Christmas 2006

Christmas

CREDO

“What do you think of Christmas?”
The question comes up this time of year
when I am interviewed by parents and one-time pastors
and other ghosts that live inside my brain.
“You write about it—retell the story often—
but what’s it really all about for you?”

My interrogators note
that in my seven decades
I’ve amassed a host of doubts and disbeliefs.
Details of the Christmas tale—some
essence of it, too—seem to me
less history than images adopted
by earliest believers
to enhance and glorify their Master.

Yet the story has a hold on me—
seems as powerful as when
I first saw a tree lit up in celebration.
These wise men three and shepherds
may not be unvarnished history as once I thought,
but they are engaging images,
and still remind us
of one whose life and teaching
express belief most dear—

the power of the universe—the spirit at its core—
ever tilts toward good will and peace.

jk (2009)

Once again this Christmas I'm delighted to share with you all a prayer contributed by my brother, Jack King, of Bloomington, Indiana. It's a celebration of Christmas, complete with question marks. It speaks for many of us, I suspect.

With Christmas greetings and thanks to all of you to visit this site and enliven it and my own life.

Peace and joy to you all,

Doug King, your WebWeaver [12-22-09]

A Christmas prayer
with thanks to the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program

God of glory and God of grace,
God who creates and loves us all,
God whose Holy Spirit gives us gifts for faithful living,
You come to us in a child,
Born in Bethlehem, a humble city in an occupied land,

A child whose parents fled with him for safety,
Crossing borders, becoming refugees,

A child who grew in wisdom and in years to be an adult who proclaimed great good news,
               Befriended sinners,
               Stood with the oppressed,
               Welcomed the outcast,
               Healed the sick and
               Reconciled the estranged,

An adult who revealed your love and lived your love,
Shared food with those who hungered,
               Blessed the peacemakers,
               Offered liberation from all forms of tyranny,
               Transformed conflict and
               Broke down walls of division.

Jesus remained faithful to you in all things though he threatened the powers and the powerful
Who seized him, tried him, tortured him, and crucified him.

But your loving grace and power raised him from the dead. And through Jesus
You make possible forgiveness and fresh beginnings,
Life anew and life abundant.

We give thanks that Jesus remains the friend of sinners and
               A companion on life’s journey,
               That we might live in faith,
               That we might love you, love one another, and love all your creation,
               That we might do kindness, pursue justice, and seek peace,

This day and every day.

Remembering the birth of the child of Bethlehem, we give thanks,
And we celebrate your love revealed in the life and death and resurrection Jesus our Savior,
In whose name we pray.

Amen.

– Mark Koenig and Nancy Eng MacNeill, Teresa Stricklen, David Gambrell
[12-22-09]

A special Advent treat:

Silent monks sing the Hallelujah Chorus

Thanks to Susan Robertson, Witherspoon's ever-diligent bookkeeper
[12-20-09]

Ideas for reclaiming Advent and Christmas

From Enough for Everyone, the Presbyterian Hunger Program [12-12-09]

The Magi traveled a long distance to bring gifts to Jesus. Their gifts honored the child and provided for the family. Today, gift giving can be a tricky topic. It can be challenging to find gifts that honor our loved ones while honoring Christ and remembering why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

Ideas for Reclaiming Advent and Christmas [PDF] offers a number of ideas for creative giving, including gifts of time, experiences and other ways to share of ourselves. Find tips on celebrating with organic foods, alternative gifts, sweat free products and fairly traded goods. Incorporate new rituals, study and prayers into your Christmas traditions. You may want to consider alternative giving – donations to PC(USA) ministries – this year, too, or Fair Trade products that serve as gifts not only for the recipient but also to the artisans and farmers who produce them.

Give Alternative Gifts

Consider honoring your loved ones with a donation rather than physical gift. Enough for Everyone and Just Living are part of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, and your gifts help further our work. Give online or by check:

	Enough for Everyone
	Presbyterian Hunger Program

Thank you for your support!

Explore Fair Trade Products

Through the Global Marketplace, PC(USA) partners with artisan and farmer groups around the world to help alleviate poverty and eliminate its causes. Consider shopping with Global Marketplace groups for your holiday needs. There are many wonderful groups worthy of our support; below we highlight four with strong Presbyterian roots:

	Partners for Just Trade (PJT) is a nonprofit Christian organization working with Fair Trade artisans in Peru and Nicaragua and farmers in Cameroon. It began as an initiative of the Presbyterian Hunger Program and the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy. PJT is a member of the Fair Trade Federation and Green America Business Network.
	Just Coffee/Café Justo is a grower cooperative based in Mexico that was formed to address the root causes of labor migration from Mexico to the United States. It is supported by Frontera de Cristo, a Presbyterian Border Ministry.
	Import Peace eases poverty and hardship, fosters economic growth and improves the quality of life for Palestinians through sales of olive oil, spices and soaps. A nonprofit, mission group of volunteers, it was begun by Presbyterians in Minnesota.
	Pal Craftaid is a nonprofit volunteer ministry of compassion, hope and healing for Palestinians. Rooted in the peace and justice work of the PC(USA) since 1993, sales of olive wood and embroidered handcrafts provide much needed income to artisans in East Jerusalem, The West Bank and Gaza

Visit the Global Marketplace Web site for the full list of partner groups.

However you choose to give and honor the Christ child this season, may the presence of God the giver of life be with you.

Melanie Hardison
Enough for Everyone
(888) 728-7228 x5626

A poem for Christmas
[12-25-08]

O come, you Splendor very bright,
as joy that never yields to might.

O come and twin all hearts to peace,
that greed and war at last shall cease.

— translated from the Latin of a very early carol,
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

JOURNEY

Wisdom’s representatives lurched
across the desert on camel back—
obedient to celestial mandate,
ready to pay homage at a royal birth.
Spines jarred by days of riding
ached for respite that never came.
Fur-trimmed robes already carried
stains of night encampments.
Hours of quiet study and scholars’ conversation—
this trio’s normal practice—
now seemed luxury lost.

Journey’s end heaped disappointment on discomfort.
The travelers knelt before an infant
just as they had planned,
and handed over tributes of great value.
Nothing else developed as expected—
no elegant reception, no regal fanfare—
only the couple and their baby
surrounded by some cattle in a barn.

In years to come these men would often wonder
They heard rumors of this child become a man—
preaching loving kindness, urging peace.
What if his message does catch on,
is imitated by the many,
supplanting the greed
on which the world too often turns?

We wonder still.

jk, 12/2008

John D. King, Bloomington, Indiana

Your WebWeaver thanks his brother Jack for this contribution.

A little Christmas story – when God didn’t do quite enough

THE MISSING FIVE POUND NOTE
[12-15-08]

Chippenham George worked for the Post Office and his job was to process all the mail that had illegible addresses. One day just before Christmas, a letter landed on his desk simply addressed in shaky handwriting: 'To God'. With no other clue on the envelope, George opened the letter and read:

Dear God,

I am an 93 year old widow living on the State pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had £100 in it, which was all the money I had in the world and no pension due until after Christmas. Next week is Christmas and I had invited two of my friends over for Christmas lunch. Without that money, I have nothing to buy food with. I have no family to turn to, and you are my only hope. God; can you please help me?

Chippenham George was really touched, and being kind hearted, he put a copy of the letter up on the staff notice board at the main Fareham sorting office where he worked. The letter touched the other postmen and they all dug into their pockets and had a whip round. Between them they raised £95. [$190 USD] Using an officially franked Post Office envelope, they sent the cash on to the old lady, and for the rest of the day, all the workers felt a warm glow thinking of the nice thing they had done.

Christmas came and went. A few days later, another letter simply addressed to 'God' landed in the Sorting Office. Many of the postmen gathered around while George opened the letter. It read,

Dear God,

How can I ever thank you enough for what you did for me? Because of your generosity, I was able to provide a lovely luncheon for my friends. We had a very nice day, and I told my friends of your wonderful gift – in fact we haven't gotten over it and even Father John, our parish priest, is beside himself with joy. By the way, there was £5 [$10 USD] missing. I think it must have been those thieving fellows at the Post Office.

George could not help musing on Oscar Wilde's quote: 'A good deed never goes unpunished'

Thanks to John Jackson and his
“Everything Is Connected” email newsletter

Christmas in India 2006 [posted here 1-17-07]

Christmas eve

We go to a Leper Colony where a friend's mother lives and wish her a Happy Christmas. She sits on the floor of her clean but very small room cooking on an open fire with a tin foil pan holding in the sticks. She is delighted to see us and we hug her. Her son is a physician now studying at Johns Hopkins in the USA but he will return when he completes his degree. He had asked her want she wanted for Christmas. Oh she said, one of those flash lights that doesn't need batteries but can be cranked for light. That's all. We took her one, it was simple but the handle turned easily so she could do it easily. She was so very very pleased. We also took a pair of warm socks. I looked at her feet, beautiful in though so damaged by disease. She didn't complain but offered us tea. We had to say no as others were waiting. She was so thrilled with our visit and that we had honored her with our coming. We were honored she received us.

Christmas day

Children's Home, Dhanari (near Roorkee, in North East India).

These children presented a play of the coming of Jesus including the birth of John, in English for our benefit. Baby Jesus, (doll) wore a tiny Santa suit. It was classic and so beautifully done. When they sang Joy to the world they played drums and cymbals and clapped along.

Christmas day began with quick breakfast and then worship. More singing and music. The keyboard lead us in the singing but the voices could have carried us without instruments. There are slight differences in the cadences of the Christmas carols but they are in message the same... Jesus has come.

Then comes Santa, thinner than ours with a small mask on the face, laughing. Santa gives away the Christmas bags as each child's name is called. Individual bags with their name written on them. Inside, a pair of socks, a notepad, pencil or two and about 5 small wrapped candies. They are thrilled. We cheer along with them. Our hearts are full.

We didn't open a present at all. We did not miss it, not the 88 year old or the 11 year old. Our hearts were so full of the love of God brought to us in Jesus. Sigh. It was a rebirth of God's love in all of us as well.

Home now. Remnants of Christmas from before we left almost make me laugh...and cry... Be near us Lord Jesus we ask you to say...close by us forever....and love us we pray..

God abides

Bobbie Giltz McGarey
Southwest Oklahoma Presbyterian Parish

The Peace of God be with you!

Thoughts for Christmas
[12-21-06]

Having recently moved from Minnesota to Georgia, your WebWeaver has found it difficult to "think Christmas" this season. Blue skies and 70-degree days are great, but not for Christmas shopping. (We have little inclination, though, to seek out the good old days of snow, ice, sub-zero temperatures and all the rest.)

But as Christmas seems to be coming just the same, we want to share with you two pieces that have come our way – and we’ll add more if they come to us.

First, Carol Wickersham, one of the founders of No2Torture, offers a Christmas letter that shows how powerful Christmas thoughts can be when they are grounded in the stuff of struggle of justice, peace, and human dignity.

And then my brother, Jack King, has sent a Christmas poem, as has now become his excellent annual custom. I’m happy to share this gift with you all.

And here’s a delightful thought presented in "flash video" format by the Global Good Neighbor Initiative of the International Relations Center.

Finally, you may want to look at the page of Advent and Christmas thoughts that we offered last year at this time. [Over 2,000 people have accessed the page during this December, so there must be something helpful there.]

New

Christmas means reconciliation

Adding to our reflections for Advent and Christmas, here’s a note sent by Arch and Wanda Taylor of Clarksville, Indiana. They are retired from years as mission workers in Japan. [12-22-06]

And we welcome your suggestions and offerings!!
Just send a note,
to be shared here.

Hope in the midst of struggle

A letter from Carol Wickersham, of No2Torture [posted here 12-21-06. Sent 12-20-06]

Dear No2Torture Friends:

The season would not be complete without sharing some words of hope, gratitude and resolution with all of you. In the days following the passage of the Military Commissions Act, I have to admit that I was mightily discouraged. We had worked so hard to preserve habeas corpus, demand accountability, ensure humane treatment – and our efforts seemed to come to naught. I shared my sense of despair with a colleague who had worked on the passage of the Civil Rights Act during the 1960's. He kind of chuckled and said, "Girl, how long have you been working on this thing? One year? Two? Come back and cry on my shoulder when it has been 40 years in the wilderness, then I'll dry your tears." If we are in this for the long haul, we need to be fed by the manna of the encouragement of others. I have been fed by all of you -- thank you.

The second words of hope were a gift that came to me when I was working with the lectionary passages for Human Rights Day/ Advent 2, writing worship materials for the PC(USA) web site.

"By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high with break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." Luke 1.78-79

These words of Zechariah, quoting the prophet Malachi – words spoken (and spoken again and spoken again) in discouraging times – remind us that the good news breaks suddenly like dawn. It is not our job to make the sun rise; it is our job to keep walking toward the horizon. Thank you for walking with me.

And finally, the most important words of hope have come from all of you: notes and postings to this group; conversations shared at gatherings in Miami, Princeton, Chicago, Birmingham, Beloit and Washington; letters to the editor and to Congress; prayers, poems, songs and conference calls. In all these ways, I believe God has spoken to and through us – thank you.

And so I move to speak words of resolution, a fine tradition for the beginning of the year; and I invite you again to join me.

1) Let's keep on speaking up wherever we are with whomever God gives us to talk to. Let's talk from the pulpit, at the Rotary Club, to our colleagues, to our children. AND POST WHAT WE ARE DOING, SO WE CAN STEAL EACH OTHER'S GOOD IDEAS.

2) Come to LA — Jan. 19-20. Details and online registration at www.no2torture.org. Let us equip ourselves for action as we learn from nationally known speakers and strategize with others. The conference is free and travel scholarships are available for young adults.

3) Post a poster! Yes, the poster has gone to print and will be available early in '07. Stay tuned.

4) Keep the issue before the Congress. If this is to be a priority with the new Congress, we will need to make it one. Friends, we have a tough sell. This is not a "feel good" issue, neither is it in most folks' immediate self interest. In addition, those for whom we advocate have been labeled "the worst of the worst." Jesus did not become popular by telling people to love their enemies. Consider writing a letter a day as a way to knock at the doors that keep closing in our faces. In truth, though our movement continues to grow in numbers and understanding, very little has changed for those who are detained. In fact, there is evidence that conditions and attitudes are currently becoming more harsh.

5) Mark your calendar for a gathering of Christian witness and worship in Washington D.C. on March 16-17. Details will be forthcoming

6) Pray without ceasing.

Again, thank you for your faithfulness. Surely, the dawn is breaking and God's light will shine on all those who sit in the shadow of death, in that light and until that day...

pax,
Carol Wickersham

DAY TWO
by John D. King
[posted here 12-21-06. Sent 12-20-06]

The birth so oft portrayed
these winter days
takes place in darkness,
or so the story goes.

In almost all our brains
there is that image,
almost impossible to change.

So we choose to celebrate
with subtle light,
candles that will soften
and make comfortable the night.

We can almost see young Mary and her Joseph,
hear hushed rustlings in the stable.
Adoring shepherds enter, say their piece,
softly take their leave.

The baby stirs,
sleeps on,
sheltered by the borrowed feeding trough.

But what about day two?
Surely then the baby's rest must be disturbed.
Stable hands will have to come
for animals must eat.

Shouts of traders, clank of commerce,
clamor of arriving caravans —
all will sweep aside tranquility.

Census takers may be satisfied,
but there remain the taxes to be paid,
accommodations to be found,
plans for unknown futures to be made.

If during nighttime's gentle music
a messenger of peace was born
and words of loving kindness filled the air,
how shall those quiet notes
now still resonate
despite the loud seductive symphony
of everyday cacophony?

Day two —
bewildering, energizing dance
of necessity with hope —
is our day, too.

jdk,
12/2006

CHRISTMAS MEANS RECONCILIATION

Adding to our reflections for Advent and Christmas, here’s a note sent by Arch and Wanda Taylor of Clarksville, Indiana. They are retired from years as mission workers in Japan.

When Jesus was born the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace." (Luke 2:14). When Jesus entered Jerusalem on the way to the cross the people cried, "Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." (Luke 19:38). God is glorified by peace in heaven and peace on earth. Indeed, in Christ, God was reconciling the world, not counting our transgressions against us (2 Corinthians 5:19). The divine eternal purpose is God’s reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth, making peace through the blood of Christ’s cross (Colossians 1:19-20).

So many national leaders seem more inclined toward war than peace that we the people must exert our best efforts to nudge the world along God’s reconciling way. May God give you the gift of reconciliation at Christmas. Let us take seriously the teaching of Genesis 1:27 that we are all created in the image of God—there is, as the Quakers say, "that of God in everyone."

Reconciled to God, let us live reconciliation with each other, with love even for enemies, and with respect for all God’s creation. This will truly give Christmas glory to God!

Arch and Wanda Taylor, Christmas 2006