Monthly Archives December 2009

New Year Light

A few years ago, I was at work near the end of the year. The Executive Director of the non-profit I work for was excited about the impending new year (she’s a great cheerleader and not lacking for excitement), but with a difficult year behind and another long year in front of me, I didn’t have the heart to share her excitement.

Interestingly, as I began to change out my calendars and to make plans for the new year, I began to feel like I had a fresh slate ahead of me. I even began to share in my Executive Director’s excitement. January was just another month, really, but something about the “new” year was stimulating.

Week Four: Vigilance

Advent Series from Urban Skye Project

(Luke 2:21-35)
Thin Places are found along the journey

A series of religious activities reveal a devout young couple doing precisely what their law prescribed: circumcision, naming, purification, presentation, offering. Enjoying the beauty of their tradition, they are interrupted by a strange old man wanting to hold their baby. Any mother would tighten her grip.

Week Three: Surprise

Advent Series from Urban Skye Project

(Luke 2:8-20)

       Thin Places come where we least expect it.

The Shepherds were where you expect to find them: in the fields watching sheep sleep. Without warning or invitation, an angel appears – enough to unnerve the cockiest of shepherds – followed by a crowd of heavenly beings.  They were chosen to receive the clearest message of cosmic importance to date: Today, Bethlehem, Child born, Savior. No interpretation necessary.

Romantic figures they may be, shepherds are idolized in our stories, but were mistrusted by their own community.  Figuratively and literally, they operated on the edges of society.  They would not have been able to read, they were looked down upon religiously and mistrusted personally and legally.  In a thin place encounter none of this matters in the least.

Week Two: Silence

Thanks to Urban Skye Project for sharing the advent series with Ruminate.

(Luke 1:57-66)
Thin Places are cultivated through our inner world.

God’s 400 years of silence is broken with good news to an old priest doing his priestly duty. The irony is that more silence must follow.

Week One: Validation

Advent Guide from Urban Skye Project

(Luke 1:39-45)
Thin Places come through the encouragement of a soul friend.

Mary and Elizabeth make an odd pair. Connected only by blood and now impending motherhood, they were otherwise worlds apart. Elizabeth was a priest’s wife, well-known for her piety. Yet, she had long bore the cultural “curse” of childlessness. Mary was on the opposite end of life’s journey— looking ahead and not behind. She was a small town girl, betrothed to a man well chosen by her parents and awaiting the sacred space of marriage and children. Then an angel interrupts her plans.