Winter Solstice and Planet Alignment

Written as part Lindale Mennonite Church's Longest Night celebration. 

December 21 is the Winter Solstice and marks the longest night of the year. It stays dark for more hours tonight than any other night; around 14 and a half hours. 

Alignment November 27, 2020

Before Jesus came to bring the light of salvation, and before science, people all over the world were afraid that because the nights kept getting shorter, that the sun would never come up again. And that they would forever live in darkness! It was quite frightening for them! So, they did all sorts of things to drive away the darkness, and to try to bring the sun back again! They put wreaths of candles on their heads, they danced around huge bonfires and prayed to their god not to punish them with darkness. In ancient Mexico, the Aztecs sacrificed human beings to placate their sun god. 

Long ago, during one of these dark, dark nights, three Wisemen were looking to the sky for a sign of hope. They saw a very bright star. They followed that star and eventually found Jesus, the true bearer of light and hope for the world of darkness. If you look at the sky on the 21st, and it is not too cloudy, you will see a very bright star to the south. It is so bright because two planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have come together to form that light! The last time this happened was over 800 years ago! Many people believe that the star the Wisemen saw was this same event; two planets coming together to form a bright light. So rare, that indeed it was a sign of hope for the world.

Alignment December 12, 2020

We light candles and put lights in our windows and homes during these dark nights to celebrate the coming of the true light: Jesus! We no longer have to fear that we will forever be in darkness. Neither the darkness of the longest night of the year or the darkness of our sins. 

Notice the sequence of the pictures on the dates from the oldest to the newest. You can see the progression of how Saturn slowly moves behind Jupiter until all you can see in the picture below are the rings of Saturn. Jupiter totally eclipses Saturn. 

Alignment December 20, 2020

My Political Views Expressed to Hondurans Where I Worked

 Who are the Mennonites? Are they a sect? Do they believe in Jesus? What do you think of Honduras? What is your opinion of the Vietnam war? Why are you here instead of fighting for your country? Do you like John F. Kennedy?  Were a few of their opening questions. 

I remember 1968, the year I arrived in Honduras, as being a tumultuous year in the history of the USA. The Vietnam war was continuing with body bags returning to the states on a daily basis. Anti-war protesters poured into the streets causing confusion and frustration on all sides of the issue. Civil Rights marches pushed the country to confront its racist past, if not present. Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated. It seemed like the USA was being torn apart at the seams. What had been a model of democracy for the world was being exposed as having differing sets of laws for different groups of people and being hypocritical on its foreign policy motives. 

This wasn’t lost on Hondurans. The office staff at the hospital peppered me with questions about what was happening in the country of my birth. I was as confused as they were and being thousands of miles away from the turmoil made it difficult for me to form an opinion. I based my responses on my beliefs as a Christian/Mennonite. I belonged to the kingdom of God, not the USA, with Jesus as my leader and my church as my state. I did not participate in the politics of my country and was opposed to armed conflict of any type. My belief in Jesus’ admonition to love my enemies and to “turn the other cheek” defined my politics. My constitution was Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5. 

These views of Christianity were completely new to my listeners since most of them were nominally Catholic and assumed that the church and the state came in one package as it had since the Spanish conquest of the Americas. 

Where to purchase:

Masthof Press