On the Twelfth Day of Christmas …

Happy twelfth day of Christmas, Y’all!

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Yahweh gives to us: Belonging.

Belonging, Community, Tribe, My People, Quaranteam. We use a lot of different words to describe that experience of being with others who authentically accept us and truly want the best for us and for us to be our best.

I’m going to try and not go all theological on us here but indulge me as I do a little nerding out: We are created by a Trinitarian God. It is a divine mystery just how One God can be inseparably Three Persons and much ink and blood have been spilled over just how this can be. I’m willing to accept it as a mystery that causes me angst one Sunday each year when I have to preach on it1.

What I can say confidently in my understanding is that God is the ultimate example for us to be in community, to belong. If we are created by The Trinitarian God, created from the abundant love of God, in the very image of this loving God, it seems logical to follow that one of our basic human needs is community, to belong to a group in which we feel known and accepted and loved. We are created to belong.

It seems that a lot of energy these days is spent defining who belongs and who doesn’t. We live in an ‘us vs. them’ society. We’ve taken belonging and made it a way to exclude others so we can feel better about ourselves. We label everyone, by ideals, political leanings, country of origin, color of skin, belief system, etc. Labels allow us to ignore the humanness of the “other” group. If I stick a label on you, I can define who you are so that it fits with my internal biases and I can stay deeply rooted in my comfort zone.

God’s intention with belonging is always to include. Everyone. Yep, even that person, even those people.

Each and every human being belongs with God as God’s beloved child. You, me, them, those. It is in the realization of this wisdom that we live most fully into our own humanness and the image of God from which we are each created.

Do we make room for those who are not like us?

We celebrate the arrival of the wise men tomorrow with the Feast of the Epiphany. Mary and Joseph made room for these unexpected strangers from a foreign land with odd nursery gifts and a belief system different from their own because somehow they knew that these people were a part of God’s plan.

So, on this twelfth day of Christmas, I invite you to ponder how would this world, how would your community, how would your family, how would you be changed by learning to see everyone as belonging to God’s plan? And if you have an epiphany, I’d love to hear your story.

AND, I invite you to join Padre Ricardo Lopez and me for weekly conversations during this season of Epiphany on the theme of HOPE. You can join us on Wednesday evenings, January 6, 13, 20, 27, February 3, & 10 at 5:30pm on the Odessa Episcopal Community Facebook page.

1Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost each year. In 2021 it will be May 30.

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas …

Happy eleventh day of Christmas, Y’all? Are your decorations still up? I have to admit that I took mine down this weekend, except for the nativity scene I keep out all year round. If you haven’t put it all away yet, pick a special piece and leave it out all year as a reminder to remember and be re-membered in the coming of Jesus every day.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, Yahweh gives to us: Joy.

Of all the themes of Advent and Christmas, Joy has been the most challenging to talk about this year. So much of what we label ‘joy’ has been challenging if not impossible. Gathering with family and friends to celebrate has been limited or even nonexistent as we’ve worked together to curtail the spread of COVID19 and protect the most vulnerable among us. The emotional atmosphere of this country is one of anger and we are seeing lots of shaking fists in a time we are not able to shake hands or hug.

Many of us have not been able to gather in person with our faith communities to sing “Joy to the World” at the top of our lungs.

It seems so insensitive to speak of joy under the collective weight of 350,000+ deaths and the prediction of additional surges in the weeks to come.

And yet, Joy remains. Like the tiny flicker of the smallest candle flame in a dark room, it can’t be extinguished.

The message of Joy proclaimed by the angels in the story of Christmas isn’t contained in wrapping paper and bows. It doesn’t hang shimmering from a tree or arrive by post or sit on a platter smothered in icing and sprinkles.

It is important to distinguish between what is meant by joy and by happiness. Happiness is something we seek, something external to us: We are promised by advertisers the the next gadget or car or job or person will make us happy, that it will be better than what we have now and better has to mean happier, right? Happiness is fleeting because there will always be the next ‘better’ thing or person or job that we don’t have.

Joy is different. Joy is internal and eternal. The gift of Joy, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, comes from God. It is the message that God is at work in this world through us and our willingness to follow Jesus in the Way of Love. It is the message that we are never forgotten, never rejected, never condemned.

The message of Joy doesn’t deny the pain and suffering we face in this world. The Good News message of Joy says that God is with us always, in the good and the bad times, in the celebrations and in grief, loving us as we are, comforting us, encouraging us, empowering us to love.

So, on this eleventh day of Christmas, sing Joy to the World at the top of your voice. Let that small flicker of a tiny candle flame flare up and light the whole house. Hear God say, “I am with you always.”

Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Is come. Not ‘will’ or ‘has’ but ‘is’. God is with us. Sing and celebrate.

On the Tenth Day of Christmas …

Happy tenth day of Christmas, Y’all!

On the tenth day of Christmas, Yahweh gives to us: reason (the verb, not the noun).

I hear so many people saying these days “I just can’t watch the news anymore” that I wonder how the stations get enough ratings to keep broadcasting. I doubt that so many of us have stopped watching because we don’t want to know what’s happening; I think we’ve stopped watching because we do want to be informed as intelligent adults with the God-given ability to think and reason. We are so overloaded with the personal opinions of the anchors and hosts that we can’t find the facts and actual information to think for ourselves and form our own opinions.

In the Gospel reading for today, we hear the story of that time when Mary and Joseph lost Jesus in the festival crowds and searching frantically found him sitting with the temple teachers, “listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (see the second chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, in which you will also hear Jesus giving a typical teenage answer to his parents when they question what he’s doing).

As Luke continues the story, he says that Jesus “matured in wisdom and years and in favor with God and people.” We talked on Day 4 about Jesus being our wise teacher. The purpose of following a wise teacher is to learn to live in wisdom as our teacher.

The best definition of wisdom I’ve found is from Peter Enns: “a lifelong process of maturing us into disciples who wander well along the unscripted path of faith, in-tuned to the presence of God along the way.”1

Following Jesus on this journey of life and love isn’t about checking our brains at the door. It isn’t even following “blindly” without thought or opinion as some have decided “faith” means. Jesus’ whole ministry was about getting people to think and reason. Jesus asked questions like “what do you have?” and “what have you seen?” and “who do you say that I am?” not to trip us up or zap us if we are wrong but to encourage us to think and reason.

Jesus doesn’t give us a simplistic checklist of right and wrong answers to memorize and regurgitate but the means to live with the awareness of God in whatever the circumstances in which we find ourselves. With the call to “follow me,” Jesus teaches us how to live using our God-given ability to reason out the answer to the question, “How would Jesus love?2”

Our belief and faith isn’t a static thing because we aren’t static beings. We believe in the God who moves, who comes to us and walks with us and asks us to follow, to go, to feed, to teach, to love. Together we follow Jesus with our eyes, hearts, and minds wide open, living into the fullness of our created humanness, wandering well this journey of love.

So, on this tenth day of Christmas, turn off the so-called news and ponder the Good News of God coming to be with us and showing us how to be who we are created to be – God’s beloved, intelligent, thinking, reasoning, and loving children.


1https://peteenns.com/path-of-wisdom/

2Hat-tip to my friend and colleague Padre Ricardo Lopez who preaches this well.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas …

Happy ninth day of Christmas, Y’all@

On the ninth day of Christmas, Yahweh gives to us: a Feast.

Have you feasted this Christmas season? Even without being able to gather with family and friends, did you make or order in a special meal? One of the things I miss most in this pandemic is being able to gather with others for a meal. My grandmother instilled in me a love for feeding people and my culinary skills are at their best when I’m cooking large amounts (and even after all this time I still don’t feel I’ve mastered cooking for two).

Jesus speaks often of feasts and banquets. He fed thousands of people with one sack lunch. His last moments with his disciples before he is arrested are spent eating the feast of Passover, a remembrance feast of God’s rescue of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

And at this feast he commissioned us to remember/ponder/consider/think about him, God with us, being among us as we are, getting hungry and eating, hurting with us, celebrating with us, living the ordinary days with us, whenever we eat bread and drink wine.

The bread and the wine that Jesus used were common elements on their table. He took these ordinary, every day items and made them holy for our use. To make something holy means to set it apart for God’ purpose. Jesus teaches us that everything about our life is holy to God, that even in the ordinary moments we are part of God’s purpose of making life on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus compares the bread and wine to his physical body and blood to tell us that we are so important, so valuable, so very worthy of God’s love, that he was willing to give his physical life over to the earthly authorities whose self-serving power was threatened by the Way of Love Jesus teaches us to live. Through this feast, Jesus shows us that nothing is more powerful than God’s love for each and every one of us.

In the Episcopal Church (and in other churches, too, but as an Episcopal priest, I use this church as my reference) we celebrate this feast in our typical form of worship known as Holy Eucharist (a fancy theology word which means ‘giving thanks’). As part of our form of worship, we call the observance of Jesus’ commission to eat the bread and drink the wine “in remembrance,” Holy Communion.

We come together, in community, in communion with God and each other, to collectively remember God’s story, to take in the bread and wine1 as Jesus’ body and blood to become a part of our cellular structure (as all we consume does), SO THAT we are better equipped in the other 167 hours of our week to live as God’s beloved children.

Receiving the bread and wine in remembrance isn’t the goal, it is the starting point, the regular renewal and revival of our commitment to follow Jesus in the ordinary every day. It is hearing God say, “come to my table where all are welcome and take me in. Let my love permeate you and make you whole. Let the abundance of my love flow out of you to help heal the pain and suffering in the world.”

In our remembrance of God in this holy feast, we are re-membered as God’s people, God’s beloved children.

So, on this ninth day of Christmas, feast! Feast on God’s love for you. And if you haven’t made a special meal this season, make or order in your favorite thing to eat, set a special place to eat it, light a candle or two, and ponder while you eat what it is to have God come to us to show us love, to save us from ourselves, and ask us to participate in the bringing of heaven on earth.

1 Just a little note of clarification: because of COVID19, we have adjusted the way we observe Holy Communion either in-person with the necessary safety protocols or with online worship. None of these adjustments make the act of giving thanks and receiving God less holy or less “effective”. God is glorified as we seek God in the midst of our human limitations and precautions taken in loving response to the pandemic. God is not limited to or confined by our human acts and simply asks us to respond and love as best we are able given the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas …

Happy eighth day of Christmas and New Year’s, Y’all!

On the eighth day of Christmas, Yahweh gives to us: Love.

You may be asking yourself, “Self, why did Mother Nancy throw Love in the middle, why not make it the first gift?” And my honest answer is, “I don’t know.” As I sat down to write these, I penned the gifts as they came to mind. I did at one point look at rearranging them but the order just felt right and then when I realized that our conversation on love would be New Year’s Day, it just felt right so I let the order be.

Love is the foundation of our relationship with God. God created us through the abundance of divine love giving us the ability to love our Creator Parent, each other, and ourselves. Everything else we talk about radiates from this Love.

God’s presence on this earth is revealed through acts of love. Jesus tells us that others will know we follow him not by where we were born, or the way we dress or the car we drive or our bank account balance, not even by the church we attend or how often we attend, but by LOVE.

Love, as Jesus teaches us how to live it, is action and choices and intentionality. It isn’t the love of greeting cards or dating apps or those so called reality shows that serve up other people on a menu.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says the opposite of love isn’t hate but self-centeredness. Love is putting others before ourselves. Love is setting aside our individual wants (we all know the difference of needs and wants, right?) for the greater good of all.

The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Jesus Followers in Corinth says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV)

Love, as Jesus teaches us to love, is choosing to give all that we are and all that we have as we participate with God in living on earth as it is in heaven.

So, on this eighth day of Christmas and New Year’s Day, let’s commit to continuously learning to love as Jesus loves. We don’t know what this new year has in store but we do know that God is with us, loving us so that regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, we have an endless supply of love (and all the other gifts God gives) for others and ourselves, as we follow Jesus.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas …

Happy seventh day of Christmas, Y’all! And Happy New Year’s Eve.

On the seventh day of Christmas, Yahweh gives to us: Compassion.

I wrote a lot about compassion in the fall and winter of 2019 (you can check those out here). I felt compelled to offer up a different voice amidst the yelling and fist pounding, to speak about compassion as the antidote to the hate filled violence (physical and verbal) that has become all but normalized in our country. My intent with all that I write is to help us all learn to see the world around us through the eyes of compassion, as Jesus sees.

And then came 2020 and a worldwide pandemic revealed just how individualist we have become. We hoarded toilet paper, food, cleaning supplies, and personal protective equipment not giving one thought to others who needed these things, too. We were looking out for ourselves. We were given simple tasks to help contain the spread of a deadly virus and we whined because we couldn’t go to dinner or get a hair cut. People were dying and we decided our personal wants were more important than the overall greater good of our communities and the very lives of our neighbors.

It felt like my writings on compassion were like fixing a leaky kitchen pipe with a Q-tip.

And yet, the writers of the Gospel story felt it important enough to tell us that Jesus was “moved with compassion” when he saw people hurting and in need. There has to be something to this compassion thing.

My grandchildren love playing this Nativity Set. This year, my two-year-old granddaughter has been especially drawn to the baby Jesus, carrying it everywhere and showing him to everyone saying, “baby’s eyes.”

Jesus sees all of us with the eyes of compassion. He sees our weariness of this past year. He sees our anxieties and concerns for the year to come. He sees our need for even the tiniest glimmer of hope. And he says to us, “do not be afraid. Follow me in the Way of Love and together we can journey through this next year shining the light of God’s love.”

Just as we talked yesterday about asking for forgiveness being as act of self-reflection to help us see ourselves more honestly, I believe part of seeing ourselves and others through the lens of compassion means being truthful about the situation in which we find ourselves.

It is an act of compassion to be honest with ourselves so as not to set ourselves up for failure with unrealistic expectations of the year to come. We aren’t going to wake up tomorrow, January 1, 2021, without COVID19, without the political polarization and extreme individualism that plague this country, without the systemic racism and social biases that blind us to true compassion.

But, we will wake with the start of a new day and a new year, a new beginning with God with the ability to choose to follow Jesus, walking in the presence of God, revealing God’s gift of compassion to everyone we encounter.

So, I invite you on this seventh day of Christmas to make time to ponder how you can participate with God in making our collective life on earth as it is in heaven. Ask God to give us all eyes to see and ears to hear compassionately as Jesus teaches us.

Together with God, we can be a force of compassion, moved to help heal this hurting world.

On the Sixth Day of Christmas

Happy sixth day of Christmas, y’all!

We’re half way through the season of Christmas and I pray these posts are providing a way to help us all reflect on our relationship with God and how we can grow closer with God and each other as we follow Jesus into the coming year. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

On the sixth day of Christmas, Yahweh gives to us: Forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not an action or a duty, it is a state of being. We ARE forgiven. Regardless of anything we may have done in our past, present, or future, God welcomes us into the kingdom so that we can live on earth as it is in heaven.

So, you may be asking, “if we are already forgiven, why do we need to confess our sins and ask for God’s forgiveness?” I’m so glad you asked!

Our act of confession and asking isn’t about changing God’s opinion of us, it’s about our understanding and acceptance of who God is and who we are in relationship with God.

Asking for forgiveness is about acknowledging that we have chosen to live our own way, to put ourselves and what we want to do first. It is admitting that we have tried to segment God to just certain areas of our life and put ourselves in charge of the rest.

The fancy theology word for it is repent, which means to turn around or to change one’s mind. Asking for forgiveness, the act of repentance, is turning from our way of living to the way of life Jesus teaches us, the way we are created to live.

Asking God’s forgiveness is an act of self-examination, not in order to beat yourself up about anything, and definitely not because God wants to condemn us. The purpose of self-examination is to identify how we need to grow in our relationship with God so that all of our human relationships grow more healthy, too!

When Jesus says, “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand” he isn’t condemning us but inviting us to turn toward God, to live in God’s kingdom as God’s beloved children here and now, on earth as it is in heaven.

So, on this sixth day of Christmas, I invite you into a time of self-reflection and examination. Hear Jesus say gently and lovingly “follow me and I will lead you on a journey of life as God wants you to experience it, grounded in love and compassion.”

On the Fifth Day of Christmas …

Happy Fifth Day of Christmas, y’all! I’m sorry this post is a day late.

On the fifth day of Christmas, Yahweh gives to us: Grace.

Grace is a gift freely given without condition. It is a gift unearned, unmerited, even undeserved. This is a difficult thing for us to accept in our culture that says we have to earn everything, that there are people who don’t deserve our kindness, and that giving comes with conditions and favors are owed and paid back. It makes us want to ask, “what’s the catch?”

There is no catch. God loves us. Period. Full Stop. Even before we can respond to God’s love, God loves us. Even if we choose to never respond to God’s love, God loves us. God loves us because of who God is.

God’s love for us, God’s gifts of life and redemption and salvation are gifts of grace. God doesn’t ask us to earn them or prove ourselves worthy or be good enough.

God comes to us not with condemnation but with encouraging love so that we can become who we are created to be – God’s beloved children living the way of love, offering grace to this broken and hurting world we live in.

Grace means that we learn to see all of our interactions with others through the lens of relationship not as transactional. Grace is about giving, not give-and-take.

Grace means that we understand that hurt people hurt people, it means we see the pain beneath the anger, the scars under the hate, and then respond from a foundation of God’s love rather than reacting or retaliating or seeking pay back.

Grace is asking “how can I best love you” rather than “what’s in it for me.”

Grace is knowing that when we are not so gracious to others that God loves us and the ones we hurt equally and unconditionally and that each day is an opportunity to learn to live the way of love better with God’s help.

Jesus comes to us not just in this Christmas season but in every moment of every day to teach us to love as God loves and to live as God’s beloved children.

So, on this fifth day of Christmas, I invite you to make time to ponder God’s amazing grace and ask God to help you reflect that Grace to everyone you encounter today.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas …

On the Fourth Day of Christmas, Yahweh gives to us: A Teacher.

On the fourth Day of Christmas, Yahweh gave to us: A Teacher. A wise teacher named Jesus.

Not too long ago, I was in a book study in which we were discussing the spirituality of twelve step programs. For most every point made, I could think of something that Jesus teaches through his ministry and preaching and parables. After several sessions, I made the comment, “y’all know that all of this is from the gospel stories, right?” “Yeah,” a few of them said, “but Jesus’ teachings have become irrelevant.”

And, yet, these good-intentioned, church-going folks were willing to accept the same teachings from any other source but Jesus. No wonder the world has decided Jesus’ teachings are irrelevant if church people are the ones saying it.

When we learn to read the Gospel story through a lens of wisdom rather than as some attempt at a self-help book, the everlasting relevance of Jesus’ teachings shines brightly. Jesus tells us he comes to bring us LIFE and to bring it abundantly! That’s very relevant Good News, y’all. With all that has happened in 2020 we need all the good news about life we can get.

But Jesus doesn’t give us a quick fix to a problem free life, or a multi-step solution for all that troubles us. Jesus comes, God with us, Emanuel, to show us how to live life as God’s beloved children. Jesus offers us a way of life grounded in the love and compassion of God our creator and divine parent.

Jesus teaches us how to love as God loves. Jesus sees every person, every situation through the eyes of compassion. Who better understands our human nature that the very God who created us?

Jesus asks a lot of questions of the people he encounters. What do you want me to do for you? Who do you say that I am? Do you want to be well? And he asks those questions of us. Jesus is all about discovering our real selves, the “self” God created each of us to be. Each of us unique and necessary with skills and talents that come together to form the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus teaches us that Kingdom living is about choosing the greater good over our own individualistic tendencies, choosing compassion over hate, love instead of self-centeredness.

So, on this fourth day of Christmas, I invite you to make the time to ask yourself: what can I learn about God and myself and relationships by the way that Jesus interacted with others? And make a plan of self-discovery from this very wise teacher in the year to come. Together with God, we can bring heaven on earth in whatever the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

On the Third Day of Christmas …

On the third day of Christmas, Yahweh gave to us: a Savior.

We use the word savior a lot in ChurchLand, but just what are we being saved from?

The short answer is “ourselves.” I always say that free will is the greatest and most dangerous gift God could give us. God could have created us like a bunch of preprogrammed robots with no choice but to follow God. But God knows that without free will, without the ability to choose, that the relationship between us and God wouldn’t be LOVE.

We took this amazing gift of being able to choose and chose to do things our own way. And when we walked away from God’s presence, we developed this empty space in our souls … and tried to fill it with other stuff.

And none of it works – not money or houses or the stuff filling our houses or sports or hobbies or other relationships. Without God we can never be fully satisfied because only a relationship with our creator can fill that space.

And then we tell ourselves that God can’t love us the way we are and we keep trying to redeem the situation ourselves.

Only God can free us, only Jesus our savior can save us from this broken cycle, from the stress of having to prove ourselves worthy or even just good enough, and the anxiety of perfectionism that we’ve convinced ourselves is necessary for anyone, let alone God, to love us.

Here’s the good news, y’all – God loves as we are and meets us where we are!

Jesus tells the story of a shepherd who leaves 99 of the sheep to find the one who has wandered away. And a story of a woman who loses one of 10 valuable coins and searches diligently until she finds it.

And he follows up this story with one about a son who tells his father he wishes him dead, takes his inheritance and squanders it before realizing what he’s done and returns in despair to beg forgiveness. His father sees him coming and runs to meets him on the road and welcomes him home with open arms.

We are so very precious to God. With all of our faults and brokenness, God says we are the most precious of all creation. And just as we can choose to try and navigate this life on our own, we can also say, without condition, that we were wrong, and accept that the only thing that can save us from ourselves is to Follow Jesus in the way of Love, accepting God’s love for us as beloved children.

On this third day of Christmas, I invite you to make time to ponder what it is to hear God say, “my beloved child, let go of trying to save yourself and let me love you” and together we can reveal God’s love, true salvation, to this mixed up, broken, and hurting world.