"The Immigrant Children…Cannot Be Erased by Shopping Excursions": An Advent Sermon by Wendell Griffen

I'm happy to be able to share with readers a sermon I heard my friend Reverend Wendell Griffen deliver this past Sunday at New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Wendell has uploaded the sermon to his blog site, and has given me permission to share it here, too. Wendell's sermon, which is entitled “An Advent Prayer for Desperate People,” contextualizes Advent and Christmas in a way that Lisa Koop's Advent sermon, which I shared two days ago, also does. Both note the struggle many of us have in finding spiritual foundations and hope in a world in which much seems deeply awry, in which the powerful abuse the weak, with self-professed Christians standing squarely on the side of the powerful and cheering them on. Wendell's sermon follows.

"This Is Happening in our Country Today and Is Being Done in All of Our Names": An Advent Sermon by Lisa Koop

Christian Trump supporters, take note. https://t.co/xn3kCgkjaA

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) December 24, 2019

I'm happy to be able to share with you this Christmas day an Advent sermon Lisa Koop preached at Assembly Mennonite Church in Goshen, Indiana, on 15 December. The sermon asks a question that haunts me as other Americans and I celebrate Christmas: How, in fact, does one or can one celebrate Christmas when this is happening in our country today and is being done in all of our names? How does anyone in the U.S. who claims a connection to Jesus and the gospels cope with the fact that what is happening in our country now — what is being inflicted on fellow human beings who are immigrants and refugees — was set into motion by the votes of more than half of the nation's white Christians in 2016?

Lisa Koop's sermon follows:

A Christmas Story

Since Christmas is a time for telling ourselves stories….

The Christmas story is one we have to make way for against all odds.

Putting Christ Back Into Christmas: The Death of Jakelin Ameí Rosmery Caal Maquin

What Christmas Means, and Why (White) U.S. Christianity Is in Crisis Now (Hint: It's about Pretend, as Opposed to Real, Pastoral Behavior)

I took my mom to Christmas mass at @StMonica90403 and got a wonderful surprise. The priest announced all were welcome. Rich, poor, young, old, straight... or gay. I had never heard a priest say the word “gay” in a church, let alone with respect. My mom and I began to tear up.

— Rory O'Malley (@RoryOMalley) December 26, 2017

For clergy who don’t think we should be explicit who is and isn’t welcomed in our churches: https://t.co/C5TfT8nTmF

— Broderick Greer (@BroderickGreer) December 26, 2017

Celia Wexler, author of Catholic Women Confront Their Church: Stories of Hurt and Hope (Rowman & Littlefield), in an essay just before Christmas entitled, "Cardinal Law's Papal Sendoff Shows Church's Laxity On Sex Abuse Scandal":

The Message of the Church to LGBTQ Catholics: Merry Christmas — Oh, and There's (Still) No Room in the Inn for the Likes of You

Until we do right by immigrants & refugees, we forfeit the right to claim we know what Christmas is about. https://t.co/vJ3nl3B7a2

— Rev. Dr. Barber (@RevDrBarber) December 24, 2017

One of the definitive messages of the Christmas story — perhaps more definitive for many of us who are LGBTQ and Christian — is the message of no room: there was no room anywhere for Joseph and Mary as they came to Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth.

Christmas Eve in Dark Times: Still, One Can Dream. And Hope.

I am, I have to admit, a pushover for flashmob videos, though I have a feeling the flashmob phenomenon has peaked. The world has taken a dark turn from the heady period in which this concept performative concept broke on the scene, when it seemed that European union and the election of an African-American president in the U.S. might herald a new age of international cooperation in which the human community might strive to overcome some of its old, deep hatreds and work to build a better world for all.

Looking Back at 2015 on Christmas Day: "The Light Around Us Remains, We Take Our Mercies As We Get Them"

More Christmas gifts I've unwrapped this morning, that I now want to give to you, my friends and fellow pilgrims around the world:

Why Ebola Never Reached Many of Us: A Christmas Day Sermon from Tim Cunningham (and Rev. Wendell Griffen)

There's a beautiful Christmas sermon wrapped up in Tim Cunningham's narrative about why the U.S. and other affluent countries never had an Ebola epidemic (hint: it's about people working together across religious, ideological, ethnic boundary lines; it's about the amazing courage of some people willing to risk their lives to save the lives of other people). Tim, who's a pediatric emergency nurse in New York, and who went to Sierra Leone last year to combat the Ebola epidemic, writes,

Christmas Eve Greetings with Photos

Camellia blooming beside our porch as Christmas nears.

This Christmas eve, sending good wishes to all Bilgrimage readers of any or no religious persuasions — with a few photos:

Sweet Honey in the Rock Sings "Silent Night" — With Reminders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner

If Leonardo Boff is correct (and surely he is) when he maintains that we can't celebrate Christmas adequately around our inclusive family tables without remembering those on the outside, then how are we American Christians going to celebrate Christmas this year, I wonder, in the middle of a growing, significant national conversation about the different way in which the criminal justice system treats some of us, on the basis of our pigmentation? Sweet Honey in the Rock states,

As Christmas Nears: Leonardo Boff on Christmas as Celebration of Inclusive Commensality

I've blogged a number of times here in the past (e.g., here, here, here, here, and here) about how scripture scholars are strongly convinced that the historical Jesus practiced open commensality, and that his practice of inclusive table fellowship with sinners, outcasts, women, those shoved from the table of the righteous, was integral to his proclamation of the coming reign of God. And was part of what got him crucified, since the practice of open table fellowship with . . . everyone . . . was considered a revolutionary attack on the very foundations of the society in which he was engaged in ministry . . . .

Christmas Pilgrimage: With Best Wishes to All of You for the Holidays

Dear Readers,

I'm typing this posting as Steve and I prepare to leave for the airport. We're heading off today on a Christmas trip to Italy, which became possible for us when we discovered a kind of magic called "frequent flyer miles" that waved away the price of airfare. We've also found additional magic called convent guesthouses at several of the places we'll visit as we travel--reasonably priced lodging with meals included.

New Year's Advice to Young People Struggling with Questions about Sexual Orientation: You Are Not the Problem and You Count

Christmas came, and the year has turned, and something is on my heart to share. As I noted on Christmas day, the holiday times--the church-and-family-oriented holiday times--can be rough for gay and lesbian family members (and, certainly, for others living alone or demeaned by family). Holiday times can be times of turmoil and pain for younger LGBTQ people, and when the turmoil and pain attached to family gatherings are reinforced by homophobic religious pontificating, as they were this year in the Catholic context, the assault on the psyches of young gay or gender-questioning people struggling to find their way in the world can be acute.

Leonardo Boff on Nativity Narratives and God Wanting to Be Loved and to Play

As the Christmas season ticks towards Old Christmas, this beautiful summary of the message of the nativity narratives in the gospel by Leonardo Boff:

Christmas, the Feast of the Holy Family, and El Niño Pobre: A Meditation

Today's the feast of the Holy Family in some Christian religious traditions . . . 

Catholic Hierarchy's Christmas Vendetta Against the Gays Captures Widespread Media Attention

A point I've been making throughout 2012 is that, though many tribalistic Catholics are unhappy at this development, stories once considered intra-Catholic stories by the media are now increasingly appearing in mainstream media reports in both traditional print venues and internet ones as well--often, with rather unflattering implications for the Catholic church and its leaders . . . 

Family Gatherings and Gay Family Members: Christmas Reflections

As Christmas day winds down, thinking still of Pope Benedict's insistence that we who are gay are a threat to family. In 2009, Bao Ong reported in the New York Times that "gay and lesbian baby boomers are more likely to be caregivers than their heterosexual contemporaries, including siblings." Ong states that one in four gay baby boomers are likely to be caregivers compared with one in five of the general population in the U.S., citing a 2006 study by MetLife's Mature Market Institute.

A Christmas Story: The Incessant, Disturbing Arrival of God

A Christmas story:

Hope in the Air as Christmas Arrives: Gun Control and Gay rights

Two signs of hope on Christmas eve: