- Luncheon Tea w/ NQCA December 13th at noon, RSVP TODAY
- Tree Lighting & Carols TONIGHT at 6pm
- Christmas Eve Services at 7pm
- Christmas Day Quiet Prayer 9-10am
- Christmas Adopt-a-Family Tree has arrived
- We are collecting for Fuel Assistance for local families in need
- Death Cafe December 13th at 4pm
- Discussion Circle Last Sunday after Church.
- Bible Study with Seth 1st & 3rd Sundays after Church (no 12/21)
Visit our Calendar of Events to learn more.
Our Sunday Reflection is recorded and can be found HERE (posts each Sunday late morning or early afternoon. Reading is from: Matthew 3: 1-11
It is the season of Keeping Watch. Of paying attention. Of making sure our lights and lamps are well-lit and well-fueled for the journey. It is the season of both waiting and coming.
It is a season heralded by John the Baptist. Let’s face it, it is all a bit scary. John is a bit scary. He heralds the wild. New life. Big change. We don’t like waiting (as we talked about last week) and we also don’t like change, except when change comes with comfortable guarantees (which it never truly does). Real change is, by its very nature: scary. It heralds: transformation , new life.
Letting go of the old is tough. Changing our ways is hard. Transformation is scary, especially when it’s asked of us!
There is nothing comfortable about any of this. John is not comfortable. Baptism by cold water. Sermons in the wild wilderness. Eating meals of locusts. Wearing camel haired coats. There is nothing comforting in this passage.
John might be described as “tough love”. You are “vipers”. Vipers! That is harsh.
We don’t know why these people are coming to see John. Some of these “vipers” are “coming for baptism”, so they are not just there on the edges watching and judging. They want to be a part of this newness. Are they curious? Are they seeking? Are they sent to judge and condemn? They aren’t all “bad”…that would be too easy. Perhaps John is questioning their readiness; a fair question for all of us.
These are people. Just like us. Maybe we, too, are being called “vipers”. Maybe instead of immediate brushing that idea aside (“That’s not me! That’s them!”), we could reflect upon this uncomfortable John-like thought.
It is easy to point fingers, but perhaps that is exactly what John is warning us again.
John teaches us to keep watch. To wait (he’s not “the one”, “the one” is still to come). As we wait, John invites us (in his uncomfortable way) to prepare ourselves. He teaches us to see clearly. To wash away the old with water. To be open to new life through changes in our own way of living. Transformation is hard (ask the caterpillar becoming a butterfly). Notice the ways we avoid changing and growing.
It is easy to get comfortable in our own rules and our right ways. Getting comfortable in our own rules leads us toward rigidity and judgement, where we are less open to change and new life. We can get snappish and viper-ish. Watch…
When is it the right time to decorate our homes for Christmas?
The right time is to put up the lights on the day after Thanksgiving and they come down on December 26th. Or by New Year’s Day.
The right time is on Christmas Day and they stay up for twelve days. Twelve days only. They come down on Epiphany Sunday (or the day before).
Whenever, as long as they are down before Easter.
The right time is the week before Christmas until mid January.
December 21st.
While we’re on this subject: don’t play Christmas music until Christmas Day and certainly not before Thanksgiving. And, seriously, not right after Halloween!
I have a friend who puts her tree and lights up the day after Halloween. It made me watch my own “rules” and “judgements”. I’m not usually that rigid, but it does seem a little early.
Then she explained. She said she gets so very sad as time moves into November. It gets darker and darker. Colder and colder. And then there’s the time change that makes is all even harsher. She remembers losses and feels grief. She lights her lights to soften the harshness that has already arrived before the “correct” date for holiday decoration. She gathers a mug of warm tea, warm blankets, and stares at the lights.
She find hope and joy in the lights. She remembers the sweet in the bitter.
How can one argue that?
More importantly, WHY would one argue that???
We’d just become snippy. Sharp. Rule abiding to our own rules. Mean. And viper-ish.
John asks us to forgive and let go.
Maybe my best response could be: How can I help? Instead, we’re quick to rush to judge and condemn.
Often the greatest choice we can make is to strive to understand one another. We don’t have to agree, but we can always strive to understand. Understanding is softening–it’s like the soft, glowing light wrapped around our Christmas trees. It’s related to forgiveness and if we have any overarching theme (alongside: Love), it’s to Forgive one another.
We all have a different “waiting”. A different way of exploring patience. We are often prone to punishment and self punishment. Instead of “waiting”, it becomes a challenge and competition. I’m not so sure in this “harsh time”, we are meant to make it harder for ourselves or others. It is a time of waiting and prayer…not penitence and punishment. We are waiting for something beautiful.
John asks us to forgive and let go.
John asks us to cleanse ourselves.
John asks us to awaken into new life.
John asks us to change. John asks us to change the way we see and look at the world. John reminds us that the light is coming and also to keep our own lamps lit. John asks us to look at ourselves, one another, and the world with newness and freshness. With clarity. Perhaps, John is asking us to be beautiful as we wait for something beautiful.
This is the season of Keeping Watch.
How are we watching?
Are we glaring? Perhaps this is what John warns us against. Glaring is a way of looking that is seeking problems and things to condemn (“that’s not the way it’s done” or “this is wrong”). It’s bitter and sharp. It’s looking for trouble and sometimes it’s creating trouble. It’s judgement, not kindness and striving to understand. It’s all too easy to slip into just plain mean. Viper-y. John is warning us not to glare. Glaring is a harsh light, that’s not the light that is coming.
Are we simply glancing, but not giving our full attention? Glancing is a way of seeing that is hurried and unfocused. It is inattentive. Rushed. Busy. It is an uncaring way of seeing. Check. Check. Check. We’ve checked all the boxes, but haven’t fully experienced the light and the love of the season. I imagine we’ve all experienced this one over the years. Let’s try not to make this year a year of glancing and rushing past the light. Glancing is a light that has no staying power, that’s not the light that is coming.
And then we come to gazing. Gazing is the way we look at the world and those around that is full of depth. We are fully attentive, fully present. We may still check the boxes, but we do so with a sense of love and joy. Or maybe better said: with wonder and awe for the season, the waiting, one another, and this world. We gaze with wonder and awe for the light and the light of Grace and Love. This is, perhaps, more like the light that is coming…
This is perhaps the way God looks upon this world. With awe and wonder. With attention and love. Perhaps God too is watching and waiting and all the while Lovingly Gazing upon creation and all of us. That’s a lovely thought.
Perhaps we can turn to look at God, Creation, and one another with a loving, attentive gazing. Perhaps, this is what my friend is doing when she holds a mug of tea, stares at the lights she hung at the “wrong” time, and sits in waiting for things to change and unfold.
Perhaps this is how Jesus comes into this world. Lovingly gazed upon by his mother, his human father, the shepherds, the cattle, the magi. Lovingly gazed upon by God. Lovingly turning his gaze back upon us by becoming human with us and showing us how to lovingly gaze as human beings.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 