Consuming Christmas

I heard a very intriguing segment of NPR's Speaking of Faith: Money and Moral Balance

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/moneymorals/index.shtml


O come, O come, Emmanuel....Come God With Us....well, only so long as Emmanuel doesn't get in the way of all our church parties, expectations, traditions, pageants and shopping.

Ever feel like all the "things" of Christmas completely mask its meaning? Of course what good is it if we acknowledge the "true meaning" of Christmas if it means nothing more than assent to certain one-dimensional beliefs? If it's such a moment of transformation, where is its evidence now? How do we embody it? Instead, here is our question...

What did you get for Christmas? Why is that the question that we ask of Children after Christmas? Why not, "What did Christmas mean for you this year?" or "Who did you serve like Jesus would this Christmas?"

I hear some say that it's inevitable--you just have to play along with the materialism so pervasive during the holidays and not try to fight it; know that it's bad, try to reduce it some, but just enjoy it.

But I have to believe that transformation is possible--that alternatives are possible. I hope to avoid piling up extra guilt on all of us for leading normal lives--certainly they don't warrant guilt. There's nothing wrong with all the parties, expectations, traditions, and shopping...the normal things. But maybe God can do something with our normal "things."

What would change if Christ showed up, was birthed into the middle of our holiday routines and schedules? How does that happen? It must go beyond getting it "right."

For instance, so what if I'm suddenly aware of poverty, inequality, materialism...so what if I even discover that God stands for the oppressed and for abundant life for all people--so what if my "understanding" is converted? I'm trapped in the things of my own individual world. I'm caught in a gulf fixed between a Utopian ideal and the reality in which I live. What can I do to bust out of my own bubble? How can I be an embodiment of Christ? Maybe the answer begins not so much with an outward explosion, but an inward searching...

David Goetz of www.deathbysuburb.net said recently something to the effect of, "Maybe we should just let the riptide of consumerism carry us through and hope to find Christ's peace after Christmas..." I think he's partially right. If we journey inward into our own lives, inviting God to sit with us in the inner workings of life, I think we invite God's current to pull us out into the depths of God's grace. And it's there that we are changed and transformed into agents of the reign of God.

Through God's grace, we can see our world with Christ's vision. With Christ's vision, we can see the inherent possibilities in each individual and the way that God can take any situation and resurrect it into new life. When we see those moments, even in the dull things, the tiny run of the mill middle class holiday liturgy (which means "work of the people"), we can choose to act as Christ would and therefore "be" the presence of Christ--which alone transforms us and indeed the whole world.

The inward journey involves prayer, reflection, and action, in a constant cycle--a kind of digestion. So maybe we can say we OUGHT to "consume" Christmas...

Encounter the world of Mary's Magnificat:
Luke 1:46-55 "My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

How would our lives change if such a God got into our lives and started messing around? What would happen if we let this message digest in our souls?

Maybe, if we journey inward...the fruit will blossom outward in ways that only the one who is the true vine can produce.

Monastery of the Holy Spirit

I took a small group of folks from my church to the Monastery in Conyers, GA this saturday. It was a beautiful day and just the thing we all needed. We were there from 10:30 till 3:30 with no agenda but to sit in silence, meditate, and pray. The amazing thing was that I didn't think of football one time all day and couldn't believe that the day was over when it was. The others felt the same as well. There's something about simply being in God's presence in a way that you can acknowledge that is not contrived, shallow, or pietistic. I'm finally beginning to meet the God of my adulthood, though I've known of and worshipped that God for some time now. That God has supplanted the one-dimensional God of my upbringing, bringing me into the complexity of the triune God who stands for everything that God used to be but so very much more.

I read a book on justice and contemplation. I'm really trying to plumb the depths of what it means to pursue the active life contemplatively. The notion of the inward and outward journeys actually being the same path intrigues me. For most of us, if we're even aware of both the inward and outward journeys, our journeys remain disconnected and one of them dominates the other. Works such as Parker Palmer's "A Hidden Wholeness" exemplify this connection.

How do I unifty Mary and Martha? Or how do I find the Martha in Mary and the Mary in Martha? 

Faith, Politics, and Policy Conference

I heard Jim Wallis (of Sojourners) speak this afternoon at the Faith, Politics, and Policy conference at Candler. He mostly reiterated many of his arguments in “God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Just Doesn’t Get it.” He did give many hopeful stories about meeting younger and younger teens/children at his speaking engagements (who were not there just because of their parents). He quoted an 8 year old saying, “I asked here what made sense to her today in what I said. She responded, ‘Well, you talked about so many people being poor and I just figured that if I’m a Christian then I ought to do something about it.’ I hope that was true!

In a breakout session Dr. Mary Elizabeth Moore and Dr. Carol Lakey Hess spoke of the spiritual practice of narrativity as a way of experiencing the other in such a way that our perspectives are expanded. So, sharing stories with respect and love is a model for political awareness and collaboration.

Great Wedding

We just went to a very beautiful wedding in Weaverville, NC. Dave and Michelle Garber really picked out a great place. Lots of fun. See more photos on the website:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mattbrich


 

Honeymoon Update

I've uploaded some pictures from the honeymoon to the website:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mattbrich/ 

Whirlwind Summer

I decided to revisit my blog and I realized that it has been quite some time since I have made a post. I guess that preparing for a wedding, getting married, and adjusting to a new lifestyle took most of my attention! It's certainly worthy of it. I know it hasn't been a month yet, but I really do think I have the best wife ever! I say that with some trepidation because no matter what I say about marriage so far, more folks than I expected like to either insert predictions of doom and proscriptions of current naivety (unwittingly, they do this), or use it as a time to muse about "way back when" they were at such a place in life. It's like I can't say anything serious about marriage without it turning into a joke that truly is a joke but has a disturbing undercurrent to it-- or turning into a reflection session about the other person, which is fine, just odd. Of course, I'm thankful for those who continue to remind me of how great a blessing married life is and celebrate with me in the goodness and sacredness of this life together. It's imperfect, but just like the rest of life, out of bricks of imperfection come beautiful foundations and architectures the likes of which we've never dreamed.

Blog Name Change

Today I have changed the name of the blog. I am thinking about starting another one that is just updates on life, while this one will be mostly thought/reflection oriented.

E.Y. Mullins on the Church

“It is easily seen that they reversed the principle of church organization. That principle was no longer inward, but outward. The temporal and political environment imposed its laws upon a spiritual body. Thus, the church ceased to be an organism and became a mechanism. It was a contrivance for achieving temporal ends rather than a spiritual body adapted to the ends of a life-giving Spirit. Hitherto the church had been a tree of life, full of sap and power and yielding abundant fruit for mankind. Now the tree was cut down and fashioned into a battering ram for warlike purposes. Battering rams are useful in their time and for the purposes for which they are built, but they have no roots and bear no fruit” E.Y. Mullins, The Axioms of Religion (1997 reprint, p. 123).

Late Lenten Prayer

God of Justice and Hope,
Journey with us
as we begin our way to the cross this Lenten season
As we reflect on your life,
Your example calls out our personal and corporate sins
From Bethlehem to Nazareth,
we see where we have forgotten who we are
from Jordan to Jericho,
we see where we have ignored people out of fear of the “other”
from Bethany to Jerusalem,
we see where we have distorted what it means to have faith.
Even as we now are painfully reminded of these sins and more…
We thank you that as we walk the road of regret,
your presence sustains us.
Help us let go of our past, that we may turn toward you
and live again the life of faith.
Help us call out our fear and hatred, our anger and self-pity….
Lift the burden they place on our shoulders.
Help us set aside our guilt and enter a season of healing.
As we pray and fast today, help us become simple people,
that we may see you plainly.
May our fasting be hunger for justice;
our gifts and contributions, a making of peace;
our prayer, be the chant of humble and grateful hearts.
As we wear the mark of ashes,
rekindle the sign of hope within our eyes.
Let us draw near to you even now
And as we come wearing ashes
we bring our sin and all our baggage,
and we fall into your loving arms this day
looking to you, O God, as the one
who endlessly loves us
and the one in whom the hope of new life rests. Amen

Country Music Marathon--Nashville

Deedra and I rested as we watched the full marathon runners pass by. They were on mile 20 at that point.

We ran the half marathon in just under 3 hours (2:54:36). I'm thankful to Deedra that she stuck with me even though my knees began to hurt a little over half-way. We could have finished with a much better time had I not been hurting toward the end. Anyway, we persevered and finished--and got our cheesy medals, too!

I took a picture of Deedra fixing us breakfast just as we parked the car at 5am. I took the picture and remarked that it said to me, "It's 5am!" Deedra's reply was a flat, "That's not all it says." I hope I can get permission to put it up!

Wow....

"Those eager to exploit differences between blacks and whites in America ignore the fact that the differences have all but vanished. One might as well complain about the gas mileage of a 1959 Edsel."

New White House Press Secretary (former Fox news anchor), Tony Snow, speaking on the issue of Race in America.

Just when you thought you had ignorance defined…

Poem for Holy Week

In his book Cry of Jesus, Cry of the Oppressed, Jose Comblin writes: Then Jesus cries out. It is a cry of freedom. A cry of hope. A cry of handing over. It is a cry of giving back. Giving back all his work, his dreams, his love, life, breath, spirit. It is a cry of pain and agony. It is a cry of resistance to evil. It is a cry against violence and death . . . That cry tears loose anything that holds back God or the kingdom of God from coming among us . . . It is a cry layered and fraught with meaning. It is a cry to God for justice, for security, for defense and for faithfulness that will not be undone by others' hate and persecution. It is a cry of anguish for all that was lost, for all life that was torn to shreds, all that life denied to others, all that hope cast away.. It is the Cry of Mercy being poured out and Mercy being caught up into the arms of the Father. It is the Cry of God when we don't see Him."

Cloudland canyon

My fiance, Deedra, and I went to Cloudland Canyon State park last week.

This is a picture of us at the canyon rim 

Here we go

With each bump and curve in the road, the dashboard Jesus bobbles and sways as if to remind you that he feels everything.