Natalie's Grace Notes

  Froeliche Weihnacht, friends. That’s “merry Christmas” in German. Now you have an ice breaking anecdote for your next awkward family dinner. Today is Christmas Eve, the day we’ve been looking forward to. Maybe. Kind of. It’s the day our kids have been looking forward to, anyway. Christmas Eve is a lot of different kinds of things, depending on who you are, and who you’re celebrating with. It could be a day of church with your family (thanks for coming!). It could be a day of baking cookies and drinking hot chocolate while watching Miracle on 34th Street.  Or Home Alone . Or Elf . Or Love Actually . Or Die Hard . Hey, whatever floats your boat. It could be a day of singing carols around the piano. It could be a day where you dry shampoo your hair and run around the house for half an hour, already late for service, trying to find your other shoe. It could be one of three days every year where you have to tolerate the presence of your mother in law without picking an argument. ...

  Friends, we’re now in the third of four weeks of Advent, and now that we’re past the halfway point, our ancient foremothers and forefathers planned this day to give us a break, and a reward. In the first week of Advent, we generally hear something apocalyptic, about the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus, but nothing about his birth story, or anything even remotely Christmas-y. In the second week, we usually meet an important cousin, John the Baptist, but still, nothing cute, fun, or festive. Plus, those first two Sundays we light those dark purple candles. The first two weeks, historically, have centered on the themes of hope and peace, and have required seriousness, atonement, and discipline from us. Week three is different. It’s Gaudete Sunday. “Gaudete” is a Latin word that means “rejoice”. Instead of lighting another dark, somber, purple candle, we light the happy pink candle! If pink is your favorite color, this is your Sunday! Today we focus on the spiritual g...

  Friends, we’re now in the Second Sunday in Advent. The painting you see up on the screen is one I asked Mary to put up there, so you’d have it for reference, because I’m going to draw your attention to it in a few minutes. In the meantime: take a look, and consider what you see up there. Now that we’re in week 2 of Advent, we’re spending some time with the first of the vital characters that help bring us Jesus–his weird cousin John the Baptist. Preachers with a sense of humor (and that very much includes me) adore our friend John. Stage actors portraying him have a field day. He’s not a calm, cozy character, the one who would hold your hand and read you a gentle bedtime story while sipping some chamomile tea. He’s a walking cartoon character, and the evangelist Matthew wanted to make sure we knew that. There’s “rough around the edges”, and then there’s this guy. Despite having mild mannered, highly respectable parents–a Temple priest and his doting wife–John the Baptist chooses t...