a song for advent

watch it through to the end.
this is the kind of stuff that stirs me.
this is the kind of stuff that is dangerous.
danger is involved when you want to change the world.
changing the world is at the heart of why jesus was born.
if you're into dangerous living, then check out the next soliton gathering here.
Lazyb - Underwear Goes Inside The Pants

merton and advent

“The certainty of Christian hope lies beyond passion and beyond knowledge. Therefore we must sometimes expect our hope to come in conflict with darkness, desperation and ignorance. Therefore, too, we must remember that Christian optimism is not a perpetual sense of euphoria, an indefectible comfort in whose presence neither anguish nor tragedy can possibly exist. We must not strive to maintain a climate of optimism by the mere suppression of tragic realities. Christian optimism lies in a hope of victory that transcends all tragedy: a victory in which we pass beyond tragedy to glory with Christ crucified and risen. …

But the Church in preparing us for the birth of a “great prophet,” a Savior and a King of Peace, has more in mind than seasonal cheer. The Advent mystery focuses the light of faith upon the very meaning of life, of history, of man, of the world and of our own being. In Advent we celebrate the coming and indeed the presence of Christ in our world. We witness to His presence even in the midst of all its inscrutable problems and tragedies. Our Advent faith is not an escape from the world to a misty realm of slogans and comforts which declare our problems to be unreal, our tragedies nonexistent.”

Thomas Merton. Seasons of Celebration. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1950: 88-89

Email your MP about the killer in the kitchen

here's something practical you can do this advent, as in your waiting for the return of the lord, his changing of your hearts leads to practical action in the way your behaviour affects others - particularly the poor and powerless (see luke 3:7-18)
follow the links that show the text of the early day motion, and which mps have already signed. if yours isn't there, then follow the next links to send them an email.
i've emailed my mp, neil gerrard today.

romereo, an advent prayer

thanks to me old mates geoff and sherry at the ashram for pointing to this fabulous prayer from the late archbishop oscar romero. its a prayer worth taking 15 minutes at least once a week in advent to contemplate:

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen

advent - wait

great picture from ben bell reminding us that the season of advent is actually about waiting.
but its not just waiting around for something to happen. its waiting with a real hope that causes us to be engaged with life. and its a hope that refuses to give up in the face of adversity.

muggings - cause, effect, and hope

excellent interview on bbc radio4's today programme this morning, that looks at the question of why young people go around mugging others. you can listen again here.
youthworkers, camila batmangelidgh of kids company, and shaun bailey bring a damning critique and indictment on our liberal democracy that has neglected the care and safety of our children so that they actually feel unsafe in the world. that feeling of being unsafe coupled with a lack of love and care, along with a relentless media-driven diet of violence places too many children literally into survival mode that means the only way they can see that they can be safe is to become known as dangerous.
of course, this sounds like more liberal wishy-washy excuse-making for bad behaviour, but i find myself saying more often these days, that delinquent parents and adults are making delinquent children.
we do well to remember that jesus welcomed children into his circle in such a way that shocked his culture, when he said, 'to such as these (children) belong the kingdom of god'. in other words, the 'status' of children is second to none in the eyes of the king of the universe. that also means that the responsibility for the love and care and nurture and discipline of these first-class citizens of god's kingdom lies with adults.
the critique of the youthworkers mentioned above is that adults are the cause of their own misery because they have failed in their responsibility to the children they have begotten.
this is a complex issue that will not suffer simplistic solutions. it will require nothing less than a cultural shift, probably taking a generation or more to flow through.
but its not hopeless. einstein said that it only takes 8% of any given population to change for the rest of the population to change with them.
people like camila and shaun need to play a louder and more prominent role in helping our society to understand what's going on and develop strategies at a political level that are more effective than what we currently have.
churches need to take heart and realise that they have an enormous part to play in this issue too, as they provide most of the country's youthworkers. organisations like frontier youth trust and oasis trust do great work in training youthworkers and contributing at a significant political level by engaging in prophetic dialogue with the makers of public policy. youthwork programmes like ascension eagles cheerleaders take a long term approach to working with young people and their wider community that actually effect a cultural shift at a micro level.
the downward spiral of violence and revenge is not the only way to be feel safe in our world. the dear man whose son was murdered by 2 young men for his mobile phone and travel card has chosen to look for a better way.
the season of advent leading to christmas reminds us that god did not, and has not given up on the human condition, flawed as it is. the decision of god to live among us as jesus of nazareth, taking responsibility for the children he created continues to inspire a real, living and transformational hope that the way life is, is not necessarily the way it needs to be, and that the human condition is actually redeemable.
there is hope yet, and there are those who live hope.