Several months ago, I blogged about vestments (robes and stoles) and paraments (table cloths and pulpit/lectern banners). You might remember that the colors and symbols portray meaning for the day or season of the Church liturgical year. Currently, we are in the Christmastide season, which runs from Christmas through January 5th. The Christmastide season is also called the 12 days of Christmas or the Yuletide.
The liturgical color for the Christmastide season is white and gold. Obviously, gold represents the gold given to Christ by the Magi, a gift appropriate for a king. Gold and white also represent purity and holiness. The colors further symbolize divine illumination, the Light of Heaven, and the Incarnation of God.
The stole I wore for Christmas Eve and the 1st Sunday after Christmas and will wear this coming Sunday is a white stole with blue and black crosses. The blue, as in the Advent season, represents Jesus’ royalty. The smaller black crosses are black signifying our need for penitence in response to God’s incarnation. Black used to be the appropriate color for the season of Advent; however, the church has shifted to blue and violet emphasizing Christ’s royalty and de-emphasizing penitence.
The cross on the stole and throughout our churches and homes, not only represents the crucifixion of Christ; the cross reminds us of God’s redeeming grace reconciling us to God. The cross on my stole is different than the cross we are used to seeing. The Latin cross, like the one on the Communion Table, has a longer bottom arm and is most common. The oldest form of the cross represented in the church is the Tau cross which has 4 arms of equal length. The cross on my stole is called the Jerusalem cross. Like the Tau cross, it has 4 equal arms; but, the Jerusalem cross has 4 smaller crosses surrounding the larger one. The smaller crosses represent the 4 Gospels and the 4 directions in which the Gospel was spread.
This particular stole is probably my favorite. I bought it in Jerusalem at a fair-trade shop. It was hand-stitched by women in Gaza and the price of the stole is based on providing a living wage for the women who work on the stoles and other gifts in the fair-trade shop. It is important to watch for fair-trade items when purchasing gifts on your international travel. Often, the price of trinkets you buy for yourself and loved ones are sold for so little that the workers will continue to live in poverty. A fair-trade price for your treasure will be more expensive, but you can be sure that your money is helping the maker to live above the poverty level.
May the Light of the World illumine your path,
Rev. Tracy
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Happy Holidays!
I have seen it on bumper stickers. I have heard it from friends. I have seen it in store windows. I have heard it on the radio. I have seen it in it halogen. What is it? Keep Christ in Christmas.
My dear friend and colleague Rev. Andrea Brownlee recently blogged about the concern of keeping Christ in Christmas. I gotta give credit where credit is due. She too had her, “I wish they would stop trying to take Christ out of Christmas.” She asks, “Who are they and why are you concerned about how they are celebrating Christmas…the only person who can take Christ out of YOUR Christmas…is you!
It’s tough to hear, but she’s right. I am responsible for remaining focused on the Christ child as I bake cookies, unwrap gifts, and sing carols. I am responsible for seeing the reason for the season as I carry on family traditions. I am responsible for devoting time to Christ. I am responsible for remembering that this season would be naught if it were not for the gift of love incarnate.
I can’t say you need to do this or that to keep Christ in your Christmas. I am praying and reading Scriptures and studying and praying and practicing other spiritual disciplines for my spiritual journey as I await the Christ child to be born again. As for you, you are responsible for what you will do to keep Christ in your Christmas.
One of the difficulties Christians face is holiday greetings. Many say that replacing Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays is just another way of taking Christ out of Christmas. Truth be told, it doesn’t matter. If someone says Happy Holidays, you, as a Christian, have the right and privilege of replying, “Merry Christmas.” When Christ is in your Christmas, it doesn’t matter what others say to you, because you’re going to have a Merry Christmas.
May love fill your Christmas,
Rev. Tracy
My dear friend and colleague Rev. Andrea Brownlee recently blogged about the concern of keeping Christ in Christmas. I gotta give credit where credit is due. She too had her, “I wish they would stop trying to take Christ out of Christmas.” She asks, “Who are they and why are you concerned about how they are celebrating Christmas…the only person who can take Christ out of YOUR Christmas…is you!
It’s tough to hear, but she’s right. I am responsible for remaining focused on the Christ child as I bake cookies, unwrap gifts, and sing carols. I am responsible for seeing the reason for the season as I carry on family traditions. I am responsible for devoting time to Christ. I am responsible for remembering that this season would be naught if it were not for the gift of love incarnate.
I can’t say you need to do this or that to keep Christ in your Christmas. I am praying and reading Scriptures and studying and praying and practicing other spiritual disciplines for my spiritual journey as I await the Christ child to be born again. As for you, you are responsible for what you will do to keep Christ in your Christmas.
One of the difficulties Christians face is holiday greetings. Many say that replacing Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays is just another way of taking Christ out of Christmas. Truth be told, it doesn’t matter. If someone says Happy Holidays, you, as a Christian, have the right and privilege of replying, “Merry Christmas.” When Christ is in your Christmas, it doesn’t matter what others say to you, because you’re going to have a Merry Christmas.
May love fill your Christmas,
Rev. Tracy
Friday, December 10, 2010
Keep out!
As the journey through Israel and Palestine continued, we met with Palestinian and Israeli leaders who actively seek a peaceful end to the feud over land rights. My group asked each leader what we could do, as Americans, when we returned to our homes, schools, and churches. What could we do to help there be peace in the Holy Land that people have been staking claim to since, it seems, the beginning of civilization? It was hard to think that I, little ol’ me, could make a difference when world leaders had been trying to facilitate peace talks for many years. Every leader we asked answered by telling us simply to share their story with our network of friends, family, classmates, and fellow Christians when we returned.
The part of the story I’d like to share with you is apartheid. Apartheid is, according to Merriam-Webster, “racial segregation, specifically: a form[al] policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination.” I can think of far too many policies past and present that sanctioned discrimination and segregation, though they may not have all been officially labeled apartheid.
The current state of Israel’s policy toward Palestinians is by definition apartheid. Israel, with international financial aid – including help from the United States, built a structure around the areas that are recognized as Palestinian land, such as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This structure is most often called the Apartheid Wall or the Separation Barrier.
This Separation Barrier was not built for Israel to occupy Palestine, but to protect the Israeli people from suicide bombers and other acts of terrorism. For that purpose, it has been very successful; however, it divides Israelis from Palestinians. This causes economic, political, medical, and educational hardships for the Palestinians. Much of the Palestinian economy relies on travel and tourism while travel and tourism is down because so many people think it is unsafe to travel to the West Bank.
Did you know? You can not visit many of the Holy sites without entering the West Bank. You can not enter the West Bank without passing through the Separation Barrier checkpoints guarded and monitored by armed Israeli soldiers. Today, the shepherds would not be able to get to baby Jesus in the manger without passing through a checkpoint at the Separation Barrier.
Their story of apartheid in the Holy Land has lifted up two lessons for me. First, God is not a real estate agent. God pays no mind to one nation living here while another lives there. We can own land, fight over land, build on land, ruin land, occupy land; regardless, it is all God’s land.
Second, how can we call land the Holy Land? God is present in all places. Yes, on some land, very significant events happened which changed forever our relationship with God. Those sites we do revere. But, holy means to be sanctified or set aside for God’s purposes. It seems to me that God would be more concerned about us living out the purposes for which God set us aside than some plot of land.
Of course, the Palestinian and Israeli leaders also asked for our prayers to God that justice, righteousness, and peace would reign in the land.
May we remember that we belong to God who created us from the land,
Rev. Tracy
The part of the story I’d like to share with you is apartheid. Apartheid is, according to Merriam-Webster, “racial segregation, specifically: a form[al] policy of segregation and political and economic discrimination.” I can think of far too many policies past and present that sanctioned discrimination and segregation, though they may not have all been officially labeled apartheid.
The current state of Israel’s policy toward Palestinians is by definition apartheid. Israel, with international financial aid – including help from the United States, built a structure around the areas that are recognized as Palestinian land, such as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This structure is most often called the Apartheid Wall or the Separation Barrier.
This Separation Barrier was not built for Israel to occupy Palestine, but to protect the Israeli people from suicide bombers and other acts of terrorism. For that purpose, it has been very successful; however, it divides Israelis from Palestinians. This causes economic, political, medical, and educational hardships for the Palestinians. Much of the Palestinian economy relies on travel and tourism while travel and tourism is down because so many people think it is unsafe to travel to the West Bank.
Did you know? You can not visit many of the Holy sites without entering the West Bank. You can not enter the West Bank without passing through the Separation Barrier checkpoints guarded and monitored by armed Israeli soldiers. Today, the shepherds would not be able to get to baby Jesus in the manger without passing through a checkpoint at the Separation Barrier.
Their story of apartheid in the Holy Land has lifted up two lessons for me. First, God is not a real estate agent. God pays no mind to one nation living here while another lives there. We can own land, fight over land, build on land, ruin land, occupy land; regardless, it is all God’s land.
Second, how can we call land the Holy Land? God is present in all places. Yes, on some land, very significant events happened which changed forever our relationship with God. Those sites we do revere. But, holy means to be sanctified or set aside for God’s purposes. It seems to me that God would be more concerned about us living out the purposes for which God set us aside than some plot of land.
Of course, the Palestinian and Israeli leaders also asked for our prayers to God that justice, righteousness, and peace would reign in the land.
May we remember that we belong to God who created us from the land,
Rev. Tracy
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Here in the Manger
In December 2007, I traveled with a group of Christians from around the country to Israel and Palestine. I spent the first night of the trip in Bethlehem. The bus from the airport to our hotel required passing through a checkpoint at the separation barrier, a wall that separates Israeli-occupied Palestine from Israel. The bus driver, Lufti who is an Arab Christian, was accustomed to passing through the checkpoint, which was monitored by armed Israeli soldiers.
It was late and so it was dark when I arrived at the hotel. I saw lights, Christmas lights and porch lights, as the bus drove from the checkpoint to the night’s accommodations. I remember looking out from the hotel balcony seeing a few strands of lights strung across a road and some safety lights illuminating a doorway.
I had been told that the Church of the Nativity was out in the darkness somewhere. But, the darkness hid everything holy about this town. The darkness shadowed the holiness in a town that looked as any other town in any other place.
The next morning, the morning sun shown bright upon the town. It seemed that the town was glowing. There it was…just to the left of the hotel…the Church of the Nativity. It is the place that tradition holds is the site of the stable where the Christ child was laid in the manger.
The Palestinians call the church the Church of the Awakening or the Church of the Resurrection. It is said that the empty person who comes to be filled by spiritual experiences will be left more desolate than which they came. When one comes expecting majesty, s/he feels isolation. When one comes expecting a church enveloped in holiness, s/he enters common buildings.
The journey provides the nourishment of the spirit, not the destination. I had gone with the expectation of touring the Holy sites. I had not realized that I was on a pilgrim’s journey from the manger to the cross, not a tour from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. The difference between a tour and a pilgrimage is that a pilgrim humbly accepts the invitation into a culture and allows one’s self to be transformed. Setting one’s feet to the road of the pilgrim’s journey is an act of faith.
We, each Advent, are invited to kneel at the manger in awe of the new born king. It is not an invitation to a place thousands of miles from here. It is an invitation to a spiritual pilgrimage. Can you humbly step out of the Hallmark holiday of hustle and bustle onto the way of the pilgrim? Are you humbly willing to be transformed this Christmas following the light around the Advent wreath from hope to peace to joy to love…to Christ? Are you willing to allow Christ’s light to rise and to shine in the dark places of your heart?
You don't have to go to a Holy place for a spiritual pilgrimage. You are in a Holy place where the Presence of the Most Holy God is. You need only be open to the Spirit's transformative work in your life.
May you walk in the light, as you are in the light,
Rev. Tracy
It was late and so it was dark when I arrived at the hotel. I saw lights, Christmas lights and porch lights, as the bus drove from the checkpoint to the night’s accommodations. I remember looking out from the hotel balcony seeing a few strands of lights strung across a road and some safety lights illuminating a doorway.
I had been told that the Church of the Nativity was out in the darkness somewhere. But, the darkness hid everything holy about this town. The darkness shadowed the holiness in a town that looked as any other town in any other place.
The next morning, the morning sun shown bright upon the town. It seemed that the town was glowing. There it was…just to the left of the hotel…the Church of the Nativity. It is the place that tradition holds is the site of the stable where the Christ child was laid in the manger.
The Palestinians call the church the Church of the Awakening or the Church of the Resurrection. It is said that the empty person who comes to be filled by spiritual experiences will be left more desolate than which they came. When one comes expecting majesty, s/he feels isolation. When one comes expecting a church enveloped in holiness, s/he enters common buildings.
The journey provides the nourishment of the spirit, not the destination. I had gone with the expectation of touring the Holy sites. I had not realized that I was on a pilgrim’s journey from the manger to the cross, not a tour from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. The difference between a tour and a pilgrimage is that a pilgrim humbly accepts the invitation into a culture and allows one’s self to be transformed. Setting one’s feet to the road of the pilgrim’s journey is an act of faith.
We, each Advent, are invited to kneel at the manger in awe of the new born king. It is not an invitation to a place thousands of miles from here. It is an invitation to a spiritual pilgrimage. Can you humbly step out of the Hallmark holiday of hustle and bustle onto the way of the pilgrim? Are you humbly willing to be transformed this Christmas following the light around the Advent wreath from hope to peace to joy to love…to Christ? Are you willing to allow Christ’s light to rise and to shine in the dark places of your heart?
You don't have to go to a Holy place for a spiritual pilgrimage. You are in a Holy place where the Presence of the Most Holy God is. You need only be open to the Spirit's transformative work in your life.
May you walk in the light, as you are in the light,
Rev. Tracy
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