Day 33 - Thursday, January 4
Title: Walk in Love
Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-21
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.  Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.  Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.  Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Poetry:
Disgraceland
By Mary Karr

Before my first communion, I clung to doubt
as Satan spider-like stalked
the orb of dark surrounding Eden
for a wormhole into paradise.
God had formed me from gel in my mother’s womb,
injected by my dad’s smart shoot.
They swapped sighs until
I came, smaller than a bite of burger.
Quietly, I grew till my lungs were done
then the Lord sailed a soul
like a lit arrow to inhabit me.
Maybe that piercing
made me howl at birth,
or the masked creatures whose scalpel
cut a lightning bolt to free me.
I was hoisted by the heels and swatted, fed
and hauled around. Time-lapse photos show
my fingers grow past crayon outlines,
my feet come to fill spike heels.
Eventually, I lurched out
to kiss the wrong mouths, get stewed,
and sulk around. Christ always stood
to one side with a glass of water.
I swatted the sap away.
When my thirst got great enough to ask,
a clear stream welled up inside,
some jade wave buoyed me forward,
and I found myself upright
in the instant, with a garden
inside my own ribs aflourish.
There, the arbor leafs.
The vines push out plump grapes.
You are loved, someone said. Take that
and eat it.

WALK IN THE LIGHT

Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol, continues to inspire and challenge readers 175 years after it was originally published. It is a powerful morality tale contrasting good and evil.

In the first few pages of the novel, Scrooge’s nephew Fred invites his uncle to “make merry” with his family on Christmas day. Scrooge responds with, “What's Christmas but a time for finding yourself a year older and not a day richer? There's nothing merry in that. If I could work my will, nephew, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.”

Our scripture passage today is one of striking contrast. It describes foolish and disobedient individuals who live in darkness on one hand as opposed to those who walk in the light and are filled with the Holy Spirit on the other. It paints a vivid picture of Christians who immerse themselves in the true meaning and celebration of Christmas (or any day for that matter) in distinction to those who emphasize Xmas by debauched partying. While Dickens’ character Scrooge was consumed with the love of money, Ephesians 5 emphasizes those who are controlled by sexual lust.

In the past few months the news has been filled with reports of powerful men in government and the entertainment industry who have been accused of disturbing sexual harassment allegations. New York Times columnist David Brooks describes harassment as “a wicked mixture of sex and power. Harassers posses what psychologists call hostile masculinity. They apparently get pleasure from punishing the women that arouse them.” These obsessed predators take advantage of unassuming women who describe their encounters as “the most degrading and humiliating experiences of their lives.” Drugs and alcohol often figure into an equation that ends in disaster for the victims. Many men who are not predators have nevertheless experienced overwhelming sexual fantasies that momentarily grip their minds and derail their equilibrium. To a certain extent then, it is not terribly difficult to identify with these depraved individuals who have allowed their passions to run amok.  

“But fornication and all impurity and covetousness must not even be named among you.”  A few years ago I received a call from a church friend whose beautiful wife had recently left him. With outrage he yelled into the phone, “I can’t live without a woman!” When he made the same comment to our pastor, our clergyman suggested that my friend immediately drop everything and spend at least one year building houses for the poor in Mexico. When Dickens describes Scrooge as a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner,” we see ourselves. The thing that all predators and sinners have in common is that they are continually, intrusively preoccupied with themselves and with gratifying their passions. They cannot truly focus on or be genuinely concerned for others. Not so for those “children of light” who treat others with dignity and love.

What does it mean for these “children of light” to “make merry?” When the cross (Peter Smith, Across the Station) floods our pathway, Christians selflessly respond to the needs of others as Scrooge eventually did with “joy that is immense and good” (Ubi Caritas). Ebenezer’s extravagant generosity to those less fortunate knew no bounds. After all, what could be more

satisfying than to minister and to serve? Yet further still, Scrooge was giddy with thanksgiving for having been given a second chance to amend his selfish ways. Christmastide is the perfect time to exhibit thankfulness. Gathering family and friends together to sing psalms, hymns and carols in praise of the incarnation and the redemptive work of Christ, is merrymaking at its best. If our eyes are fixed on Christ instead of our own physical desires, we will endeavor to learn what is most pleasing to Him.

A week prior to her wedding, Sarah Cummins and her fiance decided to break up. Unable to cancel a $30,000 reception for 170 at the Ritz Charles in Carmel, Indiana, Sarah contacted homeless shelters and suddenly a new guest list was created. Word spread quickly and local businesses provided proper attire for the destitute invitees. Cummins warmly welcomed her guests to a lavish party on the day she should have been married. “Go out into the highways and byways, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” Cummins could have spent the day feeling sorry for herself, but instead she chose to focus on those with greater needs than her own. Christmastide is almost over, but the new year is just beginning. How will you be a blessing to those the Lord puts in your way in 2018? At the end of A Christmas Carol Scrooge vows, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and will try to keep it all the year.”

Prayer:
Gracious Lord,
Strengthen our weak wills and infirm intentions so that we may cease to be cast about by worldly thoughts and lusts of the flesh, or like thoughtless children be drawn by the perishing glamor of the world, lest by corruptible and earthly things we foolishly forget the eternal and the heavenly. We ask You for the spirit of true repentance and contrition for our sins, so that we may spend the remaining days of this passing life, not in pleasing ourselves and serving our passions, but rather in effacing the evils we have committed and in doing good. As we approach the liberation of this body of clay, may we attain the glorious habitation of Paradise, where there is neither sadness or sighing, but life without end. May we be granted to see Thy light-filled face, and falling with tears at Thy feet, cry out in joy and gladness: Glory to Thee, our most dear Redeemer, Who for Thy great love toward us unworthy ones has seen fit to come into the world for our salvation.
Amen.
(Adapted from the Full Collection of Prayers, 1914)

Barry Krammes
Department of Art