Pondering In the New Year

Christopher Santer, Pacem Studio

On the last Sunday of 2018, I heard a sermon that included a theme of Mary "pondering" things in her heart. And that, we in the West tend to forget the 12 Days of Christmas, putting the beautiful celebration of the Birth to rest on December 26.

So, I've been pondering about what it means to ponder.

The first thought that comes to mind is that we don't seem to put much emphasis or value on pondering. Blame who or what you will, it seems to be a dying art. It's almost as if you have to meditate to get yourself into the state of mind required.

Pondering takes attention. And this seems to be the age of attention deficit. Not so much in the medical/psychological sense, but in the literal, expressed in the simple inability to stay at attention. Speaking of which, Simone Weil had a lot to say about that (see her WAITING FOR GOD for further details).

Saturday I spent a few hours volunteering at a mailing bee. I struck up a conversation with a couple of folks around the table - both of whom work for the local public school system. We got to talking about how kids are learning a new way of doing math. Multiplication in particular. Which doesn't require memorization. (As in memorizing the dreaded multiplication tables.) On one level, I totally understand avoiding this exercise. On the other hand, not engaging in an activity that stimulates the part of the brain responsible for remembering sort of scares me.

The final thing that comes to mind is how pondering actually helps us put two and two together. For instance, last night I watched Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9. There's a long bit, towards the middle of the film, where Moore makes the point that Rick Snyder, Michigan's current governor, is a lot like our current president. Moore uses the example of how the state of Michigan woefully mishandled and then unabashedly lied about the Flint water crisis as a precursor to the current president's love of falsehood.

Point being: What happens when a society looses its collective memory?

Ironically, one of the main points of WAITING FOR GOD is public education, and the power of attention, Weil wrote "Most often attention is confused with a kind of muscular effort. If one says to one's pupils: 'Now, you must pay attention,' one sees them contracting their brows, holding their breath, stiffening their muscles. If after two minutes they are asked what they have been paying attention to, they cannot reply. They have been concentrating on nothing. They have not been paying attention. They have been contracting their muscles."

Which brings us back to Sunday's sermon and Mary. 

TruthAngel - Wordpress.com

At a fairly young age she had been told some astonishing news (that she was going to be the mother of Jesus). I wonder what Mary's response to Gabriel would have been if she had not already been in the habit of pondering? 

Even before Jesus' birth, Mary had pondered enough to give us the beautiful Magnificat (starting in Luke 1:46).

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
  for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
  for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
  And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
  He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
  he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
  he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty."

Happy New Year everyone!

An Advent Meditation

First Presbyterian Church, Kalamazoo, MI

Last night I was fortunate to attend a Candlelight Vespers service held in a beautiful stone church. The church (First Presbyterian in downtown Kalamazoo) looks more like a cathedral. Immensely high ceilings, iron chandeliers, big oak beams. Everything about the place speaks of permanence.

As the prelude gave way to the Processional Carol ("Once in Royal David's City") I slowly began to stop focusing on the setting and started to meditate on the reason we were gathered.

The carol speaks of the lowly setting of Jesus' birth and begins:

"Once in royal David's city
stood a lowly cattle shed
where a mother laid her baby
in a manger for His bed.
Mary was that mother mild;
Jesus Christ her little child.

He came down to earth from Heaven,
who is God and Lord of all;
and His shelter was a stable,
and His cradle was a stall.
With the poor and mean and lowly
lived on earth our Savior holy..."

Well before the end of the fifth stanza, my mind was transported back to Bethlehem's fragrance. Of what a cattle shed, complete with livestock, must have looked like. Smelled like. Wondering what Mary must have felt, giving birth in a place where she and her newborn were one step away from being homeless under the open sky.

MercyHomeForBoysandGirls

Soon another song was sung, "Breath of Heaven," which focuses on Mary's experience on the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

"I have traveled many moonless nights
Cold and weary with a babe inside
and I wonder what I've done.
Holy Father, you have come
and chosen me now
to carry your Son.

I am waiting in a silent prayer.
I am frightened by the load I bear.
In a world as cold as stone,
must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now.
Be with me now..."

I cannot imagine what Mary was facing. Especially in a male-dominated culture.

Barely a teen.
Unmarried.
And pregnant.

Three huge additional strikes against her. In essence Mary as far as her hometown of Nazareth was concerned, was alone. Immaculate conception? No one had ever heard of such a thing. Even Joseph initially doubted her story.

Mid-way through the service, "The Dream Isaiah Saw" spoke to the miracle of a humble and meek baby, giving way to a savior.

"Little child whose bed is straw,
take new lodging in my heart.
Bring the dream that Isiah saw;
life redeemed from fang and claw.

Peace will pervade more than forest and field;
God will transfigure the Violence concealed
deep in the heart and in systems of gain,
ripe for the judgment the Lord will ordain.

Little child whose bed is straw,
take new lodgings in my heart.
Bring the dream that Isiah saw:
justice purifying law..."

iBelieve

What a beautiful transition!

And the reality behind the lyrics and music.

That the saving ultimately involves our human systems of government.

A profound, life-changing call to renewal.

Full of hope!

Consequentially, the candle lit on the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, is pink. Gaudete is Latin for "joy," and pink is seen as its symbol. Especially to differentiate this particular week from the other three weeks of Advent, in which purple candles (symbolizing fasting) are lit.

All-in-all the Candlelight Vespers was a fitting reminder that, although we are still in the season of longing for the savior, there is light, joy, hope soon coming!

Fred Rogers: It's a Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood...

Growing up, I was more of a Captain Kangaroo type of kid, as compared to Mr. Rogers.

The Captain was on at eight in the morning. And almost as soon as our family owned a television, I was hooked. In fact, Captain Kangaroo and his Treasure House served as my stay-at-home preschool.

Mr. Rogers came on in the afternoon. Everyone once in a blue moon I watched it, but not sufficiently so to become a fan.

The few times I did tune in, it seemed to me, that the flow of the show was too slow. No sarcasm to speak of. And the neighborhood Mr. Rogers lived in was far too gentle for my liking.

Fast-forward six decades later and Mr. Rogers seems a whole lot more appealing.

The thing of it is, Fred Rogers genuinely cared about kids, and the quality of the television programs they watched.

He even went before congress one time and talked about it.

And then, there's his neighborhood.

Remember the opening song?

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!"

A great way to set a kid's mind at ease, isn't it? Automatic reassurance, affirmation, invitation.

"I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you!"

Come to Mr. Roger's neighborhood, just as you are. No preconditions. Total, unconditional invite to join. Everyone is accepted and welcomed.

"I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you."

Mr. Rogers not only wants you as his neighbor, he is unequivocally letting you know that this is no mere spur-of-the-moment decision. He isn't capriciously doling out friendship. It's heartfelt. Intentional. Real.

"Please, won't you be my neighbor?"

Considering all of the above, Mr. Rogers finishes up his invite by letting us know - in no uncertain terms - that he's extending an invitation.

No border walls. No threats. No flip-flopping, No uncertainty borne of insecurity.

Pure.

Open.

Honest as it can possible be.

What a refreshing breath of fresh air to the hyper-critical, hyper-active, hyper-everything society we live in today.

Annie Murphy Paul, a science journalist, recently wrote a review of a new biography of Fred Rogers written by Maxwell King.

She writes:

"Rogers' show was earnest, quirky, amateurish in the best sense of the word: It was also groundbreaking. Into the lily-white world of midcentury children's programming, Rogers invited actors of diverse backgrounds... In the 1970s Rogers became a vegetarian, offering as his reason another understated gem: 'I don't want to eat anything that has a mother.'"

Murphy Paul notes the faith of Rogers. "For eight years, he slipped away from his duties at the television station three or four times a week to attend classes at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary; he was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1963."

And as Fred Rogers said: "Love is at the root of everything. All learning. All relationships. Love, or the lack of it."

Perhaps it was this foundation upon which Mr. Rogers built his neighborhood.

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For extra credit: Here's a TED Talk given by Annie Murphy Paul, about fetal origins research, titled What We Learn Before We're Born.  She has written two books and you can get more details about them on her author's page at Simon & Schuster.
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Photo Credits: Top, PBS, Bottom, The Columbian

Advent is Patience

This week we mark the beginning of Advent.

A lot could be said about Advent as the beginning of the liturgical year for Christians. About the significance of preparation.

But a simple observation by Nathan Hamm on his Twitter account really caught my attention. He wrote:

"violence is impatience
war is impatience
consumerism is impatience
greed is impatience

Advent is patience."

I had really never thought that being impatient is violent. But then, when you stop to consider what actions typically flow from impatience it makes sense. Things like cutting remarks, sarcasm, rudeness can all escalate to violence. 

Violence can lead to war. Think of the beginnings of the two "world" wars we've had. Each was started by violent actions. An Archduke gets assassinated. Royal families take sides. Soon Europe is drawn in. Followed by much of the rest of the world. Or an extremely narcissistic individual conveniently blames all his frustrations and the frustrations of a nation upon one religious group. And proceeds to gain political advantage through racism. Then proceeds to gobble up neighboring countries, bent on world domination.

I read once that most modern (post WWII) wars could be blamed on a growing impatience with diplomatic means to end conflict. So, rather than expend the energy and time necessary to negotiate, military might is seen as the answer - simply because it's a convenient, quicker solution.

How about consumerism?

Well-healed ad firms on Madison Avenue tell us we need the latest thing, and we need it now. There isn't just build-in obsolescence with material things, there's build-in impatience. We can't seem to wait for the latest, newest version of whatever we have. Smartphones and other electronic devices are notoriously geared this way.

Black Fridays usually feature photos of crowds roaring through the front doors of big box stores. And nowadays, Black Friday has morphed into Black Thanksgiving. Some retailers are actually open on Thanksgiving, while on-line sales begin a few days before.

I remember as a young boy, in the 1960s, waiting with my Dad at the neighborhood Sears automotive center, as snow tires were being put on the family car. And my Dad turned to me and said, "You wait. Pretty soon they'll be playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving." I thought he was being really sarcastic, but he was right.

On a spiritual level, you could say that violence, war and consumerism are all run on greed. 

We're most prone to become violent when we're fearful. Or feel threatened. Or insecure. But rather than admit how we're feeling, or face the cause of these feelings, we can resort to violence. It's a quick way to get our way without having to consider others.

War involves violence on a mass level. Wars seldom settle problems. They only temporarily mask them until the deeper issues that caused the war are addressed. 

For diplomacy to work, it requires patience. And trust. But violence and war don't promote either one.

Which brings us to Advent.

What if, over the next four weeks, we considered a way to break the cycle of impatience in our lives?

What would that look like?

What would it look like if we were patient while driving our cars? Would we let more people in ahead of us? Would we drive a little slower? Would we be less inclined to tailgate? Would we slow down at yellow lights instead of barreling through them? 

What would it feel like to stop assuming for a day, and patiently give people the space to explain? To stay calm instead of racing to judgment? To give the other person the benefit of the doubt?

Where would our actions take us if we were patient? Would we open the door for others? Would we give up our place in line? Would we smile at the cashier at the grocery store? Would we offer to help our neighbor?

If we were patient, would that help us appreciate our family and friends more? Not taking them for granted? 

Would patience result in thankfulness? 

And thankfulness in generosity? 

And generosity in a better world?

Photo Credits: Top: MarshmallowRanch,  Middle: The Muslim Time, Bottom: Womenplatform.