Sentences that we should all be comfortable saying:
"I don't know enough about that yet, can you tell me more?"
"I've changed by mind about that topic."
"I was wrong. Thanks for helping me learn."
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Refugee by Malcolm Guite
We think of him as safe beneath the steeple,
Or cosy in a crib beside the font,
But he is with a million displaced people
On the long road of weariness and want.
For even as we sing our final carol
His family is up and on that road,
Fleeing the wrath of someone else’s quarrel,
Glancing behind and shouldering their load.
Whilst Herod rages still from his dark tower
Christ clings to Mary, fingers tightly curled,
The lambs are slaughtered by the men of power,
And death squads spread their curse across the world.
But every Herod dies, and comes alone
To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14
This is as good a description of the hidden meaning of Jesus birth as you will ever find. It took Jesus' ministry, teaching, death, resurrection and ascension for the church to begin to grasp what Paul called the mystery of the ages. “For in him all the fullness of God chose to dwell…”
Once we’ve told the Nativity story, beautiful in its humanity and ordinariness, we then tiptoe to the brink of mystery, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” Jesus, Immanuel – God with us, full of grace and truth. Ponder these things in your heart.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
The First Nations Version of the Bible is unique because it is a translation of the New Testament into English. And yet it is a translation done by representatives from the indigenous peoples of North America, for native peoples whose native languages have been all but replaced and forgotten. And so, the First Nations Version seeks to render the biblical text in the cultural logic and forms of meaning that resonate deeply with native peoples. The result, for both native and non-native readers—and I say this as a person who has tried to do my regular Bible reading out of this version for the last month—is illuminating, thought provoking, and moving. (The best way to become aware of your own cultural lenses is to look through someone else’s lens.)
Try reading a new translation this year:
LUKE 2 HUMBLE BIRTH
1-2When the time drew close for Bitter Tears (Mary) to have her child, the government of the People of Iron (Romans) ordered that the people be numbered and put on government rolls. This happened during the time that Powerful Protector (Quirinius) was the governor of Bright Sun (Syria). 3All the Tribal Members were required to travel to their own ancestral village to register.
4-5He Gives Sons (Joseph) and Bitter Tears (Mary) set out on a long journey from Seed Planter Village (Nazareth) in Circle of Nations (Galilee), to House of Bread (Bethlehem) in the Land of Promise (Judea), the village of their ancestor, the great chief Much Loved One (David).
The journey took several long days and cold nights as they traveled over high hills and through the dry desert. When they arrived, tired and weary, they entered the crowded village.
6The time for Bitter Tears (Mary) to have her child was upon her! 7But no place could be found in the lodging house, so He Gives Sons (Joseph) found a sheep cave where it was warm and dry. There she gave birth to her son. They wrapped him in a soft, warm blanket and laid him on a baby board. Then they placed him on a bed of straw in a feeding trough.
8That night, in the fields nearby, shepherds were keeping watch over their sheep. 9Suddenly a great light from above was shining all around them. A spirit-messenger from Creator appeared to them. They shook with fear and trembled 10as the messenger said to them, “Do not fear! I bring you the good story that will be told to all nations. 11Today in the village of Much Loved One (David) an Honored Chief has been born who will set his people free. He is the Chosen One!”
12The spirit-messenger continued, “This is how you will know him—you will find the child wrapped in a blanket and lying in a feeding trough.”
13Suddenly, next to the messenger, a great number of spirit-warriors from the spirit-world above appeared giving thanks to Creator, saying, 14“All honor to the One Above Us All, and let peace and good will follow all who walk upon the earth.”
15When the messengers returned to the spirit-world above, the shepherds said to each other, “Let us go and see this great thing Creator has told to us.” 16So they hurried to the village of Chief Much Loved One (David) and found Bitter Tears (Mary), He Gives Sons (Joseph), and the child, who, just as they were told, was lying in a feeding trough!
17The shepherds began to tell everyone what they had seen and heard about this child, 18and all who heard their story were amazed.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Into this world, this demented inn
in which there is absolutely no room for him at all,
Christ comes uninvited.
But because he cannot be at home in it,
because he is out of place in it,
His place is with the others for whom
there is no room.
His place is with those who do not belong,
who are rejected by power, because
they are regarded as weak,
those who are discredited,
who are denied status of persons,
who are tortured, bombed and exterminated.
With those for whom there is no room,
Christ is present in this world.
Thomas Merton
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
The fullness of time has come. The long-awaited King of heaven is coming to earth. All of creation has been aching for this moment. The promised Messiah Israel has been waiting for is coming as a tiny babe named “Jehovah is salvation.” Gabriel arrives to announce this great mystery.
The infinite will grow in a finite space.
Power will be wrapped up in weakness.
The eternal will step into time.
The invisible will become visible.
Heaven will collide with earth in Mary’s womb.
There are lots of ways God could have chosen to come and dwell among us. But we learn a lot about who he is and what he is like by how he comes into the world. The Lord of heaven and earth doesn’t appear in fire and earthquakes and a booming voice that echoes throughout the world saying, “Here I am! Worship me!’ The King of kings doesn’t arrive with fanfare, trumpets, and a rolled-out red carpet. He is so set on drawing near to us that he constrains himself within the most vulnerable dwelling we have ever called home— the womb…
God is so bent on loving us that he became helpless. He so desires to empathize with us that he refuses the comforts and expanse of heaven to experience the pain and limits of our humanity. He leans in. He bends low. He gets close…
(But) when we follow Jesus, we forsake the upward ascent because love calls us downward. Love bends low. It leans in. It gets close. Love calls us to descend into our own vulnerability to love the most vulnerable.
And when we descend into human weakness, suffering, and powerlessness to love others, we will be awed by the glory of God that is revealed there. We will be filled with wonder at the paradox of how humans so limited and vulnerable can be so filled with the divine.
Bette Dickinson, Making Room in Advent
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
There’s something appealing about the idea of losing ourselves in the cozy joy and tinsel that this season offers instead of dwelling on the death, injustice, and division that has pervaded our nation and world.
But I’m also poignantly aware that being on a steady drip of holiday cheer will only temporarily mute the pain and fear that has built up over the past months. So, while we can still plan to embrace the lights and the cookies and the gatherings and the presents, I want to encourage us to lean into the tension that is so beautifully laid out in the Christmas carol “O Holy Night”:
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Twenty twenty-three has felt like a vortex of sin and errors. But God promises the dawn of a world made new by His coming. During Advent, we get to remember that He did it once when Jesus was born and we are reminded that He will do it again. We may be wary, but we can still rejoice in the waiting.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Brother David Steindl-Rast — 97 year-old author, scholar, and Benedictine monk from Austria — is beloved the world over for his enduring message about gratefulness as the true source of lasting happiness. Known to many as the “grandfather of gratitude,” Br. David has been a source of inspiration and spiritual friendship to countless leaders and luminaries around the world including Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Merton, and more.
If you are familiar with this video, enjoy it again as you cultivate thanksgiving all weekend long. If he is new to you, be blessed by his gentle voice and eyes to see…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSt7k_q_qRU&t=85s
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
"The church is not the building, it's the people."
Those words are a truth which, if pushed too far, lose their grip on the truth they affirm. A church is a people being formed in community, gathered and scattered and gathered again for worship.
A church building is a place where prayer and praise, baptism and communion, year after year, are offered.
The building is not sacred; yet what is done there, like slow falling rain, soaks the nutrients of holiness into the soul.
In this building, over a century, souls have prayed, and holiness has taken root in their lives. Thanks be to God for this church!
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation
Do you know some lovely human beings? I hope you do, because I just spent a few days with a handful of them, and they are restorative and inspiring.
I go back a few years with this group, and the thing about staying with folks for a decade or more is that you begin to see the facets of their loveliness, and how it deepens over time.
I have a friend who is a lovely human being whose thin layer of snark has melted over the years and now all you see is holy contentment and gratitude. Another friend, also a lovely human being, has persisted over the years despite some wrenching slings and arrows and has emerged not victorious, but even more kind and gracious. One such lovely is going through an unasked-for and undeserved hard time and it flattened me to see the care that surrounded her in the midst of all of it.
“Loveliness” is akin to “loveable” but they are not synonymous. It’s a noun of the adjective lovely, which might mean pleasing to the senses in some way; lovely human beings are pleasing to the senses. We like to see the way their eyes crinkle when you know they’re thinking of something hilarious but don’t want to say what it is. We like to hear the sound of their laugh; to feel their embrace. But their loveliness goes beyond the senses and into the heart and maybe even the gut. When you are with lovely people, you feel safe. You know they will respect your pain, and make light of your failures, and rejoice with you as the situation calls for.
So, I hope you have at least a few but better, many lovely human beings in your life, and more than that, I hope you get to be with them occasionally.
And if so, remember that one of the things that makes them lovely is your love.
Grace and peace,
Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation