a sermon by Chris Holmes for the first Sunday in Christmas

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his is a time to celebrate.  It is Christmastide. The Saviour of the world has come. Light is the order of the day. Darkness’s defeat is imminent. “Joy to the World, the Saviour reigns. Let earth receive her King.” Such is the good news of Christmas. God come among us to save us and make all things right in Jesus Christ. But do we really get it? Can we grasp this? Not really. I love the way our Gospel reading for tonight indicates just how difficult it is to understand the Christ. Even Mary does not comprehend “what he [i.e., Jesus] said.” (vs. 50) But, you know, I don’t blame her for not understanding. After all, how many 12-year Jewish boys are, after a three day long frantic search by parents, friends, and family, found “in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” (vs. 46)

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A s a community of believers we gather this night having feasted and celebrated with family and friends about the birth of our God into this world. We gather to continue the work of learning how to care for one another, learning how to be family, learning how to be friends. So we bring or prayers and petitions, our pain and hurt, our intentions to the only one who can knows them. (more…)

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n 1943, during the days leading up to Christmas Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to his parents from his jail cell.  He’d been incarcerated some eight months earlier for taking part in the resistance movement against Nazism, and while he’d had some hope that he would have been released by December, it had become increasingly clear that his future was very uncertain.  In that letter, he observed how much he would miss his family over Christmas, and commented how his parents had given to him a good and strong theology of this great Christian feast.  Then he continued,

For a Christian there is nothing peculiarly difficult about Christmas in a prison cell.  I daresay it will have more meaning and will be observed with greater sincerity here in this prison than in places where all that survives of the feast is its name.  That misery, suffering, poverty, loneliness, helplessness and guilt look very different to the eyes of God from what they do to man, that God should come down to the very place which men usually abhor, that Christ was born in a stable because there was no room for him in the inn – these are things which a prisoner can understand better than anyone else.  For him the Christmas story is glad tidings in a very real sense.  And that faith gives him a part in the communion of saints, a fellowship transcending the bounds of time and space and reducing the months of confinement here to insignificance. (Letters and Papers from Prison)

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e invite you to keep in heart and mind  all leaders of churches across the world, our Bishops, ministers, and all those who lead various ministries. May they feel God with us this day and celebrate their “yes” to the place where God has called them. (more…)

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a Christmas letter from HOME/Omuka in Uganda

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reetings to all of you from beautiful Uganda! We hope this letter finds you all happy and healthy and gathered with family and friends to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We have decked the halls here at the HOME house and are looking forward to our Christmas feast with HOME family and friends.

We have been very busy since last we wrote to you!  It is a busy time as the year comes to an end, which means much accounting and year-end wind up of everything. It is a bigger job this year as we have been away for three and half months and so there is a lot of catch up to do as well! In Uganda the school year begins in the New Year (end of January beginning of February) so we are also busy planning for that, as we now have five boys entering high school! And one boy who will enter University in the fall.

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ideaExchange: Gerry Bowler and Aiden Enns

By the time we met for this session of ideaExchange, many us were already caught up in the flurry of activities that almost inevitably comes our way during the final few weeks before Christmas Day.  Some of us will embrace this time of year in all that it brings. We relish those trips to the mall to find the perfect gift. Others will at least want to ask a few questions about what it all really means.

Well, at the December edition of ideaExchange we carved out a couple of hours to consider two very different perspectives on how we might keep the Christmas feast.

The conversation was between Aiden Enns and Gerry Bowler.

• Aiden is the publisher of Geez Magazine and a founder of the Buy Nothing Christmas movement.
• Gerry Bowler teaches at the University of Manitoba and is the author of Santa Claus: A Biography and The World Encyclopedia of Christmas.

It was a great debate (runs: 50:19) and you can be a part of it in one of three ways:

• click on the arrow below
• use the podcast widget in the left sidebar
• click here to download the episode from iTunes

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Sermon by Jamie Howison, on the 4th Sunday in Advent

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etween my first and second years at theological college, I had a summer job at a church-run storefront ministry called Stop 103, located in an increasingly depressed neighborhood in Toronto.  Part food bank, part drop-in, part refugee resettlement program, my job was to run what we called an “internship to urban ministry” for four high school students.  The idea was for me to spend an hour every morning with this group, guiding them in a sustained theological reflection on the nature of poverty and social justice, and then to spend the better part of each day working together on the front-line in the ministry.  It was a great job, with a fairly steep learning curve for all of us.

On the day I was hired, the priest who ran the centre said to me, “You’ll need to explore  of the biblical material on poverty and justice: the idea of Jubilee, the writings of the prophets, the teachings of Jesus.  And of course, the Magnificat”.  “Of course,” I said, wondering just exactly what he meant.

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e call the community into a time of prayer.

Emmanuel, we are in awe of your incarnation. We are amazed that the Ancient of Days, the One whose origin is from of old, would come to us as a baby. In a world where so much is determined by rank, class and social status, we cannot comprehend why someone with power would choose to become lowly. We furrow our brows and shake our heads and think it’s probably a hoax. When have we ever seen someone who is rich volunteer to be poor? Why would anyone choose to be born in a smelly stable? And yet, those of us gathered here today accept this mystery as truth: God became flesh and dwells with us. Tonight, all our hopes are in the womb of a peasant girl. The whole world waits for the birth of the one who will bring peace.
Our souls to you give glory, Lord,
Our hearts pour out their praise;
You’ve lifted up our lowliness
In many marvelous ways.

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he newest saint benedict’s table project Beautiful Mercy | A Book of Hours is coming soon.

Click here for more information about the full-colour book and professionally-recorded CD, including a project description, a list of some of the people involved, audio clips from every track on the CD and information on how to order.

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e gather before you tonight, heavenly Father, to hear your word and to gather around your holy table. We ask that you would be gracious to us and restore us to fullness of life with you. May mercy and truth be our guide this night and throughout this Advent season, and may your peace be a pathway for our feet.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

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