Okay good now I have your attention. Every year we decry the materialism of the season, how it's being co-opted, and how Christmas is being pushed more and more into Advent. As I'm doing our liturgical planning for the Christmas season I realize how the Church itself is partially to blame. Quite honestly, after December 25th the season gets pretty depressing. For a quick look at the calendar - December 26th commemorates St. Stephen - a Deacon and Martyr (he gets stoned to death), December 27 is St. John, and the reading involves Jesus reinstating Peter and chewing him out at the same time, and December 28th is the feast of Holy Innocents - yup we celebrate when King Herod killed all the young boys under the age of two. Then for the Sundays themselves: In the first Sunday after Christmas we read John 1:1-18, which is lovely if you have a degree in theology, but in general it takes a lot to understand what's going on. The second Sunday has several options for readings,

It's almost funny, I stared at the text today trying to find some deep meaning and got nothing - nada, zip, zilch.  At the same time, an email arrived in my inbox from www.meaningfullife.com  about their 60 day journey.  The lesson for today told the story of Moses desiring to see God's face, and God instead put him in the cleft of a rock, covered Moses with His hand, and passed by.  Moses was only able to see God's back, not His face.  In essence the story was God's way of telling us, "You will see me when you are not looking." This Sunday's text from Hebrews describes many heroes of faith, who underwent suffering.  They endured beatings, fire, lions, being sawed in half, persecution, etc. etc.  Then the text has a curious shift: "Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40 NRSV)"

It's been a while since I've written here but I wanted to return to this project.  In these three verses we have a definition of faith, that it is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  We are told that by faith the worlds were prepared by the word of God and that what is seen was made by things that are not visible.  I'm paraphrasing here from the NRSV version of the Bible. What's worth noting is that the author describes worlds being made.  Literally the Greek refers to Eons, which is translated as worlds.  The question remains why is it in the plural rather than the singular?  Surely someone writing two thousand years ago would view the earth as a singular thing. I've written before about the four worlds of Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Assiah.  The idea is that the final world, Assiah is the one we live in, while the other three are the plans and the intentions for this world.  Through mystical experiences, it is believed th