Author: winncollier

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A Remedy All Divine

We are in Christmas week. I love how these celebrations come to us – not as days – but as seasons, stretches of time where we discover an invitation to live in the moments. Will we live? Will I live? I’ve felt much joy and laughter these days, but I’ve also felt fear, more than is necessary (is any necessary?). Jesus has come. Jesus is here. Hope is here. Live.

Enough of fears and doubts, poor earth, and you poor trembling children of men! Your deepest ground for fear is taken away by him who comes as the Prince of Peace! Fear not! A remedy that is all divine is provided for your malady, whatsoever it may be. {Theodore Christlieb}

Until the New Year,
Winn

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Fourth Week of Advent

Our time of waiting nears its end*. Hopes now acute, we lean forward with expectant joy toward the day of Jesus’ nativity. Are you embracing those around you? Are you listening for signs of redemption? Are you prayerful and repentant? Are you making good use of your waiting?

We can discover much in the waiting. This is one discovery we make: the incarnation reveals to us, along with much else, the truth that Jesus is with us, in the real world, amid our laughter and tears, in our dark and in our light. Jesus truly is with us.

The Christmas story is familiar to everyone. Christmas cards and other modern renditions give us glimpses of a flawless Mary in pristine wrinkle-free clothing, a steady and unperturbed Joseph in an equally immaculate robe, a cheerful stable with clean straw and friendly animals…. Luke’s version is different: Mary isn’t even officially married to Joseph yet she’s pregnant; they have to travel…a distance of forty miles throughout the Samaritan and Judean hills; she gives birth…and has to lay her firstborn infant not in a cradle, but a feeding trough…. If we put ourselves into this situation, we sense pretty quickly it is no glittering Christmas card. It is real life…. {Dallas Willard}

*of course, I refer to this season of Advent waiting. We still yearn with all of creation for our full redemption.

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Third Week of Advent

This is the week of joy. Joy arrives as a gift. Joy bends our way, catching us by surprise. Joy is a kind grace we could never manufacture on our own (at least not any deeply meaningful, sustainable measure of joy).

And yet – joy is not for the faint of heart. It requires courage to be open to joy, courage to receive something so beautiful, something that stirs us so profoundly it causes our soul to tremble. Joy offers a goodness we can not control. We can not guard ourselves from the hope it stirs. We must simply receive.

The refrain (from Psalm 40;4) for today’s midday prayers was most appropriate: Happy are they who trust in the Lord! (and I do love that exclamation point: !) Let’s allow this refrain to be our refrain.

When our soul is lonely
Happy are they who trust in the Lord!

When our family appears in tatters
Happy are they who trust in the Lord!

When our heart and hope have lost their center
Happy are they who trust in the Lord!

When love seems a distant memory
Happy are they who trust in the Lord!

When we are selfish and proud and small
Happy are they who trust in the Lord!

When we see the evil surrounding us
Happy are they who trust in the Lord!

For the hungry, the abandoned, the abused, the forgotten
Happy are they who trust in the Lord!

May joys be yours today, because God has come in Jesus. And God is coming again. Discover your joy.

To encourage your celebration of joy, I suggest snagging this excellent folksy Christmas album from the band Sojourn. The album is Advent Songs. And you can download it for free (by telling 5 friends about it) at NoiseTrade.

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Second Week of Advent

God is coming!
All the element we swim in, this existence, Echoes ahead the advent.
God is coming! Can’t you feel it?
{Walter Wangerin, Jr}

Can you feel it? Can you?

Advent, waiting for redemption, is an exercise in hope. Hope can be a tricky thing though. Hope has a number of enemies. Here’s the enemy I’ve been most aware of lately: cynicism. Cynicism smirks when others smile. Cynicism holds back when others open up. Cynicism pulls you into darkness whenever your spirit craves the light.

Cynicism and Hope are mortal enemies. So, then, this makes cynicism and advent mortal enemies. Where is advent asking you to hope? I’m really asking…where?

For me advent, is asking me to hope in the that God is forming something strong and beautiful in me, even if I feel weak and pretty much a wreck. Cynicism offers the constant sly whisper that all I will ever be is what I am. Advent tells me different.

What about you?

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St. Nick

This week, our house has been filled with much conversation around St. Nick. Wyatt asked Miska point blank: is Santa real? Miska’s normal deft response (well, what do you think?) didn’t deflect as it has every time in the past. No, Wyatt said, I want to know for real – is he?

Unfortunately, this conversation proved fateful for a few other children. Miska told Wyatt and Seth to keep this inside information to themselves, since some kids still believed in Santa. Let’s just say our boys are not ones to keep the lid on potent info.

Tonight, I had a long talk with Seth because he had been complaining, repeatedly, that he was only getting two presents for Christmas (and I’m not even sure how he came up with that number, but given the moment, I wasn’t about to respond by telling him that he was probably landing more).

Me: Seth, you need to learn to be thankful for what you have, all the good things you are given, instead of complaining because you don’t get more.

Seth: (beginning to sob) Now, I’m going to be on the naughty list.

Back to the point, this whole Santa thing been interesting. On the one hand, I want Wyatt and Seth to know mom and dad will never lie to them. And – coming from my own hangups, I don’t want to give them any reason to someday wonder: well, if Santa Claus isn’t real, what other outrageous tales (i.e., the outrageous gospel) are bogus?

However, on the other hand, there is something about the wonder and mystery of belief in things like Santa that I very much want them to hold on to. I hope for Seth and Wyatt to have the imagination to have faith in their deep suspicion that there is something (someone?) magnificently good in this world. I want their hearts to continue to know, often against the odds, that the insanity around us (the greed and violence and selfishness) is not the way their world is meant to be. Wyatt and Seth are beginning to understand that a jolly fellow in a red suit won’t be coming down the chimney. But, if I have anything to say about it, their hearts will grow more and more alive to mystery and hope.

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First Week of Advent

Advent is upon us. And yet this means that what is upon us is…waiting.

We wait. We hope. We listen to quiet sounds and simple words. We see more clearly the needs of others. We see more clearly our own broken places. And we open our heart to what the gospel promises: God has come and will come again. And, on those plain words, everything hinges, absolutely everything.

In Advent Waiting, we remember that Mary marveled at the mystery of a baby come. We remember that Sara laughed at the ridiculous promise. We remember that ever-mumbling and ever-forgetful Israel simply didn’t believe that Moses would come back down from the mountain, that God would give them water and meat, that they were better off in the wilderness than in Egypt even if (especially if) all they had was God. We remember that we have doubted and struggled and laughed and wrestled … and believed. Indeed, we have believed – halting and feeble at times but, yes, we have believed. And we believe sill. This Advent, we believe. And we wait.

A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes… and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent. {Dietrich Bonhoeffer}

I hope to post at least one Advent peace each week. Join me for the journey.

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Gratitude in Pain and in Joy

I wrote a Thanksgiving piece for the digital edition of Everyday Woman Magazine, even though I am not, in fact, an everyday woman.

Here’s a tease:

Sometimes – surely – Scripture doesn’t mean exactly what it says. Ephesians places one of those difficult phrases in front of us: “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything…” (5:20). Everything? Really? Am I to give thanks for the divorce that rips apart a family? A disease that shreds a body? Does God actually desire me to be grateful for the evils of slavery and genocide?

{click here if you want to read on}

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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WMUZ Detroit

I have a half-hour or so interview tomorrow on WMUZ Detroit @ 2:35 p.m. (EST).

Other than my sis, bro-in-law and two nieces, I don’t know that I have that many connections around the Motor City, so you can listen online if you have any interest.

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Symbols Matter


Symbols really do matter.

I’m off in the morning for a quick but full trip to Boston, one of the cities I just can’t believe I’ve never visited. I’m eager to see beantown. On Tuesday, I’ll be attending a N.T. Wright conference, which reminds me that I never followed through on my promise to blog about my interview with Wright. I’ll do a blog all-things Wright when I get back. Hold me to it.

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