A Prayer for Listening

The following prayer came across my social media newsfeed this week. I found it particularly moving and wanted to share it with the St. Paul's community.

I've linked to the original blog post with the prayer and included the prayer in its entirety below. I'm offering up this prayer this week, and I hope you'll join me.

"Fiercely Listening, a prayer" by Pastor Katy Stenta

God

sometimes I think about

how much of my job

is listening to those

who are hurt

Sometimes I pray about

all those without ears to hear

Those who are quick to judge

or center themselves

or say, if they had just…

So…

I think about how often Jesus just sat

and listened, really listened

and validated people’s pain,

and then called them by name.

Sometimes I think about

how much of the community’s job

is listening,

Fiercely listening to those

who are unheard, or drowned out our ignored

Fiercely listening

who are hurt,

without judgement

or agenda

…just listening fiercely

to those who have been

especially hurt

and then I

try to practice

that fierce listening

taking to heart

the cries of injustice

opening my ears to hear

and my heart to be melted

Help me to do my job I pray.

Amen.

Violence in the Christmas Story

Did you know that it’s still Christmas? Many people think “the 12 days of Christmas” refers to 12 days leading up to Christmas. But in reality, Christmas starts Christmas Day and lasts 12 days until Epiphany.

So, it’s January, but Merry Christmas!

We know that the wise men from the East arrive in Jerusalem, looking for the child whose star they’ve been following. They visit Jesus and bring him little gifts (Matthew 2:1-12). What a lovely story!

But have you ever read the rest of this story?

The wise men first meet Herod and describe the child they're seeking as "king of the Jews." That threatens Herod’s power. The verses that come next describe Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fleeing to Egypt to escape Herod’s fear and rage. The Gospel of Matthew tells us:

[Herod] sent and killed all the [male] children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. (Matthew 2:16)

This tells me two somewhat surprising things:

"Madonna and Child - Boundless Love" by Janet McKenzie

First: the wise men visited Jesus a year or two after his birth.

I used to picture the wise men showing up at that famous manger where God incarnate was first lain.

But based on their report to Herod about the appearance of the star, Herod kills all of Bethlehem’s boy children under two years old. That means Jesus could be two in this story.

Did the wise men visit a crawling Jesus? A toddling Jesus? Did Jesus babble each of their names in his earliest imitation of language? Meditating on each of these images is delightful to me.

But second: there is unspeakable violence as part of the Christmas story.

Yes, Jesus escapes Herod’s violent attack on the children of Bethlehem. But how many children are slaughtered in this part of the Christmas story? What did it do to the people of Bethlehem—the birthplace of God into human flesh—to have two years’ worth of boy children just… gone?

The part of the Christmas story that we tell on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is lovely. It’s a cozy story of angels and shepherds and one family growing a little bit bigger. Maybe it makes us feel nostalgic for the many other times we’ve heard it. Hopefully it helps us understand God in a unique way.

But Jesus’ birth isn’t the end of this story. Jesus is born into a fallen world—a world we still inhabit and have to figure out how to navigate faithfully.

The hope of Christmas isn’t that everything is perfect now. The hope of Christmas is that even in the depths of our fallenness, we receive Emmanuel: “God with us.”

Rejoice in the Lord!

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent, which is also called Gaudete Sunday. "Gaudete" means "Rejoice!" in Latin, as in "Rejoice in the Lord always!" (Philippians 4:4).

This Sunday is when we light the pink/rose candle on our Advent wreaths, which represents the aspect of joy in the Advent season.

Advent is about preparation for Jesus' coming, both his birth as a baby and his return at the end of time. Much of that requires sober self-reflection, but as we see in Mary's proclamation when she finds out she's pregnant: there's a great deal of joy to be had, as well.

When I searched for an image to accompany this post, it was very difficult to find anything that is particularly Advent-y. There were lots of Christmas trees, white candles, and red candles—not many purple and pink candles or green boughs without adornment.

The temptation to skip straight to Christmas is enormous. After all, the music is already on in all the stores, and preparing for Christmas takes up so much of our mental energy.

Our Advent traditions hopefully help us to remember to slow down and remember that preparing for Christmas is not just about checking people off our shopping lists. We're invited to prepare our hearts and minds for God to break into linear time and shatter the power of death. And that time of preparation is about reflecting seriously... while also leaving plenty of space to rejoice!