First Sunday of Christmas

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Praise God!

Praise God from the heavens;
   praise God in the heights!

Praise God,
   all you angels of God;
praise God, 
   all you host of heaven!

Praise God, 
   you sun and moon;
praise God, 
   all you shining stars!

Praise God, 
   you highest heavens,
and you waters 
   above the heavens!

Let them praise 
   the name of God,
for God commanded 
   and they were created.

God established them 
   forever and ever;
God fixed their bounds, 
   which cannot be passed.

Praise God from the earth, 
   you sea monsters and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and frost, 
   stormy wind fulfilling God's command!

Mountains and all hills,
    fruit trees and all cedars!
Beasts of the forest and all cattle,
    crawling things and flying birds!

Rulers of the earth and all peoples,
    nobles and all leaders of the earth!

Young men and women alike,
    old and young together!

Let them praise the name 
    of the Sovereign,
whose name alone is exalted;
    whose glory is above earth and heaven.

God has raised up a horn 
    for the people,
and praise for all the faithful,
    for the people of Israel 
who are close to God.
    Praise be to God!

Psalm 148

Heaven Holds a Sense of Wonder

WIJK, Famke van

2011

Spuilein opposite the Nieuwe Kerk

Den Haag

Netherlands

"The sculpture 'Heaven holds a sense of wonder' by Famke van Wijk depicts a group of angels gathering in prayer around a halo (inspired by Bernini) and trying to get into contact with the heavens. The sculpture has been installed in the empty space of the Spuiplein opposite the Nieuwe Kerk.” [text from http://www.stroom.nl ] Photograph by Roel Wijnants.

“For Famke van Wijk (1969) her religious beliefs are a great source of inspiration.  The rays of light in her sculpture symbolize the light of Christ.  The crown around it consists of people who are awaiting His second coming’ they are filled with love, glory and worship.  How different is the crown of thorns Van Wijk engraved on the pedestal.  The crown Christ bore for His crucifixion, was the answer to His act of love.  You can see Him through the rays of light.” [text from http://www.stroom.nl/nl/kor/project.php?pr_id=7418298 ]

http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/diglib-fulldisplay.pl?SID=2016123086914062&code=ACT&RC=55825&Row=5

Heaven Holds a Sense of Wonder (Detail)

Whatever you do or dream you can do — begin it.

Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Suppose we were able to share meanings freely 

without a compulsive urge to impose our view or conform to those of others

 and without distortion and self-deception.

Would this not constitute a real revolution in culture.

~ David Bohm

Somewhere,

something incredible

is waiting to be known.

~ Blaise Pascal

Jeanne Gibbard and I had a lo-o-o-o-ong lunch at Keys on the Green!

Paintings by Tom Newsom

Scrooge gets visited by Marley’s ghost

by Tom Newsom

(Tom is in the Wednesday Breakfast Group)

Santa Card 

by Tom Newsom 

Tom did this for the Ford Motor Company for their centennial year.

An amazing artist!

His wife and both sons are also artists.

Reina Sakamoto welcomed her sister, Junna, at the airport in Nepal for a visit.

(Niece Robin’s daughters)

IT IS NOT OVER

It is not over,

   this birthing.

There are always newer skies

   into which

                  God can throw stars.

When we begin to think

   that we can predict the Advent of God,

   that we can box the Christ

                 in a stable in Bethlehem,

   that’s just the time

                  that God will be born

   in a place we can’t imagine and won’t believe.

Those who wait for God

   watch with their hearts and not their eyes,

                  listening

                      always listening

                                    for angel words.

~ Ann Weems

January 1, 2017 First Sunday of Christmas

Previous OPQs may be found at:

http://www.dotjack.com/opq.htm

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son."

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
  "A voice was heard in Ramah,
     wailing and loud lamentation,
  Rachel weeping for her children;
   she refused to be consoled, because they are no more."

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean."

Matthew 2:13-23

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

Isaiah 63:7-9
Psalm 148
Hebrews 2:10-18
Matthew 2:13-23

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