Seeing an Eternal Creator

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.

We look into the past and marvel at the lighting of our sun, the ordering of our solar system, the orbiting of our planet.  We look expectantly to the future, to the hope of peace and goodness upon the earth.  We confess our tendency to see ourselves as the center of the universe.  This Advent season, may we see our Eternal Creator.

Seeing the True Light

What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

In this often dark and shadowy world, we long for glimpses of light.  How easily we are satisfied with mere reflections, and hide our own darkness from exposure.  We confess our obsession with the cult of celebrity—of making idols of people and ideas, of following the strongest or surest or sweetest voice.  This Advent season, may we emerge from the safety of our shadows to experience True Light.

Seeing the Rejected Rescuer

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

It is difficult to admit that we are needy.  We do not like to think of ourselves as weak.  We can maintain our families, our careers, our finances, our relationships, our souls alone—or we can at least die trying to pretend that’s true.  We confess that we are slow to accept help, the risk seems too great.  This Advent season, may we have the humility to see—and not reject—a Rescuer.

Seeing the Incarnate Mystery

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

For 2000 years, theologians, church officials, and ordinary people have tried to understand and explain Jesus of Nazareth.  Have tried to make him human, yet divine.  Have tried to make him divine, yet human.  We confess our inability to make a profound mystery into a tidy theology.  This Advent season, may we give ourselves permission to marvel at the Incarnate Mystery.

Has Religion Run Its Course?

So the baby will be baptized at just over a year old and the big boys will be 8 and 5.  Whatever. I just want them to be fully part of our church community.  Also I get to put them in cute clothes and take pictures, and that’s always nice.

Anne, I know you don’t even get baby dedications, but you know me and my rituals.  How about other readers?  If you’re a parent, did you have your babies christened?  Is it odd that I’m waiting so late to do my kids?  Or is it odd that I even want to partake of such an old-fashioned ritual?

I think my uncomfortableness with communion goes back to my childhood.  I was raised that you had to be right with God to partake.  I struggle, so I don’t feel right.  I have been to a Disciples of Christ church where the minister said communion was a new beginning.  Each time it was admitting our weaknesses and trying to become better.  That seemed less overwhelming, and I did not feel uncomfortable there.

I have only been observing Lent for a few years now. I think I started some 5 or 6 years ago, but I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure I started even before I attended an Anglican church while living in England.  I became interested in it while reading the book Girl Meets God (recommended by our own Judith).  The girl of the book gave up reading for Lent (I’ve still never tried that one).  I was so inspired that I in turn decided to try a Lenten fast.  I think my first attempt was giving up TV.  That one was hard because my husband did not give it up with me and I didn’t want to leave the room every time he turned it on, so I ended up just leaving it off if he weren’t home and not asking for certain shows if he were home and watching.  I have also done things like give up sugar and chocolate.  For the past few years I have given up non-essential shopping every Lent.  That means I can still shop for groceries (that’s obviously essential since I have a family to feed as well as myself) and if one of my kids suddenly desperately needs something like new socks, I can get that, but otherwise no shopping.   So no browsing Amazon for books, no waltzing downtown to my favorite little boutique, no traipsing through the mall peering at clothes at The Loft or smelly stuff at Bath and Body Works.

So that’s about the giving stuff up, but as I said, I think Lent should be more than that.  It’s also about adding in more time given to spiritual disciplines, more time to think of others, more time with family.  This year I plan to try something new — something described by the priest this morning at the Ash Wednesday service I attended. He talked about how a good Lenten practice would be to look in the mirror every morning and think about the things you like about the person looking back at you, and also how to make the person in the mirror better.  He said it more eloquently, but I like the idea.  I plan to try that — a little lesson in being merciful to myself.  I have also ordered some Anglican rosary beads so when those get here I’m going to start praying the rosary — an Anglican/Episcopal version I found online.

For those who do observe, what will your Lenten practice be this year?

If I have something to say, if I really do want to put myself out there—teaching, speaking, writing, etc. then I need to be prepared for the kind of conversations (and accusations) that will surely await me.  I am not argumentative by nature, and I have many friends I care deeply about who place themselves squarely in the Reformed theology camp.  They idolize (er, admire) men who make me want to spit, curse and throw things.  Truthfully, I care mostly about this issue because it means so much to them.

But I can not reconcile their beliefs (i.e., their interpretation of Scripture) with my own interpretation, observation, tradition, and experience.  I simply can’t.  And maybe that’s just where I should respectfully leave it.

I’d love to hear some feedback on this one.

So you may have heard (well, I know Anne and Judith have heard) that I recently had a baby.  Actually he’s almost 3 months old now, so not so very recently.  Anyway, now it’s time to decide if we want to have him christened at our Episcopal church.  My husband and I are now Episcopalian, but he was raised Baptist and I was raised a weird combo of Assembly of God, Church of Christ, Baptist, etc.  So this christening/infant baptism thing is not really part of our own heritage.  In our previous churches babies are usually “dedicated” which is basically a commitment by the parents to raise their children in the faith, but there’s no baptism by water involved.  Then when a child is older he’s encouraged to “accept Jesus” and follow it up with baptism by immersion. (Click here to read a previous discussion about baby dedications.)

I’m ready enough to have the new baby baptized — and would like to have the other two thrown in for a 3-for-1 deal. I checked with our priest and he’s cool with that.  However, my husband has never warmed to the idea of infant baptism.  I haven’t pressed him much yet about this baby (planning to broach the subject next weekend when he’ll have the free time to discuss thoroughly) but I know how he felt with the last baby. To me it’s equivalent to a baby dedication (don’t tell my church — it’s probably not a good Episcopalian thing to say) and confirmation is sort of equivalent to the older child getting saved and baptized in a Baptist church.  The first (baby dedication/christening) is about the family committing to raising the child in their tradition; the second (confirmation/older baptism) is about the child embracing that tradition of their own will (though we could get into whether many children are actually doing it of their own will or just responding to parental/peer pressure).

My point? I’m not sure — just sharing a minor struggle of someone who has left one tradition for another. It’s not even like I converted from a whole other religion, but it can still be tough to decide how much to embrace the new tradition. My husband holds back a bit and is not as crazy about the new church, and I feel I can’t jump in and do something significant like this with our children without him agreeing to it as well.

Does anyone have a well-thought-out opinion about these things? Did you have your babies dedicated or christened? Is it really any big deal? Is it really a matter of salvation either way? If you’re pro-christening, how do I convince my still-somewhat Baptist husband that we should do this?