January 2022!
We will be coming upon a new year once again. Many have pondered how time flies by. Oddly, the pandemic seems to be speeding things up, rather than slowing things down. Chances are you have folded up the Christmas decorations already. For whatever reason, we are met by Christmas in late September in stores and online. I will become my parents and gripe that when I was a child, there seemed to be an agreed upon rule-of-thumb that stores didn’t haul out the Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving. We didn’t even think to put up a Christmas tree until at most two weeks before Christmas. The tree stands where I grew up would still be well-stocked even days before Christmas. This year, the tree farm we usually go to was completely out of Fir and Spruce Christmas trees the first week of December. But things change over time. Time appears to be the most valuable commodity we have these days. It used to be that people were most careful about their money (from a worldly perspective), but time has overtaken that. And we use that time. I know very few people (including myself) who “take their time,” unless it is a permission they grant themselves (or carved out from an imposed schedule) on an occasional basis. But I have a proposal for you, one that will need a little time, but one that I ask you give (or take), either in the last days of the old year, or the first days of the new year. There are 12 Days of Christmas. You might remember the repetitive song (a Partridge a Pear Tree). Dec. 25 is the first day of Christmas. The days are celebrated all the way through Epiphany, which is Jan. 6. A look at a variety of cultures over the centuries suggests that taking time to celebrate Christmas was common. So here’s the proposal: take some time over the next few days — maybe in between the Bowl games that many of us will enjoy; or during a family vacation; even in the midst of taking down all the decorations that maybe you had up before Thanksgiving — take some time to do one or two things: First, sit and read Luke chapters 1 and 2 in the Bible. You can read it online. There are two great websites I use: Bible Gateway, which allows you to choose from over 60 translations; or Oremus Bible Browser, which allows you to easily look up any text. The reasons to read Luke 1 as well as Luke 2, are it contains the full story of the birth of Jesus. Usually we just read Luke 2:1-20. But that’s sort of like reading the last five chapters of a suspense novel. We need Time to get some backstory. We need time to hear all that God has to say about why the birth of Baby Jesus is important. We need time to hear how much a part of the stuff — both the drama and the routine of life — the presence of God is. If it’s true for Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon, Anna and the shepherds, what does that say about the presence of God in our lives, about looking for how God is working, not necessarily on TV, or the computer, or on our to-do list, but on the journey, in the times of routine or worry or perplexity, or in the face of a neighbor we don’t often stop to greet? Then read Matthew 1:18-25. It’s the second Christmas story, not nearly as familiar. But it has a lot to say about how in the mess of life, God is found, using the mess in ways we might not otherwise understand. Is that not an incredibly important possibility to recognize in our lives, which are often messy? Then, one final thing: do you love those Christmas carols? Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, What Child is This, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear? Take the Time to look at what these hymns — especially the verses after the first verse — have to say. Don’t put those carols away so quickly. They are beautiful to listen to. Even if you’ve heard some of them interspersed between the 228 times you’ve heard The Chipmunk Song or Jingle Bell Rock in the store or even the gas station, look these hymns up on the computer, or take out the old hymnal on the bookshelf. Take the Time to do so. Martin Luther 500 years ago said the hymns are second only to the Gospel in importance, because they put in clear language the Good News of Jesus, and why our faith is important in this fast, complex, routine, messy Time we live in. On a personal note, take a look at the third verse of five of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. It’s interesting that we rarely see this verse in hymnals. Find it online. It’ll make you think; about time, taking your time to listen to what the angels sing, and to look for the God who is at work even now in this world. A blessed and hopeful 12 Days of Christmas — and New Year — to you all!
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AuthorPastor Paul came to Grace to serve as our Pastor in October 2012. After a first career in product and graphic design, he was ordained in 1993, and has served as a parish pastor in Virginia and South Carolina. He is married to Jill and they have two daughters, one at Roanoke College and one at James Madison University. Archives
December 2021
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