Hen Wen.

The Details:
*A reminder to mark December 23rd P.M. on your calender as both our
Sunday and Christmas gatherings. We will share a meal together, a time
of worship and a bit of a music oriented celebration. I’m looking
forward to the evening!
*Jodi King In Concert – http://www.jodiking.com/   for more info and tickets
*December 16th 7:30 p.m. at Elim Chapel – the Advent gathering of
Sanctus – an evening of worship
*A reminder to bring your own mugs on Sunday mornings, or (if you do
forget, which I can identify with) to wash up your borrowed mug before you
leave at the end of the morning. This ain’t yo mama’s kitchen…

The Blurp:
I’ve been reading a book to my son Tirian that includes a character
called Hen Wen. The name is unusual enough, but the really strange
thing is that, in a book primarily populated by people, this important
character is a pig. And if that isn’t weird enough, this pig is an
“orocular pig”.

Huh? Yep…a pig that uses somehow uses “magical” sticks to do her
work as an oracle. Now, I realize that the fact that I’m reading my
kid a book that contains oracles is enough to put some folks into a
tailspin; the fact that the oracles come from a pig could possible
lead those same folks to wonder if I am simply an irresponsible
Christian parent, or perhaps a parent that is a full-on pagan.

Part of the reason for that kind or reaction might be that the word
“oracles” itself sounds weird; sort of conjuring up full moon rituals
and the world of the dark side of spirituality. Well…our own history
as Christians contains some rather significant oracles. Not the least
of those oracles are found in the book of Isaiah, and they kick off
the story of our waiting for the coming of Christ – exactly what we
mark in the season of Advent. And in the final event, the world
“oracle” simply means a “prophetic utterance”, which isn’t entirely
strange, provided it comes from a person…

See where this is headed? This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent.
Time to check out some oracles…I think we can manage without the
pig.

See you Sunday!

Peace,

Tim Plett