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advent journal: put the heart in

The last Sunday in Advent is always a hard one for me because it’s hard to find something fresh to say, which is why I bounced off of a passage from Philippians today. Here’s where it took me. ____________________ I’m going to take a risk with you this morning: I’m going to start two sermons in a row talking about Christmas movies. Okay, so it’s not that big a risk. One of the consistent things…

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advent journal: solstice sandwich

solstice sandwich today was the thinnest of daylight sandwiches the shortest distance between two darknesses last night it began to snow but it was another thinness icing across the landscape an inconsequential covering tonight is the thickest of nighttime sandwiches the longest distance between two daylights tomorrow the sun will rise and it will be another thinness lighting up the landscape an…

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advent journal: chowder head

chowder head I think coincidence and soup are synonyms both words mean to fall together it started with bacon that’s when I knew we were having chowder for supper I found potatoes and chopped clams even as I grabbed items as though I was gathering props for improv giving myself options I couldn’t see yet the clam to spud ratio was unbalanced so I reached for the sweet potatoes and let the…

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advent journal: live and learn

live and learn “the only way to learn is to live” the words came from a fictional librarian who lives in a story about consequences an old word that means what comes next after whatever we said or did or didn’t do which we can’t see until we live through it and that makes me want to flip the thing the only way to live is to learn to learn means to be cultivated and to live is to continue or…

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advent journal: repeat the sounding joy

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is watching—no, rewatching—movies. We have several that we need to see at some point during the holidays to make the season feel complete: “It’s a Wonderful Life,” of course; “Christmas in Connecticut” with Barbara Stanwyck; “The Preacher’s Wife” with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston; Bill Murray’s take on “A Christmas Carol,” which is called…

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advent journal: coffee shop duet

coffee shop duet what I saw first was her solitude as she sat on the bar stool matching the expression of the coffee shop’s blank wall but when he entered she turned and so did the light around her they greeted like good friends talking as they shuffled coats to make room for themselves he took the stool next to her which left him much taller than she but she widened the frame by moving to a…

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advent journal: I could hear the rain

I could hear rain in mid-December days die incrementally losing light almost from the crack of dawn suffocate them with a blanket of clouds and the only light that lives is artificial still light is not life or so I was reminded when I realized I could hear the rain not just the storm but the tap dance of drops on the patio that had been silent for so many showers however dark the day I could…

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advent journal: interstices

interstices the space between trees the crack in the mortar the time between floors if we took away the spaces between us among us the universe would collapse into a fist the rest between notes the breath before words the pause to ponder intervening emptinesses waiting to be noticed to be seen as something other than nothing the gap in the fence the break in the clouds the width of a room what we…

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advent journal: ritual in search of significance

ritual in search of significance the last thing I do before I go to bed is to disconnect my implant and hearing aid and enter into quietness it is necessary action because both my batteries and my body need to recharge so I settle into silence each device has a cradle where it rests for the night the batteries nestled as well none of us hearing a thing as my motions become more deliberate and…

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advent journal: themeless

The woman in my poem from a couple of nights ago made it into my sermon today. She has still been on my mind. ___________________________ Sometimes when I look at the lectionary passages I wonder about the committee that put it together. I learned this week that the Common Lectionary for Protestant churches only came about in 1983 and was revised in 1992. I didn’t realize it was so new. Part of…

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advent journal: breakfast potatoes

breakfast potatoes in our favorite breakfast joint on the way home from the hospital for the first time in a long time I heard the sound of one chef chopping the rhythm of the knife beating in my new ear a sound my brain knows by heart when I caught his eye I asked, “making soup?” “chopping potatoes,” came the answer “we always need breakfast potatoes” it was almost noon his preparation was an…

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advent journal: fear factor

fear factor it was not long after the third doctor came by to tell me it would be another hour until I was taken back to the operating room that the woman in the next cubicle began to assert herself “I want to leave” a sentiment shared on almost every stretcher but she was serious and her proclamation upset the rhythm of the cardiac ward the anesthesiologist’s attempt to subdue her became a power…

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advent journal: ablation

ablation the word rings in my ears like a rite or a ritual though I am not sure exactly what role I play it means “a carrying away” in its oldest form though medically it’s “a removal of something harmful” they will carry away broken bits of my heart to restore its rhythm that sounds sacred and I listen for sacred holy means healthy I’m an arhythmic pilgrim hoping for healing my doctor…

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advent journal: cartography

Since I had my cochlear implant surgery eight weeks ago, I have been writing a poem a day to help me reflect on what is happening to me and my hearing. This is today’s poem. cartography we forget the word map is short for mappa mundi map of the world or perhaps map of a world since no cartographer can cover it all my audiologist uses the word map to describe how she programs my cochlear…

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advent journal: mooing at kyle

Everything that is going on in the Brasher-Cunningham household alongside of Advent beginning before we were finished with Thanksgiving leftovers mean I am a day late beginning my annual Advent Journal, which starts this year with my sermon from yesterday, “Mooing at Kyle.” I hope your Advent is full of hope and wonder. _____________________ We have had a two-year-old at our house these past few…

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consider

It’s been a while since I posted a sermon, mostly because all of the medical stuff I have been dealing with has made what I have offered from the pulpit less than postable. But I’m back and talking about the birds and flowers that Jesus pointed to as examples of how to be human. _____________________________ Ginger and I went to breakfast after one of my recent doctor visits and from the window…

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saved together

My sermon is only a few days old, but it feels like a lifetime ago, thanks to my implant surgery. I finally felt up to doing some work today, so here you go. _______________________ One of the many joys of being in New Orleans last week was I had the chance to see our nephew’s children. (Well—we got to see the parents as well.) Ben and Jenny, his wife, have three kids: Gabriel, or Gabe; Galena,…