Dear Church,

I observed that, during our California stay, it snowed in Blooming Glen. Ugh. Snow, in my humble theological opinion, is a consequence of human sinfulness, because it didn’t snow in the Garden of Eden.

Of course, I’m kidding (a little). Still, I don’t like snow. I don’t like to walk in the snow. I don’t like to drive in the snow. I like to observe snow. From a distance. A great distance.

Snow’s slippery qualities as I walk, and as I drive, can make me anxious about the process of trying to get from here to there.

Part of the challenge of living in southeast Pennsylvania is the opportunity it affords me to try to overcome my anxiousness and learn how to navigate in the snow.

Here at Blooming Glen, we have a similar opportunity. We are in an environment where we need to overcome our anxiousness about the past and the future and learn together how to navigate the way of Jesus following in the world as it is…snow and all.

Navigating in the snow of the world as it is, requires us to have specialized equipment. For a southern Californian, such specialized equipment includes making sure there is an ice scrapper in the front seat, that the tires are properly inflated, and that the car’s defroster works well. These simple steps are important in getting around in the snow.

In the life of Christian discipleship, tools like reliance on the scriptures, practicing compassionate candor, and seeking to be generous with our neighbors, are tools of “gratitude and godliness.”

The late Coach John Wooden (who coached, btw, at UCLA!) was a man of much wisdom – wisdom that was, and is, applicable on and off the basketball court. One of his best quotes is, “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” That’s what we are trying to do at Blooming Glen. Be quick to embrace the changes needed to continue to align our mission, values, ministry, and leadership, and eliminate the hesitations that create delays and push us toward life in the “maybes.” Be quick to learn from, forgive, and move on from mistakes. Be quick to follow our instincts. But don’t hurry. As the psychologist Carl Jung once said, “Hurry is not of the devil. Hurry IS the devil.”

When it is snowing, we can walk or drive quickly, but we slip into dangerous territory when we get in a hurry.

So, Blooming Glen sisters and brothers, in this winter quarter, and this season of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, may we be, “quick to listen, slow to speak, and even slower to anger”(James 1.19). In doing so, we will continue to grow as a church that is urgent in our ministry, but not anxious in our relationships.

Let’s go, church (and be quick, not hurried…)

Pastor Jeff

www.jeff@bgmc.net

P.S. Lord willing, Debbie and I return to PA on Fri, Nov 29. I look forward to being at the pulpit this Sun, to being back Mon morning, Dec 2 to our weekly listening breakfasts at 7:30-8:45am, at the A&N Diner, and to be back Fri afternoon, Dec 6, for coffee at the Broad Street Grind, 3:30-4:45pm.

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.