Dear Blooming Glen Friends,  

“I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
~ Maya Angelou, (1928-2014) Pulitzer Prize winning poet. 

The challenge of Christmas Joy is that we tend to treat it as a seasonal affective disorder.  We can only have Christmas joy once a year, mostly on the 25th of December, and then it is time to get over it and get back to work (or to college football bowl games … ). 

Rarely, if ever, have I heard a sermon from Luke 1 in August.  Rarely, if ever, have I heard a sermon on the resurrection at the end of December.  In reality, the redeeming story of the birth of Jesus and the atoning story of the resurrection of Jesus are good for us to explore 365/366 days a year.  The downside of a liturgical calendar, where we remember advent, easter, and pentecost in fixed seasons, is that we tend to crowd out the rest of the story during certain times of the year. 

Christmas is to be celebrated December 24-January 6. Advent is to be celebrated November 24-December 25. Christmas Eve is the moment when our waiting joy turns into realized joy. As we approach the day of remembering the birth of Jesus and the following twelve days of celebration, I pray we do so full of holiday, seasonal joy.  And I hope we celebrate these days by remembering the entirety of the redemption story.  Christmas is, so that salvation can be freely offered. Christmas is, so that the church can be God’s missionary agency in the world.  Christmas is, so that you and I can remember that our first calling isn’t to a political philosophy, or ideological platform.  Our first calling is to Jesus, who asks of us only one thing – to love one another. 

The journey of joy requires a heart stout enough to listen to God’s call in the midst of the unintended consequences of family traditions (Luke 1.57-80), oppressive public policy (Luke 2.1-5), emergency births (Luke 2.6-7), and the hard hum-drum work of the everyday (Luke 2.8-21).  Such a stout heart does not usher forth from our goodwill.  The stout heart is a well-exercised heart – that listens in joy. 

May your heart be strong in the middle of the unexpected! May your Christmas joy be a year-round celebration! 

Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net 

PS - I’ll meet up to listen with whomever at the Broad Street Grind on Friday, December 22, on Friday, December 29, and Friday, January 5, 3:30 to 4:45 pm.  We’ll take a couple of weeks off from Monday breakfast at the A&N Diner on December 25 and January 1.  We’ll meet up again for breakfast at the A&N on Monday, January 8, 7:30 to 8:45 am, before Debbie and I take off for California (January 9-26).

Dear Blooming Glen Friends, 

The quiet truth about joy is that it never follows a straight line.  In Luke’s account of the joyous birth of Jesus, the way of joy journeys from Zechariah’s silencing (Luke 1.5-25) to Mary’s questioning (Luke 1.26-38) to Elizabeth’s travel (Luke 1.39-45) to then to Mary’s magnificent song (Luke 1.46-56).  Joy rarely, if ever, simply shows up unannounced.  The journey of joy is a product of our experience of surprises, doubts, and new perspectives that point to and blend in with the thing God is doing in us, through us, and in spite of us.  Joy is a maze of wonder. 

Mary’s magnificent song contains lyrics of surprise.  A poor teenager, betrothed into what was likely in an arranged marriage, has a keen theological insight.  Joy will do that to us.  Without joy, the Christian faith gets confused with just a lot of rules to be followed.  Without joy, legalism is the end game. 

What would it look like for Blooming Glen to be renowned as a joyful church?  Would it be exuberant worship, with the strong back-beat of drums and loud chords of praise from guitar strings?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  If we see joy in performance, we indulge in a great adventure in missing the point. If Luke 1 teaches us anything, it is that joy shows up in a myriad of ways.  Joy can be silent or loud.  Joy can be full of questioning doubt and faithful obedience.  Joy can lead you to pack up the family conveyance and take an unplanned, unwise trip to hear the voice of God in a new place.  

For the forebearers of Blooming Glen, joy was found in the regular decision to “… continue in the simple and non-resistant faith, looking for that blessed hope … Jesus Christ.” As we experience the grace of Jesus as revealed and proclaimed in scripture, as we encounter the stubborn love of God that equips us to stubbornly love one another through the practice of radical candor, and as we embrace the fellowship of the Holy Spirit by gladly serving our neighbors, near and far, we will find joy. 

In this season of Advent, I wish for each of us the mystery of joy.  A joy that transcends mere circumstance. A joy discovered through our mutual commitments to simple shared gospel values of biblical fidelity, love for one another, and service to the neighborhood.   

May your journey of joy be rich this season.  May your joy in this season not be amped up on a highly caffeinated consumerist approached to faith and life, but on the simple experience of God’s word, the simple willingness to love one another, and the simple acts of serving our neighbors. 

Let the joy be our fresh experience of the blessed hope – Jesus Christ. 

Be simply full of joy, sisters and brothers!

Pastor Jeff
jeff@bgmc.net 

P.S - I’m at the Broad Street Grind on Friday, December 15, 3:30-4:45 pm to listen to whatever is on your mind.  I’ll be at the A&N Diner on Monday, December 18, 7:30(ish)-8:45 am to listen to whatever is on your mind.  I’ll be back at the Broad Street Grind on Friday, December 22, 3:30-4:45 pm to listen to whatever is on your mind.