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New Year’s

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Revelation 21:1-6a

A Word of Intention

By Mary Pandiani
Executive Director
Selah Center

To start the new year, we read this scripture with anticipation and a promise. The “home of God is with His people” where God’s presence resides with us, no matter what the circumstances. We have the unending flow of God’s fountain, like the original baptismal waters that came from a river, always renewing, always originating from the source of life. 

In early church baptisms, a stream ran through the church so the waters were never stagnant. Similarly, as we start this new year we begin again, finding restoration in the living waters that come from the One who makes all things new. 

One way to be intentional about the new year is to explore what a “word” might be for the entire year. 

Rather than proclaiming a New Year’s resolution that may last for six weeks at the most, listen for the invitation by God for the choice of a word. Listening proves to be more life-giving and honest than assigning some goal or need for accomplishment. It’s a way to explore the intention to have for this beginning again. The discovery of the word becomes more about the integration of being and doing than just the doing. 

The process usually starts with dedicating some time to ask these questions: 

  1. What seems to be resonating with my soul right now? 
  2. What are ways I’ve seen God at work as the last year comes to a close and a new year begins? 
  3. What images/pictures come to mind and heart as I take time in quiet to be present to God? 

Sometimes it comes through scripture or a poem, or a conversation. Over time, usually a week or more, a pattern emerges that brings some confirmation. It cannot be forced. I wait for as long as I need to wait. One year the word didn’t appear until late March. If I’m honest, there are years where the word sticks and other years where it was helpful but not necessarily profound. If I keep the word prominent in some form, whether in a journal or an artistic expression, I use it as a lens to see the year—a way to stay awake to the ways God is present. 

While there’s no formula for the process, it begins with the question:

What is the longing God is revealing to me for this year? 

As we say in Selah, if all we can bring is desire, that is enough. Perhaps your “word” begins with expressing the desire to have an intention given by God. Remain open and receptive to what may unfold for you.

With whatever word you have for this new year, may you discover the ways God is with you as you continue to come alive and awake to the journey God has set before you.

Christmas Eve

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On Christmas Eve, we light the Christ candle signifying the birth of Jesus.

The Gospel of Luke

The Christmas Story

Luke 2:1-20

The Birth of Jesus

1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.

 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 

9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 

12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 

17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 

20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

GLORY TO GOD

IN THE HIGHEST

HEAVEN

AND ON EARTH

PEACE

AMONG THOSE

WHOM HE FAVORS

Wrapping Up

By Debora Buerk
Editor, Here & Now
Selah Companion

Today is the last day of Advent, and our Advent series also concludes. On behalf of all of the writers, our executive director Mary Pandiani, and myself, thank you for following this special edition of the Here & Now blog. Look for us as we return to our once-weekly posting. 

We’d love your thoughts about this grown-up Advent Calendar and the Here & Now blog. If you’d like to stay in touch with the blog, then I recommend you “follow” this blog or, with your email, receive an email from us when a blog posts.

I pray your Christmas is holy and joyous and joy-filled. May you find time today and on Christmas to pause and know that you are also part of the Christmas story. Now that’s a gift worth savoring, better than chocolate! 

Look for a new post for New Year’s. Until then, Christmas blessings.
Debora

Advent Day 26

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Parousia

By Christopher Ball
part of the Selah Community

parousia
to wait
with patience
in hope
by faith
in the return
of the One
who is
and was
and is to come

is to look beyond
our toil
and pain
throbbing with anticipatory,
nervous restlessness
aching emptiness
and frigid darkness
vibrating with primordial Spirit
the essence of our very being
woven together tenderly
with delight

Advent Day 25

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Blue Christmas

By Mary Pandiani
Executive Director
Selah Center

…Learning to trust what emerges,
So that gradually
You may come to know
That deep in that black hole
You will find the blue flower
That holds the mystical light
Which will illuminate in you….


John O’Donohue
A Blessing for Loneliness

About thirty years ago, a new tradition began at Christmas time. In the Western Hemisphere, the night of the Winter Solstice, Blue Christmas becomes a time to honor the sadness that accompanies the season. On this day, we acknowledge those who no longer celebrate the Christmas season with us in person. Entering into a ritual of quietness, we light candles in remembrance. It’s a time to grieve amid celebration for the season.

This year, Blue Christmas touches close to my heart. Several deaths in the last few months have impacted me, most significantly a dear friend of thirty-two years and my mother-in-law of my late husband. I celebrate this Christmas without them, and it’s not easy to do so. While I can still enter the joy of the season, my heart is heavy with grief upon grief. This realization holds my attention nearly every day. Tears well up from deep inside.

I use the word “honor” in sadness purposefully. Sadness does not take away the joy from the season. Just as Mary and Joseph experienced joy and sorrow on their journey, from hearing from the angels, trying to find a place to stay for the night, and giving birth to baby Jesus. Holding both is a paradox. And I am reminded there is sadness and joy in the life story. I want to make a note of this reality and honor it.

The poem by John O’Donohue, A Blessing for Loneliness, invites me into what the darkness of grief and sadness offers. Ending with the “blue flower” in this blessing, he captures my imagination with mystical allure. In Romantic poetry, the blue flower symbolizes the artistic and emotional striving for the infinite. Connecting to Blue Christmas, I remember my longing for the infinite, even amid my sadness. Can I trust that what emerges, whether in the grief or the joy of the season, will be a gift from God? I find solace in knowing the pain I feel is equal to my love for those I miss. And could it be, from the darkness, I might know light?

This is the hope of the season and our lives; a light has been brought into the world. I celebrate the light while honoring the darkness. My prayer on the longest night of the year is to continue to learn what it means to trust God in whatever happens, whether sadness or joy.

Advent Day 24

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Surprise Party

By Sandy Shipman
Selah Companion

I understand the waiting of Advent, the wanting, the waning hope. Aching for justice, mercy, and love while experiencing division, judgment, and hate. We pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” like the Jews of Mary’s time praying for the Messiah. We pray and wait for the powerful and mighty to save us. Who would have thought that God would deliver the Messiah not from the mountaintop but from inside a human? That was unexpected.

Now, we have this annual practice of the whole church waiting expectantly for Jesus to come from inside Mary during the Advent season. Candles and choirs and scripture readings. But back then, most people didn’t know the Messiah was coming so soon. They had work and oppression and Laws on their mind. They had hope for the Messiah in the same way we do. Perhaps thy kingdom come, someday, later, in the future. But today, we have work to do, battles to fight, and morality to uphold and defend.

Mary was another teenager who got pregnant before marriage. I imagine she was shunned and judged and deemed less than. Few suspected the Spirit had entered her, that Jesus was alive within her. How might the conversations, the interactions have changed if the neighbors had known that God was so near?

I recently created art with a teenage girl, an amazing artist. She was kind, inquisitive, protective, and she made me laugh. She was also a six-year veteran of the juvenile justice system. And pregnant. I imagine she is shunned, judged, and deemed less than. I can hear the neighbors discussing virtue and choices and patterns of behavior. What if we knew the Holy Spirit was living inside her? What if we believed Jesus was alive within her? Would our conversations and interactions change with God so near?

Would we travel great distances and bring the child gifts? Do we?

What if, in all our conversations and interactions, we behaved as if we believed God was alive in each of us? What if we kept the Law and loved one another?

Anyway. I understand the waiting. The wanting. The waning hope.

Let’s surprise everyone with God’s Love delivered once more from inside a human. You. Me. Thy Kingdom Come.

Advent Day 20

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Annunciation

By Wendy Bryant
from the Selah Community

A breath, an opening, constant movement

lungs open, close, pause

another breath, another opening… and another, pause

astounding ministry is offered again and again

when will i consent? to bring to birth

God’s Spirit…suspended…waiting…for my “yes!”

The Annunciation is a painting widely attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1472–1476. Leonardo’s earliest extant major work was completed in Florence while he was an apprentice in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio. The painting was made in oil and tempera on a large poplar panel and depicts the Annunciation, a popular biblical subject in 15th-century Florence. Since 1867 it has been housed in the Uffizi in Florence, the city where it was created. Though the work has been criticized for inaccuracies in its composition, it is among the best-known portrayals of the Annunciation in Christian art. Source: Wikipedia

Editor’s Note: Annunciation, also called Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the angel Gabriel’s announcement that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit to be called Jesus (Luke 1:26–38). Debora Buerk, editor

Advent Day 17

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Wise Men

By Kathleen Heppell
Selah Companion

As men who study the heavens, believing they foretell what will happen on earth, they ask what does the appearance of this Star mean?

Close to journey’s end the Star grows brighter… larger… brilliant in the cloudless night sky. Hot sun rests low on the horizon. We break camp. Efficient. Deliberate. Though the outsider might believe all is chaos. 

Ready, our anticipation growing, we look up to the vastness of the sky filled with stars. We gasp as one. Where is the Star? Despite the multitude of stars, the Star we’ve studied, and followed for these many months is gone!

How can this be? The Star we’ve studied is gone!

How can this be? It has been close to two years since we first saw this new brilliant Star in the western sky, larger than any planet.  As men who study the heavens, believing they foretell what will happen on earth, we asked what does the appearance of this Star mean? 

Searching wisdom literature of many countries, we found in Jewish writings Daniel’s prophecy. This captive from the tribe of Judah, honored by our Babylonian ancestors, prophesied the coming of Messiah.

We, too, believe…

We, too, believe in a Messiah coming to bring the end of time as we know it. Studying these writings, we understand this Star announces the birth of the Jewish Messiah. He will change the world. 

Our hearts quicken with awe and excitement. We must do whatever is necessary to see this Jewish King and Messiah. We will follow the Star to find him to worship and bring gifts to honor him.

We watch for bandits. Dressed as any traveler, nothing indicates our status.

It took much to prepare for this journey: camels to carry food, water, tents, and many men to keep us safe. They lead the animals, set up and take down camp. Traveling in the cooler air of darkness to see the Star, we watch for bandits. Dressed as any traveler, nothing indicates our status or gifts to be given to the Jewish King.

Now, with no Star visible we are confused, discouraged. We have come too far to give up. Entering Jerusalem, we ask the men we pass, Do you know where the King of the Jews has been born? Their faces show shock, fear, and heads turning to see who might have heard our question. No words spoken, heads move from side to side. They almost run from us.

Certainly, the King must have been born here.

We come to the palace. Certainly the King must have been born here.  When we ask the guard, he orders us to enter through the gate. Long is the wait before we meet King Herod. We explain our quest. Treated with great respect, food is set before us. We wait again as he calls for priests and religious leaders. 

The Messiah’s birthplace is Bethlehem.

Finally, in a private room, we learn the Jewish King, Messiah’s birthplace, is Bethlehem. So close! Another night’s journey! King Herod tells us to return and report where the King resides expressing his desire to worship. His face shows no joy. How curious King Herod and the people we met did not know of his birth. Profusely we thank the King for his hospitality and direction.

We depart to the out skirts of Jerusalem to camp, rest, sleep, as we wait with excitement. Tomorrow we will meet this new King! Taking down the camp at sunset, we await the darkness praying for the star’s appearance to locate the exact place in Bethlehem. There… The Star… Such beauty… Dawn’s edges peak over the eastern horizon. Leaving all but a few to set up camp, we walk to a simple home, the star directly overhead.

Holding our breath, we enter a room dimly lit.

Servants take our gifts from sacks, handing them to us. We are at the door. It is open. Holding our breath. Hard to believe we have reached our destination. We enter into a room dimly lit. There is a young woman dressed in peasant clothes, dark hair, questioning eyes, and no fear of us: strangers entering her home.  A child, not yet two, sits quietly on her lap, her son with the same dark hair and eyes. 

Our only thought to bow down. Worship pours from our hearts, out of mouths to the Almighty God. After a pause of reverent silence, we explain how we have come to her door: the Star, the search leading to Daniel’s prophecy, our long journey, and priests at Jerusalem’s palace telling us of Bethlehem. 

Our hearts burst with joy, tears of gratitude flow down our cheeks.

We present our gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh.  This young boy toddles to us smiles, touches us, curious…  We smile, reach out to him, our hearts bursting with joy, tears of gratitude flow down our cheeks.

We depart before the village awakes. Returning quickly to our camp, we wonder if sleep will come. Awakening, we share what we have dreamed. We all had the same dream! We are not to return to Jerusalem or Herod. Departing as quickly as possible, we take another route not equipped to face battle with palace guards, be taken captive, or required to tell Herod where the child lives. Boundless joy in our hearts mingles with foreboding. Herod intends evil.

Boundless joy in our hearts mingles with foreboding. 

Long will be our journey home. Our hearts lightened and filled with unshakeable hope. God, who we have known as Mystery, has spent thousands of years preparing for this day and the days to come. We will wait and watch filled with awe and reverence; he will bring his plan to fruition for the Jewish people and the world!

We will wait and watch filled with awe and reverence.

Photo by Jonathan Meyer on Unsplash

Advent Day 16

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Come, O Wisdom

By Evelyn Gerardo Challis

Selah Companion

Liturgy for Advent

Opening prayer: As we await with longing the celebration of Christ’s holy birth may we embrace the inner light we have been given through the abiding love of our God. May God’s Love kindle a luminosity that heals the darkness and doubt, fragility and sin of our world within, and the universal world of which we are a part.

Intercession: Carry us, O God, as Mary carried Life within her. Carry us as we yearn for the arrival of fresh perspective, that our life might be given to bringing about a peaceable kingdom of heaven on earth. May those whom we entrust with faith-filled leadership in our nation, and local governance, churches, synagogues, temples, and the sanctuary of our being have eyes that burn with love, hearts that open with compassion, and words that speak your wisdom and extinguish the fires of injustice, we pray.  

The Response: Come, O Wisdom from on high, and teach us in the ways to go.

The Intercession: Protect us, O God, as we journey individually and collectively, through worldwide sorrows, and an upsurge of violence in this nation that have taken lives and loved ones, homes, and hope. Continue to protect all those who speak and serve courageously to bring healing in known and unknown ways. In their care of us, especially the most vulnerable, hold them closely, dear God and give them sustained comfort and protection, we pray,

The Response: Come, O Wisdom from on high, and teach us in the ways to go.

The Intercession: As we celebrate this Advent season, may we be mindful of the everyday miracles that invite us to remember and surrender to the joy of being God’s beloved, we pray. 

The Response: Come, O Wisdom from on high, and teach us in the ways to go.

The Intercession: Knowing the joy of anticipation and yet profound loneliness, frustration or sadness that may be part of these holy days, may we release dread and reflect the peace of the Spirit that sustains us in times of isolation and separation. May we be turned to your luminous Love, O God, so that you are known in every place, in every welcoming face, in every human heart; seen in our struggles and in our longing; embraced in our suffering and in our rejoicing. We lift up to you at this time the names of those you know well, O God, as they, and we, seek your healing. We pray especially for (Name those for whom you wish to remember.)

The Response: Come, O Wisdom from on high, and teach us in the ways to go.

The Intercession: Home is where we all belong, O God, and loved ones among us have been welcomed to the home of eternal peace where suffering and pain have ceased and our breath of life is one with yours. We entrust to you those dearly loved who have died, especially (Name those whom you wish to remember who have died). 

The Response: Come, O Wisdom from on high, and teach us in the ways to go.

Closing Prayer:  Blessed God, Holy One, hear our prayers and the many more we carry within us. As we speak your name, bless our union with you that it might deepen and still us, so that finally, out of the silence, we might emerge proclaiming that you are in our midst, that you shine in our darkness, that you are at work in our world and that you move us through turbulence to a lasting peace. Luminous One, in Your Holy Name, we pray.  Amen. 

Advent Day 9

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O Holy night! The stars are brightly shining

It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth

Long lay the world in sin and error pining

‘Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees; O hear the Angel voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born

O night, O Holy night, O night divine!

Soul Felt Its Worth

By Sandy Shipman,
Selah Companion

She struggles with perfection, wants every detail just so. It sounds like criticism.
The counselor says to love.

Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

Anxiety fills his mind. Overwhelms. He lashes out.
The counselor says to love.

Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

She wants answers. Clarity. Solutions. Fix it!
The counselor says to love.

Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

He wants peace and retreat. Life interrupts. He withdraws.
The counselor says to love.

Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

She wants obedience. Conformity. Goodness.
The counselor says to love.

Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

He wants respect, honor, legacy.
The counselor says to love.

Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

She wants, he wants, they want, yearn, ache, grasp, fight, flail.
The counselor says to love.

Then He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.

Second Week of Advent

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SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Day 8

Scriptures

Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

Romans 15:4-13

Matthew 3:1-12

from The Revised Common Lectionary

Peace


God of peace,


Instill in us Your peace


That surpasses all understanding.


As we prepare for God’s coming,


Make us instruments of Your peace


And held us to find rest


In the Prince of Peace


Your Son, Jesus the Christ.


Amen.


ON THIS SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT, we light the candle of peace. A state of being that means tranquility, mental calm, and serenity. We bring our request before God in asking for peace, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. Christmas is typically a time of celebration and joyous expectations. 

Anticipating the Christ

By Debora Buerk
Editor, Here & Now
& Selah Companion

Advent.

[ˈadˌvent] (noun).

Old English, from the Latin

adventus ‘arrival’

and from advenire,

from ad- ‘to’ + venire ‘come’.

Synonyms: arrival,
birth, approach, nearing.

For Christians, Advent is a time spent preparing for Christmas. For many of us, this can include decorating our homes, putting up a Christmas tree, creating an Advent calendar, writing Christmas cards, gathering with family and friends for dinner, and giving gifts.  

The word Advent originates in Old English from the Latin word “adventus,” or “coming”—the arrival of God in human form, umbilical cord, and all. 

While some are tempted to think of Christmas as an event to be observed at the end of the calendar year, they would miss the origin and meaning of Advent.

We don’t know when the period of preparation for Christmas, now called Advent, began. It existed from about 480, with the Council of Tours in 567. What we know and celebrate is a time of preparation for Christmas Day, when we celebrate the birth or beginning of the Christian liturgical year. 

Advent anticipates the “coming of Christ” from three different perspectives:

  1. The physical Nativity in Bethlehem
  2. The reception of Christ in the heart of the believer
  3. The eschatological second coming 

This third meaning, I believe, was the focus of the early church—to wait for Christ’s second coming. This, however, has become downplayed among today’s Christians.

What if our focus

was to shift to waiting

for Christ’s

second coming?

What if our focus shifted to waiting, anticipating, and preparing for the King’s return to earth, the defeat of Satan and sin, and peace on earth? Now that would be something to anticipate and celebrate.

So this Advent season, as you decorate for Christmas, sing the carols, and light the advent wreath, try to anticipate—look forward to Christ’s return and, with it, peace on earth. What if we wished each other a “Blessed Advent” as a prelude to “Merry Christmas?”

In doing so, we can simultaneously give and receive the love of God to each other—as we anticipate and draw near his birth.

I wish you a joy-filled Advent for all of us in the growing Selah community.

Advent Day 3

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Sing We Noel

By Evelyn Gerardo Challis
a Selah Companion

Christmas came early this year.

An unexpected card this week with contact information. I had sought her for years, remembering that phone call long ago when she left a message, tentative in trust, expressing gratefulness for the gifts I sent as I sensed her vulnerability, not realizing she was grieving the death of her love. And unknown to me at that time, a profoundly spiritual death of another love. For years. 

Years ago, parents coerced her, unmarried, to adopt out her child; rejection of daughter and grandchild due to fear and shame; lacking boldness to embrace her life and the grandbaby’s life; instead, thrusting mother and child into a lifetime of confusion, shame, anger, rejection, the search for belonging. 

And why is this Christmas? 

A child was born. He once was lost. And now he’s found. She, unable to find him for years because family collusion with church authorities denied her access to the truth. And now he’s found, through the miracle of years of love and persistence. 

Christmas reminds us: To be persistent in love; to be a presence of peace; to be a sign of tenderness and strength in a fragmented world; to bring hope where sorrow and despair prevail; to rejoice that we belong. We are wrapped in the authenticity of Christ’s life, Christ who understands our humanity. Who does not judge but loves. Who does not reject but assures us that we belong. 

Christ is born and embodied in the grief and sorrow, pain, and isolation of all humanity. Christ is born and embodied in the authenticity of yearning and desire to continue searching for love. Christ is born and embodied in reconciliation and forgiveness, the claiming of truth, and owning of decisions that lead to separation. Christ is born and embodied in the courage to restore relationships. Christ is born, and this Christmas brings relief of one sort to this precious family, partnered with the grief of years apart, yet a new naming and embracing of one other as mother and son. Mother and son. 

This is Christmas. Sing we Noel. A child is born, Noel.

Advent Day 2

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A Day of Quiet

By MARY PANDIANI
Executive Director
Selah Center

Blessing in the Chaos

To all that is chaotic

in you,
let there come silence.

Let there be
a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you,

that go with you
even to the
holy places
but will not
let you rest,
will not let you
hear your life
with wholeness
or feel the grace
that fashioned you.

Let what distracts you
cease.
Let what divides you
cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes
and demeans,
and let depart
all that keeps you
in its cage.

Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.

By Jan Richardson, 
Painted Prayer Book
.com

“Christmas, already?!!” Do you hear the impatience, the lack of wonder in the season, the when-will-it-be-over attitude? It’s why I need this blessing for all that is chaotic in my life. With this week, we start Advent. It’s a time to lead us gently into Christmas. To enter into my desired place of appreciating the birth of Jesus the Christ, I need a calming before the storm. And more, I need to cultivate spaciousness that allows God to open my heart in and through this season.

Selah begins the season with a Quiet Day today. It’s an opportunity to listen to the wonder and pregnant moments that this season can bring. In the quietness, we slow down long enough to “see what shimmers within the storm.” Join us if you can. Our Quiet Day for Listening into Advent begins at 9:30am. If you registered, check your email from Erika Mariani for the zoom link and materials to facilitate the day.

May this Advent, a time of waiting, be filled with sweet surprises that breathe new life into you. As fresh expressions of this season awaken in you, remember the birth of a human baby that reminds us of God’s tender and abiding love. Holy Advent, Merry Christmas.