A CELEBRATION OF THE SEASONS OF THE CHURCH YEAR
On this Sunday we departed from the normal format and had a special service. It was called "A Celebration of the Seasons of the Church Year." The service was built around the seasons of the church year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Instead of one sermon there was a short meditation for each season as well as hymns, readings and litanies for each season. The following meditations are from that service.
ADVENT
Have you ever had to wait and worry? I think that a lot of living has to do with anxious waiting -- different kinds of worry-filled waiting!
The parent waits for the teenager that was supposed to be home at a certain hour, and now it's two hours past. You wait, helplessly and frantically wallowing in a pit of assorted feelings. You're angry that she hasn't called; worried that something has happened; regretful that you even let her go! So you wait and you worry.
You've been waiting for your spouse. He's hours late. The roads are bad. It's been snowing all day! You've tried his mobile phone, but all you get is that exasperating recording that says the customer is out of range or has the phone turned- off! Why doesn't he turn on his phone?! What could be wrong? What's going on? You wait and worry!
The biopsy is going to take a week to get the results. A week! An eternity of waiting, and worrying, and wondering.
Or we say, "We can't wait!" "I can't wait... ... until it snows.... for graduation... until we move... for the semester to end... until retirement..." "I can't wait!" we say. What we mean is that we're tired of waiting. We're tired of the current situation. We wish to move on! We wish for whatever it is we are currently experiencing from : boredom to burn-out to end - a new thing to begin.
You see, Advent is about waiting. Advent is about all of our anxious and urgent and frantic and worry-filled waiting. Advent is about all of the little ways we wait. I believe, all of our little ways of waiting are but small part of a greater waiting that we do. It's a waiting in which we wonder if there will ever come into our experience a GREATER FULFILLMENT... a greater joy... a greater purpose... a greater love... a greater peace... than what we've known thus far in all of our waiting.
The people of Israel waited and worried and wondered. They longed for a better day, a day of peace and joy like they had never known - a day of liberation; a day of freedom.
Advent is trusting that the greater day will come! Advent is also about living in a certain way in the midst of our anxious waiting. It's living with hope, trusting God's promise that God will come, in God's own way and in God's own time -- and when God comes, God will bring a greater day!
Advent is about getting ourselves ready, preparing to embrace that greater day when God comes!
CHRISTMAS
We wait... we look... we live in and through the moments and circumstances of our lives, good and bad, happy and sad - - tragic and joy-filled - and we wonder if there can be more-if there is more than just that which we've known?
We wonder if there can be a greater peace - than the feeble and flimsy peace that the world offers.
We wonder if there can be a greater joy that fills our beings than the shallow and fleeting happiness our consumer culture offers.
We wonder if there can a greater purpose than consumerism and over-indulgence.
We wonder! We look! We wait!
And God answers our anxious waiting with Christmas... God answers our wondering... God answers our looking... God fills our longings -- with a child... a baby in a manger! God answers by placing in our midst the most vulnerable of all human beings... a helpless child... and God says, "Stop all of your seeking and searching; stop all of your looking and wondering. I am there! Look nowhere else."
You see, there's really only one appropriate way to relate to a baby... and that is to simply take the child in your arms, hold the child close to your heart, receive the child, and just love the child. And even those who are the least maternal or paternal, when they hold a child in their arms -- something magic, and warm and wonderful usually happens -- barriers come crashing down, and that "something more" that we were waiting for in Advent seems to happen.
I remember my grandma holding our son David when he was a baby. Now my Grandma was not a particularly fun person, kind of judgmental and strict and serious most of the time; but she was never more enjoyable and more lovable and totally delightful than when she held baby David in her arms! For when she did something magic and warm and wonderful happened to her.
You see, Christmas proclaims that it is in this Child of Bethlehem that we find that "something more" for which we have longed, and looked and waited. And we begin to find that something more as we take that child into our arms... into our lives... and surrender our hearts to His Love and His Life. Christmas is to wrap your arms around the child of Bethlehem in faith - letting him get into your heart, letting him fill you with His kind life and His kind of love.
EPIPHANY
The Epiphany season begins on January 6th with these Magi... these foreign kings. Well, who were they?
Who knows exactly? One thing we can say for sure they were seekers! They were looking for that "something more." They were in touch with their longings and their yearnings. They knew that life could be more than what it was, and they were on a quest.
As I have said, I believe that most of us long and yearn for more. We feel a deep inner hunger that nothing has yet satisfied; we know a yearning that we can temporarily alleviate in a million ways, but it won't go away.
And we grieve a lot. When something doesn't fill that empty place when we thought it would, we grieve! We grieve more than we know. When the relationship doesn't work out like we thought - we grieve. When the job doesn't meet our expectations - we grieve! When the effect of the newest toy or latest vacation wears off - we grieve.
I believe that is what caused these mysterious ones to travel so far. They believed there was something more the just the mundane, and the worldly and the daily litany of good and mostly bad news.
And when they got to his house, with the giving of their gifts, they acknowledged that God's presence does break into our ordinary, cold and indifferent world, and leaves an imprint, providing light for a new pathway when we've reached our dark, dead worry-filled, grievous endings!
It says that "they left for their own country by a different road."
Well, of course they did! It could be no other way! When we encounter Jesus Christ, when we wrap our arms around the child of Bethlehem, we always find that we have been placed on a new and different road -- a road like we've never been on before.
In the season of Epiphany we begin to follow this one along this new and different road...
LENT
...and it's a road that leads to a cross. That's really the message and theme of Lent. It's a road that took Jesus, and takes us along with him, to a cross!
I like to think of the cross as being a little like that special kind of one-way/two way glass. You know how it works, if you look at it while you're in the bright lights, it's like a mirror... but if you look at it in the dark when it's brighter on the other side... it's like a window... you can see right through it. Well, for me the cross of Jesus Christ is a little like that one-way/two-way glass... it's like a Mirror and it's like a Window - it's both at the same time.
It's like a MIRROR in that it reflects an honest image of ourselves... and honest image of the world. It tells that even though we may desire peace, and good-will, and harmony, and life, and success -- we also fall victim to our passions and desires; WE ALSO fall victim to chaos and confusion, to sin and estrangement, to hurt and pain -- and we end up crucifying and nailing to the cross again and again this one who lived a life of love. The cross tells us that some of the same people who perhaps held him their arms as a baby, were also part of the crowd calling for his crucifixion on that horrendous Friday. And a mixture of both lives in all of us! The cross tells us that left solely to ourselves we cannot be all that we desire to be, or were meant to be. We need that something more! We need somebody more.
And when we look through the WINDOW of the cross we see it. We see that little baby who was born in a manger, now all grown up and we see him dying inch by inch on a cross, and we realize that we helped put him there, and we still do. We realize that we nail love to the cross every day.
But we also see and we also hear something else. When we look through the window of the cross we see God at work in a wonderful way. We hear the most implausible words spoken, "Father, forgive them!" We look through the window of the cross and we see God's incredible love for you... for me... God's unending, seeking, forgiving, gracious, cherishing love.
At Christmas, we took the Christ child into our arms and we held him close; and we took him into our hearts with all good intentions. But somewhere between Christmas and Lent we got lost, we abandoned him, we ran away from him, we denied him, we betrayed him, -- and now on that awesome Friday afternoon it is he, yes, it is now he who holds us in his arms and he will never let us go! Through the window of the cross we see the shepherd seeking the one lost sheep... the woman looking for the one lost coin... the parent waiting for, and forgiving and receiving the way-ward child. Through the window of the cross we see the "only begotten son" penetrating life to the ultimate frightening depths... leaving no stone unturned... no place unexplored... no person out of reach! Through the window of the cross we see God as the seeking lover pursuing and winning his children back, not with the power of force or fear, but with THE POWER OF SUFFERING LOVE!
EASTER
One of the things that strikes me about the accounts of Jesus' appearances after the resurrection is that, for the most part they were quiet intimate encounters between Jesus and his friends.
Now there's a part of us that says if he really did rise from death then why didn't he simply march right back up on top of that hill upon which he was crucified and stage some sort of a massive demonstration right smack in front of that cross and the very ones who crucified him... so that the whole world could see and know, particularly his enemies, that he was alive and well!
But, you see, he doesn't do that, and that troubles us, I suppose. But, the bottom line is, that kind of display wouldn't in the long run have really mattered... wouldn't have made any difference.
God never meant for the resurrection to be a CIRCUS or a GALA SPECTACULAR for the whole world to see, forcing people to believe. Rather it was a quiet intimate encounter between Jesus and his broken, hurting friends.
Jesus comes out of the tomb, not ostentatiously, but he comes out personally, touching those people who had been close to him, embracing them at those places of pain where they needed his gentle and healing EMBRACE so they could go on living! He became a risen Lord, not in general... but he became a risen Lord when he encountered them personally!
For Mary, GRIEVING at the tomb's door, he spoke her name, and that was all she needed to move ahead with her life! And you what, he is speaking your name, and my name on this day!
For GUILTY Peter, in a profoundly personal and wonderful encounter, he spoke the word of forgiveness. And that was all Peter needed to move ahead with a new energy for his life! And he speaks that same word of forgiveness to you.
For the FEAR-STRICKEN, paralyzed disciples, some he met on the beach and had lunch; a couple of others he pursued on a dreary road to nowhere, on which they were traveling to simply run away. But that was all they needed to move ahead with their lives... to get their lives going in a new direction on a road that now lead to somewhere. And whatever road you might be on... the risen Lord Jesus is traveling that road, looking and waiting for you!
You see, for those ancient friends of Jesus the resurrection manifested itself not in a flamboyant public display... not in simplistic solutions to their problems... BUT RATHER in an intimate event... a word here... a gesture there... breakfast on the beach... an encounter in a hidden room... walking along a desolate road. Those grieving, guilty, despairing, doubting people were changed! Oh, they still faced the same old problems... the same old everyday stuff... BUT... in another sense, EVERYTHING WAS DIFFERENT... something new was being born... they now lived their lives with assurance that their FRIEND... their LORD was still with them.
What are the places in your life that need to be touched and embraced by the risen Jesus.... touched and embraced, not generally... but personally... and intimately?
It's precisely at those personal places of your BROKENNESS... of your grief... of your guilt... of your fear... of your despair... of your doubt... that the risen Christ becomes real and enters the world of your life.
PENTECOST
One of the things that the Bible tells us that the Spirit of God is always present at new beginnings when new things are coming into being... when new things are happening.
- God's Spirit was present at the creation, bringing order, light and goodness out of the chaos and darkness...
- God's Spirit was present with Mary when she conceived...
- God's Spirit was present with Jesus at the beginning of his ministry at his baptism...
- and God's Spirit was present that awesome Day of Pentecost with that gathering of disciples and the Spirit empowered them in a unique way to bring this astounding message of God's love to the whole world.
And that same Spirit of Jesus Christ has been present ever since, creating new beginnings... new opportunities... new chances... new hope... new purpose. The same Spirit is present here today... and the same promise of empowerment and new beginnings comes with it.
We've come full circle in this service from Advent to Pentecost, and now next Sunday back to Advent again. But we must acknowledge that the seasons of the church year are a cycle that not only occurs in the course of a calendar year, but it's a cycle that occurs inside of your life and my life - perhaps in a day; in a week; in a month - over and over again.
The church year serves to remind us that the seasons faith change - and one often leads to another - and then to another - and another!
The old church year is over, and this morning on this first Sunday of the new church year something new is about to begin... a new Advent... a new beginning!
And that's just the way it always is with God. The last and the final word on the church year is this: that when we reach our old endings whatever they may be... God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ through the Spirit promises to begin something new in you! Amen!
spiritualtrails.com
The Website of Pastor Joseph Holub
Aurora & Buena Vista, Colorado