Dear friends,

     The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

     We love the light and seek the darkness.

     God meets us at the intersection of Sunny Side Up and Dark Side Down.

     We dance in the sun and cavort in the shadows.         

     We do what we hate and avoid what we long for.

     We gird self with righteousness and battle self to a scoreless tie.

     Enough.                       

     To be human, for me, at least, means to be hitched to two teams of oxen – Who I Am vs. Who I Want to Be. My best efforts disappoint me, most of the time, and I’m not talking myself down, either. That’s just the way I am. This is not the rambling brokenness of a person with low self-esteem. In fact, my self-esteem has never been in better shape. However, the more I have, the more I want. And the more I try, the less I get. I fancy that it was just at about this point that the Apostle Paul screamed out, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from all this stuff?!?

     God meets us at the intersection of who we are and who God knows we can become.

     God sends his essence, which we call the Christ, to dwells in us and among us.

     God has an iron stomach, and God is not daunted by darkness.

     Thanks be to God!

     Left to myself, I would be a memory – a memory seeking a mind to send signals to the somatic receptors that release the brain chemicals of caring.

     Left to myself, I would be a grease spot on the highway of life.

     Left to myself, there would be nothing right about me.

     Left to myself, there would be no me.

     Left to myself, I would be left behind.

     In this darkness God bids us come and be safe under his wings.

     God’s is the darkness that is dazzling.

     God’s is the darkness that is bright.

     God’s is the darkness that makes us say, Darkness, darkness draw me closer.

     For God made the darkness just as surely as God made the light.

     Left to myself, I would make a darkness that would not lift, a darkness of death.

     And since God made the darkness as well as the light, I am not afraid. Well, not all the time, anyway. When memory serves, I remember what is important, that God is all light, and in God there is no darkness at all. That the darkness is in God’s creation, and that the darkness is inside God’s awareness and in God’s plan.

                       ***

     Into a dark world, God sends love and assistance, clarity and lightness.

     God sends God’s Son, whom we call Jesus.

     And that has made all the difference.

     The Good News we share and celebrate we know by the name of Advent.

     The materialism that we share and celebrate we know by the name of Christmas.

     Light and dark, spiritual and material.

     Being human, we blur the lines and whir the mix into one big blended drink, and we call the resulting eggnog Christmas. Those among us with finer sensibilities, and clumsy utensils, deconstruct the concoction we call Christmas to call us to repentance for losing the true meaning of Christmas.

     Whatever.

     I forget to mention that my favorite color is grey.

                         ***

     My brothers and sisters in Christ, be who you are, knowing that God is pleased.

     Be who you can be, knowing that God is even more pleased.

     Be who you are, knowing that God delights in you.

     You are not alone. You are part of a community – several, in fact.

     Christmas, Advent, light, dark – these are only words, and they are only what you make of them. Look beyond the words to what the words can only point to.

     I call this God.

     I call this season Advent, and to me Advent is a time of preparation, a time to get ready for the Christ ... to be born once again ... in me and around me.

     A time to lose me in us.

     I call this God, too.

     I know God by many names, and in many times and places.

     I know God to be God, no matter what, no matter who, no matter how or why or when.

     I know God.

     Blessings and peace!