Live recording of the reflection and candle-lighting part of our Christmas Eve gathering at Dream Streets in Nashville, TN.
May your hearts be full
and your days be long
filled with the light and love of Christ
Merry Christmas to you all
SLIDE GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING
“We want life to have meaning, we want fulfillment, healing, but the human paradox is that we find these things by starting where we are, not where we wish we were. We must look for blessings to come from unlikely, everyday places-out of Galilee, as it were- and not in spectacular events…”
Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries
The Christmas story announces a new kind of joy rooted in the reality of hope and imagination, not power or coercion: a Savior born who redefines lordship through love, humility, and peace rather than violence or control. In a world that proclaimed Caesar as savior and lord, Jesus’ birth offered a new gospel that asked who truly holds divine power and who is really making a better world. This story invites us to see joy as grounded in humility and transcendence—knowing we matter before God and therefore recognizing that everyone else matters too. True joy grows as we move beyond ourselves, loving others and participating in God’s healing, world-renewing work.
Joy is the response to the gift that is life. This Advent invitation calls us to reclaim joy as a daily choice and a gift from God that makes life worth living. In this teaching George continues a conversation on the nature and obstacles of joy. HERE'S SOME NEWS: Scientific studies are discovering that joy leads to success, not the other way around. This is precisely why the Christmas story is good news of great joy for everyone.
From its very beginning, Christianity has been the proclamation of joy as read in the Christmas story of the gospel of Luke. Joy is a spacious way of seeing the world—one that embraces the full, messy, beautiful fabric of human experience. It stands in sharp contrast to cynicism, which shrinks and distorts life, while joy ennobles it, rooted in the belief that we are deeply loved by God. In the Christian story, joy is both the source and the expression of true holiness: a life open, compassionate, and connected in love.
In this teaching and practice George explores humanity’s universal longing for belonging—a longing expressed in a song, fulfilled at Christ’s table, and embodied through the shared meal that unites us beyond what divides us. The Eucharist forms us into people who share ourselves with others, becoming the very Body of Christ as we live lives of love, sacrifice, and creative self-giving.
Throughout the Gospels, Jesus repeatedly uses one particular phrase: “the Kingdom of Heaven.” It seems important to what Jesus was trying to teach us—that heaven and earth overlap and interlock in a number of different ways. While the Bible doesn’t give us many explicit descriptions of Heaven, there is some helpful imagination at work in the last book of the Bible, Revelation 21.
In what direction is heaven traveling? Let’s allow some of our assumptions to be challenged—instead of us going to heaven, maybe heaven is coming toward us as God renews creation.
Psalm 19, Psalm 8, and Romans 8 invite us to see God’s glory—Kavod—in the vastness of creation and the dignity of humanity. As the James Webb Space Telescope unveils the universe’s breathtaking scale, we’re reminded that feeling small can be sacred, connecting us to something infinitely greater. Crowned with glory and honor, we reflect the divine image, showing that true holiness isn’t about being less human but rather fully alive in it just like we see in Jesus.
God is the mystery and love at the center of reality that we call our lives, and we are here to pay attention to that! Because God speaks through the hieroglyphics of the things that happen in our actual lives. At the Eucharist table, we experience that God works through life, through people, and through physical, tangible, material reality to communicate His loving presence in our lives.
*NOTE: George in referring to "Parker Palmer" throughout this teaching was actually meaning to say "Frederick Buechner." Apologigies for missing that in the live recording.
SLIDE GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING
“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”
Frederick Buechner
Kendal Beard-your calling as a follower of Jesus is to truly see people and love them. In this teaching Kendal talks with us about how to see a person and names some common things hindering us from seeing others.
SLIDE KENDAL READ IN OUR GATHERING
“The quality of our lives and the health of society are largely dependent on how well we treat each other.
At the heart of it all are two skills:
1) the ability to understand what another person is going through
2) the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen”
David Brooks, How To See A Person
Drawing from Genesis and teachings of Jesus and Paul, it presents the view that being human means being made in God's image—infused with dignity, worth, and goodness. Rather than escaping our humanity to become holy, we reflect divine love by embracing it fully, with compassion and generosity. Humanity is invited to join in God’s renewal project: putting the world back to good by living out the full beauty of what it means to be truly human.
Generosity is more than giving material resources—it is a flow of life itself. Rooted in the prefix gen which means to produce, create, bring to life, generosity opens our hearts to both give and receive. Jesus lived in this flow (Philippians 2:5–9), showing us that the most beautiful form of generosity is the giving of oneself. The people we most admire radiate this spirit—they are patient, forgiving, kind, and remind us we matter. In generosity, we see connection, humility, and God’s own love poured out, most profoundly in the Eucharist, the great sign of divine generosity.
Prayer is often thought of as something distant, lofty, or formal. But in truth, as Richard Foster reminds us, countless people pray far more than they know. Prayer weaves through ordinary life—in laughter, conversations, work, play, and love. As Henri Nouwen put it so simply: to pray is to live.
May you come to see that you are praying all the time when you notice the presence of God in the everyday.
And may we all become a people of prayer—finding the sacred in each moment, wherever we are.
Today we’ll explore how wisdom of the heart helps us live well. The ancient wisdom writings of Proverbs speaks to issues we still face—violence, not just as force but as injustice and cruelty; the power of words to heal or harm; and the wisdom needed for friendship, marriage, family, and peace.
At the heart of it all: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Wisdom isn’t about IQ or degrees—it’s a sacred reverence for life itself, a voice calling out in every generation, offering guidance, discernment, and grace.
SLIDE GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING
A few years ago, I asked myself: What should I pray for this year? What do we need in these turbulent times? Naturally I was strongly tempted to pray for more love. But it occurred to me that I’ve met so many people in the world who are already full of love and who really care for others. Maybe what we lack isn’t love but wisdom. It became clear to me that I should pray above all else for wisdom. We all want to love, but as a rule we don’t know how to love rightly. How should we love so that life will really come from it?
—Richard Rohr
Ambition is a gift and needs a proper place in our lives. When it seeks power alone, it leaves us empty—but when rooted in love, service, and God’s glory, it becomes magnanimity (“greatness of soul”), helping us live with courage, gratitude, and joy.
SLIDES GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING
“I am not denigrating ambition, nor am I against progress and success. But true growth is something other than the uncontrolled drive for upward mobility in which making it to the top becomes its own goal and in which ambition no longer serves a wider ideal. There is a profound difference between the false ambition for power and the true ambition to love and serve. It is the difference between trying to raise ourselves up and trying to lift up our fellow human beings.”
—Henri Nouwen, The Selfless Way Of Christ
Magnanimity is often lived — in quiet, simple ways off the radar screen of most of the world. The person who daily endeavors to be a better spouse, parent, friend, or child of God is truly seeking “greatness of soul. A magnanimous person may defer to others’ preferences, to endure criticism with patience, to respond gently to a child’s temper tantrum, or to avoid defending their opinion in non-essential matters. These are relational ways of living “greatness of soul.”
—Edward Sri, Virtue and The Art of Living
Community is where our shared image of God, personal freedom, and responsibility to one another come together to bless the world. Our experience of God is both personal and relational: not solely or primarily based on the authority of someone else, but also lived best in connection with others. The church is a unique laboratory for us to experiement with both the truth of community and the truth of individual freedom.
SLIDE GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING
Community can remind us that we are called to love, for community is a product of love in action and not of simple self-interest. For in community, one learns that the solitary self is not an adequate measure of reality, that we can begin to know the fullness of truth only through multiple visions. Community can teach us that our grip on truth is fragile and incomplete, that we need many ears to hear the fullness of God's word for our lives.
—Parker Palmer
In this teaching George explores the underrated spiritual value of lightheartedness. Far from being shallow or unserious, lightheartedness is a sign of joy, resilience, and trust in God. Scripture, psychology, and even medicine remind us that laughter heals, strengthens, and connects us. When we recover a lighthearted spirit, we rediscover what it means to live fully, truly, and holy.
SLIDES GEORGE READ IN OUR GATHERING
“A lighthearted spirit is an essential element of a healthy spiritual life and a healthy life in general. When we lose sight of this serious truth, we cease to live life fully, truly, and wholly. Indeed we fail to be holy.”
- James Martin, Jesuit priest
“A good laugh is a sign of love. It may be said to give us a glimpse of, or a first lesson in, the love that God bears for everyone of us.”
- Karl Rahner
In this teaching, George takes a fresh look at a very old word: church. We begin where Jesus first used it—in Matthew 16:18—and explore what he meant by ekklesia, the Greek word that translates to “assembly” or “gathering.”
Far from the cathedrals and institutions many associate with church today, the first-century experience was radically simple—no buildings, no Bibles, no bands. Just people coming together on purpose, moved by love, and called to live out the way of Jesus in their world.
The ekklesia in every generation must make fresh and rejuvenated efforts in their own time & place.
Scientific studies confirm that music offers profound health benefits—reducing stress, enhancing cognition, and improving overall well-being. From ancient theology to modern neuroscience, music is celebrated as a life-giving force. Think of it as "the quickening art" (Kant)—it can spark memory, shift mood, restore identity, and even deepen spiritual awareness. The church’s long tradition—from Augustine to Bonhoeffer—sees communal singing as a way to build joy and blessing in Christian life. Whether in the gym or the cathedral, music helps us experience beauty, connection, and the divine. When we sing, we remind ourselves: there's something bigger going on here.
George reflects on what we can learn from the scriptures and Jesus for a more thoughtful and loving approach to anger, rooted in prayer, kindness, and the pursuit of reconciliation.
SLIDE GEORGE READ FROM IN OUR GATHERING
God has given us the angry psalms to help us feel angry without being undone by our anger; to rescue us from the desire to do violence to others; to heal and unite us; and to show us the possibility of a faithful anger. It is in this sense that the psalms of anger are essentially prayers of relinquishment.
—W. David O. Taylor, The Psalms as a Guide to Life
George explores simplicity as a spiritual discipline to deepen our relationship with God and others for a more focused life. Purposeful simplicity is about consciously curating a life that prioritizes what truly matters, creating space for what brings joy and purpose by reducing excess and focusing on what aligns with your heart and values. You life is a work of art in which you and God are making something beautiful!
Simplicity is about Freedom—to choose less rather than more.
The people I know who are happy always have a simple belief system. It's very concrete, it's personal, and they usually believe one of two things really well, and base their whole life on that. — Richard Rohr