On the Way to Wonder

“On the twelfth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:

12 drummers drumming,

11 pipers piping, 10 lords a leaping, 9 ladies dancing, 8 maids a milking, 7      Swans a Swimming, 6 Geese a Laying
5 Gold–en Rings
4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree”

12 drummers drumming represents 12 basic Christian truths found in the Apostle’s Creed.  A creed is a statement of faith, of what we believe and the principles that guide our life.  It is called “Apostle’s” because this is a statement that has been said by Christians from the time of the original followers of Christianity.  Perhaps the authors of this song included it last because it reviews the gifts that came before and has been the drum to which we have walked for two millennium. It is appropriate that we remember those principles we live by.  They are like the beating of our heart.  They are the truths that guide our lives as Christians.

1. God is not only our powerful Creator but is also our caring Father. He is True Love.
2. Jesus Christ is Lord.  He is the partridge, one of a kind.
3. Jesus miraculously became incarnate by the Holy Spirit through Mary.  The partridge sits in a pear tree, certainly Mary, but also representing his incarnation and becoming true man/true God.
4. Jesus suffered, was crucified by the Romans in the first century, and died.  4 calling birds. Details of Jesus’ life and ministry are found in the four Gospels that have called out the truth of the God/man’s character.
5. Jesus rose from the dead.  5 Golden Rings: the law was fulfilled in the death of Christ.  Death no longer must control us.
6. Jesus ascended into heaven and is exalted.  6 geese a laying – the whole creation is redeemed and life goes on.
7. Jesus will return in judgment.  7 swans swimming, the gifts of the Spirit that identifies the talents we are entrusted with.
8. The Holy Spirit is a person of the Holy Trinity. 8 geese a laying reminds us of creation and the Trinity hovering and continuing to bring forth life.
9. The church is universal.  9 ladies dancing – we live and dance with each other, celebrating the gifts of self and other.
10. There is a fellowship of Christians across all times and places.  10 Lords leaping are the commandments that apply to all people so that we can live in harmony.
11. Our sins are truly and really forgiven in Christ.  11 pipers piping are the faithful Apostles who carried the story that we are truly forgiven and Christ changes lives.
12. Our bodies will be resurrected.  Heaven is real.  12 drummers drumming – let us keep the message going – resurrection now and for eternity is real.

This is one of my favorite renditions of the Creed.  Listen and be blessed.

It is also sung beautifully by Maranatha singers:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdU4Kbn3B3M.

Monday we will start a new series.  Blessings as we enter Epiphany season!

“On the eleventh day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:

11 pipers piping,

10 lords a leaping, 9 ladies dancing, 8 maids a milking, 7 Swans a Swimming, 6 Geese a Laying
5 Gold–en Rings
4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree”

Eleven pipers piping represent the eleven faithful apostles.  Of all the people who followed Jesus, and there were many, twelve formed the “cabinet” and became known as the Apostles.  Disciples were followers of Jesus but Apostle were his closest followers and of those even one betrayed him, Judas Iscariot.  Hence, eleven pipers piping.  Why does this song call us to remember these eleven of all the people who have lived faithful lives?

         Perhaps it reminds us that faithfulness often does not occur in the arena of popularity.  The Apostles changed the entire world through their faithfulness and leadership.  Rome ruled the world, not recognizing Judaism, nor feeling the need to honor the humanity of those who did.  Crucifixion was not unique to Jesus and was a cruel death to all who opposed Rome.  Women could be divorced for burning the dinner, not pleasing her husband, or not being faithful before marriage.  Women had no protection, no planned parenthood.  There was no social security or retirement plans.  There was no such thing as insurance or hospitals!  Public education available with food plans for the poor – not yet realized. 

         The eleven apostles represent the impact and cost of faithfulness.  All but John died a martyr’s death but they changed a world not so different than ours.  My thoughts wander to individual who have changed worlds and who have inspired me.  Sr. Elizabeth Fedde, a Norwegian Deaconess, came to the USA to help Norwegian sailors, sick in the slums.  She started Sunday schools, hospitals, and the modern ambulance idea when she purchased horses being discarded for trains and painted a wagon white and collected the sick.  Henrietta   Mears led Sunday school at Hollywood Presbyterian church where I later worked on a suicide call line and she led the 450 Sunday school program to be 4,200 children per week – in two years.  Who did she impact?  Bill Bright was one of her students and went on to lead Campus Crusade and write the Four Spiritual Laws that have helped define Evangelicalism.  Billy Graham was impacted by her.

         In the face of demonstrations and mobs this last year it is easy to feel small and helpless.  Eleven Pipers Piping in the Christmas song reminds us that eleven faithful people can change a cruel and unjust world by doing that which True Love guides us to do.  Our faithfulness in many small ways is important and changes lives. 

         So my prayer today as we face our future is that we will faithfully play our small pipe in the small, perhaps only eleven, group we find ourselves in, playing a tune that glorifies God, True Love, and speaks of his tune to the world that struggles.  Blessings as you play your pipe today!

“On the tenth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:

10 lords a leaping,

9 ladies dancing, 8 maids a milking, 7 Swans a Swimming, 6 Geese a Laying
5 Gold–en Rings
4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree”

After the events at the USA capitol yesterday, it is hard to write about ten leaping lords that represent the Ten Commandments given on Mt. Sinai to Moses to guide and govern people’s lives.  When we think about “law” our minds float to the “big ten,” but in-fact Luther talks of three types of law: “moral law” written on people’s hearts and applicable to all people, “ceremonial law” that governs our religious belief practices like whether or not to eat pork, and  “political law” that regulates and protects how people live together in society.  These three types of law do not always co-exist together in harmony as we saw yesterday and see worked out today.  People with strong feelings about moral infractions confront people with strong feelings about political procedure and those of us watching TV wring our hands and cry to God for mercy for our country and its government and the people working this out.  Lord, have mercy!  Christ, have mercy!  Lord, have mercy!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6teNwbdhTt4.

         We sum up the role of law in our lives with Jesus’ interaction with the young lawyer who asked what was the greatest law.  Jesus asked the young man what he thought.  The response, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”  For many, that boils down to a mandate to “love.”   But, sigh, we know the saying, “love is blind!”  We tend to define what love looks like through our self-centered interests.  Love is not something that is written in words but is lived out in actions.  We see the riots in the name of justice, a form of love of neighbor, and wonder.  We don’t feel like we are leaping but crawling.

         So how do laws help us leap?  “Leap for joy?”  Leap over the river?  Leap Year to make the calendar synch with nature?  Laws set boundaries for our behavior and our hearts so that we know when we are in danger of hurting ourselves or hurting others. 

         -Yes, I am having a rough day with my spouse because of so much misinformation and misunderstanding but “law” calls me to stop and think before I “walk away” from commitment.  God does not stop loving me and making the sun shine but people get hurt and a big price is paid.

         -Yes, the other has deeply hurt me and “law” reminds me that I have choices, to seek revenge in my strength or to forgive.  “Law” helps me clarify if I’m dealing with sin or selfishness and can offer alternatives.

         -Yes, I’m tired and would love a little more sleep but “law” reminds me and helps me focus on doing things that feed my soul, like remembering to take a Sabbath from work and focus on the God who holds my life.

         Right now is a hard time to leap for joy as we try to sort out the types of law that are arguing without and within.   Today we are more likely to leap to prayer for our country and our leaders. As we struggle with how to frame the events in our lives, may we never forget that True Love, God, gave us “laws” that we might leap to him and over that which defeats us.  Blessings.    

“On the ninth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:

9 ladies dancing,

8 maids a milking, 7 Swans a Swimming, 6 Geese a Laying
5 Gold–en Rings
4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree”

Nine ladies dancing remind us of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22): love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Paul is writing a letter to the people living in Galatia to warn them about the struggle between feelings that draw us away from God, sin, and feelings that draw us into True Love’s presence where there is no law but blessing. 

         Today is Epiphany when we celebrate the arrival of the wise men to see the Christ child, the babe of Bethlehem.  Their arrival is a “hands-on” example of the fruits of the Spirit.  These “men” came from somewhere East of Jerusalem so had to exert themselves to make the journey-showing patience.  They brought gifts-demonstrating love and joy.  They left by a different route, trying to avoid conflict and trouble by not reporting to Herod of the babe’s location.  The “slaughter of the innocents,” all the children under age two and the resulting flight of Joseph, Mary, and the babe to Egypt to live as refugees stand in stark contrast to the deeds of the wise men. 

         The desire of True Love’s heart is to bless and because we do not see with physical eyes his presence, we have glimpses of his activity when we see these Spiritual gifts being lived out.  Likewise we pray for these character qualities to define our lives, integrating our faith with our actions.  We seek to bless others as we seek to be obedient to the Holy Spirit within.  We identify the godly by the presence of the “nine ladies dancing.”

         Dancing implies activity and perhaps the author of the song wanted people to remember that our faith life is something that must be active and not just sit in a certificate in a dusty Bible or rest in our memories as a spiritual experience of ecstasy.  We can dance alone but as the wise men travel together, we dance and live the gifts in community.

         It’s hard to remember all nine gifts and often we just list the first three, love, joy and peace.  Take a few minutes to look at the whole list and ponder the qualities you might pray for True Love to demonstrate through you in 2021.  Self-control can certainly apply to dieting but it might also apply to control of my tongue in the presence of that person that gets to me.  May the partridge dance nine-fold in our life journey this year as we face challenges.  May we, like the wise men, be willing to bless the stranger, that we find in not-so-obvious, hidden away places like a manger in an unnoticed stable.  May we live out the blessing!  May the nine ladies dance in our lives!

“On the seventh day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
7 Swans a Swimming
6 Geese a Laying
5 Golden Rings
4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree”

Do you remember Simon and Garfunkel singing the famous song, Bridge Over Troubled Waters?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrcwRt6J32o We warbled, “If you need a friend, I’m sailing right behind!”  Jesus, the partridge in the pear tree, is the ultimate gift to us but we also live in community, swimming around in the seas of life.  What helps keep us a float? 

         The symbolism of the swans varies slightly in the sources I read.   Gifts of the Holy Spirit from Romans 12:6-8 are listed as “prophesy, service, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership & mercy.”  The Catholics draw from Isaiah 11:2,3:  “Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear (or, Respect) of the Lord.”  They also list the seven means of grace, Sacraments, administered by the Catholic Church: “Baptism, Communion, Confession, Confirmation, Marriage, Anointing of the Sick and Holy Orders.”  As the song is old, written in a time when Catholicism was the main expression of Christian faith, sacraments or gifts that help faith function seem a likely explanation.  Both lists are outward expressions of an inward experience of grace – God’s (True Love’s) riches at Christ’s (the Partridge’s) expense.  We swim more gracefully like a swan when we work in unison, regularly caring for our soul.  God’s grace experienced in sacraments and gifts for the church is “the bridge over troubled waters”.

         Swans are a wonderful image because swans mate for life from an early age, sometimes before maturity.  True Love is not a fickled giver only extending help when we behave, as he wants.  The sun rises daily and grace comes to us daily in many unappreciated forms.  We need grace for 2021 as the waters of life look like huge waves for some of us.  We need people and rituals that remind us of God’s presence and power with us as we swim in our part of the ocean.

         Interestingly swans, male and female, build their nest together, each helping the other, take turns sitting on the eggs, and are known to be highly protective of their young.  Grace is not some mist floating in the air that we breath in but often is seen in our partnership with others – the bridge that helps us pass.  Community counts.  As a friend forgives, extends the hand of friendship, remembers days when I might be struggling, passes the communion cup and so many ways, acts out the grace True Love desires for us to have, we swim a bit more gracefully, our hearts bow in gratitude.  Today we will have an opportunity to extend grace to another.  Let us pray our eyes stay open to give and to receive true love.  Blessings.

“On the sixth day of Christmas,

my true love gave to me six geese a laying,

five golden rings,

four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves

 AND a partridge in a pear tree.”

“Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”  we ask children.  The question is a way of pondering together the real cause of something.  “True Love” in our song “gives” six geese laying eggs, creating life.  Christians would claim that life and the universe started with the six days of creation.  I have yet to see any of the other theories create from nothing so I accept this theory by faith.  Was it six days – not worth arguing.   What I do see in the creation story, in the six geese laying, is a pattern.  True love, like with the gifted egg, makes a form, the shell, and then fills it with on-going life.

         On the first day, God created light, separated it from darkness and called it Day and Night.  It was good.

         On the second day, God created water and separated the water of the earth from the water of the sky.  It was good.

         On the third day, God separated the water of the earth from the ground and there was land and sea with plants growing on the land.  It was good.

         On the fourth day, God filled the heavens of day-one with sun and moon and stars.  On the fifth day, God filled the waters with swimming creatures and the sky with flying creatures.  Then on the sixth day the earth was filled with animals and humans.  God created and God filled his creation with life giving elements that carry on life.  It was good.

         As we enter 2021 we will be creating and filling.  Hopefully we will be creating vaccines that slow the virus and create ways for ordinary people to be protected – all over the world.  Hopefully our politicians will create peace and protect the vulnerable.  Hopefully we will create experiences of love and forgiveness and promote life rather than destroy it.  “Hopefully” or “prayerfully?”  As you enter 2021, what would you like to create and see growing in the forms of your life?  That is a slightly different than resolving to loose weight.  Make some resolutions about blessing others!

“On the fifth day of Christmas,

my true love gave to me five golden rings,

four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves

 AND a partridge in a pear tree.”

When I think of five rings, I think of the huge Olympic circles intertwined over the Olympic games where the best athletes from nations all over the world have gathered.  It is the peak of training, of teamwork, of individual effort, and of cooperation amongst countries.  Politics are perhaps behind the scene but even though there is political unrest between and within countries the games focus on a bigger dream.  There are rules to the games and we frown when drugs are taken or corners cut.  We broadcast the games worldwide. 

         “My true love” gives me five golden rings on the fifth day and we hold on to those notes of the song a tad longer, giving emphasis.  Christians think of the first five books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah, as those five golden rings.  The first five books in the Old Testament, are set in the historical context of the birth of the Jews as a nation, and cast a story that goes from a creation in tune with the creator, true love to the struggles we face today.   People sin and “fall” from that bliss to death, pain, and conflict.  That is true for all of us.  The flood, the choice of Abraham, the slavery in Egypt, the deliverance by Moses, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the arrival to the Promised Land is a cycle seen in many arenas of life.  This epic story can be debated but the themes are universal and true to all nations, all ethnicities, and all geographical locations.  Like the Olympics, the Torah, the five golden rings speak about all our lives.

         Rings are round and speak of life, eternal life.  Rings encircle a center and exclude that outside the circle, even as boundaries and parameters are set on acceptable behavior.  The five rings of the Olympics connect as our lives are connected and we are bound together in our common humanity.  True love says “the other” and we are gold, are valuable, and are worth the struggle, the training, and the journey.

         Today we start the year 2021.  As Kenyans say at the beginning of church services, “Many wanted to live to see today and have not, so let us rejoice and worship…” true love who gave us five golden rings.

• The Torah tells of “beginnings” so as we begin 2021, let us take a moment to reflect on one or two high points of 2020 for which we are grateful and will help us begin 2021.
• Rings are circles and tell of eternal values, habits, and friendships.  Can you name a couple that are important to you?
• Rings define acceptable and unacceptable.  What will be “in” and what will be “out” this year.  Setting boundaries is healthy and helps life unfold more peacefully.  Are there boundaries that need better definition for 2021?

May we pray as we enter the arena of life carrying our personal and family and country flags that we will train to do our best, play fairly, and give glory to the “true love” who walks with us, gifting us and protecting us.  Blessings in 2021.