Ugly: an Advent/Christmas Liturgy

Mom and Dad were talking about possible themes for Advent in their church so I gave them an ear full of my theological perspective. See here and here. As we talked about it we began brainstorming what advent series might look like if we followed some of these themes. I have sketched out some of my thinking below…

Theme:

John 1:1-5, 14 "1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Incarnation is the heart of the Gospel (Good News) message. God not only accomplished our redemption to himself by providing the ultimate sacrifice but he demonstrated how the human life/experience was meant to be lived. Ask yourself what required more sacrifice from God's perspective: accomplishing the work of redemption (cross) to bring his beloved back to himself; or identifying with the failing, feeble - generally ugly condition of human existence. (Obviously, I think the latter) The incarnation represents a profound reality about God's grace – we were not just worth saving – we were worth identifying with. This good news can speak profoundly to the kids/people in your ministry. The crap of their lives is not an isolated experience that they need to find their own way through. Our crap is God's crap – cause he knows. In a sense advent can be seen then as a preparatory shift that Christ had to take to identify with us – From the 'God of Glory' or the 'Son of Man'. He got Ugly.

Method:

Usually the advent season is this build up to 'glorious' climax of Christ's birth. Angels sing, wise men visit, etc. This time take the opposite approach – almost in the mood of a Tenebrae service except stretched out over a few weeks. The idea is to create a progressively uglier setting and motif for your meetings.

Ideas:

Start the first week with a polished celebratory service utilizing all the best aspects of your 'congregation' – this will reflect the tenor of heaven. Decorate with as much flare and beauty as possible. Have a banquet. Make the event celebratory. As you progress through the season allow the decorations to fall into disrepair and add junk and garbage till you have created a truly ugly (even smelly) place by the end. Or as you progress through the season remove decorations till you are left with a bare/stark motif for your gathering place. Also scale your 'production' back. In fact incorporate less and less 'talented' people in presenting the music or other content of the events. You might even want to orchestrate some actual failure into the flow of your meeting times. Awkward pauses and hiccups could reinforce the point in a powerful aesthetic way. Start with the all the candles in the Christmas wreath lit and extinguish one each week. End the Christmas Eve with only one light glowing from the manger.

Direction:

You could take this one of two ways (maybe more) in terms of teaching focus. Typically Advent includes five events (including Christmas Eve). Here's two outline that might be possible:

#1 Celebration – The Glory of God (use scripture passages that speak of God's greatness, holiness, glory and majesty; have a sharing time that identifies the goodness of God; sing praise songs; Hallelujah chorus; trumpets;)

#2 God identifies with my World – Global focus. (use scripture passages that focus on the condition of the poor or war or disease and calamity; don't forget to include some of the beautiful things in nature; focus on specific world events; have a presentation from a relief organization; reflect on the lowliness of Christ's world at the time of his birth; read the stories of Christ's compassion on the poor and helpless)

#3 God identifies with my culture – national or cultural focus (use scripture passages that show how Christ took on the establishment of his culture; talk about the busyness of technology and how it affects our lives, media influences, you could add a bunch of busted TV's to the display; identify other cultural values that Christ challenged or reinterpreted – use the sermon on the mount as a guide)

#4God identifies with my community – local focus (read scriptures about the local setting that Christ was born in, take a tour around your town, focus on local issues; help participants to identify both the ugly and pretty side of the local setting imagine the birth of Christ as it might of occurred in this local setting.)

#5 God identifies with me – personal focus (read scriptures about how God loves each person individually; talk about personal garbage like broken relationships, woman at the well, woman caught in adultery; talk about personal fear and anxiety; talk about insignificance especially in light of the glory of heaven; end with a prayer services and personal sharing. Ask participants to reflect on how Christ's identification with them give them hope for their own lives and for further action in the world they live in)

Or you could develop a more topical approach to identification with something like this:

#1 Celebration – the Glory and Majesty of God (as above)

#2 God identifies with human relationships -- #3 God identifies with human fears -- #4 God identifies with human suffering -- #5 God identifies with human condition – sin

A few more thoughts. It seems to me that sometimes we approach Advent with a sense of anticipatory relief. I have often seen how the Advent season has been used to parallel the expectation of the return of Christ. This is a valuable parallel but in our times when some of our theological perspectives seem to be alienating us from reality (you know that sense that we need to just remain faithful while the world around us crumbles) I think it could be refreshing to see that Christ models the type of identificatory life that we should lead – the essence of our 'mission' in this world. While a progressively uglier advent season might be difficult to pull off in many of our churches or youth – it is precisely because of the 'glam' factor of the Christmas season that we should possibly consider a different approach. This type of approach could help us to regain some of the vital aspects of the incarnation regardless of whatever your theological 'priorities' might be…

EvanALMIGHTY

So here is a sequel to BruceALMIGHTY (i think)...starring steve carell (the office fame).

Looks like some people at Youth Specialties have teamed up with the movie to launch a kindness campaign. It looks really interesting check it out here.

Dogs and Lent

Easter is pretty much the central defining idea of Christianity – experientially, theologically, and actually. We would have a really hard time talking about Christianity if we didn’t have the cross. The cross and the tomb stand as the two most powerful images – obedience and sacrifice and then victory and hope. I am intrigued by the idea of sacrifice. It is after all this aspect of the Easter story that is most profound. The common understanding is that Jesus took upon him the sin of the world and died paying the penalty we all deserved. THAT, we say is sacrifice. Or is it?
To me the greatest sacrifice in the whole story about Jesus is what happened at his birth. That God would choose to lower himself into a actual human body is a form of sacrifice I am sure that I have not mastered or understood.
I think about it like this:
I love my dog (or so my wife tells me). Let’s say I knew that my dog’s habits and behaviour were leading her to a deadly confrontation with a wolf. Of course, as her owner I would do all in my power to train her to change her ways but failing that there would be only one choice left. Become a schnauzer myself. If the technology were available to me to do what Tim Allen did in that movie and I were to seriously consider doing that in order to save my dogs life, I know that several people would protest. (Others of course would no doubt cheer me on – thinking I am a dog after all.) And if in spite of the protests I went through with the procedure what would my friends say about me.
They could laugh at me behind my families back – scoffing at the insanity of lowering myself to the level of a dog
They could mourn what they ultimately see as a waste.
They could call into question my love for my family and friends.
But they would have to admit that I loved my dog.
And then after I became a dog I would no doubt proceed to warn my dog of the perils of her behaviour. If she rejected my instruction I would no doubt be obligated to face the wolf myself and try to defeat the beast. And then what if I died trying to defend my dog – what would my friends say then?
I’m not sure they could/would say anything appreciably different, because in actuality I was already lost to them as a human.
Good thing that technology exists eh?
I know that an illustration like this is a poor way to describe the theology that is woven through these thoughts but…
1. For me Jesus is a picture of sacrificial love long before he gets to the cross
2. For me Jesus life, even without the cross, stands as blistering assault on everything that my natural tendencies want to do. For me Jesus life shows me how to be truly humble – selfless. This is important to me because I see selfishness as being the default problem for human beings. 3. For me Jesus life, teaches me about redemption. When I believe that God made himself into human flesh it just seems like a matter of course to me that he would use all his powers to provide a vehicle for his love to reach the people he cared about.
The cross means something different for me then. For me the cross becomes the inevitable result of an unshakeable love that began with the choice to become human like us.
I have tended to be satisfied with acts of sacrifice. Events that demonstrate my ability to sacrifice like Jesus did on the cross. But I have this sneaking suspicion that when Jesus taught about ‘taking up our crosses’ he meant more than just a string of meaningfully placed (even tightly spaced) events of sacrifice. What he was demonstrating and teaching was how being incarnational (that is willing to fully identify with another) is not only truly sacrificial but also deeply and redemptively powerful.
These days it is common for me to hear people (even evangelicals) asking each other (much to the chagrin of the Catholic haters) what they are giving up for Lent. The question intrigues me. I know that for many this Lenten practice is important and a valuable spiritually maturing discipline. However, I wonder if this Lent phenomenon is really little more than cleverly disguised pietism. So what if I prove at the end of 40 days that I can go without chocolate, junk food, buying new clothes, eating out, even food itself. In the end has it helped me to become more incarnational – more willing to live in someone else’s economy?
So this year for Lent by goal is to live more intentionally incarnational.

Philippians 2: 5-11 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself.
He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to
cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time
came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave,
became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly
humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. INSTEAD, HE LIVED A
SELFLESS, OBEDIENT LIFE and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst
kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
BECAUSE OF THAT OBEDIENCE, God lifted
him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all
created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will
bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the
Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.