Joy to the World! The Lord has Come!

 

                       Christmas blessings to all

Advent: Week 4

 

God is love. That is theme of the fourth week of Advent.

And in the person of Jesus, love is coming to our world, and can come to our lives. God's love is a wonderful example of being blesses so that we can bless others. God's love in us is what enables us to love others. The Father's example of sending His Son to us as a rescue is a cosmic example of sacrificial love.

There are of course many possible Scripture verses that speak to God's love, and I have chosen 1 John 4:9.

This is how God showed His love among us; He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him."

 

 

Dead Theologians Society: St. John of the Cross

It's been a while since we've done one of these posts, but ... here we go!

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December 14 is the feast day of St John of the Cross, born in Spain as Juan de Yepes y Álvarez. At the age of 21, he joined the Carmelite order, following the example of St Teresa of Avila, with whom he corresponded.

He is most known for his mystical writings, especially The Dark Night of the Soul. His writings are considered landmarks both in the realm of spiritual writings, and also of all Spanish literature. The impacts of this work and others led to his being named a Doctor of Church in 1926.

Advent: Week 3

 

The theme for the third week of Advent is joy. This is of the major themes of the entire season, and of course the theme of one of the best-known songs of the season. 

It is important to know that although related to happiness, joy is NOT happiness. Happiness is transitory, an emotion that can fade as capriciously at it can appear. Joy is a lifestyle. Joy can be sown, joy can be spread. Joy can be received as a gift from God. The coming of Christ is evidence of God's desire to bring joy to the world.

An appropriate Scripture for this week, is a well-known one, from Philippians 4:4 & 5.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

Advent: Week 2

 

For the second week Advent, we light the Peace Candle," reflective of the coming of the Prince of Peace into the world at Christmas. Jesus can bring peace to our inner selves, and also pave the way for peace with others.

The prayer for peace speaks to the possibility of the "not yet" of Jesus' coming reign of peace breaking in to the "now" of our lives. Advent is about anticipation, and peace is one of the things that a life with Jesus can bring.

An appropriate Scripture for this week can be found in the Messianic promises of Isaiah 9:6:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Prayer in The New Mutants

There is not a lot in The New Mutants film worth mentioning. It's not a good movie. 

However, there is an odd bit in a scene that I noticed. Maisie Williams' character Rahne is presented to us as a character of religious faith. In one scene, she is shown entering an empty church, and confessing her sins, although there is no priest with her. I interpreted this as confirming the sincerity of her faith, engaging in religious practice despite the lack of support. Despite the lack of a priest. 

Which makes a scene towards the end of the film stand out. During the climactic battle, Rahne enters the confessional again, to hide, and begins to pray. There is some editing here, some cutting back and forth, but the totality of her prayer is "Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou amongst women, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death. Amen."

The scene confirms Rahne's faith, enriching her character. And for what it does, it works. It's fine.

However, the prayer cuts out the two most Jesus-centric aspects of the prayer. What she does not say is " ... and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God ... " They eliminated both the words "Jesus" and "God." In a movie that had little interesting in it, THAT stood out.

I saw the movie on HBO, so I believe the version I saw was the full original version. Also, the movie was very short, barely 90 minutes, so I doubt those 14 words for time.

Advent: Week 1

The first candle of Advent is called the "Hope Candle."It is reflective of the overall theme of the season, which is preparing for Christmas. Even in a world full of hate, division, bias, and disease, it can be hard to hold on to hope. 

It's important to remember that the biblical version of "hope" is different than a desire for our life circumstances to change. It's more like waiting for God to appear in the midst of all your stuff. It’s the tension of living through the junk of "now" while holding onto the expectation that the "not yet" of God can break into this world and give us peace. 

The arrival of Jesus is evidence of this in-breaking of God to our world. 

This is a good verse to recall as we walk through the first week of Advent, from Romans 15:13

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”

Podcast #047 - Audiofeed 2022 (FINALLY!)

 "Audiofeed 2022 (FINALLY)"

Alan and Em talk about the return of their favorite music festival, Audiofeed. They talk about their experiences at this year's fest. 

Click on the player below to listen to the episode:


 

You may also subscribe to the podcast through Apple Podcasts or the RSS Feed.

Link # 1: The band Threnodian 
Link # 2: The band Ignescent
Link # 3: The band Raviner
Link # 4: The band Rusty Shipp
Link # 5: Propaganda's book Terraform

We would love to hear from you about this topic, the podcast episode, or the podcast in general. Send e-mail feedback to dorknesstolight@gmail.com 

You can follow the network on twitter @DorknessToLight or Alan @ProfessorAlan

Help my Unbelief!

 A brief devotion / teaching that Alan recently shared:

 

Mark 9: 20-24. CSB. (The Christian Standard Bible translation)

So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

“How long has this been happening to him?” Jesus asked his father. “From childhood,” he said.

“And many times it has thrown him into the fire or water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.”

Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief !”

 

I included the early verses of that passage for context, but for me the key verse is the capper, the punch line: “Lord I believe. Help my unbelief.”

I love how human that statement is, this co-mingling of belief and unbelief.

And this is simultaneous. If you say those sentences, “I believe. Help my unbelief.” – there is less than a second between those sentences. These can exist in the same person, at the same time, this faith and doubt, this belief and unbelief.

I think that in the modern American church, we flinch at the notion of unbelief, of doubt, those are harsh-sounding words. Perhaps you’ve been in situations where expressions of doubt or uncertainty over a particular bit of theology was greeted with … criticism, with condemnation. Or perhaps you’ve been told than any little bit of doubt is sin.

But no, that is not the case. “Lord I believe. Help my unbelief.”

So I prefer to think in terms of certainty and uncertainty. Maybe uncertainty, that is a less troublesome-sounding word than doubt or unbelief.

But whatever we call it, it goes hand-in-hand with belief. Doubt and faith, we can think of them as different sides of the same coin – but remember, it is the same coin!

A lot of churches recite the Apostles Creed, as part of their service. Our church has a point where we recite something together, often a Bible passage, and every month or so it’s the Apostles Creed. Now there’s one clause I’m not sure about, but most of the time I’m at a solid 98% on the Creed. But I’ll be honest, there are times when I scan through the Creed and …. I’m more like believing 75% of that stuff.

But those questions, whatever momentary uncertainties I may have, they aren’t because I don’t believe. It’s actually because I want to take my faith seriously, I want to know what I believe. That’s why I study, why I read theology, to know as best I can what I believe. And I do that with a willingness to learn – and if I’m gonna learn, I need to be willing to change my mind a little bit, there need to be some places where I set my certainty aside. So I can learn.

I would also mention ideas of essentials versus non-essentials in terms of theologies. Essentials are the foundational things, and to me that’s a pretty small list, mostly revolving around the person and work on Jesus … and the types of things in the Apostles Creed. Yes, there are some things we stand firmly on, but there are a lot of areas, lots of doctrines, where some questions, some uncertainty, some willingness to learn … not just not a bad thing, might actually be a good thing.

“Lord I believe. Help my unbelief.”

So in conclusion, which is what every preacher says when they have 10 more minutes to go and 4 more key points to make … but in conclusion, I intend this to be encouraging. Give yourself grace – give others grace, of course, but give yourself grace … for your moments of … call it whatever we want … our moments of uncertainty, of doubt, of unbelief … remember that they are OK. It’s not about being fully one or the other, believing or unbelieving; as humans, we are a strange melange of both.

Doubts are OK. Questions are OK. God can handle your questions, and he can handle your doubts.

Doubts, questions, even times of unbelief … they don’t mean that you don’t believe. 

Podcast #046 - Ordinary Time

"Ordinary Time"

Alan and Em talk about the church calendar concept of "Ordinary Time," give some personal feedback, cover listener feedback, and discuss Michael F. Flynn's short story "3rd Corinthians," appearing in the June 2003 issue of Analog Magazine.

Click on the player below to listen to the episode:

You may also subscribe to the podcast through Apple Podcasts or the RSS Feed.

Link # 1: Sassy Seminarian's twitter feed
Link # 2: Paper Cut Prayers' twitter feed
Link # 3: Students of the Word podcast

We would love to hear from you about this topic, the podcast episode, or the podcast in general. Send e-mail feedback to dorknesstolight@gmail.com 

You can follow the network on twitter @DorknessToLight or Alan @ProfessorAlan