Posts Tagged ‘advent’

What’s Your Next Step? ~ Kim Reisman

Saturday, December 17th, 2011 | By Kim Reisman
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I want it so bad…

One of my favorite bands is the Gourds.  They were in Lafayette a few weeks ago & John & I went as we usually do when they pass through. They’ve got a new album out right now call Old Mad Joy. You can check it out on ITunes.  One song in particular struck me given that we’re smack in the middle of one of the most commercialized, co-opted by capitalists, holy seasons of the Christian faith – those days leading up to Christmas. It’s called I Want It So Bad & it’s a great swing type tune that John & I immediately had to dance to…

The first time I gazed upon that glorious thing/It made we wanna dance and delightfully sing/I whirled and twirled and laughed til I cried,

I love this song! I’ve been driving around delightfully singing every since I bought the CD. But there’s a little more to it…

I was so ecstatic until I realized/It was not mine nor would it ever be./Then a storm of emotion swept over me/My heart was broken, my hands were tied,/my one desire had been denied.

I want everything...

This time of year we’re bombarded with images of all the things we think we need but probably just want. And often we want those things really bad – that think-we-can’t-live-without-it kind of bad that can end up really messing with our heads…

Maybe it’s a dream, maybe it’s a thing,/Maybe it’s something that you’ve never seen/Maybe it’s happiness, maybe it’s love/Or maybe yer waiting for something to come from above

Maybe it makes you feel like you never succeed,/Maybe it makes you feel like you never get what you need./It’s a feeling that comes from within,/It’s universal between women and men

We just wanna be loved, we just wanna be whole,/We just wanna get back what we feel like was stole/From us as a child when we got schooled./Man that wasn’t fair, that wasn’t cool…

I’m still singing to my CD because this is a really catchy tune & I love to delightfully sing in the car. But here’s the kicker…

There ain’t no rule, there ain’t no law/That says we ever get what we want at all/We all know life ain’t fair/But we forget it when desire becomes despair…

Oops…got me…

I want this… no, I need this… wait, I deserve this. But I can’t have it….. Now what?

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What’s Your Next Step? Suspecting Angels…

Monday, December 5th, 2011 | By Kim Reisman
Filed in: Kimberly Reisman, What's Your Next Step?

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Kim Reisman in South Africa

Kim Reisman

Kim Reisman

Here’s a great prayer from the Iona Community:

Eternal God, in the long ago days when the earth was above the clouds, and disease was caused by demons, your son was born to lighten all our darknesses.

We now, after the enlightenment, are in bondage to different limitations. We doubt what we cannot prove; we ignore what we cannot see, and finding little room for faith, we must confess, we suspect angels and disbelieve good news.

We admit ourselves to be both infected and affected by the spirit of our times. Behind talk of world peace, we hear the machinery of war; beneath talk of global equity we detect the posturing of the powerful; beside talk of your church being renewed, we recognize the bondage to failed patterns of the past. Rather than embrace the light, we become fascinated by darkness, and must confess, we suspect angels and disbelieve good news.

Ah, God, who will save us? Our cynicism is the fruit of our experience, not the key to the future. Our suspiciousness helps us to smell the rat, never to recognize the dove. Our perfect analysis may describe the mountain, but is helpless to move it. It is with little pride we must confess, we suspect angels and disbelieve good news.

As Christmas approaches, give us a share of that divine naiveté enjoyed by Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary and Joseph, and unnamed country folk, who encountered angels and believed the Good News and recognized Christ among them. Amen. (1997 Wild Goose Resource Group, Iona Community. GIA Publications, Inc.)

Infected and affected by the spirit of our times. Caught up in the analysis of the mountain, and missing the power to move it…Yikes. Sounds familiar…

tired of smelling rats...ready to see doves

But I want the power to move the mountain. I’m tired of smelling rats and ready to see doves. But the question is what am I going to do to make it so? More importantly, what am I going to do in order that it might be so, not just for me, but for others? What are we all going to do so that others might encounter angels and believe good news?

 

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What’s Your Next Step? Advent (Mis) Adventures

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 | By Kim Reisman
Filed in: Kimberly Reisman, What's Your Next Step?

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Kim Reisman

 

West Anaheim United Methodist Church

I’ve been reflecting this last day or two, trying to be meaningful about Advent, trying to open myself to some deep, theological wisdom. No results in the wisdom department; instead, the thing that kept coming to my mind was a Christmas Eve service when I was about nine which would have made my brother about four. My father was the pastor at West Anaheim United Methodist Church which was a pretty big church with a long middle aisle and a wonderful rock wall at the front. The pulpit was built into the rocks about halfway up, kind of like a ledge or outcropping of the rocks.

 

On this particular Christmas Eve, the Advent wreath stood slightly angled in a really artful way on a tripod stand in front of the pulpit and my dad invited all the kids to come into that area for some special time. We all traipsed down front in that excited-but-trying-to-be-on-your-best-behavior kind of way that kids do when it’s a really special time. All the kids, I should say, except my brother, who decided that this was the perfect night for a major rock climbing explore. Waiting until just the right time when we were all settled nicely in front of my dad, Kevin raced all out down the middle aisle, did a few flips around the communion rail and proceeded to scale the rock wall right next to the fully lit Advent wreath, reaching his perch beside the pulpit and above all of us with a delighted and quite proud smile on his face.

 

Unfortunately, on his way up the wall, Kevin clipped the Advent wreath with the toe of his keds, sending it toppling right on top of my Dad. The gasp in the packed sanctuary was deafening; but my dad just righted the wreath and launched into his message for the children, leaving my brother beaming on the top of the wall. Thinking back on the whole thing, it’s interesting that I’ve got this vivid, happy, memory of that moment in time, but no memory at all of the aftermath – I guess that has something to do with grace.

 

Kevin

 

 

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What’s Your Next Step? Standing By…

Monday, November 28th, 2011 | By Kim Reisman
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Standing By…

Kim Reisman

St. Stephen

Stephen - the first Christian martyr

In the book of Acts there’s a story of the stoning of Stephen. I’ve read this story many times but the most recent time it struck me a bit differently. I love how the story begins:  “Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.” That’s a great description – full of grace and power. How amazing would it be to have someone describe you as full of grace and power! But of course, when people are full of God’s grace and power it can be threatening to those who hold worldly power, and that’s what happened with Stephen.

He was sharing what he’d experienced, how it all fit together with what he believed as a faithful Jew and those in power decided he was a threat so they set him up to be arrested. As he’s standing before the council his speech makes the high priest and the rest of the council really angry. Here’s another great description – they were so angry at Stephen that they gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen is empowered by the Holy Spirit and God is revealed to him in a vision as he stands before the council. Well, this is the last straw; they can’t take it anymore so they drag him out of the city and stone him.

Stephen

The stoning of Stephen

Here’s the part of the story that struck me this time. Apparently, while they were stoning Stephen, a young man named Saul was standing by watching. That, in itself, isn’t that significant. This is the Saul who was persecuting Christ followers with a zeal that would make your blood run cold. So we shouldn’t be surprised that he stood by, watching and doing nothing. But this Saul is also Paul, that champion of the gospel. Actually it was Paul, BCE (before his Christ Event). Paul, BCE could do what Paul, AD (After Damascus) could never do. Paul, after Damascus, would never just stand by.

That’s the way it should be with all Christ followers. If we’re following in the Jesus way, we can’t just stand by. That’s what the whole incarnation thing is all about. It’s not about standing by, it’s about entering in. So the question for me as I begin this season of Advent – when we’re focused on the incarnation – God becoming human in Jesus – the question is, when have I just stood by? What’s happening in the world right now that I’m standing by, just watching? If I take the incarnation seriously, if I truly believe that the miracle of Christmas is that ‘the word became flesh and dwelt among us‘ - that God really did put on skin and bones and made God’s home on earth – then I really can’t stand by; I have to enter in.

St. Paul

Paul of Tarsus

The Jesus way can never be about standing by in the face of injustice, or poverty, or hunger, or oppression – or any of the other aspects of our world that break God’s heart. The reality is that if it’s bad news for the world, it’s bad news for God. So the Jesus way can never be exclusively about a private experience that stands by and watches the world go by from the safety of our spiritual sanctuaries. We’re not to be Paul, BCE, we’re to be Paul AD.

Thankfully the Church has a long history of entering in. But we’ve also done our share of standing by. So where are you on that spectrum? Are you standing by? And what’s your next step if you are?

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