Bits and Pieces

Great Bend First United Methodist Church

The light comes through the glass and makes the scene glow.

Nativity set at Stafford UMC made by Dorothy Newell

It's Advent. At our church, we pull out the perfectly-white porcelain Nativity scene and light the candles.

Nativity set at Trinity UMC, Great Bend, KS

In another church, the glow of stained glass catches the light of gold threads running through the elaborate clothing that garbs Mary, Joseph and the angel.

Holy Cross Catholic Church, Hutchinson

In sanctuaries across the world, the winter light streams through stained glass windows, showing an idyllic, pristine scene. Mary glows. Joseph beams. Baby Jesus is bathed in the star's light.

But then I remember: Mary was likely 13 years old (or so). Maybe she wasn't so different from the girls in middle school choir, the ones I witness from the piano bench. Yes, the same ones who are are nice as pie one day and then moody and withdrawn the next. (Who am I kidding? You don't have to be 13 to be like that.)

Mary was a young, unwed mother. She was likely the talk of the town ... and not in a good way. She had just had her first baby, not in a well-appointed delivery room - but in a stable filled with smelly animals. She laid him in a manger filled with straw, not a crib with sheets that match a nursery theme. It wasn't all that pretty.

Jesus was born to a family that possessed little and worked hard to make ends meet.

How can we, in the midst of our culture's conspicuous consumption and demand for perfection, turn our focus on the Child who was born into poverty as a sign of hope and salvation for a broken world? While it may seem the world demands perfection, the Gospel message demands nothing from us. Rather, God invites us to gather around the manger just as we are: unfinished lists, burnt pies and all. No matter our imperfections, great or small, God invites us to peek into the manger and gaze at the real Christmas message: That Christ came for us all to be a beacon of hope for the hopeless and to bring peace. 

Rev. Amy Slater

Stafford UMC Newsletter, December 2012

If you look closely at those stained glass windows, it's not a solid piece of glass. It's made of bits and pieces, carefully fit together by master craftsmen, by true visionaries. 

Scott City UMC

We have our own Master Craftsman. He takes the broken bits and pieces of our very human lives and makes sense of them. He can take our disappointments and failures and can craft them into something new and beautiful.

So, when the list seems overwhelming ... and the oven timer dings at the same time the dryer bell sounds ... the packages don't have bows ... and there's too much to do in too little time:  Remember it's not about perfection. It's about grace. And, it's about listening for God's voice in our lives and obeying, like Mary and Joseph did so long ago.

Merry Christmas from our Kansas farm to you and your family!

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Gifts don't have to cost a lot of money to be meaningful. I enjoy giving gifts from the kitchen to family, friends, the mailman, the choir director ... the list goes on!

Snack mixes take bits and pieces of ingredients and make a tasty treat. They can be something that your gift recipient can use for unexpected guests or at their own family gatherings. Here are a few tried-and-true recipes that we enjoy at our house and I've also given as gifts. Click on the links for the recipes and ENJOY!

Immeasurable Snack Mix

Banana Cinnamon Snack Mix

Chocolate Coffee Toffee Snack Mix

Pumpkin Pie Crunch Mix

Ordinary Baby

A stained glass window at Lindsborg's Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church

Light filters through the jewel-toned glass, casting colorful shadows on the walls, floors and pew cushions. Light makes the scene come to life, as the angel hovers over the shepherds and tells them the Good News: 

⁸ Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

 Luke 2: 8-14

I have heard those words every Christmas season for my entire life. I've been in many churches where the scene with angels and shepherds is beautifully depicted in stained glass. Each year, we add the delicate porcelain shepherds to the Nativity set, along with the pristine cows, sheep and donkey.

But this year, I've thought about the story in a slightly different way. Last month, Lovely Branches Ministries completed a Bible study called A Savior Is Born, which used video messages from Pete Briscoe.

In Bible times, he reminds us, the shepherds weren't society's elite. In today's society, Briscoe says, the shepherds would have more in common with homeless people than with CEOs. God chose shepherds - not the chief priests or elders - to hear the Good News first. 

The shepherds were dirty and smelly. It was the nature of their job. They didn't get to go home for a hot shower and meal every night. They were out among their sheep, keeping them safe from predators and rounding up ones who strayed away from the group. They sweated and got dirty as they walked miles and miles to find the best places for fresh water and green pastures for their sheep.

Just as the Bible study ended, my husband told me that a neighbor had baby lambs at his farm. So we drove over to look for a look and found our neighbor in the corral, wearing overalls and working the baby lambs. His boots were caked with manure. His hands were dirty, and his brow was sweaty on the unseasonably warm fall day.  And, I again thought about the shepherds.

As I stood on the outside of the fence and looked at the babies and the ewes, it was easy for me to think that this modern-day shepherd was rewarded with the cuteness quotient of his job. Of course, unlike the shepherds of ancient days, he is able to go into his house at the end of the day and clean up with a hot shower. But, while he was outside caring for those baby lambs and their mothers, it was more manure and straw than stained glass and light. 

In the evenings, he rounds up the littlest lambs and their mothers and puts them in the barn to protect them from the coyotes that would like a midnight snack. He doesn't have to lay at the gate to the pasture to protect his flock, like the shepherds of Bible times. But he does have to do his best to keep his flock safe. It means being home and being available at dusk to shepherd those most vulnerable creatures to the safety of the barn.

One of my favorite Christmas solos is called Ordinary Baby. Just some of the words are:

He was just an ordinary baby
That's the way He planned it, maybe.
Anything but common would have kept Him apart
From the children that He came to rescue
Limited to some elite few
When He was the only Child who asked to be born

And He came to us with arms wide open
Knowing how we're hurt and broken
Choosing to partake of all our joy and pain

He was just an ordinary baby
That's the way He planned it, maybe.
So that we could come to Him and not be afraid ...

He came to those dirty, smelly shepherds so long ago. He comes to imperfect and very human me. And even though my life and your life may not always be bright and shiny like stained glass, He promises to be our Good Shepherd, too. (John 10: 1-18)

Salem United Methodist Church, Newton, KS

May the true message of Christmas shine through all the busyness and the to-do lists, and may you find the Good Shepherd at the very center of your heart this holiday season. Merry Christmas from our Kansas farm to you! (Be sure and scroll to the bottom of this post for a link to some tried-and-true Christmas cookies!)

Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church, Lindsborg

Here's one rendition of Ordinary Baby. Enjoy!

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A few years ago, one of my friends hosted a holiday cookie exchange. It might be time to brush off that idea. Depending on how many friends or family members you invite, you can end up with a variety of cookies - without spending days upon end in the kitchen.

So please click here for a blast-from-the-past post from Lovely Branches and see how you, too, can host a cookie exchange.  There are links to lots of other cookie recipes, too. Happy Baking!

Shine Through Me

Stafford (KS) First United Methodist Church

Our church sanctuary has a stained glass ceiling. If you walk into the dark sanctuary, you might notice it. But it's not until the lights are on that you truly see the beauty.

I think we're like that, too. I used to sing a song called "Shine Through Me." (It's old enough that I couldn't find it on youtube, so I could share it with you.) But it says, in part:

It's not enough to know it
We've got to somehow show it
Or love is like a candle in a tomb
Whose fainting heart will soon be gone
Without new breath to urge it on.
To be the ray of peace in place of gloom.

Shine through me, shine through me.
Lord, make my life
A stream of light
For everyone to see
A glowing, reaching, loving light
It's what I need to be
So take control, ignite my soul
Shine through me.

Great Bend (KS) First United Methodist Church

This Christmas season, we again celebrate the arrival of the Light of the World.

Jesus said:

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

John 8: 12

Scott City United Methodist Church

How best do we celebrate the arrival of that Light into the world?

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5: 14-16

St. Teresa's Catholic Church, Hutchinson, KS

Sometimes the light wakes us up. It might even scare us. Think about those shepherds in the field, "keeping watch over their flocks by night." There they were, minding their own business, and a bright light and a multitude of angels show up. This was no ordinary moonlit night, and they were terrified.

Messiah Lutheran Church, Lindsborg, KS

But they overcame their fear, and they went to the manger. Then they spread the word.

So what's the Light of the World calling you to do? Just like the stained glass windows, we become what we are meant to become only when the Light shines through us.

In the midst of this hectic holiday season, when the to-do list is larger than the time to accomplish it, remember to SHINE. That's the best way to spread the good news that the Light has come to the world.

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Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Need a way for your cookie trays to shine this holiday season? Try Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Bars. Click here for the recipe.

Check out my last year's Vine Press December post about how to host a cookie exchange. There are lots more recipes for your holiday baking needs.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!