Dear Blooming Glen Friends, 

“ O come all ye faithless,
joyless and defeated.
O come ye, O come ye
To Bethlehem…” 
From @MattSmethrust on X 

The joy of Christmas is not an intrinsic reality.  We are not glad of heart on our own merits.  God’s joy does not land on our lives because we are deserving. 

The Angel Gabriel makes a repeat performance in the sermon text this week.  Having delt with Zechariah’s question (“How can I be sure this will happen? I am an old man …” – Luke 1:18), the angel speaks to Mary, a young woman who is betrothed into what is likely an arranged marriage, and deliver’s the news of her impending pregnancy.  She is, like Zechariah, flummoxed with questions (“But how can this happen? I am a virgin …” – Luke 1:34).   

In the case of Zechariah, Gabriel takes his capacity for speech away because he and Elizabeth, are being delivered from shame and Zechariah questions God’s ability to do that.  In the case of Mary, an almost identical question is met with further, tender explanations.  Where Zechariah was being delivered through God’s gift of John, Mary would be plunged into a world where shame, anxiety, worry, and fear could reign.  Gabriel gives Mary words of comfort and hope as she begins a lifelong journey of mothering God among us.   

God meets us where we are at in life.  When we struggle with belief, God has sufficient faith for us both.  When joy seems elusive, God offers us promise.  When life seems to defeat us, God makes a way.   

The Advent/Christmas/Epiphany season we are embarking on is meant precisely for the weary, the messed-up, the broken.  When life is saturated with chronic pain and trials of crisis, God is present.  When our life isn’t fit for social media posts, the birth of Jesus is the promise that God really, truly, and actually, saves.  That’s where joy comes and seeks us out – not because we have God figured out, but because God holds us in His love.   

Advent is a journey from the status quo and negotiated settlements of life as it is, to the surprising joy that lies in wait within God’s new work.  In this season of Advent, may joy abound, because faithfulness reigns. 

Thanks for being the (joyful) church,
Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net 

PS – Friday, December 8 is an opportunity for coffee and conversation at the Broad Street Grind, 3:30-4:45 pm. Sunday, December 10, I’ll be hanging out in the Welcome Center for coffee and conversation during the Sunday School Hour.  Monday, December 11, I’ll be at the A&N Diner from 7:30 to 8:45 am for conversation over breakfast.  Also – remember that the Nazareth Peace Walk is this Saturday, December 9.  See a member of the Micah 6:8 Team for more details.  AND, don’t forget that this Sunday, December 10, is a great opportunity to interact with the East Coast participants in Mennonite Central Committee’s International Volunteer Exchange Program.  These young adults from the Global South will participate in our worship service, share in our gathered second hour, and then be our guests at a church potluck.  Come and participate in their journeys toward the new thing God is doing in their lives.

Dear Blooming Glen Friends, 

Generally, snow flurries depress me.  I am a huge believer in the theological proposition that God righteously created snow only for mountain peaks, and that snow on the flat ground is proof of the Fall 😊.  Since Thanksgiving, I’ve encountered two brief run-ins with snow:  in Cooperstown, NY on the day after Thanksgiving, and this Tuesday morning.  But neither one is taking away my joy this time around.   

I have come to understand happiness as capricious and impulsive (like snow), but joy is steady and abiding (like the sun that melts snow).  Psalm 30.5 reminds us that, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”  Joy is a certain as the sunrise – if we are willing to get up and see the sun rise. 

Joy isn’t linked to the happenstance of life’s whimsy.  Joy is fruit from the Holy Spirit.  Fruit grows if the vine is planted, watered, fertilized, pruned, and generally cared for day in and day out.  Likewise, joy grows abundantly as we tend to our souls.  As we plant God-shaped habits of sabbath-rest, study, prayer, contemplation, and play, we bear the fruit of joy.  As we adopt the peaceful practices of curiosity, discovery, engagement, dialogue, empathy, authenticity, dignity, and transformation, we discover joy blossoming in our souls. 

When the Hebrew people of God began to return from their generation-long forced exile in Babylon, they were happy.  They had survived the loss of their identity.  They had overcome the loss of belonging to one another. They had persisted through the loss of purpose. They returned to Jerusalem full of happiness, only to discover the city was a wasteland.  Houses were wrecked and ruined.  Infrastructure was destroyed.  And there was no public safety because the walls of the city had been razed.  Happiness quickly faded into anxiety and chronic worry.  

Then God sent Nehemiah – a Jewish expat serving in the Persian Imperial government, providing a last line of security to the Emperor.  God sent Nehemiah to Jerusalem with the mission to rebuild the walls of the city – to establish a new form of domestic tranquility and community pride.  Nehemiah got government appropriations for materials to rebuild the walls, patiently worked to overcome the anxieties and fears of the returnees and challenged the local bureaucracy that wanted to keep Jerusalem as a failed city. Nehemiah organized the people to accomplish work they had not been able to previously accomplish and do the things they needed to do in ways they had not previously been able to get done before.  And when the walls were rebuilt, the people threw a party.  Nehemiah’s colleague, the priest Ezra, arranged for a celebration marked by community bible study (that’s my idea of a great party!).  At the end the festival, after remembering of all the hassle, all the debris removal, all the construction, all the bureaucratic infighting, Nehemiah puts the capstone on the experience when he declares, “The joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8.10).” 

Friends, as the Advent Season begins, I urge you to seek joy.  Joy endures. Happiness is nice, but don’t settle for mere happiness that comes and goes in fleeting moments of winning an argument or getting your way.  Don’t settle for satiating your hungers with happiness but disregarding your appetite for joy. 

The work of preparation, of succession, and of rebuilding the identity, belonging, and purpose of Blooming Glen continues.  I pray it is as much a work of joy for you as it is for me. 

The joy of the Lord is our strength. 

Wishing you the joy of the Lord in Advent,
Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net

PS – Friday, December 1, is another opportunity to have a coffee and a conversation.  I’ll be at the Broad Street Grind from 3:30 to 4:45 pm to drink good coffee and listen to good people.  On Sunday, December 3, after worship, I’m going to play hooky from Sunday School, and I’ll be available to spend time together in the welcome center/library to enjoy coffee and listen to whatever might be on your mind.  Finally, on Monday, December 4, I’ll be at the A&N Diner, 7:30-8:45 am to listen more.