My Scattered Advent Thoughts

“Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see.” This one line from Hark! The Herald Angels Sing has me in a state of great excitement this Advent season.

“Veiled in flesh.”

I’ve been thinking a lot this year about the story of Christmas. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love stories. I love to read them, watch them, think about them, imagine myself writing them (and doing it well!), tell them, listen to them, etc. And this advent season, like never before, this love for stories is carrying over to include the Christmas story. I simply cannot seem to get enough of it! I’ve read it, as it appears in each of the gospels, several times and in several different translations. Right now I’m mostly camping out in the New Living Translation because it seems to be capturing the essence of the story the best for me.
The reason that this story has so thoroughly captivated my imagination this year is because of a line from the first chapter of John which says “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Emmanuel does after all, as the prophet reminds us, mean “God is with us.” This fact is the real reason that Christmas has ever been celebrated. It is the reason that we have this season of expectation called Advent. It is all because we celebrate that this God that we worship is not a god of the ivory tower but is one that truly put on flesh and dwelt among us, even, or perhaps especially, in a world so filled with hate and suffering and injustice and evil. If this fact is not true then we have no gospel. Good news of great joy for all of the people, indeed.
And it is this time of year, the expectation of Advent and the culmination of the celebration of Christmas day that the Church has set aside each year to remember, and to reflect on, the story. Because, for whatever else we make this season about—mass consumption, gluttony, office holiday parties, a jolly man in red—the true essence of the season is still captured by the words of an old Christmas hymn:

Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate deity,
Pleased as human with humans to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel (God with us).

An Issue of Social Justice

The other morning as I was getting ready for Church, this thought popped into my head so I stopped what I was doing and scribbled it down in my journal, thought I'd share it here:

How do we know if an issue, political or otherwise, is an issue of social justice? Look at the issue and ask the following question: Does this issue have the potential to affect the most vulnerable among us--the poor, the sick, the very young, the very old, and the outsiders-differently than it will affect the rest of us? If the answer to this question is yes then that issue is an issue of social justice. When beheld in this light, I submit that there are no issues that are not social justice issues.

A Study in the Ridiculous

Just for fun this past week I have been cataloguing ridiculous moments and events that I have witnessed and/or participated in each day. I have selected one favorite from each day (not completely true, see Saturday and Sunday) to share with you.

Wednesday: A motivational speaker came to work to give a motivational speech on how to become a "Humor Being." His program for success in life took a formulaic approach with three Atti-tools (yes, that is true, I couldn't make that up!). At times he was moderately funny and he even said a few things that were logically coherent but he was basically arguing for a run-of-the-mill, been done before, Epicurean-Hedonistic approach to human existence with a bit of pop-psychology thrown in for good measure. So, was his talk a success? I would have to argue that it was. Afterall, he was there to motivate and by the end of his talk I found that I did feel quite motivated to cynically roll my eyes. So...good for him, I guess.

Thursday: I had an interview for a job as an administrative assistant to a new director in the company. Wanting to look put together and professional I searched in my closet for my most serious looking skirt and fished around in my sock drawer for a pair of pantyhose. I have to admit, I was looking pretty nice until, while sitting at my desk, I had the strangest sensation of something small sitting on my leg just below my right knee and then gliding up to about three inches above my knee...Yes, for no apparent reason my hose got a huge an undeniable run in them while I was innocently sitting at my desk! My question is who invented pantyhose anyway and why? I'll tell you this, I will have to be interviewing for the Pope's job before I find it important enough to put a pair of those things on again!

Friday: The cost of cream cheese spread is just insane. I learned this when I bought a bagel in the cafeteria for breakfast and it cost a very reasonable $0.90 but the measley little 1oz, barely enough to spread over the bagel, cream cheese cost $0.45! Am I wrong to think its weird that the cost of the topping is 50% of the cost of the actual food?

Saturday and Sunday: Okay, my weekend was actually fairly pedestrian. I can't think of any major, "are you kidding me!?!" moments to share so we'll just move right along to:

Monday: Two words: Columbus Day.

Tuesday: The fact that there is such a drink as a "green tea latte" is odd enough but the fact that I, (1) actually tried such a thing and (2) found it utterly delightful and would actually like to be drinking one now, 14 hours later, is something that I find absolutely bewildering and ridiculous.

My Movie Dilemma

I love movies and everything associated with them. I love renting movies for a Friday night at home and going to the movies to catch the latest blockbuster and I love eating popcorn while watching a movie in either of these settings. I love lots of different kinds of movies too: Romantic comedies, action flicks, epic films, anything Audrey Hepburn did, kid movies--The Emporer’s New Groove is genius and I will not be convinced otherwise—Laugh out loud comedies, I could go on but that is probably enough to give a general picture of my movie preferences.
Why all this talk about my love of film? Well, over the weekend I wanted to rent something so I ran down to the nearest rental store. When I got there I realized that I had a problem that I have never had before when it comes to selecting movies: I live alone. I’ve never lived alone before and I’ve always had a roommate to help me select a movie to see. Granted, we would sometimes go back and forth about what to see forever and end up compromising on something that neither of us was too excited about, but at least we could help each other come to a decision! Also, the stakes weren’t so high because if the movie ended up being just terrible we could mock it together and still have fun. If it was scary we wouldn’t be alone to psyche ourselves out when it was over. And if it was thought-provoking we would have someone to rehash it with for hours afterward. In short, my former roommate, aside from being my best friend and confidante, is also my movie pal and now she isn’t here and I don’t know how to select, watch, and process a movie by myself.
I spent about an hour in the rental store, wandering aimlessly, hoping that a DVD would just jump in front of me with it's shirt ripped and proclaim, “Rent me!” in its best Marlon Brando impression. But alas, that did not happen (By the way, I appreciate A Streetcar Named Desire for its cinematic significance but man is that ever an intense movie!). I called my old roommate for advice but nothing she suggested sounded quite as fun without her there to watch it with me. Finally out of sheer desperation I asked for a consult with a movie rental expert. In this case a movie rental expert is a 17-year-old kid named Marcus who, I assume, works part time at Blockbuster in order to finance his hobby of restoring a very sad old car to its former glory. Marcus was patient and he tried to help by recommending every single movie that a 17-year-old guy would like. Apparently my love for movies does not extend to include the typical fare appreciated by 17-year-old guys (who knew?).
I finally decided on Say Anything. I chose that movie because I believe that anytime a person cannot make a decision about what movie to watch they should select something from the 80s and if Lloyd Dobbler is available than he is an excellent choice. I enjoyed it, Say Anything is a great movie and Lilly with her, “the world is full of guys, be a man!” is just my hero. Anyway, it all turned out all right in the end but I learned from this experience that I haven’t quite figured out how to live alone yet and I need some serious help picking out movies!

Random-Thoughts-Wednesday, An Introduction

Because Wednesdays tend to be my longest and most boring days I will use them to regale my readers with all of the most random thoughts, ideas, conclusions, revelations, song lyrics, ideas, opinions, and plans that have plagued my little mind all week long. Because this category is so broad nearly all of it will be well beyond the superfluous loquaciousness that I have promised this blog to be. On the other hand, because it is all so random, there is a chance, albeit a very, very small one, that this segment may serve as host to the tiniest flashes of brilliance. For that reason I must insist that this segment be read faithfully and carefully as it could be history in the making (but will of course likely all be nothing more than trash).