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WHOSE Birthday? #28 Index


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Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? #28

An Advent and Christmas Resource for Families, Individuals and Churches

WHOSE Birthday? is for your personal inspiration, community education and sharing.

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Submission Guidelines

Although this resource is not available in print, you may make all the copies you choose. It is covered by Creative Commons non-commercial attribution share-alike license.

Choose from 20 daily Advent/Christmas guides/calendars. Some are lectionary-based, some are thematic. Copy your choice on recycled paper as a bulletin insert, in your own Advent-Christmas booklet or as a series in your weekly service bulletin.

Do-It-Yourself 'WHOSE Birthday?'

Table of Contents

Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?

An Advent and Christmas Resource for Families, Individuals and Congregations

Brief Introduction

Reflections & Activities

How the Story behind Civilization's Christmas Is a Jubilee Event by Lee Van Ham

The Light that Ecological Darkness Cannot Put Out by Lee Van Ham

The Challenge of Christmas by John Dominic Crossan

Advent Activities for Families and Kids from Christine Sine of Mustard Seed Associates/GodSpace

'The Slaughter of the Holy Innocents of Sandy Hook Elementary,' chapter 8 of Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People (2015) by Nadia Bolz-Weber. Get this touching, insightful book from your local public library.

'Keep Herod in Christmas,' chapter 16 of We Make the Road by Walking (2014) by Brian McLaren. Get this insightful book from your local public library.

'Putting Herod Back Into Christmas' by Joy Carroll Wallis, Sojourners

'Piggy Banks and God's Abundance: Teaching our kids (and ourselves) to be smart--and generous--about money' by Susan Taylor

Ancient Good Uncouth by Peter Sawtell: The season of Advent is not about decorating the tree and buying presents. Advent calls us into prophetic honesty about what is really going on in our world. Advent stokes our longing for justice, peace and righteousness -- and so it will also stoke our discontent with injustice, conflict, and exploitation.

'There's a Better Way to Understand Isaiah than to Think He Predicted Jesus': longer think-piece by Lee Van Ham

Whose Birthday? How-To

Resources

  • Bring Simpler Living to Your Group!
  • More Services
  • Membership
  • Log on for More Ideas and Inspiration!
  • Colleague Organizations

  • Eco-Justice Ministries' weekly commentaries Advent/Christmas archives
  • Center for a New American Dream: How to Host an Alternative Gift Fair
  • New Celebrations: Resources that reflect a more healthy, a more sane, a more theologically correct approach to more meaningful celebration of Christmas and other holidays.
  • Advent Conspiracy: NEW video, Sunday School curriculum, family resources and more!
  • Mustard Seed Associates (GodSpace)
  • Buy Nothing Day
  • Buy Nothing Christmas
  • Becoming Minimalist: The Helpful Guide to Simple Christmas Links
  • Simple Christmas
  • GospelLiving.org (The Pastoral Center)

  • Brief Introduction

    A quick internet search for 'simplifying Christmas' yields 2,370,000 results. To the average person, that would seem insurmountable. Why bother?

    The articles for 'WHOSE Birthday?' #28 are drawn largely from colleague sites, groups that we trust. So, if you read some of the articles here and then snoop around on the site, we're confident that you will not be drawn into a scam.

    The content of this edition of 'WHOSE Birthday?' is not the same as the podcast. The podcast is taken from the audio tracks of a previous edition of 'WHOSE Birthday?' So, this year you get a two-fer.

    NOTE: The Creative Commons license only applies to the content on this site. Since most of the content of this edition is not on this site, contact the owner of the content you choose before you make copies.


    DIY WHOSE Birthday?

    The classic Advent/Christmas resource 'Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? is available in multiple formats in 2016 to meet your personal, family and community needs. 'Whose Birthday?' 2010 was the last edition distributed on paper. Since then I have published it on the internet.

    'Whose Birthday?' #28 is a new, free online collection. Use as much as you need in print or online. Also, contribute your art and articles to SLW! for it.

    'Whose Birthday?' #20 is scheduled for release as a SLW! podcast series late this fall. This legacy resource can also be used as text or audio. It's calendar matches the lectionary cycle (C).

    DIY 'Whose Birthday?' Yes, you can produce our own customized, do-it-yourself 'Whose Birthday?' You're welcome to assemble and copy a version that meets your local needs. All of our resources and service are now free of charge.

    To make your selections, visit:


    How the Story behind Civilization's Christmas Is a Jubilee Event

    br LEE VAN HAM

    The Christmas of the malls is as anti-Jubilee as you can get! But, go behind civilization's money-coup that neutered the radical events, and we find Jubilee! The stories in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke counter concentrations of wealth in elite institutions and privileged people. Mary sang (Magnificat in Luke 1) about the leveling of inequality through humane redistribution as found across Creation.

    The Gospels counter military enforcement of peace through might. That's what the Pax Romana was. Today's Pax Americana, if there even be such, is shredded by low-end technologies in the hands of extremists born of U.S. and Western suppression.

    And on immigration? The Gospels also trump that strange presidential candidate we have named Donald. Exiling Jesus and family to Egypt was a wicked act of Herod. He's bad company, Donald. The peasantry of Bethlehem and Galilee welcomed the immigrant family from Nazareth. Only imperial types were bothered.

    See how the story behind Christmas is a JUBILEE EVENT, including following blogs:

  • Economic Giving Is Not the Meaning of Christmas
  • Mary's Song of Joy -- on power and economics
  • Jesus versus Caesar -- Jesus' story is wildly cosmological; Caesar? He's trapped in egoistic civilization.
  • Empires Say, 'Be Afraid!' but Angels Say, 'Fear Not!'
  • Christ Born IN Us Is the Doorway to a New Paradigm
  • The Unholy Family of Christmas -- We know Mary's in the story, but Tamar? Rahab? Ruth? Bathsheba?
  • Why Tamar's in the Christmas Story -- Exposing Patriarchy
  • Why Rahab's in the Christmas Story -- Befriending the Enemy
  • Why Ruth's in the Christmas Story -- Advocating for Immigrants
  • Why Bathsheba's in the Christmas Story -- Unmasking Empire
  • How Mary, Joseph, and Jesus Open the Next Chapter in Genesis
    Page updated 10 Dec. 2016

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