Turning the world upside-down

If you've visited Howard-Empowered People maybe you've seen me use a portion of this picture as a Gravatar. Or maybe not, as I haven't used it in a while. The painting is entitled "Mary of the Magnificat". No, I realize that the first century peasant girl who was the mother of Jesus looked nothing like that. We've been watching these shows on the National Geographic channel which explain how much at odds the usual Christmas pageant imagery is at odds with what we know about life in first century Judea. Our 12-year-old is taking great pleasure in informing everyone that "The manger looked nothing like that--the animals were in a lower room, in the same building as where the people lived!" I don't know if he's ready to understand that stories can be true--or reflect deeper Truths--without being factually, literally true. (I read somewhere that myths are stories that aren't true on the outside, but they are true on the inside.) I think I first discovered what is beautiful and inspiring to me about this story back when we were attending a local Unitarian Universalist church. The Christmas sermon was entitled Turning the World Upside-down, and it said, in part: And in a world where the Roman intelligentsia believed that Augustus Caesar himself was born of a virgin mother, a virgin who had a vision in a temple from a messenger from the gods, what might the author be saying? Since he or she (and we really don't know whether the author we call "Luke" was a man or a woman by the way-cases have been made for both) deliberately brings up Augustus Caesar at the beginning of the story about another virgin birth, I grow suspicious. Isn't it more likely that here is another picture inviting us to look at the world in a totally upside-down manner? The story is asking us "Is Caesar the greatest power on earth, Caesar with his power and might, his obedience and his executions, his slavery and his caprice; or, is it this peasant baby from the outskirts of civilization whose head needs to be entirely supported in the crook of his tender mother's arm? Two virgin births. But which of them is the real center of the world? Choose. Mari herself, upon being told that she will be a mother, sings a clear song about the world turning upside down, The Magnificat, part of which you heard being sung this evening, by Peg Meckling and Edgel Alley, set to Bach's beautiful music. The Magnificat insists that the world is about to go topsy turvy. Remember the poem? Do you see? The lofty are now scattered through the arrogance of their own heart, and the all-powerful rulers of earth are pulled down off their thrones, and poor people like me are lifted up. The hungry are fed now, the sated go away with empty hands. The way I see it is this: when you worship a poor third world baby in a cattle-feeder, instead of a muscular and violent head of state on his throne, you begin to turn philosophy on its head, and certainly all theology. And, to say (as the Christians eventually did), that this weak child nursing at its mother's breast is a wonderful picture of G-d, you get another upside-down image…not the common image of G-d as Caesar in the sky, controlling the weather, the fates of individual human beings, and meting out punishments and rewards according to bribes, but G-d, or the Ultimate, if you will, as a helpless child in a dirty, splintery cattle feeder. By the way, I know that someone is bound to ask about the spelling G-d. Others can probably express it better than I can, but it is typically a Jewish convention. I have heard at least two explanations that I can recall--one is that if we try to give a name to the Ultimate, we risk making an idol of that name. Another is that, in the Hebrew scriptures, to name someone or something was to control them--have dominion over them. For obvious reasons, we could not expect to do that with God. Again, I'm sure someone else could explain this better, but I wanted to try to anticipate the question in an attempt to keep any confusion or curiosity about that from eclipsing the powerful truth of this story that I wanted to convey tonight. Turning the world upside-down...that's what resonates with me. Knocking the powerful off their thrones, while at the same time recognizing the power in the "lowly" who can be all too easily dismissed by those who are content with "politics and usual". I *love* this story, and I believe in it. Well, in my heart, deep down I do. Sometimes, after the people fighting the good fight get knocked down again and again, it's hard to keep believing. At Christmas time, one thing I try to do is to remind myself that this very old story still rings True in our hearts, because there are always Caesars who need to be knocked off their thrones. It seems impossible. But the impossible can be achieved by something greater than ourselves. Maybe we call that something "God", or another name that means something similar. Or maybe that "something greater" is our sense of being interconnected, part of a larger community rather than focussed on our own narrow interests. The sense that "we're all in this together". Now, where have I heard *that* before? ;-)

An Advent Meditation

We have been scrambling all day, trying to get ready for our holiday travels. It's one of my many least favorite parts of this season. It is now way later than we had hoped to be leaving, and we're pretty much guaranteed to hit rush hour traffic. Can't be helped, so I'm not going to stress about it. Rather, I thought it would be a good idea to take a few moments to center myself with a few moments of quiet while my husband finishes packing his clothes. Without getting exceedinly maudlin, one of the roughest things about the whole Christmas season--especially coming as it does right before my birthday--is that it is a time when all of the little ways I occasionally feel inadequate all impinge on my consciousness at once. So I definitely need to take a few moments and remind myself of the miracle that this season represents. The following is from an Advent sermon at St. Clement's Church in Berkeley: In the ordinariness of a peasant girl’s body, the word was made flesh. In the business-as-usual of a society focused on material things, a holy stillness descends. Into the repetitive cycle of violence, peace and justice break through. All incredible. All a myth, whose truth we see and cling to. Mary said to the angel, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Mary, young, pregnant, visited by angels, poor, expectant, and scared: in her body heaven and earth meet. What Mary offers us is the hope of light in our darkness, the breaking through of holy love into our sad, sorry world. She carries the sacred burden of our redemption even as she suffers the grief, love, fear, and joy of a human mother. Whatever else she is, Mary is a sign for us of God’s ridiculous love for us, the love that takes our very ordinariness, the good and the ill of the human condition, and turns it into blessing and grace. Ready or not ready, here it comes. Bidden or not bidden, God is present – here, with us, now. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.

Celebrating Winter Solstice with the family

There is a page describing family-oriented Winter Solstice celebrations at Circle Sanctuary here. I will post the general overview, but if you visit the Circle Sanctuary web site you will find a lot more of the "nuts and bolts" details about creating your own Winter Solstice ritual: - Focus of Celebration: consider first your purpose(s) for the celebration, such as: Strengthen family bonding with each other - Expand upon existing patterns of family celebrations - Attune family to Nature's cycles - Attune family to its membership in the community of all life on planet Earth - Connect with ancestors - Celebrate ethnic/cultural heritage(s) - Educate about ancient and contemporary folkways - Extend the celebration of Christmas, be an alternative, or expand upon it - Deepen understanding about spiritual renewal and love - Have fun Even though I am Episcopalian, I really like the idea of having a ritual to mark the Winter Solstice. Bummer that I have to spend the day running and don't have the time to do something "intentional" for the Solstice. But I remain aware of it, and I thank Diana and SallyCat for sharing their thoughts on the holiday.

Winter Solstice

A diary by SallyCat at Booman Tribune... Merry Meet and Bright Blessings at Yule Many have asked about the celebrations and traditions of Yule / Winter Solstice and I will try to answer as generically as possible. I follow a Celtic Path, with a focus on the Goddess, but not exclusively. There will be others that follow different paths - and their celebrations and histories will have variations. Yule begins on the shortest day and the longest night of the year. This year Solstice begins at 1:35pm est on December 21, 2005. Celebrations in many homes will begin at sunset on Yule. Yule - Winter Solstice Typically beginning on December 20 or 21st, Yule spans twelve days ending Yule Night on December 31st. Using the Julian calendar it would occur on December 25th. Yule is the first of the solar festivals and the first Sabbat of the new year. This is also one, if not the holiest of the 8 Sabbats, depending on your Path. The most accepted of the Celtic tales of Yule begins when the Holly King battles the Oak King in a fight to the death. The Holly King can be associated with many aspects of God. The year that has passed, or Father Time, death, or if you look at the king through nature, he can be associated with the old stallion who must fight for his position as the head of the heard. In the battle, the Holly King loses to the Oak King. Who represents the new year, the young stallion claiming his position over the heard. He is also called the Divine Child. The newborn aspect of God. As a Pagan celebrant, it is a time for each of us to put to rest the old lessons, battles and issues that need to be released. It is a time to let go of those things that hold you back and move on into the new year with a fresh view and perspective. Click here for the rest.

Adorable puppy, multiethnic children wage war on Christmas

By now, just about everyone must know that there is apparently War on Christmas this year. I was  feeling fairly confident that I, myself, was not engaged in such a war. Because frankly, I'm just not that brave. I'm more the type to hold really still and avoid eye contact with Christmas, in the hopes of getting through the colorful, boisterous season of sensory overload in one piece. I'm certainly far too intimidated to actually "wage war" on it. Or so I thought. Imagine my shock when I discovered that just using the words "Happy Holidays" makes on part of the war on Christmas. As it turns out, Demetrius and I have been waging war on Christmas for a couple years now, and we've even enlisted the deviously cute assistance of a collection of multi-ethnic cartoon children, and an adorable, large-headed cartoon puppy. Oh, the humanity! Anyway, I suppose I should confess the extent of our guilt... First of all, we've got this web site for kids called Letter Lane--we created it a few years ago when our oldest was deeply into the alphabet. On the front page of the site, you can see the first hint of the anti-Christmas assault in the words "H is for Holidays". But it gets worse. Go ahead, click on the word Holidays, and you are greeted with this bold, full color proclamation that Christmas is only one of the December holidays. And if you do visit this page, you know, just to find out how bad it is so that you can report back to the jolly Fox News elf and help him save Christmas, you'll see that we don't just do the usual nod to Chanukah and Kwanzaa, but even Solstice for cryin' out loud. I know, you're getting "the vapors" about now, aren't you? But alas, I'm not through confessing, yet. Over at Puplinks: All About Dogs, if you click on Winter and Holiday Pet Safety, you are greeted with this abomination. Happy Howlidays? That's not even a word! So I totally couldn't blame you all if you felt compelled to report the part we have played in the War on Christmas. You should especially report www.puplinks.com to people who have dogs (or are considering getting one) and www.letterlane.com to people who have young children. You know, all in the name of saving Christmas. ;-)

Activists protesting immoral '06 budget arrested

I just found out about this today, in a diary at Street Prophets which asked "Why doesn't anybody care about this?" Anybody, meaning the mainstream media--and people quickly came to the conclusion that "budgets aren't sexy". Still, if there is a "war on Christmas", I think the ongoing assault on the poor is it. Singing "Caring for our neighbors, we shall not be moved," the peaceful demonstrators were frisked, photographed and booked on trespassing charges by Capitol Police officers. The misdemeanor carries a $250 fine or 90 days in jail. The demonstration was the most direct action by churches who have made the budget their highest domestic priority, and it reflected the continuing tussle between liberals and conservatives over what constitutes "moral values." Congress is rushing to finish a compromise budget that includes $50 billion in spending cuts approved by the House and $35 billion passed by the Senate. Protesters said that those cuts will primarily hurt the poor. The House has also approved a bill to cut taxes by $95 billion. Jim Wallis, the founder of Sojourners, said that it was immoral to cut taxes for the wealthy as Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, whom the Bible says came to "bring good news to the poor." "There is a Christmas scandal in this nation ... but it has nothing to do with shopping malls saying 'Happy holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas,'" Wallis said. "The Christmas scandal is the immoral budget coming out of this Congress. Hoping to match conservatives' use of religious rhetoric, Wallis and others said that the budget would take the song of the Virgin Mary when she was told of Jesus' impending birth - "He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty" - and turn it on its head. "This is not just bad public policy," said the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, the general secretary of the Reformed Church in America. "This is morally disgraceful." Read the rest here.

Celebrating the Virgin's Birthday

I posted about the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Monday, focusing on how the Blessed Mother in general and Guadalupe in particular has become more significant and meaningful to me. But I have never attended a celebration of that feast day, so I was interested to read this diary at Booman Tribune by DucttapeFatwa... Celebrating the Virgin's Birthday For those who do not know the story, in 1532 a man named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin of the Chimecheca tribe saw a vision of a lady on the spot where the Spanish invaders had destroyed the temple of Tonantzin the corn goddess. She gave him miraculous roses, imprinted her image on his cloak (the Tilma), and instructed him to tell the local Bishop that a cathedral should be built on this spot. This particular December, I was privileged to attend such a celebration. Of course there was food, traditional Mexican platos like chile rellenos, cochinitas piviles, mole, and the Caribbean contingent made sure that no one lacked for black beans and rice, or those little knots of pork loin that only Cubans can make. But there were also wots from Ethiopia, huge dishes of rice with raisins, almonds and spices, lamb in cream, all from Kashmir, ground nut stew and corn cakes from Africa, chicken with pistaschios and saffron and cous cous from Yemen, pink potato salad and latkes from Russia, crunchy pakuras and spicy curries from India and Nepal, challah and tabouleh and falafel from Palestine and Israel, spaghetti and meatballs from Italy, little meat pies from Scotland and Jamaica (and lively discussion over which are best), dumplings and duckling from China, spring rolls and beef pho from Southeast Asia, and this year, crawfish etoufee, pralines and red beans and rice cooked with andouille, thanks to the Katrina survivors. Every item with a horizontal surface in the house and several surrounding it had to be brought in to accomodate the abundance of comestibles. Click here for the rest.