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In the recent popular the movie, “Gravity,” the setting for the story is outer space. The movie involves astronauts on a mission. The technology in the movie is amazing. The views of space and the earth are stunning. In the course of the story, characters become detached from the space station. Untethered. Loose. Without gravity for grounding. Floating, floating, floating. What will happen?

In several scenes in the movie, there are references to religion. In one scene, a character mentions not knowing how to pray. In another scene in the space module, there is a picture of a saint. Maybe it is St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. There is the image of the Ganges River in the sun, a river holy to Hindus. There is a statue of a Budai in one scene. There is a visit from someone who has died. All these things are indications of the spiritual life. Technology is well and good, but we need the life of the spirit to be tethered, grounded, and secure. The spiritual life gives us a context in which to develop and use technology. Technology is a tool. But you have to know what you want to make, or do, or accomplish. Then you can use the tool. Without spiritual grounding, we don’t know how to understand and apply our technological capabilities. As Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, our technology gets ahead of our morality and then there is trouble.

This Advent time is a season to reground ourselves in our spiritual underpinnings, our spiritual framework, our spiritual sensitivities. That is our tether, our connection, our sustaining link to life in its fullest.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways, my ways,” says Yahweh.
“As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.
For just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the sower and bread for food,
so will my word be
that goes forth from my mouth:
it will not return to me empty,
but will carry out my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
And you will go out joyfully,
and be led out in peace;
the mountains and hills before you
will break into cries of joy,
and all the trees in the countryside
will clap their hands. . .”
Isaiah 55:8-12

Prayer: May this Advent season be a time for us to connect, to feel our roots, to know our grounding in love and compassion. May we come to know our place in an awesome and vast universe. Tethered by love may we flourish and thrive. Amen.

How many dogs do you have? If you know me, then you know that I think pretty much everyone should have a dog. And if you don’t have a dog, you are depriving yourself of one of the greatest experiences of life. We have three dogs. All rescue. The oldest a 12 year old female German Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix. The middle one a 9 year old, 136 pound, male Newfoundland. The newest one a two year old, 40 something pound, male of unknown origins. They are dependable, predictable, attentive, and social. They bring so much life and joy to our household.

Last week when we went to the Interfaith Association presentation about Islam, it was mentioned that some Muslims don’t use the word G-O-D because it has the same letters as the word D-O-G. The similarity of the words is too close.

As the fortunate owner of 3 dogs, I find that my dogs teach me much about the spiritual life. They can sleep peacefully in the midst of chaos. When something good happens, regardless of when it is and what else is going on, they are overjoyed. They never tire of paying attention to what is going on around them and what their human family is doing. When they are needed, when they have to do something, they do it. No questions asked. They entertain themselves endlessly taking delight in life and the world around them. Chip and Dana, chaplains who are members of our church, mentioned that they contemplate writing a book entitled, “Everything I Needed to Know about Being A Chaplain I Learned from My Dog.” As I said, my dogs give me ample instruction in the spiritual life.

Now, take Christmas. A special day. A holy day. A day of gifts. A day with loved ones. A day to be grateful. A day of eating and drinking and playing with friends and family. For my dogs, that’s everyday. Everyday is like Christmas. And shouldn’t it be that way for us all – taking joy and delight in each and every day?

Forever I will sing the wonders of your love, Yahweh,
proclaiming your faithfulness to all generations!
I’ll tell them that your love stands firm forever,
your fidelity is fixed in the heavens.
Ps. 89:1-2

Prayer: We are grateful for the many ways that we experience the presence of the Divine. We pray for the capacity and discipline to appreciate the gifts of each day. We so want to be loyal to our desire to love with abandon. Amen.

December 17 is the birthday of Pope Francis. Even before his birthday and being named person of the year by TIME Magazine, he was the most talked about person on Facebook, outpacing even Miley Cyrus were her twerking and her tongue! Who would have thought that the pope could generate such interest without being involved in some kind of scandal?

The pope has become famous for his simple ways, for his compassion for all people, for his concern for the poor, for his desire to give women more of a role in the church, and for his humility. Basically, the pope has generated such notoriety simply by being himself, a follower of Jesus.

So many of the things that have attracted attention and interest relating to the pope are the basics of the Christian life. Things we see in the life of Jesus. Things that are present in the birth stories of Jesus. Jesus is born to poor parents. They are living in a situation of oppression. They don’t have full human rights. They live a materially simple life. They are not of high status or privilege. In the life and ministry of Jesus, we see the embodiment of humility. We see the choice to serve. We see compassion and sensitivity to all people especially those of little account. We see the equal valuing of every human life. Just as we see in the life of Pope Francis.

What people see and admire in the pope is what should be seen in all Christians. It is the incarnation of the way of Christ. And it should not be such a surprise least of all to Christians.

All I can say is that it is refreshing to have the pope show the world the face of the Christian church in way that so emulates the way of Jesus. It is refreshing to see such a positive presentation of Christianity to the world. It’s refreshing to see the church receiving notoriety for something good.

In this season as we celebrate the light of God coming into the world it is wonderful to see that light shining for all the world through Pope Francis who, incidently, has over 10 million Twitter followers and is one of the 50 most followed people on Twitter. Happy Birthday, Pope Francis!

In the word was life,
and that life was humanity’s light –
a Light shining in the darkness,
a light that the darkness has never overtaken.
John 1: 4-5

Prayer: In this season of shortened days and light at an odd angle, we are aware of the light of God coming into the world through Christ Jesus. May we look for that light. May we be led by that light. And may others see that light in us. Amen.

You have probably seen the saying, “Put Christ back in Christmas.” This, apparently, is an effort to eradicate the use of the term “Xmas.” I am not sure why we would want to eliminate the use of the term Xmas.

The X in Xmas is the English equivalent of the first letter of the word “Christ” in the Greek language. The Greek word is Χριστός. The X is simply an abbreviation. I have many notes that I have taken from lectures and books in which I have written the letter X to stand for Christ.

Often on a cross or altar we see the letters INRI. This is an abbreviation for the Latin “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum” which means “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews”. We have no problem with using those letters as an abbreviation.

We also use the letters IHS on altars and crosses. These letters refer to the Greek word “Jesus.” IHS is a monogram the first three Greek letters of the word Jesus transliterated into English.

We have no problem using Greek translations for IHS and INRI, so why the problem with X in reference to the Greek word for Christ? I don’t know. I will continue to use X in notes and personal writings and have no problem with using the shortened term Xmas for Christmas. To me, whatever the alphabet, whatever the language, Christ is. We cannot take Christ out of Christmas or anything else. We may shorten the letters, but the love is still the same.

No one has ever seen God;
it is the Only Begotten,
ever at Abbas’ side,
who has revealed God to us.
John 1:18

Prayer: We pray for the openness to see Christ in ourselves and in others. May we see that light and love shining brightly this season of joy and celebration. Amen.

On the 16th of June in 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to go into space. She orbited the earth 48 times and was in space for almost three days. On that voyage, she spent more time in space than all the American astronauts combined up to that date. Just this week, two women were the top candidates in the election for the president of Columbia. With regard to the church, I spoke with a man in the Catholic hierarchy this week who expressed disappointment and regret that Pope Francis has made it known that the ordination of women is not on the table during his papacy. To me, the disappointment of my colleague was a welcome surprise.

In these Advent weeks, we have been thinking about the women in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Learning about these woman shows the extremely confining social circumstances that they faced. While there may have been reasons for the restrictions within the structure of the society as a whole, it still seems that these narrow roles for women were more than based on need, but also simply outright inequality and oppression.

The agency, courage, and resilience of the women in the genealogy of Jesus inspire our discipleship. We are challenged by these women to live our faith with conviction and creativity. And that includes continuing to work for the equality of women in the church and in society in the US and around the world. That job is not yet done.

In Christ there is no Jew or Greek. slave or citizen, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28

Prayer: We are thankful for the wondrous potential that is imbued in the human spirit. We pray for the courage to cultivate that potential in ourselves and in the wider world. Jesus shows us all that life can be when we are free to love and serve. In this season of Advent may we honor the freedom and equality of all people as Jesus did. Amen.