Christmas | Mockingbird

Christmas Itself Is By Grace: Frederick Buechner Riffs on the Incarnation

by Jeff Hual on Dec 6, 2011 • No Comments

Christmas is coming (ready or not!), and while Mockingbird can’t help trim your stockings or stuff your tree, we hope in all humility to be able to offer a little food for thought this season. In that vein, here’s a gospel bomb of a yuletide quote from Frederick Buechner:

Christmas itself is by grace. It could never have survived our own blindness and depredations otherwise. It could never have happened otherwise. Perhaps it is the very wildness and strangeness of the grace that has led us to try to tame it. We have tried to make it habitable. We have roofed it and…

Children / Church / Conferences / Gender

Conference Preview: Grace for Single Moms

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Mar 8, 2011 • 1 Comment

From Andrea Zimmerman, who, with her husband Aaron, will lead one of our breakout sessions on Friday morning at the upcoming 2011 Mockingbird Conference.

“Am I allowed to come to Christmas services at your church with my boys?”

An unwed mother with two small children asked me this question a few days before Christmas. Her church did not allow her to participate in services because she had children out of wedlock. Even though she had already visited our church twice, she couldn’t believe that we would actually allow her to participate, much less at a “special” service. She is not alone.…

Books / Sermons / Theology

William Porcher Dubose

by John Zahl on Feb 22, 2011 • 1 Comment

Last week we were fortunate enough to have a visit from (Mockingbird favorite) Fitz Allison, the retired twelfth Episcopal bishop of South Carolina. He was invited to speak to the book club at my church about William Porcher Dubose (1836-1918), a man whose writings in large part enabled Fitz to think through the matters he discussed in the fantastic book The Cruelty of Heresy. He quoted a letter written by Dubose to his first wife Annie toward the end of the Civil War (in which he fought and served as a chaplain):

“I have just commenced today our reading of the…

Addiction / Books / Christmas / Identity / Music / Psychology / Religion / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Galli on Resolutions, Anger at God, Last Words, Sex & Marriage, Geek Culture, Jonny

by David Zahl on Jan 7, 2011 • 2 Comments

1. The final word on the New Year from 2011 Mockingbird Conference speaker Mark Galli over at Christianity Today, in his column “Blessed Are the Poor in Virtue”:

At the risk of derailing someone’s hard fought New Year’s vows, let me suggest that some of us stop trying to become good Christians, or whatever noble thing we’re striving to be.

The more I strive to be a “good Christian”—more prayerful, patient, giving, sacrificial, whatever—the more I find myself anxious, irritated, guilty, resentful, and self-righteous. When I simply accept that I’m a sinner, really, I find that I pray more, am…

Christmas / Music

by David Zahl on Dec 30, 2010 • No Comments

Badly Drawn Boy covers “Do They Know It’s Christmas”

Christmas

That’s Christmas!

by Jeff Hual on Dec 28, 2010 • 1 Comment

With Christmas now upon us, something I posted last year that (for me at least) sets the right mood for the season:

That’s Christmas! from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

Christmas / Humor

The Twelve Thank You Notes of Christmas

by Stampdawg on Dec 27, 2010 • No Comments

An imaginary (and increasingly hostile) series of letters to someone’s True Love. Hoping it will inspire you in your thank you notes this season.

Bible / Christmas / Humor / Law / Literature / Poetry / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Sports / Week In Review

Another Christmas Arrives: DFW on Federer, Pinsky on Donne, Gervais on Atheism, The National Bible Bee, Backfiring (!) Smoking Bans, and Troubled Childhoods

by David Zahl on Dec 24, 2010 • No Comments

Just the links this time, for some holiday reading:

1. On Slate, if you have time for a mind-bender, The Philosophical Underpinnings of David Foster Wallace’s Fiction (hint: rhymes with Littgenstein). For some prime DFW himself, check out his renowned profile for the NY Times, “Roger Federer as Religious Experience.” For all of our posts on DFW, click here.

2. Also on Slate, in a column entitled “Nearer, my God, to Thee”, former poet laureate Robert Pinksy takes a look at man’s relationship to the divine via two Jeremiah 12-based sonnets, one from John Donne and one from Gerald…

Christmas / Poetry / Theology

Christmas Cheer, According to T.S. Eliot

by Todd Brewer on Dec 24, 2010 • No Comments

The following is from Eliot’s “The Cultivation of Christmas Trees.” While less popular than Eliot’s other Christmas poems, it is his last- and probably his most insightful. There are several attitudes towards Christmas,Some of which we may disregard:The social, the torpid, the patently commercial,The rowdy (the pubs being open till midnight),And the childish—which is not that of the childFor whom the candle is a star, and the gilded angelSpreading its wings at the summit of the treeIs not only a decoration, but an angel.The child wonders at the Christmas Tree:Let him continue in the spirit of wonderAt the Feast…

Christmas / Music

Stille Nacht Day 5: John Denver and the Muppets

by David Zahl on Dec 24, 2010 • No Comments

Christmas / Theology

Luther on the Nativity

by Stampdawg on Dec 24, 2010 • 1 Comment

From Martin Luther’s Christmas Book:

Let us, then, meditate upon the Nativity just as we see it happening in our own babies. I would not have you contemplate the deity of Christ, the majesty of Christ, but rather his flesh. Look upon the Baby Jesus. Divinity may terrify man. Inexpressible majesty will crush him. That is why Christ took on our humanity, save for sin, that he should not terrify us but rather that with love and favor he should console and confirm.

Behold Christ lying in the lap of his young mother, still a virgin. What can be sweeter than the…

Christmas / Humor / Music

(Not to be believed) Awesome Christmas Funk!

by John Zahl on Dec 24, 2010 • No Comments

“Who can say they don’t need help in any way? Who can show me someone who’s strong enough today?”
“We all need somebody to lead us… We need a brand new Christmas right away.“

Christmas / Poetry

"Christmas," a poem by John Betjeman

by JDK on Dec 23, 2010 • 2 Comments

The bells of waiting Advent ring,The Tortoise stove is lit againAnd lamp-oil light across the nightHas caught the streaks of winter rain.In many a stained-glass window sheenFrom Crimson Lake to Hooker’s Green.

The holly in the windy hedgeAnd round the Manor Housethe yew Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,The altar, font and arch and pew,So that villagers can say‘The Church looks nice’ on Christmas Day. Provincial public houses blazeAnd Corporation tramcars clang,On lighted tenements I gaze Where paper decorations hang,And bunting in the red Town Hall Says ‘Merry Christmas to you all’ And London shops on Christmas…

Christmas / Psychology / Science / Theology

‘Tis Better to Give Than to Receive…Or So They Say!

by Andrew Pearson on Dec 23, 2010 • No Comments

During this time of year I am always reminded that it is better to give then to receive. Not because it’s what we’re supposed to do, but because I feel good when I give and I have a hard time receiving. For years my family and friends have thought my giving/receiving theory was neurotic, but now science has proven me right.

A recent study from Harvard University found that when one gives a gift to another, the brain releases dopamine, (the same response your body has to eating a piece of chocolate cake or being intimate), eliciting a feeling of satisfaction…

Christmas / Music