NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

This reflection comes from a sermon I heard last year on the First Sunday of Advent when instead of a time of waiting, Advent was presented as a time of coming…. as a time of getting ready for Jesus to come again into our lives. Although I’m sure I have heard this message before, it has stuck with me this time. There are many deaths in our lives and following each death is an advent…a time of the coming again of hope, shalom, justice and love, a coming again of ‘The Way’ of Jesus into our lives, of regaining our equilibrium once again. In this hemisphere, the darkness of this time of year, reminds us vividly of the darkness that engulfs our hearts from time to time. While it is sometimes difficult to even see death in the death of relationships, the death of beliefs, the death of a community, these deaths need to be acknowledged and time for grieving them needs to be taken. This is what Advent can give us, that space to come again, to re-create, to become who we really are.

Once upon a time there was a knight and his lady, who lived contently for many years in a southern kingdom. As they aged however, their manor became too big for them and so they decided to relocate in a northern kingdom where smaller quarters were available. They left their friends of many years with a sad good-bye and set off for new adventures. They settled quite happily in their new abode, and joined in all the activities and merry-making until one day, they had to drop out of some of the activities because of their declining years.  No one came to ask them why they were no longer taking part. Instead the rest of the folk in that kingdom ignored them and it became very lonely for the knight and his lady The king suggested that they might be happier is a neighbouring kingdom and so they moved a short distance and set up house one more time.  This time though things went well for many years.  Then the king died. The heir apparent had many different ideas about what made a kingdom

I was just recently at my G.P.’s for that ‘dreaded’ annual physical when I learned something absolutely amazing – at least it was to me! When I commented on my loss of height during the past 12 months, his response was “Last year you were here in the morning not the afternoon and you are just seeing the result of gravity on your body. Everyone loses just under an inch every day.”  What an amazing concept!  As soon as I got back to my computer, I ‘googled’ it and here is what I found ~ "Perhaps the most noticeable effect of gravity on the body is compression of the spine. Our spine consists of vertebrae and sponge-like discs . The downward force of gravity causes the discs t lose moisture throughout the day, resulting in a daily height loss of up to 1/2" - 3/4 "! The moisture returns to the disc overnight, but not 100%. Over a lifetime, a person can permanently lose between 1/2" - 2" in height!" [www.evoluntionhealth.com]   WOW! Who knew!  Soo

This is part two of the blog I posted last week talking about the church signs that  I had seen.  My husband, as a musician, was so intrigued with the sign from last week ‘Christians are like pianos …’  that he changed it, just a bit, to say “Churches are like pianos. They …..” and sent it out to some of his musical, church-going friends and asked them to come up with the ending.  This is what one of them responded: " Churches are like pianos. They look grand on the outside, but their song is out of tune." ‘Very clever”, was my first response. And then the more I thought about it, the more I realized that what our friend was saying in the vernacular of today was exactly what the writer of Matthew had put on the lips of Jesus 2000 years ago as he spoke to the religious leaders of his day: "Woe to  you  , scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the