Merry Christmas

This is such a fun year for us. Maddie is just "getting" the Santa concept, but more importantly she's getting the "happy birthday Jesus" idea. I really wanted to make sure that we teach her the real reason for Christmas. It's hard though, with everyone who talks to her asking if Santa is going to come and bring her presents. Firstly, she's a pretty smart child (if I do say so) so really, when you ask her that, it freaks her out. Why would some stranger bring her gifts? She says no, by the way, when you ask her if Santa is going to bring her presents, then she follows it with, "Mommy and Daddy"... We still haven't decided whether she means that Santa will bring presents to Mommy and Daddy or whether Mommy and Daddy are going to bring her the presents...
Either way, it affirms that Santa kind of goes against what we try to teach our kids. "Don't talk to strangers" "Don't take candy from a stranger" "Don't let strange people touch you"... but wait, at Christmas, "Go up to Santa (a stranger), sit on his lap, take the candy he offers, and tell him what you want for Christmas..." Really? No wonder she's a little freaked out!

It was my father in law's birthday the other day and my mother in law asked Maddie who's birthday was next (completely expecting Maddie to say "mine" since hers in Jan.10) but Maddie proudly said, "Jesus's birthday is next!" YES!! It is!! lets not forget that!!! That she said that makes me think we're doing something right!!

Merry CHRISTmas!

Old Sermon

So, two years ago, I was very involved with our church that was going through a lot of turmoil and change. I was asked almost once a month to guest preach. I loved it!! I know right, public speaking and not being a minister but talking about the Gospel...

I miss it. A lot.

We go to a Methodist church in Bridgewater now, (well, by "we go" I mean, we've been there four or five times and like the service enough to keep going back).
But, I don't feel connected, yet. I would love to guest preach again, I feel like I could say a lot to the people that are there and I gain so much from sharing myself in that way.

So, I found a sermon that I wrote two years ago just before Christmas and I was thinking of a few of my friends who are pregnant now like I was then. Advent is a time of preparation for the church; preparation for the coming of the Christ Child and I was in a period of advent for my baby when I wrote this sermon... I do miss that time, being pregnant, being excited about my baby... giving sermons...

Here's that sermon if you're interested...


Good Morning. 2 More Days… Are you ready?

When I ask that question, are you ready? What do you think about before you answer? Do you think about the presents you have left to buy, wrap, send somewhere? Or the fact that you have company coming to your house and you haven’t vacuumed yet? The cooking you’ll need to do, the grocery shopping still to be done?

Well, that’s not what I’m asking. Its 2 days away from Christmas, are you ready for Christmas? Are you ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, that is, after all what Christmas is all about. It’s Christ’s birthday people! The whole point of giving presents and getting together is a huge birthday party.

When it’s someone’s birthday; their friends and family get together to celebrate them, celebrate them in their own lives. So, it’s Ryan’s birthday and my job as his loved one is to make him feel celebrated and loved. To think, “Where would my life be without him in it” and then package that all up somehow and give it to him. I’m to celebrate him in my life, to celebrate the fact that he was born.

Ok, so it’s Christ’s birthday. Where would my life be without Him in it? Now THAT is the question. Clearly I can’t answer that in a one hour service, that’s why we have a whole season of advent. Yes, advent is our preparation time for answering this question. During advent, we get the chance to prepare for this birthday party. Where would our lives be if Christ were not in it? That’s what advent means. Ok, well, according to the dictionary, advent means, “the coming of something highly anticipated; and the coming into place.” Looking at that, something highly anticipated, yes, we highly anticipate Christmas. But do we anticipate the right part of Christmas. Do we anticipate the celebration of Christ in our lives? That is what we’re supposed to spend advent doing. So advent is really a period of patience and reflection.

Katie asked me recently, how is advent different for me now that I’m pregnant. And, I’ll be honest, I hadn’t thought about it being any different until she asked me that question. But the fact is, it’s very different. After Katie asked me that question, I thought, well, in a way, I can relate to Mary. In a very obvious way; we’re both pregnant. But her story is very different. Her waiting time for her baby is very different than mine. Simply because of the circumstances. To help you understand what I mean, I’d like to talk about Mary and Joseph’s situation as if it were to take place today. I know, in the bible times things were different, but lets look at their situation and think about how they might be perceived today.
So here is this young couple, and when I say young, I’m pretty sure they were in their teens, at least Mary was. They’re engaged to be married and they didn’t call Mary the Virgin Mary for no reason; they were pure. Thinking they’re like any other couple, Mary goes about her business and one day an Archangle, Gabriel comes to her and says, “Mary, God really likes you, and he has chosen YOU to be the one to carry his son, the Christ child; so, you’re going to become pregnant with the Lord’s baby.” Ok, not in those words, but we’re thinking about this happening today, remember. When Mary questions Gabriel, which good for her for doubting this guy, it does sound a bit unbelievable! Gabriel says, “no really, God has taken favor on you.” Personally, I would have been like, “Oh, taken favor on me… right… this guy is a little nutty here.” And maybe she did think that, but then she really did become pregnant. So, Gabriel turns out to be the real deal and he’s not nutts. Now, Mary has to go to her fiance. And I’m thinking her conversation, in today’s world remember, went something like this, “Hey Joe-seph… ummm… ok, you can’t be mad… because I swear, I didn’t cheat on you and I wasn’t unfaithful… but… I’m pregnant. And you’re not going to believe this but it’s true… it’s God’s child.”
If you’re Joseph, what is your reaction?
Well, if you’re thinking, “Yeah right… even if that were true, the whole town is going to think my fiancé is a cheating you know what, I’m so not sticking around to deal with the fallout from this, I’m not going to look like a fool,” then you pretty much have the same reaction he did.
However, an Angel comes to Joseph in his dream and basically says to him, ‘Joseph, don’t leave Mary, what she’s saying is the truth. She’s going to need you by her side, so stick it out.”
And, Joseph does.
Talk about strong faith.

So, Mary’s situation then gets very complicated. A teenage woman, not married, claiming to be faithful to Joseph, is pregnant. If you have watched the news lately and seen the hype over Jamie Lyn Spears, a 16 yr. old actress being pregnant, you can imagine the hype the townspeople had over Mary, a “virgin” being pregnant.

Aside from all of the hype and the scrutiny she might have faced, I wonder how many of our thoughts are/were the same? She’s been told that her baby will be the Christ child. I’m sure she wondered what the heck that meant. I know, because I am a Christian, that my baby has a purpose on this earth, but I wonder all the time, what that purpose will be. I also wonder, diid Mary know the gender? I wonder that every day about our baby. Did people come up to Mary like they do to me and say, “oooh, you’re carrying all out front, it’s a boy.” Or, “if you feel like you don’t look as good as you always did, then it’s a girl; girls take their mother’s beauty while they’re pregnant” Did she want to say to them, “you don’t know that!! Only God knows what I’m having?” What I do know is that Mary had to do what Ryan and I have to do and put our trust in the Lord that whatever this baby looks like or however this baby is born, we have to trust that God will not give us more than we can handle. That this baby is going to be born the way God intends, and we will be blessed and ready for it.

Which for us, is probably even easier than for Mary, because we planned this. Ok, not quite as soon as it happened, but we planned this pregnancy, and we went about this the “correct” Christian way; so we didn’t have to face a lot of the stuff Mary had to face. Mary didn’t plan this; it was planned for her. I know how scared I am about the actual birth and then the changes my life will have once I have this baby, and I planned it all. I had even more time to think about it than she did.

How trusting and faithful Mary and Joseph were. Think about them the next time you ask God for guidance; it doesn’t always come in the form we think it will; but we’re asked to trust the Lord.

So back to Katie’s question of me, “How is advent different for me now that I’m pregnant? Well, not only is this the advent of Christmas for me, it’s the advent of my child’s birth. This advent has a dual purpose and meaning for me. This advent season has been spent nesting, cleaning like a madwoman, preparing for a new life in our house. Practicing patience, because I can’t really NOT be patient! But more than that, it’s been about trusting in God and having faith that this is the right plan for Ryan and me. Throughout the pregnancy there have been some complications and some unanswered questions… a big one was whether or not our baby would have the same birth defects that I had and what that might mean for us. With a great deal of prayer and faith that God would help us through that if it did happen; we found out that so far, there are no signs of cleft lip or palate for our baby. Thank God. We also found out that earlier complications are no longer complications or even issues to worry about. Faith rewarded, we believe. We continue to trust that the Lord will carry us through whatever comes our way.

This advent, I’ve prayed a lot, tried to be patient, and taken a lot of time to reflect. I don’t think I’ve even known to do that in other years. But, the truth is, that is what advent should be; a time of prayer, preparation, and reflection: about Christ, and Christ in your life. About the Savior that was given to the world, to you, and to us. Christ was born with a purpose, as we all are. His purpose was to save us, to save us from our sins, to absolve us so that we can be forgiven and spend eternity with the Lord. That is what we’re celebrating in two days. Our gift of eternity. The fact that without Christ in our lives, without these people here in this church that God has put into our lives to share in this advent; we would not be the people that we are.

I think that this advent is very important to us as individuals of All Saints’ Episcopal as well as one family. I’d like to think that this past 10 months has been All Saints’ Episcopal’s advent; the coming of something highly anticipated. We have prepared, prayed and taken steps to be ready for the birth and growth of a new congregation. We will continue to do this and continue to grow in numbers and faith, as long as we remain strong and remember that God has a plan for us and is in charge.
And, as we try to do on Christmas and throughout the Christmas season with our own families, lets keep our church family close; celebrate and cherish that family; because God gave each and every one of us to each other; just as he gave Joseph to Mary to support her and stand by her through everything.

And please, I challenge you; don’t lose sight of the true meaning. The celebration of Christ’s life. Thinking about how important Christ is in your life and just how much it means that this baby was born; a Savior for us.

2 more days. Are you ready?


Amen