Poem - A Christmas Prayer of a Modern Magi Wannabee

A Christmas Prayer of a Modern Magi Wannabe

O. Kris Widmer

Idea: December 16, 2017 – During the Pastoral Prayer at a Seventh-day Adventist Church

Released:  December 19, 2017 – Written Out During Devotional Time with God

Divine/Human Savior,

God with us,

Word made flesh,

Risen and Ascended Christ,

Bethlehem’s Baby;

I come to You not as a wise one,

but as one who has been foolish;

foolish for much too long.

I do not bring gold.

I bring You my gilded reputation,

                  Which is solid paper mache, covered in 14-caret gold leaf.

                  (I did it myself, it took me years of work in my community.)

                  Most people like it; they think it is shiny.  What do they know!

                  I know it is completely hollow.

I bring You the golden moments of my past,

                  Produced by my super ego. 

                  At least I thought they were golden.

                  There are large holes now.

                  And a strange, pale patina.

I am sorry for this pittance.

Forgive me.

I do not bring frankincense.

I bring You francs.

                  Many countries still mint them every day.

                  These are from Rwanda and France,

                  Both places I have been.

                  I regret the current currency fluctuation and devaluation.

I bring You my frankness.

                  I have deceived myself saying - “I’m just keepin’ it real.”

                  With candor, I have been outspokenly blunt.

                  I have not been part of the ministry of reconciliation,

                  Pretending to speak Your verdicts;

                  With spiritual and spirited words, I have rendered MY judgments,

                  And rended[1] other’s hearts in the process.

I am sorry for this pittance.

Forgive me.

I do not bring myrrh.

I bring You merchandise.

                  I have lots of it.

                  It was bought on Cyber Monday and shipped for free.

                  I bought one for Aunt Ellen and one for myself.

                  I thought the size of the pile would make us happy for a while.

                  It didn’t.

                  I bring You my murmuring.

                                    “Where is the promise of His coming!”

                                    “The church is not for everyone.”

                                    “

                                    “The preacher’s voice sounds like Donald Trump…long S sounds - Ssssss.”

                                    “Solicitude? Huh?

                                                      We need a modern language version of Ellen White!”

                                    I stand condemned for my condemnations.

I am sorry for this pittance.

Forgive me.

I am no wise man or wise woman.

I am a fool.

                  Forgive Me.

I am unworthy of your great gifts in return:

                  The grace grant of your golden streets,

                  The fellowship of being your family,

                  The mirth of receiving your mercy.

All I can do is,

                  with head bowed

                  and from my knees,

                  mumble my appreciations.

                 

                  Amen

---

[1] rend: verb.   tear, split, slash, shred, rip

Current Prayer Needs

Hilltop Christian School - Pray that God will bless the efforts of our task force and ultimately bring us an increase in enrollment.

Derek Lewis - Living with Cancer. Intensive chemotherapy was begun, but was stopped because he was not tolerating it well. He is home now.

David Sarkar - Comfort on the death of his eldest sister in Bangladesh. He and his daughter have traveled there for funeral services. Pray for traveling mercies and a safe return.

Darrel Carson - His mother, Zelda Carson, passed away in Redding. The family is gathering in Fortuna this weekend for memorial services. His father passed away in the summer of 2007.

Bob Neufeld - living with cancer. He is the brother of Antioch members Victor and Elisabeth Neufeld.

Christina Lott - Lost her job last week. Pray that God will provide new employment in this difficult economy.

Mary Fua - continuing rehabilitation from her recent hospitalization and illness.

Prayer Need

I ask you to keep the family of Mark and Kay Juarez in your prayers. Just a couple of weeks ago, Marks niece committed suicide. Just as the family was dealing with this sadness, another tragidy has occured.

Just yesterday, Aug 6, a shooting took place at the home of Kay's son's girlfriend Shasta. The ex-boyfriend of her mother came to the home shot Philip and Shasta, then threw a flamable liquid on the mom (Patty) and set her on fire. He also shot and killed Patty's best friend, who happened to be up for a visit from the Bay Area. He then turned the gun on himself, inflicting a fatal wound.

Philip and Shasta are in the hospital, recovering from the wounds made by the .357 gun, and Patty is at the UC Davis Burn Unit in Sacramento.

Please keep this family in your prayers.

Pastor Kris


For what it's worth I'll insert the text that was in today's paper.

2 slain at apartment
Three other victims listed in critical condition
Two people are dead and three others were in critical condition Wednesday after a shooting inside a Hartnell Avenue apartment.
Redding police Capt. Peter Hansen said officers responded to the Creekside Village apartments about 7 a.m. after receiving several 911 calls from victims inside and from their neighbors.
When officers arrived, they heard screams and shots fired, Hansen said.
"I heard five of them (gunshots), then a sixth later on," said Harry Steen, a 64-year-old resident who lives two doors down from the apartment.
Patricia Haggard, whose face and upper body were blackened by burns, came out of the apartment shortly thereafter.
Hansen said Haggard was burned when she was doused by some sort of flammable liquid and set on fire.
Haggard was taken to the University of California at Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Hansen said. She was listed Wednesday in critical condition.
Neighbors said the trauma the 56-year-old woman underwent extended well beyond her burns.
"She looked like a zombie," said Nancy Bennett, who lives four apartments away.
Officers rushed in before the SWAT team could arrive, and found a dead man and a dead woman inside.
Another man and woman, later identified as Phillip Lampella, 28, and Shasta Maw, 27, both of Redding, were inside with gunshot wounds, Hansen said.
Maw is Haggard's daughter. Lampella is Maw’s boyfriend, Hansen said.
Both were in critical condition Wednesday afternoon at Mercy Medical Center in Redding.
Maw suffered a gunshot wound to her lower torso. Lampella had a gunshot wound to his shoulder.
The identities of the two fatally shot victims were not immediately released. Hansen said the identities likely would be available today.
The weapon used in the shooting, a .357 magnum revolver, was found inside the apartment, Hansen said.
“We’re about 99 percent certain the suspect is one of the deceased,” Hansen said. “It appears he confronted several subjects in the apartment and then shot himself.”
Hansen said a chain of events in the shooting likely would be released today. Since the surviving victims were in intensive care, it’s been difficult at best to gather any information from them about what happened Wednesday morning, leaving the burden solely on police crime scene investigators.
It appears that some sort of domestic dispute led to the shooting, Hansen said.
Haggard in June filed for a temporary restraining order against a man named Kenneth Gary Alfred, alleging domestic violence, electronic Shasta County Superior Court records show.
A non-jury trial had been scheduled for Tuesday, records show.
A message left at Alfred’s Palo Cedro area home wasn’t returned Wednesday evening.
Bennett and others at the complex said Haggard was the primary tenant, but her daughter and her boyfriend had been staying at the apartment with her in recent days.
As Haggard receives treatment for her burns, her two dogs, one of them a dachshund named Pippen, are in the care of neighbors.
“That’s her life — her puppies,” Bennett said.
Clearly terrified, with its tail between its legs, the dachshund scampered out of the apartment through a door left open by crime scene investigators.
Bennett and other neighbors were allowed behind the police tape to coax the dog out from under a Redding police crime scene van.
The dog, shaking in the arms of neighbor Christie Katt, was carried to her apartment to be reunited with the other dog.
About a half-dozen police cars were parked in front of the apartment complex. Yellow crime scene tape blocking the entrance was pulled down about 9:30 a.m.
The commotion drew area residents like John Stein, 47, out for a look. He and a group of neighbors watched from across Hartnell Avenue.
The irony, he said, was the night before, neighbors met for National Night Out, an event designed to promote community involvement to lower crime rates in neighborhoods.
“It’s pretty crazy,” he said.

Pray for Jerry

I got a call last night from Jeanie Sindorf. She said her son, Jerry, accidentally severed most of the 4 fingers on his right hand on a job site on Wed, July 9. His work associate got him to the hospital in Weaverville, then by ambulance on to Redding, and then a flight to Stanford in the Bay Area.

Reattachment of his fingers was attempted by a hand specialist. He should have been surgery most of the night.

Pray that they were able to save his fingers and the usefulness of them. Pass the word along also