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B I G I D E A
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15).
Pastor Bob
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Recent Posts
16
Dec '20
It’s Been a Year! By Jackson Silvanik
16
Dec '20
It seems surreal that 2020 is drawing to a close – what a strange and eventful year it’s been. As I’ve gotten older, naturally, the years have slipped by faster and faster. In more recent years I’ve barely even gotten into the habit of writing the current year when signing and dating papers and forms before the calendar flips over again.
The ever-shifting climate doesn’t really help my internal clock mark the passage of time, either; jumping straight from deep, bitterly cold winter into steamy summer with hardly a spring to speak of, whole winters with barely any snow, and others with countless feet. The natural signposts that mark the passage of time seem harder to trace than usual when you’re looking out of the same living room window just about every day (is it January or April?). Deliberately spending a little more time outdoors this year helped me reconnect with the more powerful and important cosmic clock, which flouts the human conventions of time that we force upon ourselves – the same conventions that are so disrupted by things such as, say, a global pandemic.
2020, it goes without saying, was about as far from a typical year as I can remember and perhaps underscores just how fragile our whole daily reality really is. I still recall my last day in the office back in early March, when me and my coworkers were gathered up and informed that there was a potential exposure to the virus in our office building, and we’d be working from home until things got cleared up. Within 20 minutes, we’d gathered up the equipment we might need to get through the next week or two and went our separate ways. Things didn’t get any clearer for weeks, and then months. As it turned out, those would be my last few minutes at the workplace where I’d spent close to a decade.
As March turned into April, then May, and then, unbelievably, June, the novelty of working from home started to wear thin. My wife and I were expecting our son to be born in late July, but it was starting to look like he’d be showing up earlier than expected. The walls of the house were feeling a little more constraining than I was used to, as we each carved out workspaces to try and make the most out of our available space, maxing out our WIFI signal for virtual meetings while also working to prepare a nursery and make room for our new arrival.
Without the ability to run our typical errands and the slowed-down economy taking a mounting toll on small businesses, friends and family and our community at-large, the passage of time somehow both slowed to a crawl and slipped by in a blink. In March, we were optimistic that the virus would come and go before our great adventure at the hospital would arrive; by June, it was clear there would be no visitors, no family present, and still no end in sight.
Cancellations mounted, countless lives were disrupted, sports were cast by the wayside and family members – especially those in long-term care facilities – dealt with increased isolation and loneliness. People died – real people, with families and friends of their own. My own job was eliminated as lost revenues for all sorts of companies skyrocketed. I experienced the frustration of navigating an overwhelmed and under-resourced unemployment system, where frazzled call center employees on the other end of the line are doing their best to help people that are as stressed out and worried as one can be.
I’ve watched the parking lot of the megachurch just beyond my backyard fill to capacity as families lined up for thanksgiving meals, boxes of food and free Covid testing. Millions of people around the country are leaning on these resources for the first time, and even more are reluctant to seek help because these circumstances are still new to so many, and the stigma of accepting help burns bright.
As for myself, despite the rollercoaster of a year that 2020 has been, I am trying to accept it for the rare opportunity it may be providing. Oftentimes, the new year approaches and we collectively make our resolutions, talk about the changes we want to make and the big plans we have – we wonder where life might take us. A few months slip by, suddenly it’s July and we’re looking towards the fall and ramping back up for the holidays again – and nothing has changed.
This time, that choice has been made for me. For the first time in a while, I’ll be heading into a new year without the job that’s occupied most of my time for years and years, with a son and supportive wife to navigate these unknown waters with, to bounce ideas off of and enter into a new chapter with more hope than fear and stress.
A new year doesn’t mean a new slate, though. Though the promise of a vaccine looms, people will still get sick, will still die, and businesses and families will still suffer. Our collective mental health struggles will linger, and now is the time to double-down on taking care of yourself and your community. I learned a lot about myself as the year slipped by, and I didn’t necessarily like all of it – but it might not have happened if the year hadn’t been so challenging. The work will continue, and the chance to make a real impact will come with it.
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09
Dec '20
HOW WOULD GOD TELL THE CHRISTMAS STORY?
09
Dec '20
As I was pondering what to write about this week, it struck me that this would be a good week to write about Christmas. Brilliant, right? But, what about Christmas? Hasn’t everything that needs to be said about Christmas already been said? I mean, what’s left to say?
Most folks already know the story of Christmas from the Bible, don’t they? And, all the great Christmas hymns, which help reinforce the meaning of the story. We have special services, like our Advent services, which help us prepare for the coming of Christmas. We have church activities, like our Christmas Day Dinner and our donations for the local food pantry, which bring to life the meaning of Christmas. Heck, we even have our own little Arthur Christmas Parade, to fill us with the Spirit of Christmas.
Seriously … what more is left to say?
And then I thought a little deeper! I know, right? And it dawned on me that the only voice I was still waiting to hear from about what Christmas really means and why it matters so much to all of us … is God’s voice. Maybe God can add something to this plethora of Christmas messages we receive every year. Maybe God can help us understand the true meaning of Christmas in a way that could actually change us. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a way to tell the story of Christmas that will bring the divine gifts of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love to our lives in a deep lasting way.
I thought it was worth a shot!
So, this week, I turn this space over to our God … the One and Only! And while my translation of God’s story might be a little lacking, I think I got most of the story accurately. So, here it is:
CHRISTMAS ACCORDING TO GOD
ACT ONE: In the beginning I created humans, like you, and all living things … and all other things. To exist is good! To be is better than not to be. So, all things are good. Especially humans – they’re very good! I created them in my own image. And each thing I created had a perfectly fulfilling role to play in the world … with each other, and with everything else in creation. I call this “Shalom” – when everything that exists is in perfect harmony with everything else. Only I can do that. Shalom means that all things are exactly what I created them to be, and humans live strictly according to my will. And, because of the divine love I have for all things, and that all humans have for each other and all other things of the world, goodness is known by all and constantly enjoyed by all. You might call it paradise.
ACT TWO: Because I love humans so much, and I desire to have that love returned to me just as I have given it to them, I gifted humans with the ability to freely choose. Bottom-line: You, and all other humans, now have the option of choosing a lesser good over the ultimate good of love and faithfulness to me. When you, and other humans, choose lesser and lesser good things, things that are not part of the original plan for divine love and perfect harmony, then you become separated from me, your God. This is called sin, and sin brings harm and evil into creation, and breaks the harmony that I established in the beginning. Things in the world are no longer the way I intend them to be. The world is broken because of your choices, and you do not have the power to restore it to its original goodness. And deep down, every human longs to be healed and made whole again according to my will … and all of creation groans as it suffers.
ACT THREE: And, though you, or anyone else, does not have the power to restore harmony to creation, I do! And because of my divine love for you, for all humans, and for all of my creation, I chose to become human, in order to provide you with the power you need to heal yourself and to help me fix the world. Thus, we come to what you call the Christmas story. That babe in the manger in the stable in Bethlehem … that’s me! I became human in the body and spirit of a person named Jesus of Nazareth to show you, and everyone else, that I am with you, and I am for you … always. I have come into the world in order that the world, including you, may be redeemed, restored, and re-created in all of its original goodness. When I was born on Christmas Day, I began a new creation. And the building of this new creation starts with you, and all other followers of the Way of Jesus. As Jesus, I taught you to repent from your “lesser good” ways, and to turn back to my ways. I don’t want you to settle for a life that’s “good enough.” I came to earth so that you could have real life, the life I intended for you, and to have it abundantly! That’s what Christmas is all about! I became a human to show you how to live as a human … to show you what a life dedicated to me looks like, and sounds like, and acts like. That’s the way of life I created you for. That’s who you really are! Trust me, I know. I created you!
ACT FOUR: That brings us to today. Here I am, and there you are. And here we sit together in this time between the beginning of the restoration of all things to their original harmony, and the completion of this restoration. That means that followers of Jesus are in this world, but not of it. Rather, they are all about God’s way of divine love in everything they do in the world. And because of their love for God, they are always looking for opportunities to join me in this restorative work that’s underway, and to respond in faith and hope to what I’m doing. Someday, that work will be complete. All things will be made new. All tears will be dried up and the world will once again abide in perfect harmony with me and with each other. I am ready to finish that job! Are you ready and willing to help me? I promise that I have done all that I need to do to make this new creation a reality this Christmas. Now, it’s your turn. Maybe this is the year that you move beyond the right words and thoughts, past the well intentioned prayers and the good deeds, and take the full Christmas plunge! This Christmas, give yourself to me, follow the way that I have shown you, and embrace your call to become a full-fledged, one-of-a-kind, you only live once, disciple of Jesus Christ. When that happens, Shalom will be yours … and Christmas will never be the same again.
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02
Dec '20
THE SECRET LETTER: COULD IT HAVE BEEN WRITTEN TO YOU?
02
Dec '20
I found a secret letter this week, and after reading it closely, I wondered if it might have been written about me … or perhaps, you.
See what you think. After some formal salutations at the beginning of the letter, this is what it says:
<>< <>< <>< <>< <><
“ … I gather that Our Lord has given you a great deal of grace, and now is dealing with you in the usual way. You have felt, in the past, that you were making progress and improving, and that God had led you into a new way.
But after some time it always happens that one seems to return to the rut of common life. Provided you have the same desire to be all for God, what does it matter how you feel? Except that this sort of feeling of dryness or dissipation is founding humility in you – We have to accept from God with absolute submission (and with what joy we can) not merely our sufferings, but: — Also ourselves, all our inborn and ingrained weakness and selfishness and incapacity.
And also the poor amount of sanctity we see in ourselves.
If we were always sailing along in a fair wind, we should have very little to suffer, and very little to make us humble. It is when we can’t pray, and can’t feel we want only God’s will, and can’t even feel humble (and so forth), that we are being purged and molded and made into what God wants us to be. We are like little children being washed and having their hair brushed by a nurse; they don’t like it at all, and think the nurse is very unkind.
… (L)earn to accept exactly the prayer that God gives you here and now. It is quite right to wish for higher union with God, and to envy those who have attained it: — but, here and now, I must wish for exactly the state God wishes me to be in, whether it means distractions, or discouragements, or sleepiness, or merely emptiness. Nothing matters but God’s Will; and we do not want simply God’s Will, if we are really dissatisfied with what we get from Him.
It is the habit of referring everything to God’s Will that we must acquire. And we should always be at peace, if we had really acquired it. As far as I gather from (you), there is nothing going wrong. You feel sometimes, I expect, like a watch which has run down, — you want winding up! You do try, I know, to care only for God’s Will. But you do not always realize, perhaps, that He loves you just as you are, for your good. And yet, of course, you do know it. In fact, you know already all I can say to you, only it is sometimes useful to be assured of it by someone else.
… One is inclined to say ‘I am so weak, I can’t go on like this! I must have some consolation, or I shall merely fall, and grow worldly.’ But God knows best. Absolute and complete confidence, trust, abandon, is what we need.
I apologize for writing such obvious truths! Please pray for me and I will pray for you.”
<>< <>< <>< <>< <><
So, what do you think? Could that letter have been intended for you? I feel like it could have been written for me. This letter was written on March 22, 1922, by Dom John Chapman, the fourth Abbot of the Downside Abbey in Great Britain. It was NOT written to me … or to you. It was actually written to a lay woman who sought spiritual counsel from the Abbot … but it sure sounds like it could have been written to me. Don’t you agree?
I guess we all get feelings of emptiness and dryness … like our little light has gone out and God is not around to re-light it! But, those episodes occur in the lives of all Jesus’s followers. Some of the most famous Saints in history, and some of the most faithful servants of God in our times, have felt the darkness, the separation from God, or the heavy burden of life so much that we think we can’t go on. Or maybe, we just pray that it’s got to get better than this!
Here is the HOPEFUL news in all this:
1) God is getting us through everything, even to the end;
2) We are getting stronger in faith each and every day that we rely on God to lead us through the tough times and the dry spells; and,
3) We always, always, always have HOPE, because we always have God … our Lord and savior Jesus Christ … and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Somebody say AMEN! Pastor Bob <><
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