Dr. Meinke's Welcome to Advent
Dear Friends,
Welcome to this Advent season of holy waiting.
We wait for the birth of the Christ to take place in our hearts once
again and we also wait for the day of the Lord’s return, the two events
that signal the beginning and the end of the healing and liberation for
the whole creation. The Scriptures that we read in Advent as we
prepare for Christmas are full of expectation and surprises. In
Luke’s gospel, it takes a long first chapter building up to Jesus’
birth, in which angels appear to old Zechariah, John the Baptist’s
father, and to teenaged Mary, and finally to grimy shepherds in the
field.
We imagine angels to be winged, white-robed,
barefoot, harp-playing creatures but the word ‘angel’ means ‘messenger’
– the angels bring us messages of the good news of God’s
nearness. When I have my ‘down in the dumps’ days, God seems very
far away, so I need to be reminded of the truth that God is nearby.
This good news always surprises me. And the messengers who
deliver that news are also surprising, because they come in all shapes
and sizes, ages and abilities. They speak from the TV newsdesk,
through a text message, a U-2 song, a favorite poem, as well as the
Bible. Imagine how the angel will speak to YOU this year.
There is another great surprise besides Jesus in the
manger - God calls each and every one of us to be angel messengers,
especially during this season. To whom will you bring the message
of good news this year? With whom will you watch and wait while
the great surprise of God grows and is born as a defenseless,
vulnerable baby? What will you say?
How about - Wow!.... Awesome!….. Really?!....... Alleluia!......Thank you, God!!!
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THE PLASTIC ANGEL
by Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem
Our crèche set came complete with stable
and a plastic angel.
Small, not at all to scale,
the white-garbed creature with uncertain wings
was obviously an afterthought,
thrown in to complete the set,
otherwise ceramic and hand-painted…
Unless, of course, this angel was a last-minute substitute
for one which was irresistible to the packer.
In that case, somewhere I have an irresistible ceramic angel,
dressed gloriously in red,
kneeling or flying on somebody else’s coffee table
even now
as I unwrap the plastic angel.
If I could ever bring myself to throw away an angel,
it would be this one,
this one with no redeeming features.
And yet, each year as I unwrap the plastic angel,
I hesitate to pitch this celestial messenger.
I’m reminded of my own lack of glory,
my own plastic attempts at celebrating Christmas,
my own feeble annunciations,
and once again I place this bit of plastic
over the stable.
If the plastic angel
can get this far,
perhaps there’s a place in Bethlehem town
for me.