00:00:00:00 - 00:00:08:05 Rev. Trudy This Perspectives, the three pastors give you a very special Christmas message. 00:00:08:07 - 00:00:32:23 Rev. Trudy Welcome to Perspectives, a podcast where the clergy women at the First United Methodist Church of San Diego share their musings on Scripture, theology, and what it has to do with us. We're taking some time off with our usual recording of Perspectives, but we still wanted to offer you a very special little tidbit to think about on this Christmas weekend. 00:00:32:23 - 00:01:12:06 Rev. Trudy And so, we wanted to just share with you. I'm here with my amazing partners in podcasting, Reverend Brittany Juliette Hanlin and Reverend Dr. Hannah Ka. I'm Reverend Trudy Robinson. We are very glad that you're listening to us this Advent season. We've been looking at some of the lesser-known songs of Christmas, specifically songs of Scripture. And we've looked at David's Psalms, we've looked at Isaiah's prophetic song, we've looked at the Magnificat that Mary sang, and we've looked at Zechariah is what is known as the Benedictus. 00:01:12:08 - 00:01:40:14 Rev. Trudy And what surprised me in all of these exploration is just they all come out of a place of deep darkness and pain, and they name that, they name the things they want, things to be better around. And they don't end their songs with the darkness, but they end with such intense hope. Right? I didn't expect it to be so, so dark. 00:01:40:19 - 00:01:41:05 Rev. Brittany Yeah. 00:01:41:09 - 00:01:42:15 Rev. Trudy You know. 00:01:42:17 - 00:02:08:09 Rev. Hannah I've been enjoying this series. Yeah. First Christmas that I got to think about different sides of the world. Yeah. As you said, these songs come out of situations while they were still. In the midst of fear. And in the shadows. And from the margins, a voice sings. Not from the centers of power. 00:02:08:11 - 00:02:15:13 Rev. Hannah And then they talk about love and God's presence. Not for myself, not for you. 00:02:15:14 - 00:02:16:03 Rev. Trudy That's right. 00:02:16:04 - 00:02:36:12 Rev. Hannah For the whole community. Yeah. Cheering on each other and encouraging. As if they're cheering for the entire community. And with that, during this Christmas season, I got to think about the communal aspect of salvation and the Christ baby for everyone. Yeah. 00:02:36:13 - 00:02:38:04 Rev. Trudy For all. 00:02:38:06 - 00:03:00:20 Rev. Brittany I think I resonate a lot with the darkness because I've just, you know, Christmas is sometimes just ... it's a hard time of year in general when you're, you're dealing with grief or whatever. But I'm reminded from those ancient words that hope isn't necessary if everything's great. Right. Hope usually bubbles up from the darkness to tell us that the light is ... 00:03:00:20 - 00:03:20:14 Rev. Brittany I mean, hope is the little glimmer of light that's in the darkness that kind of moves us forward? And so looking at, you know, thinking about what David's saying and what Isaiah's saying and what Mary's saying and what Zachariah is saying reminds me a lot about what the human condition is in general, that we're all trying to make sense of the 00:03:20:14 - 00:03:28:19 Rev. Brittany things in our lives that don't feel comfortable, or the hopes and prayers that we've prayed so long ago that still haven't come into fruition, you know? Right? 00:03:28:19 - 00:03:55:00 Rev. Trudy Right. Yeah. I think that's really wise. I think the hope is, I mean, just even the fact that we can imagine and name what needs to be fixed is a hopeful thing. Right. So it doesn't have to be anything different than what the reality is. And our imaginations that allow for us to find that glimmer of hope and whatever it is. 00:03:55:02 - 00:04:18:16 Rev. Brittany Yeah. Barbara Brown Taylor's book “Learning to Walk in the Darkness” is one that's been kind of getting me through this season a bit. And instead of trying to ignore the fact that there's darkness around me, to instead embrace it, and to learn something from it, what is it trying to teach me. Yeah, and I think all of those authors of those songs that we just spoke about are walking in the darkness. 00:04:18:16 - 00:04:21:10 Rev. Brittany They are teaching us how to walk in the darkness. 00:04:21:11 - 00:04:46:23 Rev. Trudy Yeah, yeah. That's beautiful. And Christmas occurs in the darkest time of the year. And that's on purpose right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I hope if any of you have not caught up on some of those podcast episodes that we have talked about these songs, I encourage you to do that. You also invited to look at the sermons that we have preached on these themes as well. 00:04:47:01 - 00:05:09:08 Rev. Trudy During this season of advent, I've also invited people to send me their favorite Christmas songs, and maybe even some of the lesser knowns that I might not know. And it's been a joy for me to hear what people like, right? I've gotten a great response, and some of them are the typical, you know, ones everybody loves. 00:05:09:10 - 00:05:33:05 Rev. Trudy But then there were some that we found that were very surprising to me. I have to say, I have a heart for the Dysfunctional Family Christmas song. Okay. You know, okay. Talk about darkness and hope or whatever. Right? That was a fun one to hear. I learned, I heard again the favorite that I hadn't, seen or – 00:05:33:07 - 00:05:41:22 Rev. Trudy Sorry. Let me make up my sentence. I was reminded of a song that I hadn't heard for a while: “Fim, Fim, Fim” 00:05:42:00 - 00:05:45:02 Rev. Hannah Right. That was my recommendation a few years ago. 00:05:45:04 - 00:06:09:17 Rev. Trudy Okay, yeah. Beautiful song. And that person sent me a link so I can actually watch it on YouTube and listen to it as well. That was that was a fun one. Yeah. Oh, she's singing, she's singing now. There you go. And then I really appreciated one that some folks had sent saying they sing it when they were in college and they had a recording of their college singing it. 00:06:09:19 - 00:06:30:15 Rev. Trudy And it was called: “Alleluia, Your Light Has Come.” Beautiful song. And it's, all of those, I thought was really, it really helped me find just the hope. Not all of them were happy, you know? But, neither is Christmas, as we've just said. So they were very meaningful to get those things. What are your favorite songs? 00:06:30:17 - 00:06:32:19 Rev. Trudy I would like to say. 00:06:32:21 - 00:06:40:01 Rev. Hannah Yeah. Magnificat from San Diego Service. Joanna Forbes 00:06:40:03 - 00:06:41:00 Rev. Trudy L’Strange 00:06:41:04 - 00:07:06:21 Rev. Hannah L’Strange. I can't even pronounce her last name. But I was in this worship. This was our first time hearing it. My second time? Yeah. First time was, yeah, the concert. But it actually helped me hear the voice of the mother. The unexpected child. Who lived in fear and gave us a voice. Yeah, yeah, it was beautiful. 00:07:06:21 - 00:07:18:10 Rev. Trudy Yeah. That was a world premiere that we just, commissioned, for Joanna Forbes L’Strange to write, compose, for us. And it was performed this past weekend [December 20 & 21]. 00:07:18:10 - 00:07:23:08 Rev. Hannah It was beautiful. I was so. Yeah. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was good. Yeah. Good. How about yours? 00:07:23:10 - 00:07:28:11 Rev. Brittany Well, my favorite hymn of Christmas is “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” Because why wouldn't it be? 00:07:28:11 - 00:07:29:03 Rev. Trudy Hello. 00:07:29:05 - 00:07:33:05 Rev. Brittany I have Emmanuel tattooed on my arm in Hebrew for that very reason. 00:07:33:05 - 00:07:34:03 Rev. Trudy Okay. 00:07:34:05 - 00:07:52:20 Rev. Brittany But my favorite Christmas song of all time is called “We Are Christmas” by the Spelman Glee Choir. I'll just read the refrain: “We are Christmas. We are God's hands to care for one another. In these war torn lands. We are Christmas. The love that we share will carry one another. Until we understand that we are Christmas.” 00:07:52:22 - 00:08:23:01 Rev. Brittany And that just reminds me that like there, again, so much is going on in the world. We can get bombarded with social media, politics, all of the wars that we hear about, all of the famine. But there's something about remembering that we, even as helpless sometimes as we feel, it's our hope that moves us forward, and the small things that we do is what matters, and how we can use our privilege, wherever it may be, to bring light and hope and peace and joy and love into the world. 00:08:23:03 - 00:08:25:12 Rev. Hannah That's beautiful. Yeah. 00:08:25:14 - 00:08:49:12 Rev. Trudy Whatever you might be doing this Christmas weekend, we all want to thank you for being part of our past year and for listening to us and our perspectives, for maybe even sending us a note or two. We love to know that you're out there. In fact, I would send a special thank you to those of you who are already Patreon members of our channel. 00:08:49:14 - 00:09:08:02 Rev. Trudy We love to be able to just even know that you're there, even if you don't interact with us at all. And I would encourage any of you who listen to go ahead and go to Patreon.com/fumcsd and sign up for the free account. It just really helps us to know that you're there and that you're listening. 00:09:08:08 - 00:09:35:12 Rev. Trudy And if you write us a note and let us know you are, that's even better. And that would be the best gift of all. But we do hope and pray that you will find a way to find the light in your darkness, whatever that might be. You find the hope in your imagination and let that lead you to do some amazing things in small ways that make a difference, that have a ripple effect to bring forward that hope. 00:09:35:13 - 00:10:08:11 Rev. Trudy And we hope that you will maybe even, you know, listen to some Christmas music and think of us. If you need some ideas, we actually have a Spotify playlist of many of the songs that were sent to us, and we invite you to go to FUMCSD.org/mixtape. You can find it there. That was a long way of saying we wish you a very special, blessed, Holy Christmas. 00:10:08:13 - 00:10:36:14 Rev. Trudy This is a production of First United Methodist Church of San Diego. To learn more about our events and ministries and to access additional learning resources, visit fumcsd.org