Waiting


Waiting for a Home: Tabitha’s Story T


abitha is one of


Giving Back: Tabitha volunteers because she wants to give back. “I would still be on the streets if ECS hadn’t helped me,” she says.


Episcopal Community Services’ (ECS) most diligent volunteers. She serves in the Friend-to- Friend program (homeless outreach for mentally ill adults) several


times each week helping with office work.


Recently Tabitha has increased


her volunteer service at ECS’ administrative office, where she has helped with large mailings and preparation for the annual meeting.


WAITING Continued from Page 4


day of the Lord as being already upon us. It doesn’t care about time. A lot of the stories we read even in the gospels, tell us to just wait and the sun will turn black and the moon will fall and the people will be on the rooftops and the earth will quake and the dead will rise. It’s horrible. Yes, it’s that too. But it is also in little smidgens and bits all along the way, the little tastes of the glory of God for which we need to be awake and aware. And when we live the cycles of the church year, we celebrate the things that are happening, awaiting the birthing, thinking about all the things we are longing for, hoping for, to make our lives better, we also think about how if only this could all happen, the whole world would be better.


What about our personal seasons of Advent, of waiting? We might have periods of our life where we’re waiting desperately for something, for a relationship, for our relationship to mature, for someone to understand me. For whatever it is. And when that happens in our lives, we say,


“oh this is our little advent and I don’t know what’s about to be born, even if anything’s about to be born.” You don’t know that. You don’t know if it’s gonna be whole and healthy and hearty, but as a community we celebrate all waiting together. It’s interesting to me that even churches cannot manage to pull it off. Staff Christmas parties are always before Christmas. We refer to after Christmas, from the 26th on as though, “ok, now that’s over! Well, the calendar says something about the twelve days of Christmas, but get that dead tree out of here. Get rid of it all. Throw away the paper. Clean things up. Thank heavens it’s over.” But we’re supposed to be celebrating the twelve days of Christmas. They are not before Christmas. They are of Christmas. Where do they lead us? To Epiphany. Shakespeare called it, ‘the twelfth night.’ Other eras always got it. They did it. They lived it.


How does the church help? It’s churches that really help people prepare. If you’re pregnant, you knit little things, paint the room, make mobiles, stack diapers. If you’re getting ready for a feast with your friends, you cook and clean. For Christmas, you bake cookies, and you don’t eat them now. You bake cookies for the twelve days of Christmas and get out things that remind you of your childhood.


And the very process of going out and making your own advent wreath, even if it’s a round plate with greens around it and four candles, it’s important. My children always loved turning out all the lights and seeing how far the first candle cast its light. We’d sing our Advent songs and say some Psalms and the next week, add another candle, and then look around. We would see how visually, literally one could see the coming of hope, the return of light, the wooing of the son of God. And so you make something and you keep it simple. Real greens. Go find greens. Do we have much evergreen here? No. but what’s indigenous to our place? Make a wreath out of that. I’ve made wreaths out of succulents. And put candles in. Whatever I can find. Make that wreath.


What about advent calendars? That’s another means of counting. We know about counting. If we’re making wine, we know when to turn the bottles. We know when to move them from this place to that place, and what date they have, and we count. Calendars and Jesse trees make a ritual of waiting, of counting. There are all kinds of folk customs that go with Advent to help you wait. These are ways that people can enrich their experience of waiting.


You see how this is a progression? You have to


[The kingdom of heaven] is also in little smidgens and bits all along the way, the little tastes of the glory of God for which we need to be awake and aware.


have the climax. We kill it by having a climax every day for this thing until we’re sick of it and don’t know how to pull it off anymore. You have to work up to it. There’s an art and drama involved in all of this. And a lot of discipline. And creativity. You make the gifts last for twelve days. You don’t open them all at once and step on them and break them and throw them out with the trash accidentally. You eek them out. Sometimes the three kings brought something too, because, you know, there are great sales after Christmas. And behold, the thing you wanted very much but didn’t get would appear under the tree with a sign on it that said, “open this on the sixth of January.” Celebrate Epiphany as well. Take the three kings from near the crèche, because they’ve been traveling over window ledges and bookshelves, and take them all around the house and bless each room for its purpose. And sprinkle water from the Easter vigil on each room. And then come to your front door and write a blessing that says the year, 2012, and a C for Casper, M for Melchior and B for Belthesar, the legendary names for the three


kings. You write the blessing, ‘C+M+B+ 2012,’ so that in your coming and going, you’re reminded that, like the kings, you seek Christ in all you do. Your journey is a seeking and a finding of Christ in your everyday life, Immanuel, God with us. X


To Dance With God by Gertrud Nelson, is a book that guides readers through the whole church year. The first part is about our need for ceremony and ritual. The second part progresses through all major feast days and describes what people have done to celebrate the feasts, and how we can adapt their traditions to our modern lives. Learn more: gertrudnelson.com. To attend her class in Ocean Beach, contact Nancy Holland: 619- 823-8998 or nholland@edsd.org.


By Alyssa Osian, director of development and marketing for Episcopal Community Services


Why does Tabitha dedicate so much time to volunteering at ECS? As she explained, “I just want to give back because ECS has given me so much. I would still be on the streets if ECS hadn’t helped me.”


Tabitha suffers from severe mental illness that resulted in her homelessness for many years. A Friend-to-Friend outreach worker encountered Tabitha, and after several months of working together, Tabitha moved into ECS’ Downtown Safe Haven, where she has been able to rehabilitate and stabilize her condition.


In December, Tabitha will move into her first apartment in 17 years. She is excited to spend Christmas in her own home this year. X


Friend-to-Friend helps mentally ill, homeless adults in central San Diego. A unique component of this program is the street outreach. Friend-to-Friend is only one of ECS’ life-saving programs. Learn more: www.ecscalifornia.org.


Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr S


5


peaking at a day of prayer,


Richard Rohr says, “Advent is not about a sentimental waiting for the baby Jesus.” He asks listeners to


focus expectations and anticipation on the adult Christ, the cosmic Christ, the Lord who challenges us to empty ourselves, to lose ourselves, to surrender. This is the Jesus whom we invite into our hearts at Christmas and throughout our lives. Rohr presents a dynamic, new understanding of Advent; these talks are timely and timeless.


The CD version is approximately two hours long. The book is pocket-sized and contains scripture and reflections for each and every day of Advent. To order, visit http://bit.ly/ oym1QB and select either books or CD. X


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