A Message from Our Pastor: December

Dear Church Family:

If timing is everything, our timing is off. When we observe the movement of nature, we often refer to “the lull before the storm.” When it comes to human nature, what we get this time of year is the “storm before the lull”! The assault of the commercial holiday season begins, and what is supposed to be the holiest season of the year, the season of prayerful, patient waiting and hushed anticipation, becomes once again the full-scale attack of what we call the “Christmas rush.” We wait for that beautiful time to come in the very midst of what our scriptures have called “the fullness of time.” We lament the commercialization of Christmas through a nightmare of our own making because we buy into the process and fall into the trap. With a mischievous smile, I might suggest that this has to be the Devil’s favorite time of year! It seems the only thing that’s missing would be “the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air” – but it only seems so. Sadly, given the past record of human performance, chances are we will awaken to the news of some terrible act of violence somewhere in the world before the consumer holidays are over.

What a paradox we live! The season will come, and the season will go, and my guess is that, not once, will any of us have felt like singing, “Happy Days Are Here Again!” I believe this is what the holy season of Advent is all about. Before God works the Christmas miracle and brings change to the world, God will patiently work on us, to change us, so that the Gift can be given and received. And before the Church will ever have the strength and power to reclaim Christmas . . . we must reclaim the season of Advent.

Christmas begins, not with the outward holiday journey to the malls, but with the inner holyday journey of the heart. When our scriptures speak of “the fullness of time,” they refer to the time being ripe for the unfolding and blossoming of the full reign of God. We actually already live in the fullness of time, because the Gift has already been given, is given now in this present moment, and will continue to be given as the kingdom grows within us and around us. The Gift arrived in Bethlehem, and as we watched its unwrapping, we beheld the glory of God in the face of the little Child of Bethlehem. We beheld the blossoming of that Gift as Jesus lived his life reflecting what God’s presence looks like and feels like when it is received and embraced. The very nature and purpose of that Gift was unveiled as we watched him offer his life for us, lay down his life for us, and raise it in glory for us, so that God might live in us. We felt that life stir deep within us in Pentecostal glory as the Holy Spirit made God’s dwelling, God’s home, deep within our souls. We live in the fullness of time!

And still we wait . . . for God’s fullness to stir within us. We wait for the Gift that has al-ready been given; yet still continues to give. We wait for God to complete the giving, be-cause, in truth, it is God’s intention that WE will actually become the gift we have been waiting for!

Anona and I wish for all our church family the Advent gift of prayerful, patient waiting and hushed anticipation; the Christmas Gift of Christ’s indwelling; and the unfolding gift – the emerging of the joyful blessing of OUR becoming God’s gift to the world!

Waiting and hoping in love,
Pastor Chuck