Advent Expectation

I am done with Christmas parties now and tonight I will pack for my journey home for Christmas, it reminds me a bit of the journey Mary and Joseph made to Bethlehem except that I will travel in heated comfort at a rapid 70 miles an hour, I have a guaranteed place to sleep when I arrive, and I will know people there and feel comfortable. However I will be expecting…. I will be expecting the arrival of our Lord. Not in the same way as Mary was expecting but I will be expecting in my heart. Expecting Jesus to come, to arrive. Expectations can be both good and bad – sometimes we have expectations and are disappointed, however this time I am confident in my expectation that Jesus will arrive.

I have recently gotten hooked on a new song. The words speak to me, maybe it is because I am a woman, and perhaps it is a bit of a catholic thought that I have picked up. It is at this time of the year, more than any other, that we think about Mary, about this young girl, some say that she would have only been 14-16 years old, who carried the future of our faith in her womb. What a blessed woman, she said yes to God, she suffered through the pains of labor in a barn, a barn mind you, to bring forth our Lord. May we all be like Mother Mary and say yes to God.

"Christmas Lullaby" by Jason Robert Brown.
I'll never have the power to control the land
Or conquer half the world
Or claim the sun
I'll never be the kind who simply waves her hand
And has a million people do
The things I wish I'd done
But in the eyes of heaven

My place is assured
I carry with me heaven's grand design
Glory, Oh,
Glory I will sing the name of the Lord
And He will make me shine
And I will be like Mother Mary
With a blessing in my soul
And I will give the world my eyes
So they can see

And I will be like Mother Mary
With a blessing in my soul
And the future of the world inside of me
In the eyes of heaven
My place is assured
I carry with me heaven's grand design
Glory, Oh,
Glory I will sing the name of the Lord
And He will make me shine

And I will be like Mother Mary
With a blessing in my soul
And I will give the world my eyes
So they can see
And I will be like Mother Mary
With a blessing in my soul
And the future of the world inside of me

And I will be like Mother Mary
With the power in my veins
To believe in all the things
I've yet to be
And I will be like Mother Mary
And I'll suffer any pains
For the future of the world
For the future of the world
Inside of me

Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis

I recently found this quote from Shane Claiborne's book The Irresistible Revolution, about their Simple Way community:

"Most Christian congregations and communities have statements of faith articulating their orthodoxy (meaning "right belief"), but that's usually where it ends. For us, belief is only the beginning. What really matters is how we live, how what we believe gets fleshed out, so we also have a statement of orthopraxis (meaning "right living, right practices"). And this is where most belief-oriented faith communities fall short. They tell us only what they believe, but they do not tell us how their beliefs affect their lifestyles."

It seems that I frequently get into conversations about orthodoxy and orthopraxis and what it means for us in a post-modern and, as some would say, post-christian world. I have no answers and I also have questions; however, I do think that since the last generation focused such a great deal of time and energy into the orthodoxy that it would behoove us to spend some considerable time thinking about what it might mean for us to "practice what we preach."