Pastor’s Post
Happy New Year! While according to our civic calendars this greeting might seem a bit premature, in our Church calendars we have indeed begun a new liturgical year. New Year’s rituals often times involve celebrations, self-examination, and a resolve to do things differently in the upcoming year. Our season of Advent shares all these things in common with the secular observance of New Year’s; however, we have an additional promise.
As our Bible study groups have learned, Advent is not a uniquely Christian word. It is one that we borrowed from the Roman Empire. Advent marked the arrival of an emperor into a city or territory. Coins were minted, streets were cleaned, and everyone did all they could to make the best impression possible on the arriving ruler. It’s no wonder Christians adopted this term for the opening of our year as we wait to welcome the King of Kings as a newborn infant to humble parents. We decorate our worship spaces and homes, holiday songs are sung, special foods are made, and we celebrate Christmas with our family and friends in innumerable ways as we follow both Church and family traditions. Yet, there is something more to Advent. Our preparations to welcome Jesus involve internal preparations too.
John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus and urges us to do the same in our own lives. No, John is not asking us to move out to the desert and live on locusts and wild honey. John’s message to change our hearts and lives, to repent, is just as relevant to us today as it was to the crowds flocking to be baptized by him 2000 years ago (Matthew 3:1-12). Part of the human condition is that no matter how hard we strive to live our lives as God is calling us to do, we all fall woefully short. There are times where we fail to act. There are times where we say the wrong thing. There are times where to paraphrase Darth Vader, our thoughts betray us. Being human is hard, and God recognizes that. When God sent John to tell us to repent, to change our hearts and lives, God knew we could not do it on our own and sends us the Holy Spirit to guide us on this journey of change. Where do we feel God’s Holy Spirit prompting us to make changes in our lives? What parts of our heart does God want us to soften? Where in our lives are we failing to love as Jesus loves? What are the next steps God is calling us to take on our journey to Christian Perfection?
If we think about all the ways we fall short, it is easy to be overwhelmed and want to give up. That’s why Jesus and then John Wesley gave us some easy to remember rules to help guide our lives. Jesus tells us simply that if we love God with all our being and our neighbors as ourselves, then we will be living as God wants us to live (Matthew 22:37-40). John Wesley took these two greatest commandments and created the General Rules for Methodists to follow which can still be found in our Book of Discipline today. They are: Do No Harm, Do Good, and Stay in Love with God. With these commandments and rules, we are given a checklist we can work through. Is what I am thinking/saying/doing loving God or loving neighbor? Is it doing harm? Is it doing good? It is helping me stay in love with God? Depending on how we answer those questions, we begin to see how we are being called to change our hearts and lives to make the paths straight for Jesus.
Of course all of this is much easier to say (or write) than to do. That’s why we were never intended to do it alone. Not only do we have the Holy Spirit, but we also have our family and friends to walk along with us and of course our Cokesbury UMC family. It is in our Methodist DNA. Methodist class meetings served the purpose of holding one another accountable to the greatest commandments and the General Rules. While God’s Holy Spirit works in each of us individually, our formation through the Holy Spirit is stunted when we don’t expose ourselves to how the Holy Spirit is working in others.
During this season of New Year, Advent, waiting; if you have not already done so, I encourage you to join us for worship on Sunday mornings at 10:30 am as we continue to wrestle with what it means to call Jesus, Lord, Savior, Christ, and how we are being called to change our hearts and lives. Christmas weekend in particular there will be ample opportunities to worship and celebrate the miracle of miracles revealed to humanity in Jesus being born. Christmas Eve we will have a 4pm and a 10pm service. Sunday morning, we are not going to have Sunday school, but we will come together to wish Jesus “Happy Birthday!” at our normal worship time of 10:30 and celebrate God’s promises being fulfilled.
Whether this season has you feeling excited about another new year, thoughtful about your next steps on your walk with Jesus, or you are struggling this time of year with feelings of sadness and grief, I hope you will hear the news again of Jesus’ birth in Betlehem as “wonderful, joyous news for all people” (Luke 2:10b). In that heavenly refrain is assurance that God knows you, loves you, and has acted definitively on your behalf. My prayer for each of us is that in Jesus we each recognize the face of our savior born on Christmas Day, and that this year is truly a Happy New Year for each of you!
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Bryan