I am too fearful, or too self-satisfied to say what I need to say, and do what I need to do.
If Mary was able to say “Okay” to the shame, and uncertainty, and difficulties of being Jesus’ mother, should I be able to say what I need to say, and do what I need to do?
I now say, “I will try!” and I hear the echo, “No, there is no TRY, there is only DO!”
Amen.
My Advent series this year will follow the Words Matter Advent study from the National Council of Churches. Download the whole booklet if you’d like, and follow along with the writings for each day. I’d love to discuss them with you. Also, here is a link to the Advent readings from the Inclusive Bible. I prefer the more inclusive language here, than the NRSV texts used in the study booklet (be sure to read the note on page 6).
Luke 1:26-38
You all know the story of Sleeping Beauty who was doomed to sleep because her wicked Fairy Godmother didn’t get a prime place at the celebration of her baptism. This little poem imagines a wicked Fairy Godmother coming to see the baby Jesus. (Thanks to RevJean’s blog.)
The Wicked Fairy at the Manger
My gift for the child
No wife, kids , home.
No money sense. Unemployable.
Friends yes. But the wrong sort…
The work shy, women, wogs,
Petty infringers of the law, persons
With notifiable diseases,
Poll tax collectors, tarts,
The bottom rung.
His end?
I think we’ll make it
Public, prolonged, painful.
Right, said the baby. That was roughly
What we had in mind.
My Advent series this year will follow the Words Matter Advent study from the National Council of Churches. Download the whole booklet if you’d like, and follow along with the writings for each day. I’d love to discuss them with you. Also, here is a link to the Advent readings from the Inclusive Bible. I prefer the more inclusive language here, than the NRSV texts used in the study booklet (be sure to read the note on page 6).
Luke 1:26-38
We’ve been talking about Mary all this week in the devotional.
There’s nothing I could say any better than what Nadia Bolz-Weber said in her sermon last week. I commend it to you.
My Advent series this year will follow the Words Matter Advent study from the National Council of Churches. Download the whole booklet if you’d like, and follow along with the writings for each day. I’d love to discuss them with you. Also, here is a link to the Advent readings from the Inclusive Bible. I prefer the more inclusive language here, than the NRSV texts used in the study booklet (be sure to read the note on page 6).
Luke 1:26-38
The devotional today talks about authority – who has it, where it comes from, why it’s necessary.
Hand in hand with authority goes responsibility. We, who have been entrusted with the Word of G-d have the responsibility to use it judiciously.
I am reminded that the prohibition in the Ten Commandments against taking the name of G-d in vain, also means attributing to G-d our own wants, desires, and attitudes without thought for the consequences or even without reflection about G-d’s meanings and intentions.
I am particularly struck with this in this season of political discourse, when candidates attempt to sway the public by invoking G-d’s name. If I were them, I would do so with fear and trembling.
My Advent series this year will follow the Words Matter Advent study from the National Council of Churches. Download the whole booklet if you’d like, and follow along with the writings for each day. I’d love to discuss them with you. Also, here is a link to the Advent readings from the Inclusive Bible. I prefer the more inclusive language here, than the NRSV texts used in the study booklet (be sure to read the note on page 6).
Luke 1:26-38
The author of the devotional today talks about names.
I’m named for my maternal grandmother. Her birth name was Anna Bell Eakin. Bell was a family name, and Anna was one of her aunts. When she was a little girl one of her teachers used to call her “Anna” just to tease her.
She would puff up and say, “My name is NOT Anna.”
He would reply, “Well, there must be a Bell to it, by the ring of your voice.”
As soon as she was old enough she changed it to Annabel.
* * *
When I was two years old, just learning to talk, my mother and grandmother were trying to teach me to say Annabel.
“Say ‘Anna’,” they would say.
“Anna,” I would answer.
“Say ‘Bell’,” they would say.
“Bell,” I would answer.
“Say ‘Annabel’,” they would repeat.
“Abbie,” I said!
And Abbie I am to this day.
My Advent series this year will follow the Words Matter Advent study from the National Council of Churches. Download the whole booklet if you’d like, and follow along with the writings for each day. I’d love to discuss them with you. Also, here is a link to the Advent readings from the Inclusive Bible. I prefer the more inclusive language here, than the NRSV texts used in the study booklet (be sure to read the note on page 6).
Luke 1:26-38
The devotional today talks about rushing around and trying to make Christmas come without the full length of Advent to get everything done.
I can really relate to this, because for about 10 years I served on a committee of the state Accounting Society, and we put on a training event in three cities across Texas, beginning the Monday after Thanksgiving, and ending the Wednesday of the second week of Advent.
I always felt rushed, and pushed, and never ready when Christmas actually came. I refused to put up decorations, either inside or outside, before Thanksgiving, so consequently the third weekend of Advent was spent in a mad rush to decorate the house, stringing lights in the bushes and around the door, and wrestling the 8-foot artificial Christmas Tree out of its bag, and into its stand, and then putting all the baubles and tinsel on it. Whew!!!
And that doesn’t begin to think about the presents that needed to be bought, and the food that needed to be cooked, and the packages that needed to be wrapped, etc., etc., etc.
The last two years, since I’ve been retired, have been a joy and a delight. I’ve had an opportunity to shop (mostly on-line) and get things done in plenty of time. I’ve even had time to consider Advent with this blog – last year reflecting on “Joy” throughout the month of December and this year, using this devotional. I’m happy to say that THIS year, I’m READY!
My Advent series this year will follow the Words Matter Advent study from the National Council of Churches. Download the whole booklet if you’d like, and follow along with the writings for each day. I’d love to discuss them with you. Also, here is a link to the Advent readings from the Inclusive Bible. I prefer the more inclusive language here, than the NRSV texts used in the study booklet (be sure to read the note on page 6).
Romans 16:25-27
The devotional tells us “Fear not”.
I know that most people don’t ever think I’m fearful. The fact is I am terrified of lots of things, lots of the time.
I’m mostly afraid of not being “the good girl.”And I know I’m not always the good girl. I know my mouth sometimes goes faster than my brain. I know I sometimes say hurtful things. I know I rarely love enough. I know I don’t give enough of either my money or myself. I know I should trust more. I know I shouldn’t keep my feeling so hidden. But the fact is I’m terrified of saying the wrong thing, or behaving the wrong way.
I know that I should remember the Beatitude that says “Greatly honored are you when people revile you, and persecute you for My sake,” but still I tremble to call out the rich and I worry about offending the people who are dooming the poor to poverty.
Dear G-d, help me to “Fear not” when confronted by prejudice, and cruelty. Help me to stand up for “the least of these.” Amen.
My Advent series this year will follow the Words Matter Advent study from the National Council of Churches. Download the whole booklet if you’d like, and follow along with the writings for each day. I’d love to discuss them with you. Also, here is a link to the Advent readings from the Inclusive Bible. I prefer the more inclusive language here, than the NRSV texts used in the study booklet (be sure to read the note on page 6).
John 1:6-8, 19-28
I’m not sure why it is that I am afraid to make a statement on my own, sometimes. I often find myself quoting someone else, couching my statements as “Someone on Facebook said…” or “I read in the New York Times…” Often the idea that I’m trying to get across is based on an amalgamation of several people’s ideas that I have synthesized into something almost unique. And yet, I’m timid about making a statement about what I think. I always want to point to someone else who said it or thought it first.
John the Baptist seems to be like this. He disavows being “The Prophet” or “Elijah” or “The Promised One.” He seems content to say “It was prophesied that one would come before the Messiah”, rather than just outright saying that’s who he is.
I wish I could just state my ideas rather than hiding behind other people’s quotations.
Maybe that’s the way I try to give weight to my voice, instead of having it just be “noise.”
An Aging Liberal Hippy from the Left Coast 