I suspect that I am one of the few people who love the short days and the early nights. Ever since I was a little girl, I have yearned for the darkness and silence of December evenings. The dark is luscious, rich, deep, and I feel enveloped and held by it.
It wasn’t until I was in my teens that I became aware that the time of early darkness coincided with the season of Advent. Suddenly, my love of the darkness made sense to me. I am such an extroverted personality – and I have been all of my life – that it is difficult for me to be still, to wait, to be contemplative. As the darkness creeps in around 4:00 PM, I can feel my body go quiet and still. Without willing it, without any work on my part, I find myself still and waiting.
I know now that what I wait for in the stillness is the fullness of God to grow within me. For me, the darkness is pregnant with possibility and hope. As I rest in the silence, God’s voice gets stronger within me. My deepest yearnings surface and I find myself looking at my self and my gifts in new ways. I see the world more clearly and I begin to puzzle out how God might be asking me to make a difference, to contribute more to the world around me, to be a light that shines in the darkness. The themes of Advent echo through the darkness to me in an almost embodied way. I feel the rhythms of new life pulsing inside me. It is holy time. Advent is a 'waiting" time - a purple season when we prepare for the coming of Jesus. We remember God's coming to us in the form of the baby Jesus and we await the day of Jesus'coming again. In the words of the new song the children are learning this year, we, "Get Ready!"
This Advent, I invite you to let the darkness envelop you and your family. Rather than try to cram as much as you can into the holiday season, let the early coming of night wrap your family in a cocoon. Light your Advent wreath at dinner, hold hands as you pray together and linger a few moments before dashing off to making lunches for tomorrow, catching up on email/voicemail and starting the kids off on their homework. Just rest in each other and the candles glow. Don’t direct the conversation or feel like you must accomplish anything productive. Just BE together and let the Holy Spirit fill you and yours. Wait. See what happens. Something new will come of it in God’s time.
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
More Than Enough
In this busy, stressful, competitive world of ours, we are focused on performance. What we do - and how well we do it - defines us. Or so we think anyway. We worry about what our friends, our families, our neighbors, our bosses and a host of other folks think of us.
Thanksgiving is a time when we get to take a breath and realize that God does not judge us on our performance. God loves us simply because we ARE - each of us a unique creation reflecting "the image and likeness" (Genesis 1:26) of our Creator. This is where the heart of our thanksgiving prayer comes from - a realization that God loves us and gifts us with our talents, our livelihoods, our children, our homes, our food, etc simply because God LOVES us.
Two weeks ago in this space, I spoke about the different kinds of prayer. One type of prayer is “Thanks!” Meister Eckhart, a German philosopher who lived during the Middle Ages wrote, “ If the only prayer you say in your entire life is ‘thank you,’ it would be enough.” Prayers of thanksgiving are the easiest ones to say, yet they are also the easiest ones to forget to say. Our constant pursuit of perfection blinds us to what is already more than “good enough” in our lives. We miss the moments of gratitude as we move from expectation to expectation in our over-full days.
I am guilty of this myself. As I balance the demands of life in the parish with life in the family, I am focus on the next task to be done. Did I get the Chronicle article written? Is the laundry load ready to go into the dryer? Do I have time to return that email before I get my 4th grader launched on his homework? And what are we going to have for dinner? I spend a lot of my time wondering if I will ever get it all done – and if I will get it done well.
And in the doing of all that, I forget to notice what is good in my life – I have work I love, a child overcoming learning disabilities with the help of a wonderful support system, a family to gather around a table that has plenty of good food on it. When I take a moment to give thanks for these blessings, I realize that the world will not end if the laundry isn’t folded and put away at once, that it doesn’t really matter if I send the email now or if I send it an hour later and that the homework will still get done if I take a moment to sit quietly with my son and just enjoy who he is.
God neither expects nor requires perfection. God asks only for grateful hearts sharing love with others. So this Thanksgiving week, stop worrying about whether or not the turkey will be dry or if there will be enough mashed potatoes - come to your Thanksgiving table with a grateful heart. You will not leave empty - and it will be more than enough.
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Thanksgiving is a time when we get to take a breath and realize that God does not judge us on our performance. God loves us simply because we ARE - each of us a unique creation reflecting "the image and likeness" (Genesis 1:26) of our Creator. This is where the heart of our thanksgiving prayer comes from - a realization that God loves us and gifts us with our talents, our livelihoods, our children, our homes, our food, etc simply because God LOVES us.
Two weeks ago in this space, I spoke about the different kinds of prayer. One type of prayer is “Thanks!” Meister Eckhart, a German philosopher who lived during the Middle Ages wrote, “ If the only prayer you say in your entire life is ‘thank you,’ it would be enough.” Prayers of thanksgiving are the easiest ones to say, yet they are also the easiest ones to forget to say. Our constant pursuit of perfection blinds us to what is already more than “good enough” in our lives. We miss the moments of gratitude as we move from expectation to expectation in our over-full days.
I am guilty of this myself. As I balance the demands of life in the parish with life in the family, I am focus on the next task to be done. Did I get the Chronicle article written? Is the laundry load ready to go into the dryer? Do I have time to return that email before I get my 4th grader launched on his homework? And what are we going to have for dinner? I spend a lot of my time wondering if I will ever get it all done – and if I will get it done well.
And in the doing of all that, I forget to notice what is good in my life – I have work I love, a child overcoming learning disabilities with the help of a wonderful support system, a family to gather around a table that has plenty of good food on it. When I take a moment to give thanks for these blessings, I realize that the world will not end if the laundry isn’t folded and put away at once, that it doesn’t really matter if I send the email now or if I send it an hour later and that the homework will still get done if I take a moment to sit quietly with my son and just enjoy who he is.
God neither expects nor requires perfection. God asks only for grateful hearts sharing love with others. So this Thanksgiving week, stop worrying about whether or not the turkey will be dry or if there will be enough mashed potatoes - come to your Thanksgiving table with a grateful heart. You will not leave empty - and it will be more than enough.
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Children and Worship
Parents of 4th - 7th graders will be receiving a letter this week inviting your children to serve as worship leaders by joining the SUMC acolyte team. The Worship & Ministry Commission wants to revive this tradition during our Sunday morning worship.
The word "acolyte" comes from the Greek word "akólouthos" meaning "follower." The same Greek word is used in Mark 6:34, "If any want to become my followers, let them take up their cross and follow me." An acolyte is first of all one who follows Jesus.
In the context of worship, acolytes are also leaders. Their following of Jesus calls them to serve at worship, bearing the light of Christ into the sanctuary and lighting the candles as we begin worship. At the conclusion of the worship service, they extinguish the candles burning on the altar, while they continue to carry the flame of light back down the aisle for us to follow out into the world to love and serve in Jesus' name. This is an important way of following Jesus and an important way of serving the congregation through leadership in worship. The call of children to lead in the Church is written in our scriptures, Isaiah 11:6 tells us, "And a little child shall lead them."
I am a big believer that children of all ages should be invited and expected to serve and lead at worship. We are NEVER too young to learn that our gifts have a place at the altar, that the gifts given to us by our loving Creator God should be gratefully offered back God with praise and thanksgiving. Leading as acolytes, singing in the choir, reading the scripture lesson the day, serving as ushers are all important ways that children find their place in the household of God.
We are presently recruiting 4th - 7th graders to join this important ministry. Please contact John Iberg (jwi0841@verizon.net) if your child is interested by December 1st. I will be leading training for our new acolytes on Sunday, December 6th immediately following worship and they will be installed in their ministry on Sunday, December 13th. During the service on the 13th, they will be given a wooden cross to remind them that they are picking up their cross as "followers" of Jesus.
If you are the parent, godparent or grandparent of a 4th-7th grader, please encourage your children to participate in this important ministry. If you are a member of the congregation, please take a moment to let those you see serving at the altar know that you find their presence meaningful and enriching.
Thank you so much for your support!
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
The word "acolyte" comes from the Greek word "akólouthos" meaning "follower." The same Greek word is used in Mark 6:34, "If any want to become my followers, let them take up their cross and follow me." An acolyte is first of all one who follows Jesus.
In the context of worship, acolytes are also leaders. Their following of Jesus calls them to serve at worship, bearing the light of Christ into the sanctuary and lighting the candles as we begin worship. At the conclusion of the worship service, they extinguish the candles burning on the altar, while they continue to carry the flame of light back down the aisle for us to follow out into the world to love and serve in Jesus' name. This is an important way of following Jesus and an important way of serving the congregation through leadership in worship. The call of children to lead in the Church is written in our scriptures, Isaiah 11:6 tells us, "And a little child shall lead them."
I am a big believer that children of all ages should be invited and expected to serve and lead at worship. We are NEVER too young to learn that our gifts have a place at the altar, that the gifts given to us by our loving Creator God should be gratefully offered back God with praise and thanksgiving. Leading as acolytes, singing in the choir, reading the scripture lesson the day, serving as ushers are all important ways that children find their place in the household of God.
We are presently recruiting 4th - 7th graders to join this important ministry. Please contact John Iberg (jwi0841@verizon.net) if your child is interested by December 1st. I will be leading training for our new acolytes on Sunday, December 6th immediately following worship and they will be installed in their ministry on Sunday, December 13th. During the service on the 13th, they will be given a wooden cross to remind them that they are picking up their cross as "followers" of Jesus.
If you are the parent, godparent or grandparent of a 4th-7th grader, please encourage your children to participate in this important ministry. If you are a member of the congregation, please take a moment to let those you see serving at the altar know that you find their presence meaningful and enriching.
Thank you so much for your support!
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Thanks! Wow! Gimme! Oops! Don't Forget!
Talking with God and listening for God's response is the beginning of wisdom for all of us. Jesus prayed often, both alone and with his friends, and left us the perfect prayer, what we call "the Lord's Prayer" as a model for how we can pray.
The tradition of the Church categorizes prayer into different types. There are prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of adoration, prayers of petition, prayers of repentance and prayers of intercession. These are pretty big words, some of them loaded and it can be difficult enough to figure out how to pray them in our own lives, never mind teach them to our children. But if we get to the core of these different types of prayer, we can describe them as "Thanks!" "Wow!" "Gimme," "Ooops!" and "Don't Forget!" Sounds a little less formidable, doesn't it? And I'll bet you already pray many of these kinds of prayers. Here are my thoughts on teaching them and praying them with your children at home.
THANKS! is one of the easiest ways we talk to God. When something wonderful happens to us, it is time to remember that all good things are gifts from God and we need to take a breath and take the time to thank God for blessing us. Thanksgivings are an easy way to begin praying with your children. Grace before meals is an example of a thanksgiving prayer - and they are good models for other "thank you" prayers. The words aren't anywhere near as important as the feeling of gratitude we express.
WOW! is another easy and obvious way to pray with your children. When you see a beautiful sunset, hold a new brother or sister for the first time, or play in the first snow of the winter it is easy to be amazed by the world God has created so lovingly. Sometimes the feeling of awe we have is beyond words, but, again, the words aren't what is important. Simply to stand in the presence of God's work and acknowledge that it leaves you breathless is enough. Awe inspires wonder and children are wonderful at wondering. Invite them into the experience with you!
GIMME! These prayers require a bit more negotiation with your children to help them understand. It is always tempting to pray for things we want but don't need. We may want to hit the ball out of the park, but is that really the sort of thing we should ask God for? When your child wants to offer a prayer like this one, we need to gently guide them into the proper way of understanding what God wants for us. There is nothing wrong with asking God to help you use your abilities to their fullest or to be a graceful winner, but to ask to win games, get prizes or to be popular doesn't help us to learn to trust God and to rely on the good things God gives us. Gimme! is a normal desire of human nature, but it is one that needs to be tempered. The Lord's Prayer is a good model (granted, it's wordy!) for what a Gimme prayer might look like - what we ask for reveals our dependency on God and our desire to help make the world the way God wants it to be.
OOPS! Just as we teach our children to apologize to others, we need to teach them to apologize to God. One of the biggest reasons to talk to God is to learn how to be sorry for the things we do that hurt other people, hurt ourselves, hurt the world and hurt God. As we pray Oops prayers we begin to understand what we did wrong, our hearts soften and we learn not only how to ask for forgiveness from others, but we learn what it feels like to be forgiven. God ALWAYS forgives us and can help us to forgive ourselves and others. This one is a life long lesson for all of us and we are never to young to start!
DON'T FORGET! These are the prayers we offer for others - asking God to bless them, to heal them or to help them with some kind of difficulty in their lives. Again, this is an important lesson in being a grace-filled human being that can never be started too early in life. At bedtime we can invite our children to bless those they love by remembering them to God and asking God's blessing upon them. We can help our children pray for the playground bully or the friend who is too sick to come over and play. Life offers many opportunities to pray for others.
Prayer is a gift always available to us - wherever we are, whomever we are with, whatever the circumstance. It is never too early (or too late) to begin a practice of prayer. With Thanksgiving just over the horizon, now is a good time to begin counting our blessings. Make a list of your blessings as a family and start praying! I am sure that praying thanksgivings together will lead you into the other forms of prayer as well. Praying with our children is one of the greatest privileges of parenthood. To see into and share the joys, hurts and worries of our children's hearts is one of those experiences that always leads me to both THANKS! and WOW! prayers. I'll bet you will find it the same!
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
The tradition of the Church categorizes prayer into different types. There are prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of adoration, prayers of petition, prayers of repentance and prayers of intercession. These are pretty big words, some of them loaded and it can be difficult enough to figure out how to pray them in our own lives, never mind teach them to our children. But if we get to the core of these different types of prayer, we can describe them as "Thanks!" "Wow!" "Gimme," "Ooops!" and "Don't Forget!" Sounds a little less formidable, doesn't it? And I'll bet you already pray many of these kinds of prayers. Here are my thoughts on teaching them and praying them with your children at home.
THANKS! is one of the easiest ways we talk to God. When something wonderful happens to us, it is time to remember that all good things are gifts from God and we need to take a breath and take the time to thank God for blessing us. Thanksgivings are an easy way to begin praying with your children. Grace before meals is an example of a thanksgiving prayer - and they are good models for other "thank you" prayers. The words aren't anywhere near as important as the feeling of gratitude we express.
WOW! is another easy and obvious way to pray with your children. When you see a beautiful sunset, hold a new brother or sister for the first time, or play in the first snow of the winter it is easy to be amazed by the world God has created so lovingly. Sometimes the feeling of awe we have is beyond words, but, again, the words aren't what is important. Simply to stand in the presence of God's work and acknowledge that it leaves you breathless is enough. Awe inspires wonder and children are wonderful at wondering. Invite them into the experience with you!
GIMME! These prayers require a bit more negotiation with your children to help them understand. It is always tempting to pray for things we want but don't need. We may want to hit the ball out of the park, but is that really the sort of thing we should ask God for? When your child wants to offer a prayer like this one, we need to gently guide them into the proper way of understanding what God wants for us. There is nothing wrong with asking God to help you use your abilities to their fullest or to be a graceful winner, but to ask to win games, get prizes or to be popular doesn't help us to learn to trust God and to rely on the good things God gives us. Gimme! is a normal desire of human nature, but it is one that needs to be tempered. The Lord's Prayer is a good model (granted, it's wordy!) for what a Gimme prayer might look like - what we ask for reveals our dependency on God and our desire to help make the world the way God wants it to be.
OOPS! Just as we teach our children to apologize to others, we need to teach them to apologize to God. One of the biggest reasons to talk to God is to learn how to be sorry for the things we do that hurt other people, hurt ourselves, hurt the world and hurt God. As we pray Oops prayers we begin to understand what we did wrong, our hearts soften and we learn not only how to ask for forgiveness from others, but we learn what it feels like to be forgiven. God ALWAYS forgives us and can help us to forgive ourselves and others. This one is a life long lesson for all of us and we are never to young to start!
DON'T FORGET! These are the prayers we offer for others - asking God to bless them, to heal them or to help them with some kind of difficulty in their lives. Again, this is an important lesson in being a grace-filled human being that can never be started too early in life. At bedtime we can invite our children to bless those they love by remembering them to God and asking God's blessing upon them. We can help our children pray for the playground bully or the friend who is too sick to come over and play. Life offers many opportunities to pray for others.
Prayer is a gift always available to us - wherever we are, whomever we are with, whatever the circumstance. It is never too early (or too late) to begin a practice of prayer. With Thanksgiving just over the horizon, now is a good time to begin counting our blessings. Make a list of your blessings as a family and start praying! I am sure that praying thanksgivings together will lead you into the other forms of prayer as well. Praying with our children is one of the greatest privileges of parenthood. To see into and share the joys, hurts and worries of our children's hearts is one of those experiences that always leads me to both THANKS! and WOW! prayers. I'll bet you will find it the same!
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Sunday, October 25, 2009
"I Sing a Song of the Saints of God"
Ever since I was a little girl, I have HATED Halloween. It scared me as a child and as an adult, it seems to me to be a celebration of the perversion of goodness. Ghosts, goblins, witches and "things that go bump in the night" are the manifestations of both our fears and our all too human tendencies to yield to temptation and the darker sides of our humanity.
"Halloween" is conflation of what the early Church called "All Hallow's Eve." "Hallow" is an Old English word that means "holy". All Hallows Eve falls the night before the celebration of All Saints' Day. Dressing up as saints or sinners,the early Christian community made visible the struggle between good and evil in the world. As All Saints' Day dawns, Christians remember with love those saints of the faith - both known and unknown - who have gone before us and handed on their examples, their wisdom and their love of God.
While Halloween is my least favorite day of the year, All Saints' is my FAVORITE feast day of the Christian year. All of the other festivals of the Christian year
celebrate the wonderful things God has done for us. All Saints' Day celebrates our response to what God has done for us. As we remember the faithful who have gone before us, we give thanks for their loving response to God, their witness and for the faith they have passed on to us.
We tend to think of the Saint's with capital "S's" - St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Francis - but All Saints' also celebrates the saints with the little "s's," the folks whose lives of faith may be known only to us. In my family, we celebrate All Saints' by placing on our family altar things that remind us of the saints with the little "s's" in our lives: my grandmother's bible, a letter written by a deceased godparent, pictures of the saints who are living among us still. We give thanks to God as a family for the people who help us know and love Jesus.
I invite you and your family to do the same this All Saints' Day. Remember in love your family's saints. And then remember that we, too, are the saints of God, made so at our baptisms - just ordinary human beings transformed through water into God's people. New to the Methodist hymnal, I was delighted to find an old familiar and favorite All Saints' hymn, "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God" - hymn #712. At each refrain, we remember saints of all sorts, "and one was a doctor, and one was a queen, and one was shepherdess on the green" . . . "and one was a soldier, and one was a priest, and one was slain by a fierce wild beast" . . . and one is YOU!
In thanksgiving for the saints among us,
Elizabeth
"Halloween" is conflation of what the early Church called "All Hallow's Eve." "Hallow" is an Old English word that means "holy". All Hallows Eve falls the night before the celebration of All Saints' Day. Dressing up as saints or sinners,the early Christian community made visible the struggle between good and evil in the world. As All Saints' Day dawns, Christians remember with love those saints of the faith - both known and unknown - who have gone before us and handed on their examples, their wisdom and their love of God.
While Halloween is my least favorite day of the year, All Saints' is my FAVORITE feast day of the Christian year. All of the other festivals of the Christian year
celebrate the wonderful things God has done for us. All Saints' Day celebrates our response to what God has done for us. As we remember the faithful who have gone before us, we give thanks for their loving response to God, their witness and for the faith they have passed on to us.
We tend to think of the Saint's with capital "S's" - St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Francis - but All Saints' also celebrates the saints with the little "s's," the folks whose lives of faith may be known only to us. In my family, we celebrate All Saints' by placing on our family altar things that remind us of the saints with the little "s's" in our lives: my grandmother's bible, a letter written by a deceased godparent, pictures of the saints who are living among us still. We give thanks to God as a family for the people who help us know and love Jesus.
I invite you and your family to do the same this All Saints' Day. Remember in love your family's saints. And then remember that we, too, are the saints of God, made so at our baptisms - just ordinary human beings transformed through water into God's people. New to the Methodist hymnal, I was delighted to find an old familiar and favorite All Saints' hymn, "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God" - hymn #712. At each refrain, we remember saints of all sorts, "and one was a doctor, and one was a queen, and one was shepherdess on the green" . . . "and one was a soldier, and one was a priest, and one was slain by a fierce wild beast" . . . and one is YOU!
In thanksgiving for the saints among us,
Elizabeth
Sunday, October 18, 2009
About This Blog
A cradle Christian, I spoke the language of faith from birth. I have a seminary education and certainly felt comfortable raising my children as Christians. With years of experience as a professional Christian educator under my belt, I was sure that I was up to the challenge of sharing the Christian faith with my children.
So you can imagine my surprise one Palm Sunday when my then eight-year-old elder son piled into the car after Church and said, "Ok, Mom - So who's Hosanna anyway? I get the whole Father, Son and Holy Spirit thing, but just who is this Hosanna person and how come I haven't heard about him before?" Having processed around the Church that day with his palm branch, my son was sure that "Hosanna" was a previously un-named manifestation of the Holy Spirit that for some bizzare reason we had decided to sing about only on this particular Sunday. Rather chagrined, I explained that "Hosanna" is not a person, but rather a Hebrew word meaning "save now" or "please save." We sing it and say it on Palm Sunday to re-enact Jesus' entry into Jerusalem that final Passover before his crucifixion. He seemed satisfied with my answer, but I drove home wondering just what other bits of confusion about his faith he might be musing on - and I was considerably less impressed by my effectiveness in sharing my faith at home!
I share this story because I think all Christian parents - no matter how strong our faith or whether or not we were raised in the Church - have questions about sharing and teaching faith at home. Even if our children regularly attend Sunday School, they have questions they bring only to us. We want to answer them, but we are afraid we might say the wrong thing, or we don't have the "right" answer or we aren't sure about the answer ourselves. This is perfectly normal in the life of a Christian family.
I hope this blog can be a place for us to talk about our questions, to learn together about what it means to make a life of faith as a family and to share the joy and struggles of raising children in the faith. I will post weekly with information about the liturgical seasons, suggestions for activities and prayers to share at home and provide references to websites and books and other media that will help you and your family live a rich life of faith together at home. As you comment and respond, I will get a better sense of what your questions are, of the things that we need more information about and I will know how to better support you and help you support one another as we share the raising of our children in faith as families and as a Church community.
So welcome to this new adventure! Let's enjoy the journey together!
Faithfully.
Elizabeth
So you can imagine my surprise one Palm Sunday when my then eight-year-old elder son piled into the car after Church and said, "Ok, Mom - So who's Hosanna anyway? I get the whole Father, Son and Holy Spirit thing, but just who is this Hosanna person and how come I haven't heard about him before?" Having processed around the Church that day with his palm branch, my son was sure that "Hosanna" was a previously un-named manifestation of the Holy Spirit that for some bizzare reason we had decided to sing about only on this particular Sunday. Rather chagrined, I explained that "Hosanna" is not a person, but rather a Hebrew word meaning "save now" or "please save." We sing it and say it on Palm Sunday to re-enact Jesus' entry into Jerusalem that final Passover before his crucifixion. He seemed satisfied with my answer, but I drove home wondering just what other bits of confusion about his faith he might be musing on - and I was considerably less impressed by my effectiveness in sharing my faith at home!
I share this story because I think all Christian parents - no matter how strong our faith or whether or not we were raised in the Church - have questions about sharing and teaching faith at home. Even if our children regularly attend Sunday School, they have questions they bring only to us. We want to answer them, but we are afraid we might say the wrong thing, or we don't have the "right" answer or we aren't sure about the answer ourselves. This is perfectly normal in the life of a Christian family.
I hope this blog can be a place for us to talk about our questions, to learn together about what it means to make a life of faith as a family and to share the joy and struggles of raising children in the faith. I will post weekly with information about the liturgical seasons, suggestions for activities and prayers to share at home and provide references to websites and books and other media that will help you and your family live a rich life of faith together at home. As you comment and respond, I will get a better sense of what your questions are, of the things that we need more information about and I will know how to better support you and help you support one another as we share the raising of our children in faith as families and as a Church community.
So welcome to this new adventure! Let's enjoy the journey together!
Faithfully.
Elizabeth
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