Jim McDonald's blog

Advertisers want us to think of kids when we think of Christmas because they know that when it comes to our kids we will do lavish, sometimes crazy things.

The Christmas story though, invites us to look at life with adult eyes, like how do you negotiate life living in an occupied territory? It starts with a census because Rome needed money. Do the authorities care about Mary’s condition? Do they compensate Joseph for hours lost at the carpenter’s lathe? These people are living in fear, like many of us who fear everything from cancer to stewardship programs.

It’s interesting that when Jesus talks about eternal life he begins by talking about something else.

When Jesus speaks about living into eternal moments he gives us stuff that we can do before the day is up.

In the 19th century, when it was established that life had begun in the oceans, some scientists reasoned that the earliest forms of life might still be there, hidden in the deep, dark depths of the ocean. Folks thought that there in that world of darkness lay the first forms of life. They even had a name for that oceanic nursery; they called it "Urschleim," choosing a German name to give it scientific respectability.

If you watch sports, especially team sports, it becomes clear which teams play together well and which teams are simply a collection of All-stars. It always amazes me when I look at professional football and watch teams that either win year after year, or stay in the hunt and make the Playoffs year after year.

Walking in the woods last week after dinner, I noticed the sun cascading through the limbs then someone walking through that light. There, I was reminded of the little worlds we collide with and walk in and out of each day. How do we say hello with a welcoming word?

This summer we invite you to share images with us at church of some of the ways you have, or will have touched the world. It could be a picture of a neighborhood block party or it could be stepping off the plane in Paris or exiting a boat in Thailand. You can pull out your camera phone and catch Mount Rushmore or a conversation over the back fence with a new neighbor. Wherever vacations or business trips or a ride to a relative take us, we hope you take a welcoming spirit along with a picture. Wherever you find yourself saying hello, to different people and places, share these adventures and email the pictures to Bethany. Please include a brief description in terms of people and place.

We want to geotag these photos and catch a glimpse of the worlds we shook hands with over the summer. A summer walk in the woods, depicted above, did I stop and say hi, did we have a conversation? If so, where did the conversation lead us? Let the conversations begin! Maybe we can see the big things we did together that we couldn't have done alone.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself," says Matthew 22:34-46

Welcoming the world seems to take love for granted. Welcoming is inviting -- making the strangers feel they belong. When we welcome the world around us, we love God.

Throwing a pile of vegetables, seafood and beef together to be cooked in concert to arrive done meant that things had to happen quickly. At the Mongolian Grill last night, cooking to raise funds for choir tour, I felt like the psalmist, "My cup overflows." The dinners kept coming, some meatless, some with an egg that if you squashed it just right it might break without leaving its shell as an extra ingredient.

Watching our sanctuary Advent Wreath lit each week with candles signifying love, joy, hope, and peace, has made me realize just how much we all walk around with inward lights of love, joy, hope and peace.

Whether or not you were one of those who got to experiment with matches or candles, or read old words from Isaiah, you wear those Advent lights in your giving, in your smiles, in your hopes that spill over to so many little actions, all of which walk us closer to Christmas.

Isaiah 2:1-5

When we look back into the world of ancient Israel. Into this world of ploughshares and pruning hooks. While It may be that in normal times, life was about plowing and planting and pruning and praying for good weather. However in times of crisis, things took a different shape.

Remember sensitivity training. Every word and gesture had to be in the right now. Popular in the 70s

You couldn’t say, “What are you planning to do after supper?” or “Are you going home for Thanksgiving?” These were all forms of avoiding the moment in front of you. It was terrifying, because all the ways we’d each learned to manipulate interactions and take conversations onto our safe territory were stripped away, and we had to be honest and truthful not about our past but about what was going on right this minute, right now, not just in our own minds, but in the room.