Monday, December 10, 2012

My Christmas Wish

My Christmas wish is for everything holy, but I keep getting stuck in the everyday.  Each year, when Advent rolls around, I long to celebrate it with those sacred, awe-filled moments, but my schedule instead contains endless lists of planning and busyness.  Holiday banquets and fast food seem to be the seasonal fare.  A quiet dinner made with family and eaten together seems too great a thing to hope for.
 
Don’t we all have this wish at Christmas?  We want things to be different, but can’t quite seem to make them.  We resolve that this year we will follow a new path, but never quite have the will to change course.  Every year, we preachers preach about preparing our hearts for Advent, about the meaning of the season, about waiting for the miraculous rather than rushing to retail outlets.  But the truth is that we, along with every one of our parishioners are drawn in by the tempting lights of big box stores and their sales.  We are pressured into those perfect sounding gifts.  We consecrate the cardboard and choose the plastic over the pure.
 
Some grace is necessary here.  On Christmas, we celebrate a God who stepped from heaven; who came to be with us, to be one of us.  Surely this God will also reach beyond our hallowed and ornamented church walls to walk with us through the aisles of Home Depot.  May we, in this Advent and Christmas seasons, find the holy in the humdrum.  May we see with new eyes the tasks of the season and find within them true reason to celebrate.  Finally, may the Spirit gently lead us back to the quiet places where we can worship a baby in a manger.  The divine isn’t confined to this wooden stable, but we will surely find it there.
 
Blessed Eating!
 
Here is a great cake for a family dinner or a dinner party!
 
Cream Cheese Pound Cake
8oz. cream cheese, softened      3 sticks margarine
3 c. sugar                                          6 eggs, room temperature
3 c. sifted plain flour                     2 t. vanilla
Blend cream cheese and margarine together.  Add sugar beating slowly.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add flour, a small amount at a time, beating after each addition.  Add vanilla and beat well.  Pour into a well greased and floured tube pan.  Bake at 300o for 1 hour and 30 minutes. – Faye Bass
 
Note:  I used butter, not margarine.  Just because.
 
 
 
 

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