Tag Archives: quotes

"Come, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come" (Advent #3)

Posted on by

Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come
In your fearful innocence.
We fumble in the far-spent night
Far from lovers, friends, and home:
Come in your naked, newborn might.
Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come;
My heart withers in your absence.

Come, Lord Jesus, small, enfleshed
Like any human, helpless child.
Come once, come once again, come soon:
The stars in heaven fall, unmeshed;
The sun is dark, blood’s on the moon.

Come, word who came to us enfleshed,
Come speak in joy untamed and wild.

Come, thou wholly other, come,
Spoken before words began,
Come and judge your uttered world
Where you made our flesh your home.
Come, with bolds of lightning hurled,
Come, thou wholly other, come,
Who came to man by being man.

Come, Lord Jesus, at the end,
Time’s end, my end, forever’s start.
Come in your flaming, burning power.
Time, like the temple veil, now rend;
Come, shatter every human hour.
Come, Lord Jesus, at the end.
Break, then mend the waiting heart.

– Madeleine L’Engle, The Irrational Season.

In the Bleak Midwinter (Advent #2)

Posted on by
Warning: random collection of thoughts.
Today is the second Sunday of Advent.

I went to St. Andrew’s Catholic Cathedral for Lessons and Carols this week. It was the first time I’d been inside of that beautiful building. One of the carols they sang is, for some reason, a favourite of mine. It is not one of the more popular carols and the first verse doesn’t seem to have much to do Christmas other than snow (which we don’t even get in Victoria).

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, Whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, Whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.


– words by Christina Rossetti

I love the carols that are a slightly minor key (O Come, O Come Emmanuel) or are about things other than wisemen and shepherds, angels and cute babies. Not that there is anything wrong with angels and wisemen, I just seem to get tired of those much sooner than I do the other ones.  The carols I am constantly drawn to are the old English ones like the Sussex, Coventry, and Wessex Carols. The minor ones like O Come O Come Emmanuel, Ready My Heart, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, and In the Bleak Midwinter. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they didn’t get sung over and over in Christmas Pagents when I was a kid. Maybe it is the lyrics. 
There is something about the mystery of anticipation that is attractive and in the advent carols it rings loud and clear. This attraction is the reason I love advent so much. If we always had everything figured out, there would be no need to have a period of anticipation and expectation to “Ready our hearts for the birth of Emmanuel.” But we need the time to prepare.  And we don’t know what to expect.  Each year brings new surprises and new events (as the last week in politics has shown us…) to challenge us.  We have this gift of time to prepare; lets not be caught unawares.

First Coming

Posted on by

He did not wait till the world was ready,

till men and nations were at peace.
He came when the Heavens were unsteady,
and prisoners cried out for release.

He did not wait for the perfect time.
He came when the need was deep and great.
He dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine.  He did not wait

till heart were pure.  In joy he came
to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of anguished shame
he came, and his Light would not go out.

He came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made FLesh
the Maker of the stars was born.

We cannot wit till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!

– Madeleine L’Engle


photo credit: Natalie

Welcome to the first Sunday of Advent.  This is the season of expectation, anticipation, preparation, longing, and yearning.  We remember the longing of the ancient Israelites for the Messiah to come and we reflect on our own waiting for the second coming of Christ.  Like the yearning of the Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out for a deliverer, may we continue to cry out against the injustices in out world, remembering our hope of deliverance by a God who hears and has promised to bring peace and justice to the world.

Wise Words

Posted on by

Without asking permission (sorry…), but taking the chance that it is okay, I want to share my uncle’s wise response to a post I made on my work situation.  I think that they should resonate with all of us.  I certainly appreciated them.  Thanks!

You’re right, a job should be more than simply doing something to earn money for food and other living expenses. Ideally you want to find a calling in life that provides you with the ability to manage these necessities, but that also provides an opportunity to stimulate your intellect and spirit, and that provides a sense of self-worth, and one that provides a service of some sort that others can benefit from. Actually the real trick is not in trying to find a job that does all these things – the joy-filled person discovers how to achieve all these things regardless of what job they have and regardless of their circumstances. We don’t always recognize when this is happening in our own life, but we can certainly see it in others that we come across in life.

Thanks!

My opinion exactly…

Posted on by

Q: Dear Critter Corner,

My dog Snort, a pug, always seems to be snorting and wheezing. Is it true that pugs have breathing problems because of their short snouts?

—Chester, age 9

A: Chester, while it is true that scientists used to believe the respiratory problems of pugs were a result of generations of selective breeding that led to abnormally short snouts, we now know pugs have trouble breathing because God doesn’t want them to live.

(from McSweeney’s)

The Secret Message of Jesus [Book Review]

Posted on by

I posted here awhile back that I got a [free] book in the mail from a publisher to review and post my review on here and a few other places. Well, the great unveiling has come (for those who I have a) not already excitedly told about it or b) not figured it out by the cover being conspicuously posted in the side index) and I am now writing my review. In typical Gillian fashion, it is being posted 2 days before it is due. Come to think of it, that is actually record earliness for me. Well done Gillian!
Anyway, enjoy! And then go read the book… there is a link below to the Amazon site for the book, but support your local Christian book store and get it from them instead (or be cheap and read my copy – it is the “Advance Reader’s Copy” after all, which makes it automatically cool!).

The first time I read one of Brian McLaren‘s books, it was like I was reading a more eloquent and better thought-out version of my own thoughts. McLaren has, since the first one of his books I read (3 or 4 of his books ago…), consistently challenged my thinking with his fresh insights into the Christian way of life. This book is no different. In The Secret Message of Jesus (subtitled “Uncovering the Truth that could Change Everything), McLaren deals with the person and, primarily the message of Jesus. Much like Phil Yancey did with the person and character of Jesus in his book The Jesus I Never Knew, McLaren steps back from the common images and perceptions we (both Christians and not Christians) have about Jesus and his message to take a long, hard look at the New Testament to see what the message really was.

The book is divided into three sections. The first deals with the context of the message. McLaren places Jesus and his teaching in a political and cultural context as well as looking at the impact the message would have had on contemporaries and how it turned their world upside down. He also spends time assessing the “hidden” aspect of Jesus’s message – how it seems so obscure and, well, hidden at times, questioning why Jesus would need to do such a thing. If Jesus’s message truly is as important as Christians seem to think it is, why did Jesus speak so obscurely at times, never giving a straight answer?

The second section deals with the meaning of the message: how Jesus presented the message impacted its effectiveness (for lack of a better word) and influenced how it was received then and how it is still received today. It impacts how we take that message and incorporate it into our lives, living it in daily life.

This leads to the third section which is, perhaps, the crux of the whole book. The section is entitled “Imagination: Exploring How Jesus’ Secret Message Could Change Everything” and proceeds to do just that. Chapter after chapter in this section looks at different situations and what it could/would/should be like if we lived according to Jesus’s “secret message.” What if the message weren’t a secret anymore? What if Christians started to actually live it? If McLaren’s ideas as written here were actually lived out in the world, what would the world be like? It is the kind of thing that gives both hope and despair simultaneously: hope that we could actually achieve this and despair that we have gone so far from this ideal, both Christians and not Christians.

As I said at the outset, I have enjoyed all of Brian McLaren’s books thus far. They have been both challenging, stimulating, and refreshing all in one. This one was no exception. It was really good to read and especially thought-provoking at times. It made me think about how I live my life in response to “the secret message” and what I should be doing in my life. I’d definitely recommend it, and I’m looking forward to re-reading it when I’m not in school so I can fully digest what McLaren has to say and spend more time in study with my Bible beside me.

Note: Brian includes three appendices in the book, one of which discusses “The Prayer of the Kingdom.” It is quite good but, apparently, has been left out of the final copy of the book that went to the publishers (I have a pre-publication version, so its in there). Anyway, if you want to read it, the chapter has been posted on McLaren’s website here.

If you end up reading the book, drop me a line and let me know what you thought. We can have a little debate, I’m always open to those, especially with classes almost over (3 days left baby!) and not too many finals on the horizon.