Christmas | Mockingbird

Posts tagged "Christmas"

Another Week Ends: Heresy vs. Apathy, Cartoon Boba Fett, Grown-Up Three-Year-Olds, Krampus, Winning the Lottery, More Deep Blue Sea, and Seeing God

by WB on Dec 14, 2012 • No Comments

1. Another fascinating piece by Tanya Luhrmann over at the New York Times argues that “Hark, the Herald Angels Didn’t Sing.” Amidst sobering reminders from strict biblical constructionists that many Christmas details are imagined or embellished, Luhrmann advocates a middle road for how to engage the Bible with imagination, ht SZ:

I am no theologian and I do not think that social science can weigh in on the question of who God is or whether God is real. But I think that anthropology offers some insight into why imaginatively enriching a text taken as literally true helps some Christians to hang on…

Christmas / Poetry

To Christ Our Lord – Galway Kinnell

by WB on Dec 12, 2012 • 1 Comment

The legs of the elk punctured the snow’s crust
And wolves floated lightfooted on the land
Hunting Christmas elk living and frozen;
Inside snow melted in a basin, and a woman basted
A bird spread over coals by its wings and head.

Snow had sealed the windows; candles lit
The Christmas meal. The Christmas grace chilled
The cooked bird, being long-winded and the room cold.
During the words a boy thought, is it fitting
To eat this creature killed on the wing?

He had killed it himself, climbing out
Alone on snowshoes in the Christmas dawn,
The fallen snow swirling and the snowfall gone,
Heard its throat scream as the gunshot scattered,
Watched it…

Music / Playlist

December Playlist: Happy Birthday Baby Jesus 2012

by James Fishwick on Dec 4, 2012 • 11 Comments

‘Tis (almost) the season, Mbirders,

Dave has asked me to put up my annual Xmas mix again this year for your easy listening pleasure.

Per usual, it showcases this years’ particular pop obsessions (Roxy Music, the Bee Gees, the Manics [although I left out the Dead!]), outre cover versions (Cee Lo, J Tull, Jon Anderson), and selections from my Christmas vault that I propose for canonization (Ed Gerhard, John Prine, Byron Lee). Now – I submit to you this question: what makes the Glam and Power Pop sub-genres the ground most fertile for holiday originals.? Taste and see!

Giddie Up - The Dumbells (aka Roxy Music)

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Three Ships - Jon Anderson
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Please Come Home For Christmas - The Insight (featuring Johnny & Edgar Winter)

Christmas Time In Motor City - Was (Not Was)

Let’s Get It Together This Christmas - Harvey Averne Band

Winter Wonderland - Byron Lee & The Dragonaires

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Mele Kalikimaka - Arthur Lyman
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Merry Christmas Baby - Dr. John
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Hey Santa Claus - The Moonglows
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The Wildest Christmas - The Boys Next Door

Deck The Halls - Metal Mike, Alison & Julia

Merry Christmas Will Do - Material Issue

Please Leave Me Home For Christmas - Imperial Drag

Ghost of Christmas - Manic Street Preachers

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Christmas, Bring Us - The Grip Weeds
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Christmas Was Better In The 80s - The Futureheads

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White Christmas - The Wedding Present
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Christmas Spirit - The Wailers
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Christmas in Prison (Live) - John Prine
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Christmas '83 - Centro-matic
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Silver Bells - Arlo Guthrie & Ed Gerhard

God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman - Jethro Tull

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Christmas Must Be Tonight - The Band
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Children Go Where I Send Thee - Odetta
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River - Cee Lo Green
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Thank You for Christmas - Bee Gees
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If you’d like to hear more selections, please check out my treasure trove of Christmas goodness on A Rather Lovely Thing, the Fishwick family blog. Adeste Fideles!

Christmas / Religion / Theology

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.“