A Link for Come and See & Another Advent Poem

Advent Greetings!

Thanks to to the women of Blanchard Road Alliance Church in Wheaton, IL for a lovely luncheon. For those of you who couldn't make it, and want to listen to the talk; here's a link for you:

http://www.blanchardalliance.org/uploads/01%2009_1205_SallyMiller.mp3

The talk is also available on FaceBook:

"http://www.facebook.com/l/ed226;www.blanchardalliance.org/uploads/01%2009_1205_SallyMiller.mp3"

Without the glorious music by Rochelle Streeter and team, the delicious food, and the inspiring setting (including a Power Point by Joyce Kerns featuring images of baby Jesus), the magic and celebration of the morning is missing. Still, perhaps (if you have a few minutes to listen), you'll receive word of hope and healing and beauty out of pain during this season of waiting.

While I'm here, I'll offer another advent poem. This one's by my favorite poet, Luci Shaw.

The Overshadow

" . . . the power of the Most High will overshadow you . . . " -Gospel of Luke

When we think of God, and
angels and the Angel,
we suppose ineffable light.

So there is surprise in the air
when we see him bring to Mary,
in her lit room, a gift of darkness.

What is happening under that
huge wing of shade? In that mystery
what in-breaking wildness fills her?

She is astonished and afraid; even in
that secret twilight she bends her head,
hiding her face behind the curtain

Of her hair; she knows that
the rest of her life will mirror
this blaze, this sudden midnight.

Come and See: A Fresh Look into the Manger

This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Luke 2:12

If you're going to be in the Wheaton, IL area this coming Saturday you may want to stop by Blanchard Road Alliance Church. I'll be speaking there at a Women's Christmas Lunch.

Some information follows:

Women's Christmas Lunch
Saturday, December 5, 2009
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Blanchard Alliance Church
1766 S. Blanchard, Wheaton

For more information, check out the event at the Blanchard Road website: http://www.blanchardalliance.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=15446

Come join me for a relaxed morning of friendship, music of the season and a heart-warming, eye-opening message as we take a Fresh Look into the Manger.

Advent Poems

LOVE
Advent is one of my favorite times of year. The days get shorter, colder, covered in a secretive darkness and some days, in snow. We learn to live with the Mystery of the moment and the Darkness of the day, hoping and expecting more Mystery and longing for Light to come (knowing that Light will come, has come).

This year, as we wait and hope for Christmas, I'll be posting some of my favorite poems of the season here. Hopefully the words will companion and help you as you wait.

Today's offering is by Judith Bingham. Advent blessings to you and yours! Enjoy!

Epiphany

Deep midwinter, the dark centre of the year,
Wake, O earth, awake
Out on the hills a star appears,
Here lies the way for pilgrim kings,
Three magi on an ancient path,
Black hours begin their journeyings.

Their star has risen in our hearts,
Empty thrones, abandoned fears,
Out on the hills their journey starts,
In dazzling darkness God appears.

The Word Girls Website

The Word Girls website is up and running! Please come visit us at: http://www.thewordgirls.com/. Thanks!

Introducing The Word Girls Writing Studio

This summer, my dear friend Cheri Mueller (who happens to be a great writer & editor) and I are launching The Word Girls Writing Studio. Our online Writing Studio is a place where writers at any step on their writing journey - from idea to publication - can come for help, encouragement, advice, mentoring and editing services. In creative, inspired, helpful and professional ways, we invite writers to take a seat on our cyber red couch and get the help and mentoring they need to have success with their writing.

Currently, our Word Girls Blog, http://thewordgirls.blogspot.com/, featuring writing tips, quotes and other writing helps is available. It's our complimentary service for burgeoning writers. Other services that entail brief or lengthy visits to our big red couch include: chapter by chapter editing, help writing queries or book proposals, and mentoring that encourages writers to hone their craft. These offerings can be accessed at our Word Girls Writing Studio website. This site is nearing the end of construction. As soon as it is available, I'll post the address here.

In the meantime, visit the red couch that's our blog. Leave us a comment. Tell us what you're looking for if you're a writer; and pass word of our services on to any aspiring writers you know. Thanks!

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THE WORD GIRLS: Sally Miller & Cheri Mueller

Sea Glass . . . See Glass, a poem

See Glass

It begins with

a broken

cast off

Piece of Jagged

love

Broken and Lost

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Alone in cold tumult

tossed and polished

brandished by weather and time

and crash of wave

love

Sanded with sand

Returning home to

shore like a triumphant,

sopping wet heroine

at journey's end

resting amongst

rocks and gull feathers

fish bones, dried, hollowed

light as air and holey

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The Little Boy

(like an editor

scouring slush piles

for the next bestseller

or just something good)

tender footed

on precarious rocks, sand,

tangles of seaweed

sees a dulled sparkle of glass

knowing it by patina

love

greedily he collects the smoothed

shard in warm cupped palm:

a treasure

born of loss

and much tumbling

Nest Watcher

Nest Watcher

I.

Blackbird struts into my yard:
cocky, arrogant, a delinquent breaking curfew,
breaking law, ready to break an egg or mother’s heart
yellow eyes full with nefarious intent
glow against iridescent head feathers

Father robin positions himself
between Blackbird and Mother robin
who sits on throne of daily turned, warm, ready eggs

I (who have watched the nest building,
the laborious laying of four indescribably blue eggs,
the patient vigilant incubation)
am sickened when a gang of hungry
invincible blackbirds joins the first

Running into the yard I clap and shout
and scare off the predators
they take flight, fleeing the scene
in clumsy reverse of choreographed confetti

Inside I worry that I’ll not have the fortitude,
or time, freedom, omnipresence or unthwartable maternal love
to keep vigil over this nest
I worry that the robins cannot go it alone

A cliché in cross stitch, hanging beside my front door
temporarily comforts: God watches over every nest.


II.

Later that week the hatchlings are born
pink fresh like a spring peony,
as delicate and vulnerable
I’m elated, a viable successful midwife to birds
Mother and Father robin appear
anthropomorphically and really proud

The Blackbird returns

Alerted by Mother and Father robins’ squawks,
I catch Blackbird looming large on nest edge
hunched to dine and dash
air breaks with the swoop of black wings
and the nest is full of emptiness

Where are you Nest Watcher?
my soul screams already maddened, jaded, cynical from
middle aged, never-hatched, personal disappointments
and losses illuminated by the sight of soft
grass and hair with not an egg to tuft


III.

It is quiet and feather free at my front door
the robin parents are gone

From the Alberta pine I remove the abandoned nest
which is well made, a piece of natural art in my hands
I set the nest on my fireplace mantle
and remember the robins, Blackbird

For a second I want to shake a fist
at the Nest Watcher, but
my infuriation at the watcher’s impotence has mellowed,
crashed into the acquiescence of acceptance

I pour a cup of coffee
and sit in my favorite chair to consider the intricacies of
nest watching (and the food chain)

A familiar grackle pierces my ponderings
I look out the window
There is Blackbird
bending over nest with squirmy meal hanging out of beak

For the first time I wonder who it is who watches
Blackbird’s Nest

A Father's Love

Father's Day is this Sunday.

This holiday is joyful for some; and can be difficult for others. On this day we mourn the fathers we have lost to death. We mourn the fathers some of us never had because of their physical absence or their absence due to alcoholism or workaholism. We celebrate the ways we were loved by dads who played catch with us, read us bedtime stories, wrestled with us on the carpet in our family rooms.

Whether you're celebrating or mourning this Sunday, receive the following letter as a gift of grace and truth:

Dearest One,

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are mine. I call you by my name. I love you with an everlasting love.

I see you. I know you; and I care about even the tiniest details of your life. When times are tough, know that I know. Know that I am collecting your tears in a bottle.

When times are good, I rejoice and celebrate your successes along with the angels in heaven. You matter to me.

You are the reason I hung the stars in place, made halibut and hummingbirds, seals and sunsets, meadows and the moon.

I am vast and wondrous and wise. I am also close to you, watching each and every step you take, present to you morning, noon and night. Trust my love for you. Know that I am always near, as close as your breath as constant as your heartbeat.

Trust that I know what’s best for you and that I’ll work everything in your life together for good. I’m a master planner, just like a good quilter who knows just where to put each piece: the light and the dark, the rough and the smooth.

Most importantly, know that you are the apple of my eye, the joy of my heart. Nothing I desire compares with you.

I love you!

Your father,

God

Two Poems on a Sunday

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In church last Sunday our worship leader placed crayons and paper at the end of each row. He invited us to draw a picture or write a poem about forgiveness. The first poem came quickly like my second child. The next followed as if it were a tenacious twin. I'm not sure if the poems are related. But, I offer them - together - here.

Forgiveness

It takes longer than a day
Process: wheel turning on the
cracked, broken and bumpy
waylaid road of my soul

I give to him a gift of quenching
Freedom that washes away
control, rage that burned like
a forest fire in our family room

Quenching, slaking, washing away
the wild, circling, bitter helix of
familial sin

Releasing him and daily, surreptitiously
freeing
me


Oil

Gladness dripping down my
forehead like nectar of ripe
tangerine in summer:
sweet and sticky, fresh with
life and blessing
seal and expectation

In purse or pocket warmed
by body heat, waiting to
salve an open sore or
scarred wound with the ointment
of joy which comes

in the mourning


Lord, thank you for forgiving us. Be with all of who who daily offer the gift of forgiveness to those who have hurt us . . . to those we love. Bestow your healing, hope and help. Amen.

Write-to-Publish Conference

LOVE
I'm just back from Write-to-Publish, a conference for writers held at Wheaton College in Illinois. There, I spoke on a panel titled The Writing Life; and taught two classes (poetry and co-authoring). CDs of these and numerous other informative and inspiring classes are available for purchase at http://www.writetopublish.com/.

After a year of fallow ground (writing & submitting poetry, revising old manuscripts, doodling in my journal, crafting new queries, mourning, waiting, hoping), Write-to-Publish has geared me up to start writing seriously - dare I say zealously - again. I returned to my Writing Room brimming with creative ideas, instilled with a renewed sense of commitment to my craft.

As I caught up on e-mail correspondence and a few of my favorite Writer's Almanacs, I stumbled upon a quote from Turkish author (winner of the Nobel prize in literature), Orhan Pamuk. He says, "For me, a good day is a day like any other, when I have written one page well. Except for the hours I spend writing, life seems to me to be flawed, deficient, and senseless."

The voracious writer in me resonates with this statement. But, the mom, friend, daughter, sister, and woman of prayer in me is almost repulsed by it. As I enter back into a disciplined writing regime, I want to take my season of fallow ground with me. I want to embrace sunsets and good glasses of wine and bedtime stories with my children. I long for the satisfaction of one page well written. More importantly, though, I want to honor God with a life well lived in service and love, in sacrifice and celebration.

A poem I wrote for one of my friends this summer comes to mind. A breeze rushed in through the window by my writing desk, refreshing my face as I re-read it this morning. Perhaps the poem was given for me, and all of my new aspiring writer friends from WTP:


Butterfly Wishes

Be free to fly and rest
like she does, unencumbered by agenda
and deadline or public opinion

Let the Wind blow you from
one sticky gold, crimson or
cornflower blue stamen to the next

Drink in Sweet as you do your long
curly proboscised work
with Grace and Intuition

Be yourself in full, colorful, feminine
creativity: embracing Process
and summer days, the Organic Way

Then, when your wings are tattered edged
unable to ride Wind as easily, readily
as on the day they dried

Flutter down to tree shaded ground
where it's cool and green
and safe

Sleep there
surrounded by the colors of
divine cross-pollination


Blessings on all of you who received prayer and information and good words at Write-to-Publish!

There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is someting infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.

-Rachel Carson, 1906-1964, American Biologist, Writer

Robin's Egg

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I watched her come
day after day
to the Alberta Pine
beside my front door

Building with dried grass
small twigs, pieces of
my son’s hair (he’d just
had an outdoor haircut)

And mud
I wondered how she
carried the mud

From a chair
by the picture window
I saw her smooth
and compress the crisscrossed
creation with her breast

When it was
perfect and padded
and remarkably round
she laid – at great effort –
the first egg

I saw it new
its indescribable blue
shell still covered with
small rips of white membrane
from The Passage
sun shone on the blue
adding a glimmering
spot of white

The next day there was
another egg
the day after that
another: a trinity of eggs
perfectly nesting in the nest

Then, surprise, a fourth
“Four eggs!” I told my daughter
“I’ve never seen four before!”

The foursome squished into
the round seemingly fighting
for position until a day later
when I found one of the eggs

Dislodged from the nest
cradled in greening branches
of our tiny pine

“What should I do?” I asked
my husband. “Put it back
in the nest?”
“Maybe she pushed it out,”
he said.

When the Robin left
to dig a wiggly meal
I retrieved the egg from
its cradle bow

In my hand
it was cold and heavy
with promises that would
never be trued

I felt like crying over the egg
and over all the indescribably
smooth, blue and beautiful
things that have fallen,
too soon, out of my own nest

Christspring

Eternity’s harbinger roots and stems
In the turning tulips, sunny daffodillies
Forsythia, hyacinth, and vernal egg

Budding, bursting, bounding forth
Rising – born new – from earth’s tomb
Crowned with seed jacket, clothed in green and purple perfection:

Heavensprung Champion

Words about Word

LOVE
The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.
- John 1:1 (The Message)

They can be like the sun, words. They can do for the heart what light can for a field.
- St. John of the Cross

A word is dead when it's been said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.
- Emily Dickinson

Most of my friends like words too well. They set them under the blinding light of the poem and try to extract every possible connotation from each of them, every temporary pun, every direct or indirect connection - as if a word could become an object by mere addition of consequences. Others pick up words from the streets, from their bars, from their offices and display them proudly in their poems as if they were shouting, "See what I have collected from the American language. Look at my butterflies, my stamps, my old shoes!" - Jack Spicer

I'm apt to get drunk on words. - Madeleine L'Engle

Her words were like tinfoil; they shone and they covered things up.
- Helen Cross

Step out form behind the words. When you're a writer you can imagine that the words speak for you and are you, but they're not. You are this living, breathing, bad hair day kind of person.
- Beth Kephart

Green Sprouts in Spring

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I've been reading Luci Shaw's latest book, a collection of her reflections on creativity and faith. It's titled BREATH FOR THE BONES: Art, Imagination and Spirit. Her words are baptising my mind, renewing my love for creating; and inviting me to return to my love of poetry, visual art, music . . .
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Here are a couple of paragraphs that seem particularly apropos today as green shoots are sprouting in my yard, the park, and my soul:
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I find it fascinating to note that as we allow the created universe and the Scripture to illuminate us with their primary and secondary revelations, what we deeply believe will push up through the fabric of our writing or painting like green sprouts in spring, bursting the earth's crust.
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When the artist lives in the house of faith, her consciousness is suffused with and informed by Christian images, and when that imaginative intelligence is allowed freely to describe life experience, the images and words supplied and shaped by the artist will reflect Christian belief even when there is no overt effort or intention to do so.
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And so I become more aware of a number of correlations between faith and poetry. These intersections, as I call them, are elements of trusting God and making art not only as parallel to each other but as forming a network of connections that touch and interrupt, interlace and reinforce each other like the fivers in a woven fabric. For me poetry and faith are interdependent. Each affects the other as they embrace and interpenetrate. Faith in forms art, and art enhances faith.

Happy Birthday, Cheri!

Today is my dearest friend Cheri's birthday. As part of my celebration of her birth; I share the following poem which I penned for her this February.


Summit Self
a poem for Cheri winter ‘o9

She will climb a mountain
if you tell her which one

Or swim upstream
against tides of White Ruffians
if you take her to the River

She is transparent, bursting,
jammed with wisdom born from
years of surrender and wiping
Emergence is near

Like a mountaineer at the zenith
piercing flag into jagged peak
She’s ready to reclaim Herself
The stake: more about Call than Career
Moment than Momentum

For today, she seeks and asks and waits

You are silent.
Come on! Speak!
Aren’t you Word, anyway?!

She listens, blurring blue another day
Can’t you utter a solitary sound?
Or – at least – take her

Take her to the River
dunk her Summit Self down
deep and when she emerges

Smile a resonant Yes!
on her beauty and gifts and age


Happy Birthday, Cher!!!

A Poem Inspired by The Woman at the Well

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Wait Well
Based on John 4:1-38

Like her
Cry when its time to cry
Ride the rollercoaster of it all
Go to the well with empty jar:
expecting to be slaked

When you see The Stranger
and realize he knows all
your foibles, losses, Cracked Places
too well to be anything but a Diviner

Leave your jar
Go tell those you love
And when you return
the jar will be full of
laughing waters for you,
for him, and for all of his friends

Twilight

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If you're as obsessed by Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Series as I've been over the last few weeks (I'm in the middle of the last book and not wanting it to end); perhaps you'll enjoy the following poem, inspired by the saga.

Awake Again
Spring 2009

When the No is deep and hard and long –
filled with empty urgency of a broken,
never-hatched egg –
find a way to rest instead of sleep

Slumber knowing that God
(like a fictive Vegetarian Vampire)
never sleeps, but, sits
in a chair by your bed
watching, keeping you from harm
held in love

Making sure that all your
sleepy words turn into
dreams come true

He will not let your foot slip -- he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you -- the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm -- he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. Psalm 121:3-8

Butterfly Wishes

Butterfly Wishes
For Kristen, March 1, 2009

Be free to fly and rest
lovelike she does, unencumbered by agenda
loveand deadline or public opinion

Let the Wind blow you from
loveone sticky gold, crimson or
lovecornflower blue stamen to the next

Drink in Sweet as you do your long
lovecurly proboscised work
lovewith Grace and Intuition

Be yourself in full, colorful, feminine
lovecreativity: embracing Process
loveand summer days, the Organic Way

Then, when your wings are tatter edged
loveunable to ride Wind as easily, readily
loveas on the day they dried

Flutter down to tree shaded ground
lovewhere it’s cool and green
loveand safe

Sleep there
lovesurrounded by the colors of
lovedivine cross-pollination

Opening

LOVE
This Christmas I stuffed my own stocking with two books by Dorothy J. Gaiter & John Brecher, authors of the Wall Steet Journal's 'TASTINGS' column. The books: WINE FOR EVERY DAY AND EVERY OCCASION and LOVE BY THE GLASS were heavily dog-eared by the end of January, and I had effectively abandoned my feelings of wine-intimidation, as well as gained a new exuberance for enjoying wine.

Gaiter & Brecher (a husband/wife team) have an artful, brilliant, organic way of telling stories and describing wine experiences that draw the reader in and make the world of wine feel accessible and desirable. Check them out at: http://online.wsj.com/article/tastings.html

Because of their writings, my New Year's resolution was to drink more wine, start a wine tasting group, and regularly follow their TASTINGS column. Because of their writings, I will never again take a vacation without packing a good bottle to uncork upon arriving at my destination. Because of their writings, each time I go to a wine store I 'channel' Dottie & John (trying to imagine their recommendations). And, because of their writings, I always feel as if they're somehow vicariously partaking of each new bottle I open.

By sharing one of their life's passions, they have enriched my life and inspired me to write the following poem (an homage to their OPEN THAT BOTTLE NIGHT - see their link for more on this):

Opening

Uncork that bottle you’ve been saving
the one with rose in full bloom on its label

Uncork, pour into good, long stemmed, large bowled glasses
the ones that have collected dust on their bottoms
(turned upside down on your shelf for months)

Uncork, letting the nose fill your kitchen with raisiny red
bouquet of pepper and lilac and wisdom

Swirl, letting legs adorn transparent stemware, walking more
spice and leather – chocolate now – into your breathing space

Let terroir take you to Italy or France or the Californian coast
Better, to the propinquities of your personal vintage

See the vines and winemaker, the sun and soil,
the labor, loss and love that fortifies grapes

Drink in delightful, yummy, cherrylike tastes
experience pillow-soft mouthfeel. Come to it

Drink structure, and landscape and soulful fruit
wait for the long, gentle, ethereal finish
(that strangely makes you feel more grounded)

Toast the open rose on the open bottle. Toast yourself:
who you’ve been, who you are and who you’re becoming

Tomorrow, remove the label. Paste it in a journal,
a reminder of the ways you’re opening with grace and time
(and of that damn good glass of wine)

If You Seek . . . song

LOVE
Winter. The festivity and (sometimes) frenetic pace of Christmas has passed. Now, I wait for the More Waiting of Lent. Somehow, perhaps divinely, the season seems perfectly synchronized with my station in life: a still, quiet, cold - sometimes lonely and unfriendly - time of waiting. Waiting for kids to get off the bus, waiting for word from editors and agents, waiting for direction for the future. Waiting for new birth that comes in the sprouts of springtime's buds and chrysalises.

The silence and solitude of this winter sometimes gets to me. I have to fight against an overwhelming urge to clog this time and space by watching too much TV, even reading or sleeping too much. I know I need to stay in, honor my present limbo. All the while, I will listen carefully for Word, stay alert to motion; try to trust that somewhere 'Aslan is on the move.'

I have a deep sense that what my soul really needs is to sit in the stillness. I feel impatient, though. I hate waiting! I want to forge ahead, force things. No matter what I do, I can't change this frozen white-covered and motionless moment: my present solitude. So, I will try to embrace the stillness.

Thomas Merton, a Tappist monk and author of The Seven Storey Kingdom, helps me with his poem.

If You Seek . . . song

If you seek a heavenly light
I, Solitude, am your professor!

I go before you into emptiness,
Raise strange suns for your new mornings,
Opening the windows
Of your innermost apartment.

When I, loneliness, give my special signal
Follow my silence, follow where I beckon!
Fear not, little beast, little spirit
(Thou word and animal)
I, Solitude, am angel
And have prayed in your name.

Look at the empty, wealthy night
The pilgrim moon!
I am the appointed hour,
The "now" that cuts
Time like a blade.

I am the unexpected flash
Beyond "yes," beyond "no,"
The forerunner of the Word of God.

Follow my ways and I will lead you
To golden-haired suns,
Logos and music, blameless joys,
Innocent of questions
And beyond answers:
For I, Solitude, am thine own self:
I, Nothingness, am thy All.
I, Silence, am thy Amen!

The Universe is Made of Stories

LOVE
Poet, Muriel Rukeyser writes, The universe is made of stories, not atoms. I couldn't agree more! Everyone loves a good story whether it's the latest Jodi Piccoult novel that we read this summer on the beach, or a piece of good children's fiction we read last night in a rocking chair with a child on our lap. Stories tell truth. They inspire. They let us know that we're not alone. They help us make sense out of a messy, painful world.

God is one of the world's best storytellers. The bible is a collection of God's most captivating stories. A few weeks ago - - inspired by one of my publishers, Terry Glaspey's new book, The One-Minute Bible Guide - - I wrote a Metanarrative which was read aloud at my church. A Metanarrative uses a theme to weave all of God's stories into one collective story. (I guess it is, to literature, what a medley is to music.)

The theme of a good Metanarrative could be anything from blood to love, from walking to the sun. It could be titled anything from God, Lover of Our Souls . . . to God, the Word Who Speaks . . . to God, the One Who Holds Every Story Together . . . My Metanarrative was titled God, The Author and Perfecter. It was an attempt to show that the same God who wrote Adam and Eve's story and the story of the Patriarchs is still writing our stories.


A Metanarrative Call to Worship
God, The Author and Perfecter

The Era of Creation & Early History (Genesis 1-11)

LEADER 1:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

LEADER 2:
In the beginning was the Word. John 1:1

LEADER 3:
He was the firstborn over all creation. Colossians 1:15

LEADER 1:
For by him all things were created. Colossians 1:15

LEADER 2:
He was before all things and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17

LEADER 3:
He was – and still is – the beginning so that in everything he might have supremacy. Colossians 1:18

LEADER 1:
Since the beginning God has set eternity in the hearts of his people; yet we cannot fathom what he has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

ALL:
You, O God, are the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2 a Stronghold in times of trouble, Psalm 9:9 the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6 Our times are in your hands. Psalm 31:15

LEADER 1:
God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

LEADER 2:
The Lord God planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the people he had made. Genesis 2:8

LEADER 3:
In the garden the man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Genesis 2:25

LEADER 1:
And the Lord God commanded, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:17

LEADER 3:
The woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye . . . she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband and he ate it. Genesis 3:6

LEADER 2:
God’s children heard the sound of their Father walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Genesis 3:8

LEADER 1:
God called to the man, “Where are you?”

LEADER 2:
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid. Genesis 3:9-10

ALL:
You, O God, are the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2 a Stronghold in times of trouble, Psalm 9:9 the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6 Our times are in your hands. Psalm 31:15

LEADER 2:
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Genesis 6:9

LEADER 1:
God saw how corrupt the earth had become. So he said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people. So make yourself an ark.” Genesis 6:12-14

LEADER 3:
The springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. Genesis 7:11

LEADER 1:
And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. Genesis 7:12 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out. Genesis 7:23

LEADER 2:
Only Noah was left and those with him in the ark. Genesis 7:23

LEADER 1:
God said to Noah and his family, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds that never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.” Genesis 9:12-13

ALL:
You, O God, are the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2 a Stronghold in times of trouble, Psalm 9:9 the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6 Our times are in your hands. Psalm 31:15

The Era of the Patriarchs (Genesis 12-50)

LEADER 1:
The Lord said to Abraham, “Leave your country and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.” Genesis 12:1-2

LEADER 3:
But Abraham said, “O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless?” Genesis 15:2

LEADER 1:
God took Abraham outside and said to him, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars. So shall be your offspring.” Genesis 15:5

LEADER 2:
At the very time God had promised, Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age. Genesis 21:2

LEADER 1:
Abraham gave the name Isaac – meaning laughter – to the son Sarah bore him. Genesis 21:3

LEADER 2:
Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. Genesis 21:6

ALL:
You, O God, are the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2 a Stronghold in times of trouble, Psalm 9:9 the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6 Our times are in your hands. Psalm 31:15

LEADER 2:
Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, wrestled with God in the night. Genesis 32:24

LEADER 3:
When God saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that the hip was wrenched as he wrestled. Genesis 32:25

LEADER 1:
God said to the maimed man, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
LEADER 3:
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

LEADER 1:
God asked him, “What is your name?”

LEADER 3:
“Jacob,” he answered.

LEADER 1:
Then God said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel because you have struggled with me and have overcome.” Genesis 32:26-28

LEADER 3:
Jacob, had twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. Genesis 35:23-26

LEADER 2:
These sons became the twelve tribes of Israel who settled in Egypt to avoid famine, but eventually became slaves in the land. Exodus 1:1-7

ALL:
You, O God, are the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2 a Stronghold in times of trouble, Psalm 9:9 the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6 Our times are in your hands. Psalm 31:15

The Era of the Exodus & Wanderings (Exodus – Joshua)

LEADER 1:
Now Moses was tending his father-in-law’s flock. He led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Exodus 3:1

LEADER 2:
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush.
Exodus 3:2

LEADER 1:
God called to Moses from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

LEADER 2:
And Moses said, “Here I am.”

LEADER 1:
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Exodus 3:4-6

LEADER 2:
At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. Exodus 3:6

LEADER 1:
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them into a good and spacious land . . . So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:7-10

LEADER 2:
The Israelites set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had directed. For a long time they made their way around the hill country. Deuteronomy 2:1

LEADER 3:
For forty years they wandered, grumbled, lost their way and found manna.

LEADER 2:
Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab. There the Lord showed him the whole land – from Gilead to Dan . . . all the land of Judah as far as the western sea. Deuteronomy 32:1-3

LEADER 1:
The Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.’” Deuteronomy 32:4

ALL:
You, O God, are the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2 a Stronghold in times of trouble, Psalm 9:9 the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6 Our times are in your hands. Psalm 31:15

The Era of the Judges & The Era of the Kings (Judges & 1 Samuel – 2 Chronicles, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon)

LEADER 1:
God’s prophet Samuel served for many years. When he grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. 1 Samuel 8:1

LEADER 2:
But his sons did not walk in his ways. 1 Samuel 8:2

LEADER 3:
So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel. They said to him, “Appoint a king to lead us, such as all other nations have.” 1 Samuel 8:5

LEADER 1:
This displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him; “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king, as they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.” 1 Samuel 8:7-9

LEADER 3:
The Israelites went to Gilgal and there affirmed Saul as king in the presence of the Lord. Deuteronomy 11:15

LEADER 1:
“Now here is the king you have chosen,” said Samuel. “If both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God – good! But if you do not obey the Lord and keep his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers.”

LEADER 2:
Saul walked with the Lord half-heartedly.

LEADER 1:
The word of the Lord came to Samuel, “I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” 1 Samuel 15:10

LEADER 3:
David was a son of Jesse of Bethlehem, a brave man and a warrior who spoke well and was a fine-looking man. When he was thirty years old, he became king of Israel and reigned forty years. 1 Samuel 16:18 and 2 Samuel 5:4-5

LEADER 2:
David followed after God with his whole heart.

LEADER 1:
When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. “Be strong, show yourself a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in his ways so that you may prosper in all you do.” 1 Kings 2:2-3

ALL:
You, O God, are the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2 a Stronghold in times of trouble, Psalm 9:9 the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6 Our times are in your hands. Psalm 31:15

The Era of Exile/Babylonian Captivity and Return (Ezra - Nehemiah)

LEADER 3:
After King Solomon, many other kings ruled including Johoshaphat, Jehu, Joash, Jeroboam, Zechariah, and Manasseh. Under their leadership Israel split into two kingdoms and sank into idolatry and immorality.

LEADER 1:
The Lord, the God of their fathers sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused.
2 Chronicles 36:15-16

LEADER 2:
He brought up against them the king of Babylon, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young woman, old man or aged. 2 Chronicles 36:17

LEADER 3:
God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezar. He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, and all the treasures of the king. They set fire to God’s temple . . . they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there.
2 Chronicles 36:18-19

LEADER 1:
Everyone in Israel – whose heart God had moved – prepared to go up and rebuild the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. Ezra 1:5

LEADER 3:
They gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. Nehemiah 9:1

LEADER 2:
They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. Nehemiah 9:2

LEADER 1:
They stood and read from the Book of the Law for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshipping the Lord their God. Nehemiah 9:3

LEADER 2:
When the builders laid the foundation of the temple, with praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord. Ezra 3:11

ALL:
You, O God, are the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2 a Stronghold in times of trouble, Psalm 9:9 the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6 Our times are in your hands. Psalm 31:15

The Era of Jesus Christ (Matthew - John)

LEADER 2:
After 400 years of silence, a New Day dawned in Jerusalem.

LEADER 1: In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. Hebrews 1:1-2

LEADER 2:
In the time of King Herod, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a
Virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. Luke 1:26

LEADER 3:
“Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.” Luke 1:30-33

LEADER 2:
Mary gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger. Luke 2:7

LEADER 1:
And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Luke 2:40

LEADER 3:
News about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, called twelve disciples, raised the dead, told parables, healed the sick, fed 5,000 and everyone praised him. Luke 3:14

LEADER 1:
It is written in the scriptures that this Jesus was crucified, that he was buried, and that he raised on the third day. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

LEADER 2:
He was the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. Colossians 1:18

LEADER 3:
Through him God reconciled to himself all things. Colossians 1:20

LEADER 2:
And made peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1:20

ALL:
You, O God, are the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2 a Stronghold in times of trouble, Psalm 9:9 the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6 Our times are in your hands. Psalm 31:15

The Era of the Early Church (Acts - Revelation)

LEADER 1:
In the last days, God said, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Acts 2:17

LEADER 2:
All the believers were together. Every day they continued to meet together.
Acts 2:44, 46

LEADER 3:
They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. Acts 2:46

LEADER 1:
And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:47

LEADER 2:
Then the end will come, when Jesus hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 1 Corinthians 15:24

LEADER 3:
This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. 2 Timothy 1:9

LEADER 1: And from the beginning God has set eternity in the hearts of his people; yet we cannot fathom what he has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

LEADER 2:
God – who was and is and is to come – has made everything beautiful in its time. Revelation 1:8 and Ecclesiastes 3:11

LEADER 1:
In him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17

LEADERS 1, 2, and 3:
Therefore, trust in God at all times, O people! Psalm 62:8

ALL:
You, O God, are the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2 a Stronghold in times of trouble, Psalm 9:9 the Beginning and the End. Revelation 21:6 Our times are in your hands. Psalm 31:15

Book Ends

Often, when I finish reading a book; I write a poem. This year, my sister-in-law convinced me to read Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. Here's the poem I wrote after that read:

Twin Poisonous Flowers
Written after reading
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Advent 2008

Two women, Taliban in their country
Endure private warring, a husband
Daily killing innocents caught in crossfire
Twin poisonous flowers: Hope and Love
Sprout in cracked kitchen floorboards of
Their war-torn land; uprooted by empty
Womb, lover lost, present torture, misogyny,
Thwarted attempts at escape, new life

Watered by memories shared, a baby girl and
Boy, mothers born (both of them), lost love found,
A shovel coming down hard and fast and mortally
With Herculean strength cracking cranium like
Farmer's soil furrowed to find meaning after death
And success, the sprout eternally green
From a friendship long ago rooted

A Couple Quotes about Community

LOVE
What life have you if not life together?
There is no life that is not lived in community,
and no community not lived in praise of God.

-T. S. Eliot, Choruses from the Rock

Love the Lord your God with all your passion
and prayer and intelligence. This is the most
important, the first on any list. But there is a
second to set alongside it: Love others as well
as you love yourself. These two commands are
pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets
hangs from them.

Matthew 22:38-40