Dear Church:

What do you want for Christmas this year?

As we move into a season of decompression from the difficult decisions we have recently faced in the national government and in our denominational relationships, and as we make the pivot to the holiday season, it seems to be a time for us all to begin to breathe a little. Regardless of our individual views on the American presidency or the Mosaic pathways, now is a time of anticipation – something, something else, is coming.

That’s the whole point of Advent – to yearn for the coming – of our redemption, of the glory of God incarnate, and of God’s invitation to holiness. It is this yearning that properly forms the days of hope before Christmas. But too often, as the author Tish Harrison Warren puts it, we see the season from Thanksgiving to Christmas as a time of “compulsory jollification.” But Advent is not meant to be a time of “saccharine escapism.” Advent is meant to be a season where we sense our continuing need for deliverance.

So, what do you yearn for this Christmas?

In our current California stay, between grilled shrimp and blackened salmon dinners with my son and his family, and a quick trip to San Francisco to be with our Mosaic sisters and brothers for their 44th church anniversary, I have had some time for quietness, contemplation, and a deeper level of prayerfulness than might be the norm. And I have heard this message: God isn’t calling Blooming Glen Mennonite Church to fill up the sanctuary seats on Sunday morning. Living into our principal mission, to be on the journey together with Jesus, means that what truly matters is how we send one another into our neighborhoods with a message of hope. Not dread. Not “jollification.” Not “escapism.” Hope. And that hope is discovered as we yearn for God’s work in and through and in spite of us.

What do I want for Christmas this year? Less burden about filling seating capacity, and more heartfelt focus on creating sending capacity.

Lord willing, see y’all next Sunday…

Let’s go, church (and send one another with God’s hope to our neighbors near and far)!

Pastor Jeff

jeff@bgmc.net

PS: Monday listening breakfasts resume, December 2, 7:30am-8:45am, at the A&N Diner. Friday afternoon listening coffee (and tea, I suppose, if you’re into that) resume, December 6, 3:30pm-4:45pm, at the Broad Street Grind.