O Christmas Tree!

Today being the first Sunday of Advent a group of us (Hagers, Farmers, Angells) went to pick out three farm-grown Christmas trees off the back lot for our collective living rooms. Then we trimmed and decorated our tree with many lights and ornaments to a point of beauty. This annual event is always special and memorable to us here at Bentley. This year was no different!

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Four Brothers, Five Brothers and Three Sisters...

...and two parents, our grandmother, our cousin and a dear young lady all converged for a dinner feast at Four Brother's restaurant--replete with Greek salads, $30 worth of Coca Cola and three varieties of pizzas. The gathering marked the occasion of all siblings home for the holidays--albeit briefly--as Sarah leaves Wednesday afternoon to spend Christmas in Kansas. The party continued on to Clinton Alliance Church as Rebecca did a wonderful job helping lead a candle-light service with the young girls of Pioneer Clubs. Another day filled with joy, peace, and love...

--Nate

Though He Was God (A Reflection for Advent)

Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Phillipians 2:6-11, NLT)

An Advent Reflection from Caleb

Though sometimes in all the Christmas shopping and excitement we sometimes forget the true reason to the season: Christ's birthday. God sent his one and only Son to save us from our sins. His son the King of Kings was not born in a palace surrounded by earthly wealth. But He was born in stable because there was no room in an inn for Him. Imagine that, the King of Kings, son of the Creator of the whole universe, came to earth and there was no room for Him even in the poorest inn. Instead Mary and Joseph were sent to a stable filled with animals and their manure. Though Christ was the Son of God, He was born there - in a humble stable, surrounded not by midwifes and servants, but by animals and His earthly parents. Then Jesus was not shown to kings and lords of men, but to the lowest society of men, the shepherds of the flocks of sheep in the City of David. These men were probably despised by many, but still they were the first people to see the one Son of God, sent here to die for our sins on the cross on Golgotha the place of the skulls. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life," John 3:16. We will not perish if we believe in the Son of God.

- Caleb Angell

Holidays With a Big Family

Wow, could it be that time of year already? We shopped for stocking gifts this weekend amidst Christmas carols and lighted trees. The wrapping part is always a huge deal for eleven people, so Becca and I got started on all of the little practical things, like toothpaste and Kleenex. But, shhhh...don't tell!

A Final Reflection for Advent: Yearning for Christ, The Bridegroom

The official church calendar has concluded the 2007 advent season, but the beginning of a new year seems to be the appropriate time to remember that the season of advent is not just a chronologically displaced yearning for Israel’s Messiah who has already lived among man.

The characteristic celebrations of the past month in preparation for Christmas have been meaningful in their remembrance of the becoming love of God but the scriptures remind us that the call of our lives is to engage daily and yearly in another form of anticipatory waiting. As Paul writes to the Romans, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ..We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

If the prevailing scriptural image of Israel awaiting her Messiah was that of subjects anticipating a mighty King, perhaps it could be said that the prevailing scriptural image of the New Testament Church awaiting Jesus Christ’s return is that of a bride longing for her Bridegroom.

I am not sure if human relationships could conjure any image more intensely anticipatory than a bride waiting for her bridegroom. I am not sure if any other relationship known among mortals would cause the stir of longing and hope and joy than the expectation of union that a bride hides in her heart for her groom. The emotion of this yearning is captured so powerfully in this short clip of a military wife waiting for her husband’s return from deployment.

Do I love Him more than that? Do I anticipate being united with Christ that much?
As we change calendars and cross the threshold from 2007 to 2008 and consider all of our hopes for the future, may the reminder of our identity as Christ’s bride direct and mold our heart’s affections.

Reflection For Advent (5): The Day of Preparation

I love visions, I love hope, I love living life with purpose, I love goals and dreams and intentions. But sometimes, maybe because I love the hidden inner castles so much, my heart does not leap for joy when God's response to my dreams is, "Prepare. Work. Be faithful in the little moment of now."

"But, God, look at the vocation that You laid upon my heart, the tower of all my aspirations."

"But, Sarah, look at the day that it is called today. It is a day of preparation that is not to be despised."

Here I must be silent because, Dear Lord, You understand the labor of preparation.

To prepare means to be conceived in the womb of a young maiden. To prepare means to be fed through the umbilical cord of Your creation. To prepare is to humble Yourself to descend into this world through a cramped, tight and constricted passage. To prepare is to lie in a manger and know rejection because the Inn was too full for You. To prepare is to know hunger and to find nourishment from Mary's breast. To prepare is to flee with Your mother and Joseph to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill You.

God, you could have come to this Earth as a thirty-year-old man and avoided the day of preparation. You could have taught the people without ever having sat in the temple courts among the teachers at the Feast of the Passover. You could have fed the five thousand without having known the cramp of a stomach lacking food. You could have defended the condemned adulteress without having suffered Herod's condemnation. You could have raised a twelve-year-old girl from the dead and presented her to her mother without having experienced the love of a mother for her Son. You could have suffered the agony of the wood of Calvary without having suffered the loneliness of the wood of the manger.

But You didn't.

Thank You.

Reflection for Advent (4): Lord, You Have Been Our Dwelling Place

It’s silly now, but I distinctly remember one of my childhood’s most dramatic fears was that of being separated from my parents. I hated to go to bed alone at night, I was fearful of getting lost when we went to large public gatherings and I never wanted to go to college or get married because that would mean separation from all that I knew that was comfortable and familiar. I had a place to live in the world that was cozy and filled with love and I didn’t want it ever to change. But of course growing pangs came and a season eventually dawned when I was ready to leave for college on the opposite side of the country and where marriage no longer held the fear of losing love and comfort but the hope of gaining its fullness.

This advent season I have been aware of my continued longing for a dwelling place, a resting place that somehow my childhood heart found in the haven of my home. The psalmist said, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place through every generation.” My longing heart runs toward that glimmer of rest, slowly and steadily being taught that, in this life, it is in hiding myself in “the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land” that I find a place to dwell.

But it is one thing for me, the created, to seek and find my dwelling place in God, The Creator. It is quite another thing, however, for God, The Creator, to seek after me and find his dwelling place with me, the created. And yet, that is the glorious impossibility of which advent speaks.

God not only woos me to find a dwelling place in Him, but he surrenders His ethereal cloak to put on flesh and bone to live in my world, to experience my sorrow, to understand what it is to be in a body and look toward Heaven and long only for a place to dwell.

Lord, we have been Your dwelling place. Thank you.

Reflection for Advent (3): Yieldedness

In considering the human side of the nativity story, nothing grips my heart more than the response of Mary to the angel's pronouncement that she would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and give birth to a Son. What a simple response of faith, "Be it unto me according to thy word." What trust. What yieldedness.

Advent has always seemed to come at a time of year when I am caught up in the fulfillment of all my own aspirations for life. The gift of advent is a renewed peace that comes through reflecting on the Mother of Our Lord who simply said, "Yes," to Jesus. The world was changed through that one, "Yes," offered by a humble girl who had found favor in God's eyes. Oh, for grace to live in the same place of trust and surrender!

It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David's town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother's hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love (Andrew Peterson, Behold The Lamb of God)

Reflection for Advent (2): Joyful Waiting

There are few memories from childhood that rival, in suspenseful recollection, those of anticipating the future. When I was about five years old, waiting to (joy of all joys!) go to a birthday party, Mom and Dad said that I needed to wait in their bedroom for ten minutes. At age five, ten minutes is half of an eternity. I distinctly remember spending those six hundred seconds on the edge of my parent's bed counting to sixty - ten times.

Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears

When I was slightly older and I could scheme with my younger siblings, we tried to fight, in unison, against the angst of waiting. One day, Isaac, Nate and I found ourselves at the barns waiting for Farmer Henry to join us and give us work and company. Sorry for ourselves that we had waited fifteen minutes, we thought that we should give him a call. However, we were worried that if we went to call him, he might come while we were gone. We decided that one of us should stay at the barn, while another would go to call, and the last would stay in the middle of the stayer and the caller, so as to be within shouting distance of both in case the old red Ford truck was spotted with Henry inside. Crazy!

Oh, come, our Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.

When I was eleven, I remember waiting seven long months for what I wanted more than anything...another baby sister. What heartfelt prayers I offered for a safe delivery and healthy baby! Since I was invited to be at the birth, I was on edge for about a month surrounding the due date. One day, while wading with Isaac in the stream between the diversion ditch and alfalfa fields, I heard a fog horn blow from the direction of our house. I ran home so swiftly only to find the matter for the horn blowing inconsequential. But, how great was my joy, when eight days after her due date, Mom woke me in the middle of the night to leave for the hospital. When I finally held Rebecca, the happiness in my heart was akin to none that I had previously known. What we wait for, in its fulfillment, we treasure.

Oh, come, our Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by your drawing nigh,
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.

My current season of life teaches me more about waiting than I ever thought possible to learn. Thankfully, I have at least gotten to the point of understanding that sitting on my bed and counting is not a redemptive way to wait. Waiting is redeemed when joy is present. "Rejoice in hope." These words direct my life.

Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.

Interestingly, the prophet Zechariah (500 BC) began the theme of joyful waiting with a very old-fashioned advent greeting, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Hopefully I will not have to wait for anything for five hundred years. Yet even with five hundred years to wait for the Messianic fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy, the people of Israel are told: "Rejoice!"

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel

Why did Israel need to wait so long for her Messiah? I have no theological treatise in response, but I do know that anything that I have ever waited for I have treasured - be it a birthday party, Henry's old red truck finally pulling into Bentley Lane or a little baby sister. And, just perhaps, our world needed to wait for her Messiah, so that when He came, we would value him rightly. What we wait for, we cherish.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel

And so the words waiting and cherish encapsulate all that I love about advent. As we wait to once again celebrate the birth of Our Lord, we enter into the travail of longing that makes waiting so difficult, so that once more, our hearts are trained to love, adore and cherish Messiah, Jesus the Christ.

No Honey, No Money, One Boss

The One Boss of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal is directing them in a very charismatic vein! What an exhilerating day Emily, Hannah and I spent in New York City witnessing the work of the Spirit through the ministry of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. In the offering of vows of chastity, poverty and obedience ("No honey, no money, One Boss"), the friars have been gifted with tremendous joy and are lighting a flame of love for Jesus the Christ in the heart of Manhattan.

The first Saturday of every month for the last three years, the young men of the Friars of the Renewal have been hosting an evening of adoration of the Living Christ followed by an "underground church" that includes worship through music, poetry, visual art, film and drama. Never before have I seen robed and bearded friars rap!

The hour of adoration was beautiful. Even the balconies of East 90th Street's "Our Lady of Good Counsel" Church (huge!) were filled for a candle-lit service of advent worship. How our hearts began to overflow anticipation as we sang, in a chorus of hundreds, over and over again in unison, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel."

A Reflection For Advent (1)

The official church calendar reports that the advent season officially begins next Sunday. But since I already have my radio tuned to a station that plays continuous Christmas music, I think it must be allowed to begin the first of my advent reflections a week early!

Nate and I were driving home after a hike on part of the Appalachian Trial yesterday, when we encountered a huge billboard with the common “evangelistic” question, “Where will you spend eternity? Smoking or Non-Smoking?”

Nate turned to me and asked, “Sarah, what do you think about that sign?”

I will never know what God will use to call someone across the Jordan, but I told Nate that if I was not a Christian that sign wouldn’t build the bridge for me.

“If you weren’t a Christian, what would build the bridge?” Nate asked.

Gratefully, that wasn’t a hard question to answer, because its answer is the reason for my existence, “The heartfelt knowledge that I am loved, by the Creator of the Universe, unconditionally and eternally.”

Life is short, and certainly eternity is of overwhelming consequence, but it seems to me that Christianity suffers a great loss when we forget that Jesus redeemed us as mortals that still pilgrimage on this Earth.

We pray and labor for the Kingdom to come to Earth as it is in Heaven. We bless this season of Advent because God came as One among us, to inhabit our dwelling places, so that in this life we could live in loving communion and relationship with God. That God loves us enough to commune with us, to redeem our present day realities to overflow with the goodness of His perfect holiness is, as Madeleine L’Engle says, the glorious impossible.

So in response to the very great love of our God who became a man and walked among us in the finiteness of time to bear our transgressions and our sorrows, perhaps the relevant question is, “How will you spend your life and your eternity? Accepting or refusing the depths of Love?”

Like a Weaned Child

One reason that I always look forward to Christmas is that it reminds me to once again reflect upon the the pure simplicity of what it means to understand the love of God. At Christmas I am reminded that God's love is simple - it is the birth of God made flesh that completely silences the complex multitude of questions and wonderings and misgivings that can so quickly prevade the life of the mind.

Psalm 131 expresses the quietness of this simple love.

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Advent Begins

Luke, Jacob, Caleb and I ventured to a nearby farm to cut down our Christmas tree today. We walked in many circles around the Balsam Firs until we finally agreed upon the tree that would be just right. Luke single-handedly carried it to the roof of the Suburban, only to have it fall off as we drove up the hill to get it baled. We concluded our Advent outing at a local diner where the four of us sat at the small diner counter and ate lunch. We have never sat at a diner counter before and we realized that it is hard to have a conversation when you only face a wall.

This evening the Parade of Lights wove through the streets of our small town. Local residents went to great efforts to make floats full of lights to greet the season. The festively lit streets and floats in this darkest time of year remind us of the Great Light of the World who came to bring clarity and hope to even our darkest moments.

The markedly cooler weather, the tree, the Parade of Lights, the shopping and familiar carols have certainly served to usher in a feeling that the Christmas season is really here.

Angels from the Realm of Glory
Words: James Montgomery, 1816

Angels from the realms of glory,
Wing your flight o’er all the earth;
Ye who sang creation's story
Now proclaim Messiah's birth.

Chorus:
Come and worship,
Come and worship,
Worship Christ,
The newborn King.

Shepherds, in the field abiding,
Watching over your flocks by night,
God with man is now residing;
Yonder shines the infant light:

Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations;
Ye have seen His natal star.

Saints, before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear;
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In His temple shall appear.

Though an infant now we view Him,
He shall fill His Father's throne,
Gather all nations to Him;
Every knee shall then bow down:

All creation, join in praising
God, the Father, Spirit, Son,
Evermore your voices raising
To the eternal Three in One.